Happy birthday, cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin!

Alexander Misurkin, born September 23, 1977 in Russia, has been in space three times.  He is a major in the Russian Air Force.

His first trip into space was aboard Soyuz TMA-08M as flight engineer in March 2013, to the International Space Station.  He participated in Expeditions 35 and 36, returning to Earth in September, after more than 166 days in space.

His second trip was aboard Soyuz MS-06 as commander in September 2017, to the ISS.  He participated in Expeditions 53 and 54, returning to Earth in February 2018, after over 168 days in space.

His third trip was aboard Soyuz MS-20 as commander in December 2021 to the ISS.  This time he hosted two space tourists from Japan and only stayed in space just under 12 days. 

Misurkin has performed 4 EVAs for a total time of 28 hours and 14 minutes, including setting the record for the longest Russian EVA - 8 hours, 13 minutes.

Happy birthday, Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli!

Paolo Nespoli, born April 6, 1957 in Milan, Italy, is a veteran of three trips into space.

His first trip was aboard Discovery (STS-120) as mission specialist to the International Space Station in October-November 2007.  He conducted science research as part of his mission for the European Space Agency.

His second mission was aboard Soyuz TMA-20 in December 2010 to the ISS where he participated in Expeditions 26 and 27.  He returned to Earth in May 2011.

His third trip was aboard Soyuz MS-05 in July 2017 to the ISS where he participated in Expeditions 52 and 53.  He returned to Earth in December 2017. 

He has spent over 313 days in space.  He retired in 2019.

Happy birthday, astronaut Randy Bresnik!

Randy Bresnik, born September 11, 1967 in Fort Knox, Kentucky, has been into space twice.

His first mission was aboard Atlantis (STS-129) as mission specialist in November 2009 to the International Space Station.  He conducted two EVAs during the flight.  The first with fellow astronaut Michael Foreman lasted just over 6 hours. The second EVA was conducted with Robert Satcher lasted 5 hours, 42 minutes.

His second mission was aboard Soyuz MS-05 as flight engineer launched in July 2017.  He served as flight engineer for Expedition 52 and then ISS Commander for Expedition 53.

He has spent over 149 days in space.

Happy birthday, cosmonaut Sergey Ryazansky!

Sergey Ryazansky, born November 13, 1974 in Moscow, Russia, has made two trips to the International Space Station. 

His first trip to the ISS was aboard Soyuz TMA-10M in September 2013 has part of  Expeditions 37 and 38.  He conducted 3 EVAs during his stay before returning to Earth in March 2014 after spending over 166 days in space.

His second trip was aboard Soyuz MS-05 in July 2017 as part of Expeditions 52 and 53.  He made one more EVA during his stay during which he deployed 5 nano-satellites.  He returned to Earth after over 168 days in December 2017.

His grandfather Mikhail Ryazansky was involved in the Sputnik program.

Happy birthday, astronaut Mark Vande Hei!

Mark Vande Hei, born November 10, 1966 just down the road here in Falls Church, Virginia, has spent over 168 days in space on the International Space Station.  He was launched aboard Soyuz MS-06 as part of Expedition 53 in September 2017 and returned to Earth back in February. 

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Joe Acaba!

Joseph Acaba, born May 17, 1967 in Inglewood, California, is the first astronaut with Puerto Rican heritage.  His parents moved from Puerto Rico to California in the mid-60s where he was born.

His first flight was aboard Discovery (STS-119) in March 2009 as mission specialist to the International Space Station.  He conducted two EVAs, which included lubrication of the station arm grapple snares and installation of a Global Positioning System antenna to the Kibo Laboratory.

His second mission was aboard Soyuz TMA-04M May 15, 2012.  He participated in Expeditions 31 and 32, returning to Earth September 17, after almost 125 days in space.

His third mission to the ISS was on Soyuz MS-06, on September 12, 2017, to participate in Expeditions 53 and 54.  During the mission he and Randy Bresnik performed an EVA to continue lubrication of the new end effector on the robotic arm, and to install new cameras.

Expedition 54 astronauts return home today!

Soyuz MS-06/Expedition 45 crew: Joe Acaba, Alexander Misurkin, Mark Vande Hei

Commander Alexander Misurkin, Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei will climb back into Soyuz MS-06, today about 2:15p and depart the International Space Station, landing about 9:30pm (EST) in Kazakhstan.

Soyuz MS-06 launched back on September 12, 2017 where they joined the second part of Expedition 53.  In December, Misurkin became commander of the ISS for Expedition 54, when Soyuz MS-07 brought three more astronauts to ISS. 

Misurkin, Acaba and Vande Hei have spent 168 days in space, orbiting Earth 2,688 times.  They conducted many experiments including maintenance.  During one EVA, they replaced a degraded latching end effector (LEE) on one end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm, which the crews have affectionately named "Mr. Roboto".




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_54
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2018/02/23/crew-goes-into-weekend-preparing-to-split-up-on-tuesday/

Welcome back to Earth, Expedition 53!

Randy Bresnik, Paolo Nespoli and Sergey Ryazanskiy landed a little after 3:30am EST today (2:30pm in Kazakhstan) completing their mission on the International Space Station.  While on board, they performed many experiments, contributing to studies on microgravity's effect on the antibiotic resistance of E. coli, a baterial pathogen responsible for urinary tract infection, and growing larger versions of an important protein implicated in Parkison's Disease.  This last example was developed by the Michael J. Fox Foundation with two other partners.

They were launched July 28, 2017 aboard Soyuz MS-05. 

Expedition 54 will continue with 3 crew members, Commander Alexander Misurkin, Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba, until this Sunday when the next crew arrives: Anton Shkaplerov (Roscosmos), Scott Tingle (NASA) and Norishige Kanai (JAXA).

Pizza night on board the International Space Station

On the latest supply mission to the International Space Station, the Expedition 53 crew got an unexpected surprise.  Pizza! 

Unfortunately, they had to make their own, but that's all part of the fun, right?