Expedition 71

Expedition 71
Expedition 71 crew
Mission typeLong-duration expedition
OperatorNASA / Roscosmos
Mission duration170 days, 1 hour and 21 minutes
Expedition
Space stationInternational Space Station
Began6 April 2024
Ended23 September 2024
Arrived aboard
Departed aboardSoyuz MS-25
Crew
Crew size7–12
Members
EVAs2
EVA duration5 hours and 7 minutes

Expedition 71 mission patch

From left: Grebenkin, Caldwell-Dyson, Barratt, Chub, Dominick, Kononenko, and Epps with Williams (top left) and Wilmore (top right)

Expedition 71 was the 71st long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The expedition began with the departure of Soyuz MS-24 on 6 April 2024[1] with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko continuing his ISS command from Expedition 70.[2][3] It ended with his departure on Soyuz MS-25 with crewmates from MS-24 and MS-25 on 23 September 2024.[4][5]

Background, Crew, and Events

Initially, the expedition consisted of Kononenko, his Russian Soyuz MS-24 crewmate Nikolai Chub (both on a year long ISS mission since 15 September 2023), and his American Soyuz MS-25 crewmate, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, who launched on 23 March 2024, as well as SpaceX Crew-8 crewmates, American astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, who launched on 4 March 2024 and were transferred from Expedition 70 after Soyuz MS-24 departure.[5][3][6]

NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams arrived at the station on 6 June 2024 as part of the Boeing Crew Flight Test. Their visit was planned to be brief.[4][7][8] However, due to technical issues with their spacecraft, their stay was extended, and they became de facto members of the ISS crew. They assisted with various tasks, including research, housekeeping, and maintenance.[9] On 24 August 2024, NASA announced that the Boeing Starliner spacecraft would return to Earth unmanned with Wilmore and Williams returning on the SpaceX Crew-9 mission in early 2025. NASA also announced that Wilmore and Williams would formally be added to the Expedition 71/72 crew.[10]

Events manifest

Events involving crewed spacecraft are listed in bold.

Previous mission: Expedition 70

6 April 2024 – Soyuz MS-24 Undocking (includes Visiting Expedition 21), official switch from Expedition 70

25 April 2024 – EVA-1 (VKD-62) Kononenko/Chub: 4 hrs, 36 mins

28 April 2024 – CRS SpX-30 Undocking

2 May 2024 – SpaceX Crew-8 Redocking

28 May 2024 – Progress MS-25/86P Undocking

1 June 2024 – Progress MS-27/88P Docking

6 June 2024 – Boeing Crew Flight Test Docking[8]

24 June 2024 – EVA-2 (US-90) Dyson/Barratt: 0 hrs, 31 mins

12 July 2024 – CRS NG-20 Unberthing & Release

6 August 2024 – CRS NG-21 Capture & Berthing

13 August 2024 – Progress MS-26/87P Undocking

17 August 2024 – Progress MS-28/89P Docking

4 September 2024 – Wilmore and Williams' seat liner moved from Boeing CFT swapped to SpaceX Crew-8 for CFT uncrewed landing[11]

6 September 2024 – Boeing Crew Flight Test Uncrewed Undocking[8]

11 September 2024 – Soyuz MS-26 Docking

22 September 2024 – ISS Expedition 71/72 Change of Command Ceremony from Oleg Kononenko to Sunita Williams

23 September 2024 – Soyuz MS-25 Undocking, official switch to Expedition 72

Next: Expedition 72

Sources:[12][4][13][3][5]

Crew

Expedition Crew

Flight[4] Crew member Increment 71a Increment 71b Increment 71c
6 Apr – 6 Jun 2024 6 Jun – 11 Sep 2024 11 – 23 Sep 2024
Soyuz MS-25 Russia Oleg Kononenko, Roscosmos
Fifth spaceflight 		Commander[1]
Russia Nikolai Chub, Roscosmos
First spaceflight 		Flight Engineer
United States Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, NASA
Third spaceflight 		Flight Engineer
SpaceX Crew-8 United States Matthew Dominick, NASA
First spaceflight 		Flight Engineer
United States Michael Barratt, NASA
Third spaceflight 		Flight Engineer
United States Jeanette Epps, NASA
First spaceflight 		Flight Engineer
Russia Alexander Grebenkin, Roscosmos
First spaceflight 		Flight Engineer
Boeing Crew Flight Test United States Barry E. Wilmore, NASA
Third spaceflight 		Off Station Flight Engineer
United States Sunita Williams, NASA
Third spaceflight 		Off Station Flight Engineer
Soyuz MS-26 Russia Aleksey Ovchinin, Roscosmos
Third[a] spaceflight 		Off Station Flight Engineer
Russia Ivan Vagner, Roscosmos
Second spaceflight 		Off Station Flight Engineer
United States Donald Pettit, NASA
Fourth spaceflight 		Off Station Flight Engineer

Crewed test flight

Mission Astronauts Docking (UTC) Undocking (UTC) Duration
Boeing Crew Flight Test United States Barry Wilmore, NASA
United States Sunita Williams, NASA 		6 June 2024, 17:34[8] 6 September 2024, 22:04 (uncrewed)[8] 93 days
Besides the expedition crew, a Boeing Starliner spacecraft is visiting the station for a crewed flight test, consisting of NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams.[8] The spacecraft Calypso[14] launched and docked to the station in June 2024. The flight marked the first crewed test flight of the Starliner. Crew members were scheduled to stay aboard the station for approximately 6 days, but the mission was extended due to issues with the spacecraft. Despite months of testing, NASA felt it was not able to understand why the thrusters malfunctioned and decided that it was too risky to return Wilmore and Williams to Earth aboard Starliner. Instead, they will ride down on the SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon capsule, and the Boeing spacecraft returned uncrewed. Until Crew-9 arrived, they along with their seat liners moved to SpaceX Crew-8, their temporary emergency evacuation spacecraft, after which they and their seat liners transferred to Crew-9.[15] It was the first launch of humans from Cape Canaveral since Apollo 7 in October 1968 and first launch of humans from SLC-41.[8]

Vehicle manifest

Vehicle[4] Purpose Port Docking/capture date Undocking date
Vehicles inherited from Expedition 70
Russia Progress MS-25 Cargo Poisk zenith 3 Dec 2023 28 May 2024
United States CRS NG-20 Cargo Unity nadir 1 Feb 2024 12 Jul 2024
Russia Progress MS-26 Cargo Zvezda aft 17 Feb 2024 13 Aug 2024
United States SpaceX Crew-8 "Endeavour" Exp. 70/71 crew Harmony forward 5 Mar 2024 2 May 2024 (redock)
United States CRS SpX-30 Cargo Harmony zenith 23 Mar 2024 28 Apr 2024
Russia Soyuz MS-25 "Kazbek" Exp. 70/71 crew, Visiting Expedition 21 Prichal nadir 25 Mar 2024 23 Sep 2024
Vehicles docked during Expedition 71
United States SpaceX Crew-8 "Endeavour" Exp. 70/71 crew Harmony zenith 2 May 2024 (redock) 23 Oct 2024 (Exp. 72)
Russia Progress MS-27 Cargo Poisk zenith 1 Jun 2024 Nov 2024 (Exp. 72) (scheduled)
United States Boeing CFT "Calypso" Visiting CCDev mission Harmony forward 6 Jun 2024 6 Sep 2024
United States CRS NG-21 Cargo Unity nadir 6 Aug 2024 Jan 2025 (Exp. 72) (scheduled)
Russia Progress MS-28 Cargo Zvezda aft 17 Aug 2024 2025 (Exp. 72) (scheduled)
Russia Soyuz MS-26 "Burlak" Exp. 71/72 crew Rassvet nadir 11 Sep 2024 Mar 2025 (Exp. 72) (scheduled)
Segment United States US Orbital Segment Russia Russian Segment
Period Harmony forward Harmony zenith Harmony nadir Unity nadir Rassvet nadir Prichal nadir Poisk zenith Zvezda aft
6–28 Apr 2024 SpaceX Crew-8 CRS SpX-30 Vacant CRS NG-20 Vacant Soyuz MS-25/71S Progress MS-25/86P Progress MS-26/87P
28 Apr–2 May 2024 Vacant
2–28 May 2024 Vacant SpaceX Crew-8
28 May–1 Jun 2024 Vacant
1–6 Jun 2024 Progress MS-27/88P
6 Jun–12 Jul 2024 Boeing CFT
12 Jul–6 Aug 2024 Vacant
6–13 Aug 2024 CRS NG-21
13–17 Aug 2024 Vacant
17 Aug–6 Sep 2024 Progress MS-28/89P
6–11 Sep 2024 Vacant
11-23 Sep 2024 Soyuz MS-26/72S

The Prichal aft, forward, starboard, and aft ports all have yet to be used since the module originally docked to the station and are not included in the table.

Notes

  1. ^ Not counting the aborted flight of Soyuz MS-10.

References

  1. ^ a b Evans, Ben (10 September 2023). "Better Late Than Never: New ISS Crew Prepares to Fly, All-Female EVAs Possible in October". AmericaSpace.com. Archived from the original on 29 September 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  2. ^ Harwood, William (2024-03-11). "4 International Space Station crew members undock, head for Tuesday splashdown in Gulf of Mexico – CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
  3. ^ a b c "Expedition 71 Crew Discusses Six-Month ISS Increment, Crew-9 Announcement Expected Next Week – AmericaSpace". www.americaspace.com. 2024-01-25. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Complete ISS flight events". NasaSpaceFlight.com Forum. 15 April 2023. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  5. ^ a b c "NASA Expedition 71 Astronauts to Conduct Research aboard Space Station – NASA". 2024-02-09. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
  6. ^ "NASA's expedition 71 astronauts prepare for crucial research on international space station". India Today NE. 2024-02-11. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
  7. ^ Sturm, Karin (20 November 2023). "Stars aligning for Boeing crew launch in April". NASASpaceFlight.com. Archived from the original on 27 December 2023. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g "Boeing's 1st Starliner astronaut launch delayed again, to May 6". Space.com. 4 April 2024. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  9. ^ Donaldson, Abbey A. (8 July 2024). "NASA, Boeing Provide Next Update on Space Station Crew Flight Test". NASA. Retrieved 2024-08-30.
  10. ^ Taveau, Jessica (2024-08-24). "NASA Decides to Bring Starliner Spacecraft Back to Earth Without Crew". NASA. Retrieved 2024-08-24.
  11. ^ Garcia, Author Mark (2024-09-04). "Crew Studies Space Effects on Humans, Prepares Spaceships for Departure". blogs.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2024-09-05. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  12. ^ "Launch Schedule – Spaceflight Now". Retrieved 2023-02-23.
  13. ^ "Microgravity Research Flights". Glenn Research Center. NASA. 10 November 2020. Archived from the original on 18 July 2023. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  14. ^ Dunbar, Brian (December 22, 2019). "Starliner Returns to Earth With a New Name: Calypso". NASA.
  15. ^ Garcia, Author Mark (2024-09-04). "Crew Studies Space Effects on Humans, Prepares Spaceships for Departure". blogs.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2024-09-05. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)