Expedition 56 was the 56th expedition to the
International Space Station, which began on June 3, 2018, upon the departure of
Soyuz MS-07.
Andrew Feustel
Andrew Jay "Drew" Feustel (; born August 25, 1965) is an American/Canadian NASA astronaut and geophysicist. Following several years working as a geophysicist, Feustel was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in July 2000. He is the veteran ...
,
Oleg Artemyev, and
Richard R. Arnold were transferred from Expedition 55, with Andrew Feustel taking the commander role.
Alexander Gerst
Alexander Gerst (born 3 May 1976 in Künzelsau, Baden-Württemberg) is a German European Space Agency astronaut and geophysicist, who was selected in 2009 to take part in space training. He was part of the International Space Station Expeditio ...
,
Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, and
Sergey Prokopyev launched aboard
Soyuz MS-09, on June 6, 2018.
Expedition 56 ended with the departure of
Soyuz MS-08 on October 4, 2018.
Crew
Originally NASA Astronaut
Jeanette Epps was assigned as flight engineer for Expeditions 56 and 57, becoming the first African American space station crew member
and the 15th African American to fly in space, but on January 16, 2018, NASA announced that Epps had been replaced by her backup
Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor with no announced explanation as to why.
Spacewalks
*denotes spacewalks performed from the ''Pirs'' docking compartment in Russian Orlan suits.All other spacewalks were performed from the ''Quest'' airlock.
Uncrewed spaceflights to the ISS
Resupply missions that visited the International Space Station during Expedition 56:
Leak
On August 29, 2018, a small leak was detected through a drop in air pressure by the flight controllers. After learning about the leak upon waking up, the astronauts discovered a 2 mm hole in the
orbital module of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft. The hole was initially repaired with tape, followed by a permanent repair with gauze and epoxy.
References
{{ISS expeditions
Expeditions to the International Space Station
2018 in spaceflight