Expedition 64

Expedition 64
Name	Expedition 64
Mission type	Long-duration mission
Crew size	7–10
Start date	2020-10-21
End date	2021-04-17
Operator	NASA / Roscosmos / ESA / JAXA
Spacecraft	Soyuz MS-17, Crew Dragon Demo-2, Crew-1, Cargo Dragon, Progress, Cygnus
Station	International Space Station

Expedition 64 Expedition 64 was a long-duration human spaceflight mission aboard the International Space Station that operated during late 2020 and early 2021. The expedition involved multinational participation from NASA, Roscosmos, European Space Agency, and JAXA, and overlapped with landmark commercial crew missions including SpaceX Crew Dragon flights and a Russian Soyuz rotation.

Background and Objectives

The expedition followed crew handovers from Expedition 63 and coincided with milestones tied to Commercial Crew Program, Artemis program planning, and ongoing partnerships with Canadian Space Agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, and DLR. Objectives included maintaining continuous habitation of the International Space Station, conducting research under programs from NASA Science Mission Directorate, European Research Council, and JAXA, and supporting cargo logistics via Northrop Grumman Cygnus, SpaceX Dragon 2, and Roscosmos Progress resupply flights.

Crew and Personnel

Crew assignments featured personnel from diverse agencies and backgrounds: NASA astronauts who had trained at Johnson Space Center, Roscosmos cosmonauts who launched from Baikonur, and ESA and JAXA specialists. Notable crew members included long-duration fliers with experience on STS-135, veterans of Soyuz TMA flights, and participants in commercial crew missions such as Crew-1 and Crew Dragon Demo-2. Support teams involved flight controllers at MCC-Houston, engineers at Sierra Nevada Corporation, payload specialists linked to European Astronaut Centre, and medical monitoring by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration flight surgeons.

Mission Timeline

The expedition commenced with handover events after a Soyuz MS-17 departure and continued through arrivals including SpaceX Crew-1 and cargo missions like Cygnus NG-14 and Progress MS-15. Key timeline entries included docking and undocking operations at the Harmony and Unity modules, extravehicular activities staged from the Quest and supported by Russian airlock operations at Pirs prior to its planned deorbit. The mission concluded with crew rotations that included returns on Soyuz MS-18 and Soyuz MS-19 profiles and commercial returns by Crew Dragon Resilience.

Scientific and Technical Activities

Research aboard the station integrated experiments from NASA Human Research Program, life sciences from European Space Agency initiatives, materials science from JAXA, and physical sciences coordinated with International Space Station Research and Development Program. Experiments covered plant biology linked to Advanced Plant Habitat, combustion studies connected to Combustion Integrated Rack, protein crystallization linked to Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), and technology demonstrations from Made In Space and NanoRacks. Biomedical investigations interfaced with Bed rest studies analogs, immunology projects tied to National Institutes of Health, and Earth observation campaigns coordinated with USGS and NOAA satellite datasets.

Spacecraft and Station Operations

Operations during the expedition required integration of systems across the Zvezda service module, Zarya module, and US OS hardware such as Tranquility and Columbus. Docking procedures followed protocols from International Docking System Standard partners, with berthing managed using the Canadarm2 robotic arm operated from the Cupola. Logistics involved automated cargo transfers from Cygnus CRS and Progress MS vehicles, propulsive reboosts using Progress engines and visiting vehicle propulsion, and attitude control interactions with Control Moment Gyroscopes maintained by teams at Marshall Space Flight Center.

Notable Events and Incidents

Notable occurrences included coordination with the inaugural operational Crew-1 long-duration Crew Dragon mission and the high-profile return of Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission crewmembers, plus contingency responses to debris conjunction warnings from US Space Command and collision avoidance maneuvers similar to earlier maneuvers tracked by NORAD. The expedition also navigated public health and quarantine protocols aligned with World Health Organization guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting launch campaigns at Kennedy Space Center and preflight training at Star City, Russia. Additional incidents involved on-orbit hardware troubleshooting for the Remote Power Controller Module and science payload resets coordinated with teams at European Space Research and Technology Centre.

Category:International Space Station expeditions