page_title: Scott Kelly (astronaut)
section_title: Expedition 43/44/45/46
hierarchical_section_title: Scott Kelly (astronaut) / NASA career / Expedition 43/44/45/46
caption_attribution_description: English: President Barack Obama greets First Lady's box guest Scott Kelly following President Obama’s State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2015.
context_page_description: Scott Joseph Kelly is an American engineer, retired astronaut, and naval aviator. A veteran of four space flights, Kelly commanded the International Space Station on Expeditions 26, 45, and 46.
  Kelly's first spaceflight was as pilot of Space Shuttle Discovery during STS-103 in December 1999. This was the third servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, and lasted for just under eight days. Kelly's second spaceflight was as mission commander of STS-118, a 12-day Space Shuttle mission to the ISS in August 2007. Kelly's third spaceflight was as a crewmember on Expedition 25/26 on the ISS. He arrived at the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-01M on 9 October 2010, and served as a flight engineer until he took over command of the station on 25 November 2010 at the start of Expedition 26. Expedition 26 ended on 16 March 2011 with the departure of Soyuz TMA-01M.
  In November 2012, Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko were selected for a year-long mission to the ISS. Their year in space began with the launch of Soyuz TMA-16M on March 27, 2015, and they remained on the station for Expeditions 43, 44, 45, and 46.
context_section_description: NASA began planning for a year-long mission aboard the ISS following a Russian announcement for a similar mission.  The primary goal of the year-long expedition aboard the orbiting laboratory was to better understand the effects of spaceflight on the human body.  In November 2012, Kelly was selected for a one-year mission to the ISS, but was medically disqualified the following day due to his vision worsening in microgravity.  Kelly appealed to NASA, and was reselected for the mission along with cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko.
  Kelly, Kornienko, and Gennady Padalka launched aboard Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:42 pm EDT on March 27, 2015. TMA-16M docked with the ISS at 9:36 pm EDT, and the crew joined the Expedition 43 crew of commander Terry Virts and flight engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Samantha Cristoforetti.  Once aboard, the crew performed  scientific experiments, including evaluations of the fluid shifts in their bodies to determine their effects on eyesight, and repeated collections of blood and urine for chemical analysis.  During Expedition 43, the ISS received supplies from the SpaceX Dragon CRS-6 mission, but lost their resupply due to the failure of the Russian Progress 59 spacecraft.  Expedition 44 began on June 11, 2015, when Virts transferred command of the ISS to Padalka, and Soyuz TMA-15M landed in Kazakhstan at 9:44 am EDT.
  Soyuz TMA-17M docked with the ISS on July 22, 2015, bringing NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, and JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui to join Expedition 44.  During Expedition 44, the ISS was resupplied by the JAXA HTV-5 and the Russian Progress 60 vehicles; the crew experienced another loss of a resupply mission with the SpaceX CRS-7 failure.  On August 28, 2016, the crew of Soyuz TMA-16M undocked and subsequently docked the spacecraft to a different port to prepare for the arrival of Soyuz TMA-18M. Soyuz TMA-18M docked with the ISS on September 4, 2015, bringing Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, and Kazakh cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov to the station.  One of Soyuz TMA-18M's missions was to deliver a new Soyuz to the station for the return of Kelly, Korniyenko, and Volkov in March 2016; they could not return on Soyuz TMA-16M due to the 200-day orbital lifespan of a Soyuz.  Padalka, Morgensen, and Aimbetov departed from the ISS on September 11, 2015, and landed in Kazakhstan in Soyuz TMA-16M.
  Expedition 45 began on September 11, 2015, when Padalka transferred command of the station to Kelly.  During the expedition, the ISS crew was resupplied by the Progress 61 and the Cygnus CRS OA-4 missions.  On October 28, 2015, Kelly and Lindgren performed an EVA to service the Canada Arm 2, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, and to install cables for the International Docking Adapter for the Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.  Kelly and Lindgren performed a second EVA on November 6, 2015, to service the ammonia cooling system on the P6 truss.  Expedition 46 began on December 11, 2015, with the departure of Soyuz TMA-17M, carrying Lindgren, Kononenko, and Yui.
  On December 15, 2015, NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra, ESA astronaut Timothy Peake, and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko joined Expedition 46 as flight engineers after Soyuz TMA-19M docked with the ISS.  On December 21, 2015, Kelly and Kopra performed an unscheduled EVA to release the brake handles on the Mobile Transporter rail car for the Canada Arm 2, which had unexpectedly stopped when it was remotely commanded by the flight controllers.  After the successful repair of the Mobile Transporter, the ISS crew was resupplied on December 23, 2015, by the Progress 62 spacecraft.  On January 15, 2016, Kopra and Peake performed another EVA and successfully replaced a voltage regulator, but were forced to return early after water began forming inside of Kopra's helmet. On January 8, 2016, Kelly appeared in the thank-you note segment of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, with the first ever thank-you note from space.   Russian cosmo
caption: Kelly with President Barack Obama in January 2015
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