A few hours ago, astronaut Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner returned to Earth on the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft, that landed in Kazakhstan. The three of them spent a bit more than 6 months on the International Space Station, where they arrived on April 9, 2020 as part of Expedition 62. After landing, they were assisted by a skeleton crew with the precautions needed to avoid the risk of Covid-19 infection.
During the time spent on the International Space Station with Expedition 63, the three crew members have been conducting various maintenance activities and many scientific experiments. On May 31, 2020, two “extra” astronauts joined the Expedition 63 crew, the first ones to arrive on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, the first American spacecraft in service since the Space Shuttles. The two astronauts went back to Earth on August 1, 2020. On May 11, the Dragon cargo spacecraft finished its CRS-13 mission by returning to Earth. On May 25, the Japanese HTV-9 cargo spacecraft reached the Station to depart on August 18 and disintegrate upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. On July 8, the Russian Progress MS-13 cargo spacecraft left the Station to disintegrate upon re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. On 23 July, the Russian Progress MS-15 cargo spacecraft reached the Station. Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft reached the Station on 5 October in its NG-14 mission.
Four spacewalks were conducted during the Expedition 63 period, all by Chris Cassidy and Robert Behnken, one of the astronauts who traveled on the Crew Dragon. On June 26, the two astronauts took just over 6 hours to complete the initial operations to replace some of the Station’s batteries. On July 1, the two astronauts took almost exactly 6 hours to conduct the second part of that task. On July 16, the two astronauts took exactly 6 hours to complete that task. On 21 July, the two astronauts took almost exactly 5,5 hours to complete a series of tasks to upgrade some Station’s systems, including those needed to power the new Bartolomeo research platform installed in the Columbus module.
On Wednesday, October 20, Chris Cassidy officially handed over the command of the International Space Station to cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov, marking the beginning of Expedition 64. The launch of the Crew-1 mission on the Crew Dragon spacecraft has been postponed to mid-November, so it will take a while for the crew to be completed with 4 more astronauts.
