[8] The first Commercial Crew Development test missions flew this year, aiming to restore United States human spaceflight capability following Space Shuttle retirement in 2011.

[15] The heavy-lift Long March 5 made its return to flight in December, more than two years after the July 2017 launch failure that grounded the vehicle and forced an engine redesign.

As the crew came in and took off their suits, each gave a few words in memory of Leonov before station commander Luca Parmitano said "Farewell Alexei, and ad astra.

The battery swap was moved to EVA 222 to save time and Meir and Koch wrapped up the spacewalk by installing a stanchion on the Columbus Module and tightening the bolts on the S0 Truss, which had come loose.

[440] 11:39 ISS Quest Andrew Morgan First of a series of four spacewalks to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer which suffered a power failure last year in one of its four cooling pumps limiting the operation of the experiment.

Parmitano and Morgan went outside and removed a cover plate from AMS and jettisoned it into space to make way for a cryo pump that they will assemble between spacewalks.

The highlight of the spacewalk is when Andrew Morgan threw the cover plate overboard and it drifted off aft of the station into the vacuum of space.

The crew also removed several carbon fiber strips around fluid lines and installed handrails and grapple bars as get-ahead task.

Parmitano and Morgan cut fluid lines and installed a vent on the AMS Experiment to prep the old cooling pump for removal on the third spacewalk.

Flight controllers in Houston, Huntsville, and at CERN activated the experiment and radioed to the crew that AMS passed with flying colors.