The start of 2022 saw no let-up for the Expedition 66 crew aboard the International Space Station, who are continuing their busy schedule of maintenance, science, and operations aboard their outpost in low Earth orbit. January saw the installation of new external experiments, a spacewalk by the two Russian crewmembers, the departure of a Cargo Dragon spacecraft, and the deployment of five small satellites.
The International Space Station (ISS) crew currently consists of Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov – the mission commander for Expedition 66 – and Pyotr Dubrov, with four NASA astronauts: Mark Vande Hei, Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and Kayla Barron. The seventh crew member is Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency. Expedition 66 began in October, although Dubrov and Vande Hei have been aboard the station for much longer, having arrived in April.