2022 has marked one other busy chapter for the Worldwide House Station (ISS). Together with its fixed plethora of scientific and engineering experiments, the Station noticed the primary docking of Starliner, the all-private Axiom-1 mission, and new {hardware} put in to extend the lifespan of humanity’s collaborative area laboratory.
The yr onboard the Station started throughout Expedition 66, adopted by Expedition 67, and has continued with the continued Expedition 68. “Expeditions” are roughly 6-month time intervals on the ISS that start and finish with sure crew rotations.
Throughout this vacation season, the ISS is the momentary residence of seven people. The Expedition 68 crew at the moment consists of NASA astronauts Frank Rubio, Josh Cassada, Nicole Mann, JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin, Anna Kikina, and Sergey Prokopyev. The Station is at the moment commanded by Prokopyev.
Like many different industries and applications, the ISS was additionally affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which started on Feb. 24 of this yr.
The ensuing geopolitical turmoil resulted in impacts throughout the entire aerospace business — and the ISS was no exception.
Antares, the purpose-built launcher of the Station’s Cygnus cargo resupply spacecraft, is nearing a pause in launches because of the conflict.
The rocket’s first phases have been manufactured by PA Pivdenmash in Ukraine — whose manufacturing facility was closely broken by missile strikes within the conflict. As well as, every first stage featured two Russian-made RD-181 engines, which Russia banned exports of following the onset of the conflict. These two components led Northrop Grumman, which manages and operates Antares and Cygnus, to provide you with a home redesign of the rocket.
An Antares 230+ rocket launches a Cygnus resupply spacecraft to the Worldwide House Station. (Credit score: NASA)
This new 300-series Antares is anticipated to debut in late 2024, although one remaining 200-series Antares is awaiting launch in February 2023. Three Cygnus missions will then fly aboard Falcon 9 rockets from Cape Canaveral earlier than the spacecraft returns to Antares.
The invasion has additionally created further rigidity between Russia and the quite a few different 15 nations that contribute to the ISS program. Nevertheless, each the West and Russia have managed to proceed working collectively on orbit and launching joint Russian and American crews on missions to the ISS.
A few of these joint missions have included Soyuz MS-22, which featured NASA astronaut Frank Rubio flying with two different Russians, and the SpaceX Crew-5 mission that carried Anna Kikina, the primary Russian on a Industrial Crew spacecraft.
This yr additionally marked two milestones for range in spaceflight aboard the ISS. Nicole Mann turned the primary Native American girl in area along with her launch on Crew-5. Moreover, Jessica Watkins, who launched on Crew-4, turned the primary African American girl to remain on the ISS for a long-duration mission.
The month of December marked a sequence of a number of delays and points onboard the orbiting laboratory. The primary of those started on Dec. 14 when a coolant leak on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft occurred whereas cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin had been depressurizing the Poisk module for an upcoming spacewalk, which was quickly after canceled for the day.
NASA later carried out a media teleconference to comply with up on the Soyuz leak on Dec. 14. The occasion featured ISS program supervisor Joel Montalbano and the chief director for Human House Flight Applications at Roscosmos Sergei Krikalev.
Drawback with Soyuz MS-22 on the ISS proper now! pic.twitter.com/V4Ymvnn2D1
— Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) December 15, 2022
Krikalev famous that groups are conducting thermal evaluation to additional decide if the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft is protected for a nominal crew return. If groups decide that one other spacecraft is required, he added that Soyuz MS-23 may launch uncrewed to the Station to return Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio again to Earth.
Soyuz MS-22 would then undock and return to Earth autonomously if this plan is required.
In line with Montalbano, the leak on Soyuz MS-22 emanated from a single gap. Groups on the bottom haven’t decided if the leak was brought on by micrometeorite particles or another failure. He additionally said that groups are additionally on the lookout for higher imagery and video of the anomaly to find out the trigger.
Through the teleconference, Montalbano added that there have been no considerations concerning the influence of the leak on the Station itself by way of leakage contamination.
“The course of the leak was afted starboard, and it boils off in a short time. So, we’re not involved with any contaminants left on board,” Montalbano mentioned.
The yr has additionally seen the addition of two extra ISS Roll-Out Photo voltaic Arrays — or iROSAs — to extend the accessible energy aboard the Station. This included a Dec. 22 spacewalk which worked on installing the fourth iROSA, situated on the P4 truss section.
Going into 2023, NASA will set up the ultimate two iROSAs onboard the ISS. These six photo voltaic arrays are being positioned on mounting brackets in entrance of the present legacy photo voltaic arrays that had been launched on NASA’s now-retired House Shuttles. The older arrays have been slowly degrading — as anticipated — and are actually being supplemented by the iROSAs to assist lengthen the Station’s lifespan.
A NASA diagram of iROSA set up progress on the outside truss segments on the ISS from the Dec. 22 EVA protection. (Credit score: NASA)
The yr 2022 additionally noticed a mess of each departing and arriving spacecraft on the orbiting outpost, ferrying crew and cargo each to and from the Station.
The primary spacecraft departure from the Station in 2022 occurred on Jan. 23 with the undocking of SpaceX Cargo Dragon C209 from the zenith port on the Concord module. The spacecraft later splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, concluding the CRS-24 mission. It was quickly after retrieved by SpaceX’s restoration ship Megan.
On Feb. 15, Progress MS-19 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying cargo to the ISS. It later docked to the zenith port on the Poisk module on Feb. 17.
This was then adopted by the launch of Northrop Grumman’s NG-17 Cygnus spacecraft from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on an Antares 230+ a couple of days in a while Feb. 19. Cygnus then arrived at the Station and was berthed to the nadir port of the Unity module two days later.
The primary crewed launch to the ISS in 2022 was the launch of Soyuz MS-21 onboard a Soyuz 2.1a rocket on March 18. The spacecraft docked to the Prichal module’s nadir port later the identical day. Soyuz MS-21 was the primary all-Russian crewed spaceflight to the ISS.
Expedition 66 ended and Expedition 67 started with the undocking and departure of Soyuz MS-19, which later landed on the Kazakh Steppe.
The next crewed flight to the ISS, Axiom-1, marked a historic milestone: the primary ISS mission consisting solely of personal astronauts. The crew consisted of Michael López-Alegría, Larry Connor, Eytan Stibbe, and Mark Pathy. The crew arrived on the Station aboard SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour on April 9 following a liftoff from Launch Complicated 39A at Kennedy House Heart the day prior.
The Axiom-1 mission lifts off from LC-39A. (Credit score: Julia Bergeron for NSF/L2)
The Axiom-1 mission additionally noticed the start of an period with the involvement of Axiom House within the ISS program. Axiom is planning on including its personal business modules to the Station, which can later break up off to type a free-flying area station forward of the eventual deorbit of the ISS.
Crew Dragon Endeavour later undocked from Harmony with the Axiom-1 crew on April 25 after a complete of 15 days docked to the Station. Endeavour splashed down within the Atlantic later that day.
SpaceX adopted up Axiom-1 with the launch of the next ISS crew rotation mission — Crew-4 — on April 27, the place Crew Dragon Freedom made its first flight into area. The identical day, Freedom docked to the zenith port on Harmony. The Crew-4 mission consisted of Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, Jessica Watkins, and Samantha Cristoforetti.
On Could 5, the astronauts of the Crew-3 mission departed the ISS on Crew Dragon Endurance following the tip of a long-duration keep. The spacecraft later splashed down within the Gulf of Mexico.
This yr additionally marked the long-awaited arrival of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner on the Station. Starliner launched atop an Atlas V N22 from House Launch Complicated 41 on Could 19. This was part of the Orbital Flight Take a look at-2 (OFT-2) mission, which was making an attempt to succeed in the ISS following the partially-unsuccessful OFT mission in Dec. 2019.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Freedom is seen beside the Boeing CST-100 Starliner through the OFT-2 mission aboard the ISS. (Credit score: NASA)
For a complete of 4 days, Starliner was docked to the ahead port on Concord, close to Crew Dragon Freedom — marking the primary time each crew Industrial Crew Program spacecraft had been in orbit collectively. Starliner efficiently returned to Earth on Could 25.
The NG-17 Cygnus then departed the ISS on June 28. It later carried out a deorbit burn and burned up throughout reentry over the Pacific Ocean, as anticipated. Cygnus not solely delivers cargo to the Station; it additionally serves as trash disposal after departure.
Subsequent, SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon C208 arrived on the ISS for the third time on July 16 and docked to the ahead port on the Concord module. This was a part of the CRS-25 resupply mission. It later undocked from the Station and returned again to Earth on Aug. 20 together with one other load of science collected on orbit for examination again on the bottom.
The Russians then carried out their subsequent crew rotation aboard the Russian Orbital Section. This saw the launch of Soyuz MS-22 with Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin, and Frank Rubio, who arrived on the ISS on Sept. 21 and docked with the nadir port on Rassvet.
After the arrival of Soyuz MS-22, the Soyuz MS-21 crew departed the Station, marking the tip of Expedition 67 and the start of Expedition 68.
Crew-5 then launched from NASA’s Kennedy House Heart with Josh Cassada, Nicole Mann, Koichi Wakata, and Anna Kikina on Oct. 5 aboard Crew Dragon Endurance. They arrived on the ISS the subsequent day.
Following this, Crew Dragon Freedom and her crew departed the orbiting laboratory on Oct. 14.
The Station ended the yr with the arrival of three cargo resupply autos to the orbiting outpost within the type of Progress MS-21, the NG-18 Cygnus, and the SpaceX CRS-26 Cargo Dragon. The NG-18 Cygnus launched on the penultimate Antares 230+ launch.
2023 appears to be one other essential yr as two extra brand-new spacecraft launch to the Station — Dream Chaser and Soyuz GVK.
(Lead picture: NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is seen on the truss of the ISS throughout a spacewalk on Nov. 15. Credit score: NASA)
