The next expedition is to go to the International Space Station this October. For the first time, the prime and backup crews consist of people of creative professions, the ‘Challenge’ feature film crew. They are to spend a little less than two weeks at the station, as opposed to the cosmonaut who will take them into orbit. ISS-66 crew commanders are actively preparing for a six-month expedition and have already begun taking their exam training.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Oleg Artemyev took the exam on the Soyuz MS spacecraft manually controlled descent. They passed a similar test in March 2021, being the backups for Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov. Now Shkaplerov acts as the ISS-66 prime crew commander, while Artemyev is his backup. There are no flight engineers in their crews, just spaceflight participants.
The centrifuge-based simulator imitates the G-load experienced by the crew during the descent to Earth. During the exam, the cosmonauts demonstrate the sequence of actions that must be performed if automatics fail during the descent or a recommendation comes to switch to a manually controlled descent.
The training includes two modes: static and dynamic. The cosmonaut performs the first two tasks staying in a stationary centrifuge, and the other two in the moving centrifuge. In any mode, it is necessary to land the capsule with a minimum G-load and as close to the design point as possible.
According to Anton Shkaplerov, who is preparing for his fourth spaceflight, every time it is easier to complete the exam tasks. However, the expedition itself is expected to be special for him, as he will bring artists to the space station for the first time and take part in the filming of the ‘Challenge’ feature film. Both crews are preparing for the creative task.
The ISS-66 prime crew includes actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko, while the backup crew includes actress Alena Mordovina and director of photography Alexey Dudin.