posted 04-13-2022 07:37 AM               

As part of NASA's plans to develop a robust and competitive economy in low-Earth orbit, private astronauts are defined as flying on dedicated missions that are privately funded, fully commercial spaceflights on a commercial launch vehicle for the purpose of enabling tourism, outreach, commercial research, and approved commercial and marketing activities on the space station. Private astronauts are required to follow the Code of Conduct for the International Space Station Crew and other applicable policies.

posted 04-14-2022 02:45 AM               

For example, I would describe the two Japanese participants on the Soyuz MS-20 mission, Maezawa and Hirano, as "tourists."

So currently on the ISS are:

• Cdr.: Marshburn (USA)
  
• FE's: Chari (USA), Maurer (GER), Barron (USA), Artemeyev (RUS), Korsakov (RUS), Matveev (RUS) and
  
• SP's: López-Alegría (USA/ESP), Connor (USA), Pathy (CAN), Stibbe (Israel)

posted 04-15-2022 09:43 AM               

Expedition 67:

• ISS CDR – Tom Marshburn (Cdr EO-67 Phase I)
  
• FE-1 – Oleg Artemyev (Cdr EO-67 Phase II)
  
• FE-2 – Denis Matveev
  
• FE-3 – Sergei Korsakov
  
• FE-10 – Raja Chari
  
• FE-12 – Kayla Barron
  
• FE-13 – Matthias Maurer

• PA-1: Mike Lopez-Alegria
  
• PA-2: Larry Connor
  
• PA-3: Eytan Stibbe
  
• PA-4: Mark Pathy

posted 04-18-2022 02:57 PM               

Having followed the evolution of ISS crewing since its inception, further research resulted in a presentation on the topic at the 35th BIS Sino/Russian Technical Forum, 7 June 2014. This was followed by an updated and expanded article published in 2019 in the BIS Space Chronicle [Changing Shift of ISS, Vol. 72, pp 62-65].

Unlike the defined roles used during earlier missions, such as American Apollo Command or Lunar Module Pilot, ISS Flight Engineer designations are not specifically defined or micro-detailed reflecting the nature of the mission. The title Flight Engineer on ISS is an "administrative" one, used in flight planning documentation rather than a precise role onboard the space station. These designations only cover the mapping out of work, rest, and exercise period during an expedition (EO), while the allocation of clothing, food and personal items, the individuals name is used for identification.

The crew designations used on Soyuz for incoming expeditions are not transferred to the ISS residency designation system and neither are short-term visiting crews (VC/EP) incorporated into the resident crew "administrative" planning but follow their own agenda, while still under the authority of the current Station Commander who retains overall command of the residency, the attainment of mission objectives, and the safety of all crew members while onboard the station.

As previously noted, the arrival of Axiom-Ax1 has revealed a new designation on ISS, Private Astronauts (PA). Mission planners at NASA and Axiom had previously coordinated the activities of the four Ax-1 crew members with the current resident crew but they were not formally inducted into Expedition 67.

There have, of course been times when the nominal use of the ISS FE system has had to change but generally the process has worked well for over 21 years and 67 expeditions. With the initiation of private commercial operations at ISS clearly the system will evolve once again, but for now there are key observations to consider when reviewing these assignments between 2000-2022:

• Firstly, a FE assignment normally covers two expeditions and they retain the administrative designation across both expedition phases.

• When a pending Commander arrives on ISS they receive a FE designation on the prime expedition crew for the first phase, then are "promoted" to Commander for the second phase, vacating their former FE designation.

• Though not given specific roles it is true that since 2009 the FE-1 has always been a Russian cosmonaut, and that of FE-2 has, especially since 2009, mostly also been assigned to a Russian cosmonaut.

• Planners prefer to group incoming crew's together, which has at times caused FE numbering to increase significantly, with multiple crews onboard and delayed departures and gaps in the FE numbering system until a new crew arrives.

• The official start of an expedition [or as NASA prefers to call them 'increment'] normally occurs the moment the departing expedition crew's transport craft undocks from the station. Prior to that the formal, and normally televised, Change of Command ceremony can take place a few hours or a couple of days prior to that event. In the interim the outgoing crew are identified as the non-prime crew.

posted 04-28-2022 03:33 AM               

• FE-14: Kjell Lindgren
  
• FE-15: Bob Hines
  
• FE-16: Jessica Watkins
  
• FE-17: Samantha Cristoforetti