| ISS Expedition 43 | |
| Insignia: | ISS Expedition 43 Patch.svg |
| Insignia Caption: | Expedition 43 mission patch |
| Mission Type: | ISS Expedition |
| Crew Size: | 6 |
| Crew Members: | Expedition 42/43: Anton Shkaplerov Samantha Cristoforetti Terry W. Virts Expedition 43/44: Gennady Padalka Mikhail Korniyenko Scott Kelly |
| Crew Photo: | Expedition 43 crew portrait.jpg |
| Crew Photo Caption: | (l-r) Padalka, Kelly, Shkaplerov, Cristoforetti, Kornienko, Virts |
| Space Station: | International Space Station |
| Start Date: | UTC |
| End Date: | UTC |
| Departure Craft: | Soyuz TMA-15M Soyuz TMA-16M Soyuz TMA-18M |
| Previous Mission: | Expedition 42 |
| Next Mission: | Expedition 44 |
| Programme: | ISS expeditions |
Expedition 43 was the 43rd expedition to the International Space Station. It commenced on 11 March 2015 with the undocking of Soyuz TMA-14M, returning the crew of Expedition 42 to Earth and ended with the departure of Soyuz TMA-15M on 11 June 2015.
The Expedition 43 crew spent an extra "bonus month" on board pending investigation of the Progress M-27M cargo spacecraft failure.[1] On June 8, 2015 ISS adjusted its orbit to move to a safe distance from a piece of orbital space debris.
This expedition also used the ISSpresso machine and tested a special cup designed to be drunk from in microgravity by using capillary flow.[2] This was a further development of a zero gravity cup invented by astronaut Donald Pettit and tested on ISS in 2008.[3] [4] The new zero g coffee cup idea was further developed by a Fluid physicist at Portland State University among others.[5]
| Position | First Part (March 2015) | Second Part (March 2015 to June 2015) |
|---|---|---|
| Commander | Terry W. Virts, Jr., NASA Second and last spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 1 | Anton Shkaplerov, RSA Second spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 2 | Samantha Cristoforetti, ASI-ESA First spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 3 | Gennady Padalka, RSA Fifth and last Spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 4 | Mikhail Korniyenko, RSA Second and last spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 5 | Scott Kelly, NASA Fourth and last spaceflight | |
Yury Lonchakov was originally supposed to be the Flight Engineer 3. However, he resigned from the Russian Federal Space Agency on September 6, 2013, to take a position at Gazprom.[7] He was also originally supposed to be the commander of Expedition 44.