Expedition 66 Patch Expedition 66 is scheduled to be the 66th long duration Expedition to the International Space Station. The mission will begin during the departure sequence of Oleg Novitsky aboard Soyuz MS-18, currently scheduled for 5 October 2021. The mission will be commanded by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who will become the fourth European astronaut to command the ISS, and the first French astronaut to command the orbital laboratory. Pesquet launched on SpaceX Crew-2 in April 2021, joined by NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, as well as JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. The Crew-2 crew will transfer over from Expedition 65, as well as Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who both launched on Soyuz MS-18 and will land on Soyuz MS-19 following an extended mission. Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov will launch on Soyuz MS-19, and will join the crew from the beginning of the Expedition. Participants in the joint project between Roscosmos and Channel One, film director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild, who will fly with Anton Shkaplerov, have been included in the ISS expedition prime crew. SpaceX Crew-3, carrying NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron, as well as ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer will launch to the station to join no earlier than 23 October 2021. Shkaplerov, Dubrov, Vande Hei, Chari, Marshburn, Barron and Maurer will transfer to Expedition 67 at the end of the expedition in late 2021.
