Expedition 66 was the 66th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The mission began after the departure of Soyuz MS-18 on 17 October 2021. It was commanded by European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, the fourth European astronaut and first French astronaut to command the ISS until 8 November 2021 when Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, who arrived aboard Soyuz MS-19, took over his command.
Pesquet was transported to the ISS on SpaceX Crew-2 in April 2021, joined by NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. Crew-2 from Expedition 65 extended their tour of duty on the ISS to become part of Expedition 66, along with Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who both launched on Soyuz MS-18 and returned to Earth on Soyuz MS-19, following their extended mission. Russian cosmonaut Shkaplerov launched on Soyuz MS-19, along with two participants in the joint film project between Roscosmos and Channel One, The Challenge: film director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild.
SpaceX Crew-3, launched 10 November 2021, carried NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and Kayla Barron and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer to the ISS. At the end of Expedition 66, they remained on the ISS as part of Expedition 67 while Dubrov and Vande Hei returned to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-19. However, continued international collaboration has been thrown into doubt by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and related sanctions on Russia.
Crew FlightAstronautFirst part(17October8November 2021)Second part(811November 2021)Third part(11November 202118March 2022)Fourth part(1830March 2022)Soyuz MS-19 Anton Shkaplerov, RoscosmosFourth and last spaceflightFlight engineerCommander Pyotr Dubrov, RoscosmosFirst spaceflightFlight engineer Mark T. Vande Hei, NASASecond spaceflightFlight engineerSpaceX Crew-2 Shane Kimbrough, NASAThird and last spaceflightFlight engineerOff station Megan McArthur, NASASecond and last spaceflightFlight engineerOff stationAkihiko Hoshide, JAXAThird spaceflightFlight engineerOff stationThomas Pesquet, ESASecond spaceflightCommanderOff stationSpaceX Crew-3 Raja Chari, NASAFirst spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Thomas Marshburn, NASAThird and last spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Kayla Barron, NASAFirst spaceflightOff stationFlight engineerMatthias Maurer, ESAFirst spaceflightOff stationFlight engineerSoyuz MS-21 Oleg Artemyev, RoscosmosThird and last spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Denis Matveev, RoscosmosOnly spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Sergey Korsakov, RoscosmosOnly spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer
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