On May 22, 2023 at 13:12 UTC the US Crew Dragon “Freedom” (Axiom-2 mission) spacecraft docked with a docking adapter on the “Harmony” module of the International Space Station. The spacecraft delivered US astronaut Peggy Whitson; US commercial astronaut John Shoffner; Saudi Arabian astronaut Ali AlQarni (علي القرني); Saudi Arabian woman-astronaut Rayyanah Barnawi (ريانة برناوي) to the ISS. The new comers were welcomed by the current ISS Expedition 69 members – Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin, Francisco Rubio, Stephen Bowen, Warren Hoburg, Sultan Al Neyadi (النيادي سلطان سيف مفتاح حمد), Andrey Fedyaev.

On May 21, 2023 at 21:37 UTC the American SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Freedom” (Axiom-2 mission) spacecraft was launched from Kennedy Space Center (LC39A), Florida, USA. The space vehicle was orbited by the “Falcon-9FT” rocket-carrier.

There were 4 crew members onboard the Crew Dragon – Commander, Peggy Whitson, a US citizen and retired NASA astronaut; pilot, a US citizen and commercial astronaut John Shoffner; Mission Specialist 1, Saudi Arabian astronaut Ali AlQarni (علي القرني); Mission Specialist 2, Saudi Arabian woman-astronaut Rayyan ... Read more »

On May 12, 2023, Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin performed the extra vehicle activities (EVA – spacewalk) to deploy a radiator on the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module and attach mechanical, electrical and hydraulic connections. The EVA lasted 5 hours and 14 minutes. It was the 6^th EVA for Sergey Prokopyev and the 4^th EVA for Dmitry Petelin. It was the 169^th EVA performed by Soviet/Russian cosmonauts since 1965.

On May 10, 2023 at 21:16 UTC the Chinese “Tianzhou-6” unmanned supply spacecraft docked to the “Tianhe” core module of the Chinese “Tiangong” Space Station. Tianzhou means “heavenly vessel” in Chinese.

On May 10, 2023 at 13:22 UTC, the Chang Zheng-7 (Long March-7) rocket-carrier was launched from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center (WSLC), located in Wenchang on Hainan Island off China’s southern coastline. The rocket orbited the “Tianzhou-6” [天舟六号] unmanned supply spacecraft. The spacecraft is to dock with the Chinese space station.

On May 6, 2023 the Crew Dragon “Endeavour” (Crew-6 mission) spacecraft was redocked from the zenith docking port of the “Harmony” module to the forward docking port of the “Harmony” of the International Space Station. During the redocking (11:23 – 12:01 UTC) the crew consisted of US astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, UAE’s astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi (النيادي سلطان سيف مفتاح حمد) and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. The crew relocated the Crew Dragon “Endeavour” spacecraft to clear the way for arrival of Dragon CRS-28 unmanned supply spacecraft.

On May 05, 2023 at 07:25 UTC the Chinese “Tianzhou-5” unmanned supply spacecraft was undocked from the Chinese “Tianhe” core module (Chinese Tiangong Space Station). It was switched to independent flight mode.

On May 5, 2023 American astronaut Samuel Thornton Durrance passed away. He was 79. He performed 2 space flights: Columbia STS-35 and Endeavour STS-67.

On May 3-4, 2023, Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin performed the extra vehicle activities (EVA – spacewalk) to relocate experiment airlock from the “Rassvet” module to the “Nauka” module. The EVA lasted 7 hours and 10 minutes. It was the 5^th EVA for Sergey Prokopyev and the 3^rd EVA for Dmitry Petelin.

On April 28, 2023, US astronaut Stephen Bowen and UAE’s astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi performed the spacewalk to lay cables for the 1A and 1B power channel iROSA upgrades. The astronauts were unable to free up an electronics box located on the truss associated with a degraded S-band communications antenna. The antenna removal was deferred to a future spacewalk ahead of its planned return to Earth. The EVA lasted 7 hours and 1 minute. It was the 8^th EVA for Stephen Bowen and the 1^st spacewalk for Sultan Al Neyadi.