Expedition 69

Expedition 69 was an International Space Station increment that began on March 28, 2023, after the uncrewed Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft undocked and Expedition 68 concluded. The core crew combined Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin, Frank Rubio, Stephen Bowen, Woody Hoburg, Sultan Al Neyadi, and Andrey Fedyaev, with Prokopyev serving as commander. The increment included a long Soyuz MS-22/MS-23 extension for Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio after the Soyuz MS-22 coolant leak changed their return plan. During Expedition 69, the station supported visiting cargo spacecraft, science operations, power-system upgrades, and a busy EVA campaign. Prokopyev and Petelin performed multiple Russian-segment spacewalks around Nauka and related external hardware, while Bowen, Hoburg, and Al Neyadi supported U.S. segment solar-array work. The increment also received the Crew-7 astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli, Andreas Mogensen, Satoshi Furukawa, and Konstantin Borisov, followed by the Soyuz MS-24 crew Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Loral O'Hara during the handover into Expedition 70. Expedition 69 concluded on September 27, 2023, when Soyuz MS-23 undocked and returned Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio to Earth.