Jan. 16, 2024
RELEASE: 24-001
Four astronauts, including the current record holder for the longest single U.S. stay in space aboard the International Space Station, will make their first public appearance in Houston since returning to Earth. The crew also will be available for interviews before the event at 5 p.m. CST Thursday, Jan. 18, at Space Center Houston.
Expedition 69 NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen, Woody Hoburg, and Frank Rubio, along with United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, will be at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston official visitor center to share accomplishments from their mission during a free, public event at 5:30 p.m. At 7 p.m., the crew, along NASA leadership, will help recognize key contributors to the mission’s success in an awards ceremony.
Reporters may request an in-person interview no later than 12 p.m. Jan. 18 by emailing Dana Davis at dana.l.davis@nasa.gov.
Expedition 69
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission launched in March 2023 with Bowen, Hoburg, and Alneyadi, as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, on the sixth commercial crew rotation mission to the space station. The crew spent 186 days in orbit, traveled 78,875,292 miles, and completed 2,976 Earth orbits, splashing down off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, on Sept. 4, 2023. This was Bowen’s fourth spaceflight and the first spaceflight for Hoburg, Alneyadi, and Fedyaev. The crew helped improve power systems for the space station through a series of spacewalks. In June 2023, Bowen completed his 10th career spacewalk, tying the U.S. record for number of spacewalks. Alneyadi also completed the first long-duration mission for a UAE astronaut.
The Dragon crew was welcomed aboard the station by the international crew that flew on the Soyuz spacecraft and served on Expeditions 68 and 69. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin launched six months earlier, on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft in September 2022. The Soyuz crew spent a total of 371 days aboard the space station, traveled 157,412,306 statute miles, and completed 5,963 Earth orbits, landing in Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft on Sept. 27, 2023. This was the second spaceflight for Prokopyev and Petelin. This was Rubio’s first spaceflight mission and it broke the U.S. record for a single spaceflight by an American.
While aboard the station, the Expedition 69 crew contributed to hundreds of experiments and technology demonstrations, including conducting a student robotic challenge, studying plant genetic adaptations to space, and monitoring human health in microgravity to prepare for exploration beyond low Earth orbit and to benefit life on Earth. The crew released Saskatchewan’s first satellite, which tests a new radiation detection and protection system derived from Melanin that’s found in many organisms including humans.
Stay current on space station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the station Facebook and Instagram accounts and the space station blog.
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Chelsey Ballarte
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
chelsey.n.ballarte@nasa.gov
Dana Davis
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-244-0933
