Soyuz TMA-041M crew (L-R): Joe Acaba, Gennady Padalka, Sergei Revin
Soyuz TMA-04M, launched May 15, 2012, carried the members of Expedition 31 to the International Space Station. Its crew consisted of Commander Gennady Padalka, Sergei Revin, and Joe Acaba. During the expedition, an unmanned Dragon spacecraft from SpaceX docked with the ISS as part of a test rendezvous.
They returned to Earth after 125 days on September 17, 2012.
Richard "Ricky" Arnold, born November 26, 1963 just down the road from here in Cheverly, Maryland, has been in space twice. He attended Frostburg State University in Maryland, getting a degree in accounting and then completed teacher certification there. He got a Master's Degree from the University of Maryland in 1992.
His first flight was aboard Discovery (STS-119) as mission specialist to the International Space Station in March 2009. He conducted two EVAs during the mission with fellow astronauts Steven Swanson and Joe Acaba.
His second mission was aboard Soyuz MS-08, launched in March 2018 to the International Space Station as part of the crew of Expedition 55 with fellow astronauts Oleg Artemyev and Andrew Feustel. They spent over 196 days in space, returning to Earth in October 2018.
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.
Back row (L–R) Joe Acaba, John L. Phillips, Steven Swanson, Richard Arnold, Koichi Wakata.
Mission patch
Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-119) was launched March 15, 2009, the 125th shuttle mission and 28th trip to the International Space Station. Its crew consisted of Commander Lee Archambault, Pilot Tony Antonelli, Joe Acaba, Steven Swanson, Richard Arnold, John L. Phillips and Koichi Wakata from JAXA.
A free-tailed bat was seen clinging to a fuel tank during the launch. NASA observers thought it was have flown off once the shuttle started to launch but it did not. A bat doctor analyzed the pictures and believed that it might have had a broken wing which is why it didn't fly away. It probably was shaken off and incinerated in the rocket exhaust.
They docked with the ISS on March 17 and crew performed three EVAs during the mission. Wakata remained on board the ISS as part of Expedition 18. Sandra Magnus, another member of Expedition 18, returned to Earth with the STS-119 crew March 28.
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".
Joe Acaba helps Scott Tingle during a fit test in his spacesuit.
Expedition 54 flight engineers Mark Vande Hei and Scott Tingle, NASA astronauts, completed the first spacewalk of 2018 yesterday, January 24, conducting maintenance and making repairs to the International Space Station. It was the third EVA for Vande Hei and the first for Tingle. They replaced a Latching End Effector (LEE), which is important in grappling visiting vehicles, on the Canadarm2, the robotic arm attached to the station. The EVA lasted 7 hours and 24 minutes.
This was the 206th EVA conducted for ISS assembly and maintenance. Astronauts have spent a total of 53 days, 13 hours and 49 minutes (no seconds?) working outside the station.
The next spacewalk is scheduled for this coming Monday, January 29, for Vande Hei and Norishige Kanai of JAXA.
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).
Sandra Hall Magnus, born October 30, 1964, in Belleville, Illinois, is the veteran of 4 space shuttle flights and one expedition on the International Space Station. Her first mission was on Atlantis (STS-112) in October 2002 as a mission specialist.
Her second mission was aboard Endeavour (STS-126) in November 2008 to the International Space Station where she remained for 134 days. She returned to Earth on Discovery (STS-119 [I don't know why the mission numbers are out of sequence]) in March 2009, the first flight for Joe Acaba (back on the ISS).
Her third and final mission was on Atlantis (STS-135) which was the last mission of the Space Shuttle Program July 2011.
Joseph Michael Acaba is the first astronaut of Puerto Rican heritage, His parents lived in Puerto Rico and moved to Inglewood, California where Joe was born. His first Space Shuttle flight was aboard Discovery (STS-119) in March 2009, which delivered the final solar arrays to the International Space Station.
His second space flight was aboard Soyuz TMA-04M which took him back to the ISS. The mission lasted from May to September 2012.
Acaba is currently aboard the ISS, having arrived on Soyuz MS-06 which launched just two weeks ago.
After a short 6-hour flight, Mark Vande Hei, Joe Acaba and Alexander Misurkin, crew of Soyuz MS-06 have arrived safely at and are on board the Internation Space Station!
Soyuz MS-06 crew: Joe Acaba, Alexander Misurkin, Mark Vande Hei
This afternoon about 5:17pm EDT, the next crew of the International Space Station will blast off aboard Soyuz MS-06 from Baikonur in Kazakhstan and dock with the ISS approximately 6 hours later. The crew consists of Lt. Col. Mark Vande Hei (Falls Church, VA; first flight), Joseph Acaba (first Puerto Rican astronaut; third flight) and cosmonaut/commander Alexander Misurkin (Yershichi, Smolensk Oblast, Russia; second flight)
They will join Randy Bresnik, Paolo Nespoli and Sergey Ryanzanski already on the ISS since July 28. The new crew will continue experiments in biology, physical science and Earth science.
What? No chemistry?
Just 10 days ago, Peggy Whitson, Jack Fisher and Fyodor Yurchikhin returned to Earth from the ISS, splatting down near Dzhezkagan in Kazakhstan.
