Station Crew Wraps Up a Busy Year as Soyuz Review Continues

Expedition 68 Flight Engineers (from left) Josh Cassada, Nicole Mann, and Frank Rubio, all from NASA, and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), pose for a festive portrait on Christmas Day inside the cupola as the International Space Station orbited 270 miles above the southern Atlantic Ocean on Dec. 25, 2022.
Expedition 68 Flight Engineers (from left) Josh Cassada, Nicole Mann, and Frank Rubio, all from NASA, and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), pose for a festive portrait on Christmas Day inside the cupola as the International Space Station orbited 270 miles above the southern Atlantic Ocean on Dec. 25, 2022.

Research and maintenance activities aboard the International Space Station continue into the new year while engineers and managers discuss Soyuz capabilities and potential next steps in response to the Soyuz MS-22’s external cooling loop leak.

The Expedition 68 crew remains in good condition, performing a variety of maintenance and research activities and looks forward to some time off on New Year’s Day. NASA astronauts Frank RubioJosh Cassada, and Nicole Mann continued work to service the spacesuits used by Rubio and Cassada to install a new International Space Station Roll-out Solar Array.

On Dec. 29, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata monitored the deployment of eight Cubesats from JAXA’s Kibo module. Cosmonauts Sergey ProkopyevDmitri Petelin and Anna Kikina worked on a variety of maintenance and research tasks.

With integrated crews on each other’s spacecraft, NASA and Roscosmos work jointly on any decisions related to crew safety including crew transportation. NASA and Roscosmos are continuing to conduct a variety of engineering reviews and are consulting with other international partners about methods for safely bringing the Soyuz crew home for both normal and contingency scenarios. A final decision on the path forward is expected in January.

As a part of the analysis, NASA also reached out to SpaceX about its capability to return additional crew members aboard Dragon if needed in an emergency, although the primary focus is on understanding the post-leak capabilities of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft.

Station teams also are preparing for the undocking and departure of the SpaceX CRS-26 cargo spacecraft on Monday, Jan. 9. The cargo Dragon is scheduled to return valuable scientific research samples through a splashdown off the Florida coast. Undocking is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. EST, with splashdown planned for Wednesday, Jan. 11. Live coverage of the undocking and departure will begin at 4:45 p.m. on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.


Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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2 thoughts on “Station Crew Wraps Up a Busy Year as Soyuz Review Continues”

  1. Happy end of 2022 and excellent start of 2023 dear Expedition 68. Thank you very much to the 7, you are HEROES of humanity and thank you for your work not only for the exploration of the cosmos, but also for the benefit of mankind. Good luck and take care, we look forward to a quick solution for a safe return home Frank, Sergey and Dimitri. Happy New Year Expedition 68 and NASA ‍

  2. Agli equipaggi della ISS i miei migliori auguri per il 2023 e un immenso ringraziamento per le attività svolte. Ai vertici della Nasa un grazie di rendere di dominio pubblico i risultati delle vostre attività. Un proficuo 2023. Luca Mattioli

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