Expedition 23

Expedition 23 (Russian: МКС-23) was the 23rd long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Expedition 23 began with the Soyuz TMA-16 undocking on 18 March 2010. Shortly thereafter cosmonauts Aleksandr Skvortsov and Mikhail Korniyenko and astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson arrived at the Space Station on Soyuz TMA-18 on 4 April 2010.^[1] The Soyuz spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 00:04 EST on 2 April 2010.^[2]

Expedition 23

Promotional Poster
Mission type	Long-duration expedition
Mission duration	76 days, 16 hours, 1 minute
Expedition
Space station	International Space Station
Began	18 March 2010, 08:03 (2010-03-18UTC08:03Z) UTC
Ended	2 June 2010, 00:04 (2010-06-02UTC00:05Z) UTC
Arrived aboard	Soyuz TMA-17 Soyuz TMA-18
Departed aboard	Soyuz TMA-17 Soyuz TMA-18
Crew
Crew size	6
Members	Expedition 22/23: Oleg Kotov Soichi Noguchi Timothy Creamer Expedition 23/24: Aleksandr Skvortsov Mikhail Korniyenko Tracy Caldwell Dyson
Expedition 23 mission patch (l-r) Korniyenko, Caldwell Dyson, Skvortsov, Kotov, Creamer and Noguchi ISS expeditions ← Expedition 22 Expedition 24 →

Crew

Position	First part (March 2010 to April 2010)	Second part (April 2010 to June 2010)
Commander	Oleg Kotov, RSA Second spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1	Soichi Noguchi, JAXA Second spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2	Timothy Creamer, NASA Only spaceflight
Flight Engineer 3		Aleksandr Skvortsov, RSA First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 4		Mikhail Korniyenko, RSA First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 5		Tracy Caldwell Dyson, NASA Second spaceflight

Source

NASA^[3]

Backup crew

• Douglas H. Wheelock – Commander
• Anton Shkaplerov
• Satoshi Furukawa
• Mikhail Tyurin
• Aleksandr Samokutyayev
• Scott J. Kelly

Mission overview

Three Russian cosmonauts, two American and one Japanese astronauts made up the Expedition 23 crew. It was the first ISS crew to include three Russians at once.^[4] The Expedition 23 crew continued outfitting the newest modules of the nearly completed space station. The crew welcomed the shuttle flight STS-131 in April 2010. The Expedition 23 crew also saw the arrival of the Rasvet Russian docking module (MRM1) aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-132, which launched on 14 May 2010.

The three astronauts of STS-131 and Tracy Caldwell (bottom left) of ISS Expedition 23, the first time four women being at the same time in space.^[5]

Gallery

• 
  Caldwell Dyson, Skvortsov and Korniyenko in front of their Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft.
• 
  Skvortsov, Caldwell Dyson and Korniyenko wave farewell from the bottom of the Soyuz rocket.
• 
  Soyuz TMA-18 launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
• 
  Expedition 23 crew members in the Destiny laboratory.
• 
  STS-131 & Expedition 23 group portrait.
• 
  Expedition 23 lands.