Mission type | Long-duration expedition |
---|---|
Expedition | |
Space station | International Space Station |
Began | 11 March 2015 | UTC
Ended | 11 June 2015 | UTC
Arrived aboard | Soyuz TMA-15M Soyuz TMA-16M |
Departed aboard | Soyuz TMA-15M Soyuz TMA-16M Soyuz TMA-18M |
Crew | |
Crew size | 6 |
Members | Expedition 42/43: Anton Shkaplerov Samantha Cristoforetti Terry W. Virts Expedition 43/44: Gennady Padalka Mikhail Korniyenko Scott Kelly |
Expedition 43 mission patch (l-r) Padalka, Kelly, Shkaplerov, Cristoforetti, Kornienko, Virts |
Expedition 43 was the 43rd expedition to the International Space Station. It commenced on 11 March 2015 with the undocking of Soyuz TMA-14M, returning the crew of Expedition 42 to Earth and ended with the departure of Soyuz TMA-15M on 11 June 2015.
The Expedition 43 crew spent an extra "bonus month" on board pending investigation of the Progress M-27M cargo spacecraft failure.[1] On June 8, 2015 ISS adjusted its orbit to move to a safe distance from a piece of orbital space debris.[1]
This expedition also used the ISSpresso machine and tested a special cup designed to be drunk from in microgravity by using capillary flow.[2] This was a further development of a zero gravity cup invented by astronaut Donald Pettit and tested on ISS in 2008.[3][4] The new zero g coffee cup idea was further developed by a Fluid physicist at Portland State University among others.[5]