Expedition 69 was the 69th long-duration expedition to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

. The expedition began with the uncrewed departure of

Soyuz MS-22 Soyuz MS-22 was a Russian Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station with a crew of three launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 21 September 2022. The launch, previously planned for 13 September 2022, was subsequently delayed to 21 Sep ...

in March 2023 with Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev continuing his ISS command from

Expedition 68 Expedition 68 was the 68th List of International Space Station expeditions, long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The expedition began upon the departure of Soyuz MS-21 on 29 September 2022 with ESA astronaut Samantha Cris ...

. It ended with his departure onboard

Soyuz MS-23 Soyuz MS-23 was an uncrewed Russian Soyuz spaceflight that launched from Baikonur on 24 February 2023 to the International Space Station to replace the damaged Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft for landing that NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio and Roscosm ...

with his crewmates on 27 September 2023. Iss069e014094

Background, Crew and Events

Initially, the expedition consisted of Prokopyev and his two

/ 23 crewmates, Dmitry Petelin from Russia and American astronaut Francisco Rubio, as well as American astronauts Stephen G. Bowen and Warren Hoburg, Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, and another Russian cosmonaut

Andrey Fedyaev Andrey Valerievich Fedyaev (Russian: Андрей Валерьевич Федяев; born February 26, 1981) is a Russian cosmonaut. Biography Fedyaev received an engineering degree in air transport and Air Traffic Control from the Balashov Milit ...

, who launched aboard SpaceX Crew-6 on March 2, 2023 and were transferred from Expedition 68 alongside the Soyuz MS-22/23 crew. The departure of the MS-22 spacecraft with its crew was ultimately canceled because of a coolant leak in December 2022. The decision was made to return Soyuz MS-22 uncrewed and launch

uncrewed as its replacement. By the time the MS-22/23 crew returned to Earth on 27 September 2023, which was the end of Expedition 69, they had spent more than a year in space due to their mission extension. The manifest changes do not affect US crew rotation plans, where SpaceX Crew-5 was replaced by Crew-6 in February during

. Previously, US crew handovers since flights returned in 2020 took place during a new expedition, about 2–3 weeks after the Soyuz handover occurs (which officially changes the expeditions). However, in this handover, the swap occurred before the Soyuz MS-22 departure date of March 28. The early US handover was a part of the manifest prior to the Soyuz MS-22 coolant leak in December 2022. The crew was later replenished by subsequent crew rotation missions in the expedition, SpaceX Crew-7, consisting of NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen,

Satoshi Furukawa is a Japanese surgeon and JAXA astronaut. Furukawa was assigned to the International Space Station as a flight engineer on long-duration missions Expedition 28/ 29 (2011) and Expedition 69/ 70 (2023-2024). Medical career Furakawa graduated fro ...

from Japan, and Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, and Soyuz MS-24, consisting of Russian cosmonauts

Oleg Kononenko Oleg Dmitriyevich Kononenko (; ; born 21 June 1964) is a Russian cosmonaut. He has flown to the International Space Station five times as a flight engineer for Expedition 17 aboard Soyuz TMA-12, as a flight engineer on Expedition 30 and comm ...

and Nikolai Chub (both on a year long ISS mission) and another American astronaut

Loral O'Hara Loral Ashley O'Hara (born May 3, 1983) is an American engineer and NASA astronaut. Early life and education Loral Ashley O'Hara was born on May 3, 1983, in Houston, Texas, to Cindy and Steve O'Hara. She grew up in Sugar Land, Texas, where she at ...

. The space station was also visited by a non-expedition crew,

Axiom Mission 2 Axiom Mission 2 (or Ax-2) was a private crewed spaceflight operated by Axiom Space. Ax-2 was launched on 21 May 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon 9, successfully docking with the International Space Station (ISS) on 22 May. After eight days docked to t ...

, consisting of former NASA astronaut

Peggy Whitson Peggy Annette Whitson (born February 9, 1960) is an American biochemistry researcher, and astronaut working for Axiom Space. She retired from NASA in 2018, after serving as Chief Astronaut. Over all her missions, Whitson accumulated a total of ...

(who had previously commanded the station twice during

Expedition 16 Expedition 16 was the 16th List of International Space Station Expeditions, expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). The first two crew members, Yuri Malenchenko and Peggy Whitson, launched on 10 October 2007, aboard Soyuz TMA-11, an ...

and

Expedition 51 Expedition 51 (April – June 2017) was the 51st expedition to the International Space Station, which began upon the departure of Soyuz MS-02 on April 10, 2017, and concluded upon the departure of Soyuz MS-03 on June 2, 2017. Peggy Whitson, Oleg N ...

), John Shoffner, Ali AlQarni, and Rayyanah Barnawi.

Events manifest

Events involving crewed spacecraft are listed in bold. Previous mission:

28 March 2023 – Soyuz MS-22 Uncrewed undocking, official switch from

6 April 2023 – Soyuz MS-23 Redocking 15 April 2023 – CRS SpX-27 Undocking 16 April 2023 – EVA 1 (VKD-56): 7 hrs, 55 mins 16 April 2023 – Relocation of ''Nauka'' outfitting: Moving "RtoD" add-on heat radiator from ''Rassvet'' module to ''Nauka'' module 21 April 2023 – CRS NG-18 Unberthing & Release 28 April 2023 – EVA 2 (US-86): 7 hrs, 1 min 3–4 May 2023 – EVA 3 (VKD-57): 7 hrs, 11 mins 4 May 2023 – Relocation of ''Nauka'' outfitting: Moving experiments airlock "ShK" from ''Rassvet'' module to ''Nauka'' module forward port 6 May 2023 – SpaceX Crew-6 Redocking 12 May 2023 – EVA 4 (VKD-58): 5 hrs, 14 mins 22 May 2023 –

Docking (Non-Expedition crew) 24 May 2023 – Progress MS-23/84P Docking 30 May 2023 –

Undocking (Non-Expedition crew) 1 June 2023 – CRS SpX-28 Docking 9 June 2023 – EVA 5 (US EVA-87): 6 hrs, 3 mins, installed the fifth iROSA at Array 1A 15 June 2023 – EVA 6 (US EVA-88): 5 hrs, 35 mins, installed the sixth and last iROSA at Array 1B 22 June 2023 – EVA 7 (VKD-59): 6 hrs, 24 mins 29 June 2023 – CRS SpX-28 Undocking 4 August 2023 – CRS NG-19 Capture & Berthing 9 August 2023 – EVA 8 (VKD-60): 6 hrs, 35 mins 9 August 2023 – Relocation of ''Nauka'' outfitting: Moving European Robotic Arm's Portable Workpost from ''Rassvet'' module to ''Nauka'' module 20 August 2023 – Progress MS-22/83P Undocking 25 August 2023 – Progress MS-24/85P Docking 27 August 2023 – SpaceX Crew-7 Docking 3 September 2023 – SpaceX Crew-6 Undocking 15 September 2023 – Soyuz MS-24 Docking 26 September 2023 – ISS Expedition 69/70 Change of Command Ceremony from Sergey Prokopyev to Andreas Mogensen 27 September 2023 – Soyuz MS-23 Undocking, official switch to Expedition 70 Next: Expedition 70

Crew

Vehicle manifest

Notes

References

{{ISS expeditions March 2023 April 2023 May 2023 June 2023 July 2023 August 2023 September 2023 Space exploration Expeditions to the International Space Station