Astronomy Project about the ISS

What is the ISS 

The ISS (International Space Station) is the largest space station currently orbiting the earth. An
international partnership of five space agencies from 15 countries runs the International Space
Station. These countries are Canada, Japan, Russia, The United States, Belgium, Denmark,
France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United
Kingdom.
How is the ISS Serviced and Supplied 
The ISS is serviced and supplied by six spaceships are parked at the space station. These are the
Cygnus space freighter, the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft and Crew Dragon Endurance, Russia's
Soyuz MS-22 crew ship, and the Progress 81 and 82 resupply ships. These spacecrafts help
supply the ISS with all the necessary essentials and take care of all deliveries between the Earth
and the ISS.
Current ISS Missions 
There is currently only one mission ongoing in the ISS: Expedition 68. Expedition 68 is the 68’th
long-duration mission to the International Space Station, and is a partnership between the U.S.,
Russia, Japan, Canada, and the European Space Agency. It began on September 29, 2022 and is
scheduled to end in March 2023. The crew consists of NASA astronauts Nicole Mann, Josh
Cassada, and Frank Rubio, Roscosmos astronauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin, and Anna
Kikina, and JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata. During the expedition, crew members will conduct
several experiments focused on topics like biology, Earth science, human research, physical
sciences and technology development. Crew members will also conduct experiments studying
cardiac health in microgravity and how being in space affects properties of heart cells, as well as
seeing how plants grow in environments with lesser gravity. Liquid behavior on different planets
will also be studied, which would help contribute to a better design of exploration systems. If all
goes as planned, the crew will return to Earth in March 2023.
Other ISS Missions this Year
There have only been 2 other ISS missions this year: Expedition 66 and Expedition 67
(Expedition 66 started in 2021 but continued until 2022.) The experiments conducted in these
missions are similar to the experiments conducted in Expedition 68. The crew of Expedition 66
consisted of astronauts from Roscosmos, NASA, and the ESA: Anton Shkaplerov, Raja Chari,
Marke Vande Hei, Tom Marshburn, Pyotr Dubrov, Kayla Barron, and Matthias Maurer. The
crew of Expedition 67 also consisted of astronauts from these three space agencies: Oleg
Artemyev, Kjell Lindgren, Denis Matveev, Bob Hines, Sergey Korsakov, Jessica Watkins, and
Samantha Cristoforetti. Both expeditions were completed without any problems.
Future ISS Missions
Manu ISS missions and expeditions are planned for the future. Here are some of them:

 NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 Launch (Mid-February 2023)

 Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) (Early 2023)
  Intuitive Machines Commercial Payload Lunar Services (March 2023)
 NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test (April 2023)
 XRISM (Some time in 2023)
 Psyche (October 10, 2023)
 NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 Launch (Autumn 2023)
 EUCLID (Some time in 2023)
 ASTHROS (December 2023)
 Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory (GUSTO)
(December 2023)

Visual Assets:

Diagram of the ISS Expedition 68 Crew

References:
1. Garcia, Mark. "Visiting Vehicle Launches, Arrivals and Departures." NASA. NASA, 14
Apr. 2015. Web. 25 Dec. 2022.
2. "NASA Launch Schedule." NASA. NASA. Web. 26 Dec. 2022.
<https://www.nasa.gov/launchschedule/>.
3. https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/exp-68-summary_final.pdf
4. https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/exp-67-summary.pdf
5. https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/exp-66-summary.pdf