Anatoly Ivanishin

The launch of Soyuz TMA-22 in blizzard conditions

Ivanishin (left) pictured with his fellow Soyuz crew members during Expedition 30

Ivanishin served as the Soyuz TMA-20 backup commander, backing up Russian cosmonaut Dimitri Kondratyev for ISS Expedition 26/27, directly holding the position of Expedition 27 backup Commander. TMA-20 launched on 15 December 2010, following which Ivanishin was assigned as Flight Engineer for ISS Expedition 29/30.

On 14 November 2011, Ivanishin launched on his first flight into space as flight engineer on board Soyuz TMA-22 alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov and NASA astronaut Daniel Burbank, the three successfully arrived at the space station on 16 November following a two-day free flight to the ISS.[4] They officially joined Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and NASA astronaut Mike Fossum as members of the Expedition 29 crew. The Expedition ended only days later with the departure of Soyuz TMA-02M on 21 November 2011, carrying Volkov, Furukawa and Fossum back to Earth,[5] following which Burbank took command of the station for Expedition 30.

The three were soon joined by Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Dutch ESA astronaut André Kuipers and NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, who launched aboard Soyuz TMA-03M on 21 December 2011.[6] On 16 February 2012, Ivanishin supported a spacewalk by his fellow cosmonauts, Shkaplerov and Kononenko, who performed a six-hour, 15-minute EVA from the Pirs airlock module on the Russian segment of the ISS. The two set up several experiments on the outside of the station and moved a Strela crane from Pirs to the Poisk module while Burbank and Ivanishin remained inside Soyuz TMA-22 in case of an emergency.[7]

Due to a delay with the launch of the Expedition 31/32 crew on board Soyuz TMA-04M, the landing of Soyuz TMA-22 was delayed from March to late April 2012.[8] Ivanishin, along with Shkaplerov and Burbank, landed safely in Kazakhstan on 27 April, wrapping up his first spaceflight after 165 days in orbit.[9]

Ivanishin (left) pictured giving Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams a haircut

For his second flight, Ivanishin was assigned to the crew of ISS Expedition 48/49, serving as a flight engineer on Expedition 48 and Commander on Expedition 49. Originally this flight was to have launched on Soyuz TMA-20M, the final flight of the Soyuz TMA-M series of spacecraft, although delays with the launch of the first Soyuz MS series spacecraft, originally scheduled to launch the Expedition 47/48 crew, was pushed back to Expedition 48/49, so Ivanishin's crew instead were assigned to launch aboard Soyuz MS-01.[10]

Ivanishin, alongside JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins launched into space on board Soyuz MS-01 on 7 July 2016, following a delay from 24 June due to issues with the spacecraft software. The trio spent two days in orbit testing various new systems on the Soyuz MS spacecraft, before rendezvous and docking with the ISS on 9 July, officially becoming members of the Expedition 48 crew alongside NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian cosmonauts Aleksey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka.[11]

Ivanishin (left) alongside fellow Soyuz crew members shortly after docking to the ISS

Expedition 48 officially ended on 6 September 2016 with the departure of Soyuz TMA-20M, following which Ivanishin took Command of the station for Expedition 49. They were supposed to be joined by the three crew members on Soyuz MS-02 on 25 September, although continuing issues with the introduction of the Soyuz MS spacecraft forced the launch of MS-02 to be delayed due to technical reasons.[12] Soyuz MS-02 was successfully launched on 19 October 2016, carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko as well as NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough to the station. They arrived on 21 October and joined Ivanishin and his crew.[13]

Following a very short period of six crew operations with the crew of Soyuz MS-02, Ivanishin handed over command of the station to Kimbrough, following which he returned to Earth with his two crewmates on 29 October 2016 following 115 days in space, bringing up Ivanishin's total time in orbit to 280 days.[14]

Ivanishin was assigned to back up Russian Soyuz Commander Nikolai Tikhonov for the mission of Soyuz MS-16, scheduled for launch in April 2020. However, in February 2020 Tikhonov and Russian Flight Engineer Andrei Babkin were removed from the flight due to a temporary health condition with Tikhonov. Subsequently, Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner (Babkin's backup) were moved forward onto the prime crew.

Ivanishin, Cassidy and Vagner prior to launch.

Ivanishin launched aboard Soyuz MS-16, along with Vagner and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy, on 9 April 2020. The trio successfully arrived in orbit and docked with the ISS six hours later, officially joining the Expedition 62 crew alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Andrew R. Morgan. Following just eight days of six-person operations, Morgan, Meir and Skripochka departed the space station aboard Soyuz MS-15, following which Ivanishin and his two crewmates transferred over to Expedition 63, with Cassidy taking command of the station.[15]

Expedition 62 following the arrival of Soyuz MS-16.

The Expedition 63 crew welcomed the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission for a stay on board the station on 31 May 2020.[16] This flight marked the first crewed test flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and the first crewed orbital spacecraft to launch from US soil since STS-135, the final flight of the Space Shuttle program, in 2011.[17] The mission was crewed by NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken, who stayed on board the ISS for two months.[18]