Expedition 58 was the 58th expedition to the International Space Station, which began on December 20, 2018 with the departure of the Expedition 57 crew.[2][3] It was commanded by cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, with astronauts Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques as flight engineers; the trio launched on board Soyuz MS-11 on December 3, 2018, marking the 100th orbital launch of the year.[4]

Expedition 58
ISS Expedition 58
Mission typeLong-duration expedition
Mission duration84 days, 23 hours, 21 minutes
Expedition
Space stationInternational Space Station
Began20 December 2018, 01:40 (20 December 2018, 01:40) UTC
Ended15 March 2019, 01:01 (15 March 2019, 01:01) UTC[1]
Arrived aboardSoyuz MS-11
Departed aboardSoyuz MS-11
Crew
Crew size3
Members

Expedition 58 mission patch

From left: McClain, Kononenko and Saint-Jacques
Expedition 57/58: Change of Command Ceremony

Kononenko, McClain and Saint-Jacques subsequently transferred to Expedition 59 on March 15 2019, when Aleksey Ovchinin, Nick Hague and Christina Koch arrived on board Soyuz MS-12.[5][1]

History

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During early planning, the expedition was scheduled to include rookie cosmonaut Nikolai Tikhonov. However, Tikhonov's assignment was postponed (for the second time) due to delays in launching the Russian Nauka module.[6][7] Tikhonov has been reassigned to the Soyuz MS-14 flight scheduled for late 2019.

As of October 2018, plans called for the expedition to feature a crew of five: cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin and astronaut Nick Hague would have joined the Expedition 57 crew in October 2018, and subsequently transferred to Expedition 58; they would have been joined by Kononenko, McClain and Saint-Jacques in December 2018. Ovchinin and Hague would then have returned to Earth in April 2019. Subsequently, the Expedition 59 mission would have begun with Kononenko as commander. However, the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft carrying Ocvhinin and Hague aborted during its launch on October 11, 2018; the two crew returned safely to Earth.[8]

Following the Soyuz MS-10 abort, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced on October 23, 2018 that Soyuz flights to the ISS were expected to resume in December 2018.[9] At first, it was assumed that Expedition 58 would initially consist of three crew members who would then be joined later by the crew of Soyuz MS-12, bringing the crew up to six. However, in the post-launch news conference for Soyuz MS-11, NASA announced that the Soyuz MS-12 crew would become the station Expedition 59/60 crew. Expedition 58 was therefore a three person increment.

Crew

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Position Crew member
Commander   Oleg Kononenko, RSA
Fourth spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1   Anne McClain, NASA
First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2   David Saint-Jacques, CSA
First spaceflight

Saint-Jacques is the first Canadian resident on the space station since Chris Hadfield served as commander of Expedition 35, which concluded on May 13, 2013 almost six years prior.

Uncrewed spaceflights to the ISS

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Resupply missions that visited the International Space Station during Expedition 58:

Spacecraft
- ISS flight number
Country Mission Launcher Launch
(UTC)
Docked/Berthed
(UTC)
Undocked/Unberthed
(UTC)
Duration (Docked) Deorbit
SpX-DM1
  United States Test flight Falcon 9 Block 5 2 Mar 2019, 07:49:03 3 Mar 2019, 10:51 8 Mar 2019, 7:32 4d 20h 41m 8 Mar 2019, 13:45

Notes

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References

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  1. ^ a b Moran, Noah (March 14, 2019). "Soyuz Docked to Space Station". NASA Blogs.
  2. ^ "Astronauts arrived ISS following successful launch of Soyuz rocket". Aerospace Technology. December 5, 2018. Retrieved December 20, 2018. Expedition 58 officially begins once the three departing spacefarers undock from the space station.
  3. ^ Gebhardt, Chris. "Soyuz MS-09 lands after unprecedented on-orbit repairs, inspections – NASASpaceFlight.com". Retrieved December 20, 2018.
  4. ^ Gebhardt, Chris. "100th orbital launch of 2018: International trio set for launch to Space Station – NASASpaceFlight.com". NASASpaceflight.com. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
  5. ^ Gebhardt, Chris (March 14, 2019). "Soyuz MS-12 docks with the Space Station – NASASpaceFlight.com". NASASpaceflight.com.
  6. ^ Ben Evans (May 30, 2018). "No U.S. Crew Will Command The International Space Station in 2019". AmericaSpace. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
  7. ^ Ben Evans (October 30, 2016). "As Soyuz MS-01 Lands, International Partners Look Ahead to Reduced Crewing in 2017". AmericaSpace. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
  8. ^ Berger, Eric (October 11, 2018). "A Soyuz crew makes an emergency landing after rocket fails". Ars Technica. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  9. ^ "NASA administrator says Russians on track for December Soyuz flight to station". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved October 25, 2018.