Expedition 68

Initially, the expedition consisted of Cristoforetti and her three SpaceX Crew-4 crewmates Kjell N. Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin, and American astronaut Francisco Rubio, who launched aboard Soyuz MS-22 on September 21, 2022 and were transferred from Expedition 67 alongside the Crew-4 astronauts.

[6] After observation and imaging of the damaged spacecraft, in January 2023, Roscosmos and NASA announced that due to the leak, the MS-22 vehicle could not safely return the crew, except in an emergency.

Due to this, Russian officials on the ground had postponed the uncrewed launch of the Soyuz MS-23 until an investigation was conducted or a cause was found.

Roscosmos conducted a thermal test of MS-22, which lost coolant agent in the external contour due to the damage of the radiator.

Previous mission: Expedition 67 29 September 2022 – Soyuz MS-21 Undocking; Official switch from Expedition 67 6 October 2022 – SpaceX Crew-5 Docking 12 October 2022 – ISS Expedition 68 Change of Command Ceremony from Samantha Cristoforetti to Sergey Prokopyev 14 October 2022 – SpaceX Crew-4 Undocking 9 November 2022 – CRS NG-18 Capture & Berthing 23 October 2022 – Progress MS-19/80P Undocking 27 October 2022 – Progress MS-21/82P Docking 15 November 2022 – EVA 1 (US-81): 7 hrs, 11 mins 17 November 2022 – EVA 2 (VKD-55): 6 hrs, 25 mins; installed a work platform called the SKKO (translation: Nauka means of attachment of large payloads) on the Nauka module 27 November 2022 – CRS SpX-26 Docking 3 December 2022 – EVA 3 (US-82): 7 hrs, 5 mins; installed an iROSA at Array 3A 14 December 2022 – Soyuz MS-22 Leak, cancelled Russian EVA[12] 22 December 2022 – EVA 4 (US-83): 7 hrs, 8 mins; installed the fourth iROSA at Array 4A 9 January 2023 - CRS SpX-26 Undocking 17/18 January 2023 - Rubio's seat liner moved from Soyuz MS-22 to Crew-5 20 January 2023 - EVA 5 (US-84): 7 hrs, 21 mins 2 February 2023 - EVA 6 (US-85): 6 hrs, 41 mins 11 February 2023 - Progress MS-22/83P Docking 11 February 2023 - Progress MS-21 Leak Event 18 February 2023 - Progress MS-21/82P Undocking 26 February 2023 - Soyuz MS-23 Uncrewed docking 2 March 2023 - Prokopyev and Petelin's seat liner moved from Soyuz MS-22 to Soyuz MS-23 3 March 2023 - SpaceX Crew-6 Docking 6 March 2023 - Rubio's seat liner moved from Crew-5 to Soyuz MS-23 11 March 2023 - SpaceX Crew-5 Undocking 15 March 2023 - Thermal test of Soyuz MS-22 by onboard cosmonauts to check how much it will heat up and whether it can be used for emergency evacuation from the ISS in case of any incident 16 March 2023 - CRS SpX-27 Docking 28 March 2023 - Soyuz MS-22 Uncrewed undocking; official switch to Expedition 69 Next: Expedition 69 Samantha Cristoforetti's mission for ESA on Expeditions 67 and 68 was named Minerva.

Expedition 68 crew at ISS
(from left) Cassada, Wakata, and Rubio enjoy Christmas Eve dinner on orbit in 2022
Wakata (left), Rubio (center), Mann (right) imaged on station in November 2022.
International Space Station Emblem
International Space Station Emblem