MISSION/STUDY INFORMATION

The undocking of the Soyuz TMA-16 space craft on March 18, 2010 marked the beginning of Expedition 23 on the International Space Station. Soyuz TMA-16 had the Expedition 22 crewmembers Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev on board. Both Williams and Suraev returned to Earth after being on ISS for 167 days. Staying behind were Flight Engineers Soichi Noguchi and T.J. Creamer and the new Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov.

Joining Expedition 23 and expanding the station crew to six were Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko, and NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson. They arrived on the Soyuz TMA-18 on April 4, 2010. In summary the ISS-23 crew consisted of 3 persons on ISS from mid March to early April and 6 persons from early April to early June, 2010.

The main objectives of the expedition were crew operational support of three Progress supply flights, docking of the Soyuz TMA-18 space craft, redocking of Soyuz TMA-17, operational support for docking of the Space Shuttle orbiters 19A and ULF4, support of the functionality of ISS, and the performance of the science and application of international and domestic research programs and experiments.

Expedition 23 ended when the Soyuz TMA-17 space craft undocked, returning Noguchi, Creamer and Kotov to Earth.