Expedition 31 was the 31st long-duration expedition to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

(ISS). It began on 27 April 2012 with the departure from the ISS of the

Soyuz TMA-22 Soyuz TMA-22 was a crewed spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS). TMA-22 was the 111th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, and transported three members of the Expedition 29 crew to the ISS. The spacecraft docked to the ISS on 16 Novembe ...

spacecraft, which returned the

Expedition 30 Expedition 30 was the 30th long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The expedition's first three crew members – Dan Burbank, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoli Ivanishin – arrived on the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-22 on 16 ...

crew to Earth. The expedition ended on 1 July 2012, when crew members Oleg Kononenko,

André Kuipers André Kuipers (; born 5 October 1958) is a Dutch physician and ESA astronaut. He became the second Dutch citizen, third Dutch-born and fifth Dutch-speaking astronaut upon launch of Soyuz TMA-4 on 19 April 2004. Kuipers returned to Earth abo ...

and

Don Pettit Donald Roy Pettit (born April 20, 1955) is an American astronaut and chemical engineer. He is a veteran of two long-duration stays aboard the International Space Station, one Space Shuttle mission and a six-week expedition to find meteorites in An ...

departed from the ISS aboard

Soyuz TMA-03M Soyuz TMA-03M was a spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS). It launched on 21 December 2011 from Site One at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, carrying three members of Expedition 30 to the ISS. TMA-03M was the 112th flight of ...

, marking the beginning of

Expedition 32 Expedition 32 was the 32nd long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). It began on 1 July 2012 with the departure from the ISS of the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft, which returned the Expedition 31 crew to Earth, and conclude ...

Crew

;Source: NASAESA astronaut André Kuipers to spend six months on the ISS starting in 2011
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Mission highlights

Soyuz TMA-22 departure

Expedition 31 formally began on 27 April 2012, with the departure from the ISS of the

spacecraft. Soyuz TMA-22 successfully returned

astronauts

Dan Burbank Daniel Christopher Burbank (born July 27, 1961) is a retired American astronaut and a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions. Burbank, a Captain in the United States Coast Guard, is the second Coast Guard astronaut after Bruce Melnick. Early ...

Anton Shkaplerov Anton Nikolaevich Shkaplerov (russian: Антон Николаевич Шкаплеров; born 20 February 1972) is a Russian cosmonaut. He is a veteran of four spaceflights. Personal life Shkaplerov is married to Tatyana Petrovna, and they ...

and

Anatoli Ivanishin Anatoli Alekseyevich Ivanishin (russian: link=no, Анатолий Алексеевич Иванишин; born 15 January 1969) is a former Russian cosmonaut. His first visit to space was to the International Space Station on board the Soyuz TM ...

to Earth. The ISS was left under the command of astronauts Kononenko, Kuipers and Pettit, who had arrived at the station aboard

on 23 December 2011.

Soyuz TMA-04M arrival

The final three members of Expedition 31 – Acaba, Padalka and Revin – arrived at the ISS aboard

Soyuz TMA-04M Soyuz TMA-04M was a spaceflight to Low Earth orbit that transported three members of the Expedition 31 crew to the International Space Station (ISS), which was launched on 15 May 2012 and landed on 17 September 2012. TMA-04M was the Soyuz spacec ...

, which launched on 15 May 2012, and docked to the ISS on 17 May at 4:36 UTC.

SpaceX Dragon test mission

SpaceX's unmanned

Dragon spacecraft American private space transportation company SpaceX has developed and produced several spacecraft named Dragon. The first family member, now referred to as Dragon 1, flew 23 cargo missions to the ISS between 2010 and 2020 before being retired ...

conducted a test rendezvous with the ISS during Expedition 31, as part of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) was a NASA program to coordinate the development of vehicles for the delivery of crew and cargo to the International Space Station by private companies. The program was announced on January 18, 200 ...

program; it was the first commercial spacecraft to rendezvous with the ISS. Following a series of delays, Dragon launched on 22 May 2012, and berthed successfully with the ISS on 25 May, after conducting a series of orbital test manoeuvres. Dragon carried around of cargo to the ISS, including food, clothing, a

laptop computer A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...

and 15 student experiments. After being loaded with of

downmass Space logistics is "the theory and practice of driving space system design for operability and supportability, and of managing the flow of materiel, services, and information needed throughout a space system lifecycle." It includes terrestrial lo ...

cargo, including completed experiments and redundant equipment, it undocked from the station and returned to Earth on 31 May 2012. Dragon landed intact in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

and was successfully recovered, allowing SpaceX to begin regular cargo flights to the ISS. The first such logistics mission, CRS SpX-1, launched successfully in October 2012.

Soyuz TMA-03M departure

Soyuz TMA-03M departed from the ISS on 1 July 2012, successfully returning Kononenko, Kuipers and Pettit to Earth. Their departure marked the formal end of Expedition 31, and the beginning of

In popular culture

In the 2012 ''

The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on C ...

'' episode " The Friendship Contraction", character

Howard Wolowitz Howard Joel Wolowitz, M.Eng. is a fictional character on the CBS television series ''The Big Bang Theory'', portrayed by actor Simon Helberg. Among the four main male characters in the show, Howard is distinctive for being an engineer—rather ...

revealed that he would be a member of a fictionalized Expedition 31.

Gallery

File:Soyuz TMA-22 departs from the ISS.jpg, Soyuz TMA-22 departs the ISS on 27 April 2012, marking the beginning of Expedition 31. File:Expedition 31 Orthodox blessing.jpg, An

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

priest blesses the Soyuz rocket on 14 May 2012. File:Expedition 31 crew wave goodbye.jpg, The Expedition 31 crew wave goodbye before the launch on 15 May 2012. File:Expedition 31 launch.jpg, The launch of Soyuz TMA-04M on 15 May 2012. File:COTS2Dragon.2..jpg, SpaceX's unmanned Dragon spacecraft approaches the ISS on 25 May 2012. File:ISS crew inside Dragon C2.jpg, Expedition 31 posing inside the docked Dragon capsule on 29 May 2012.

References

External links

NASA's Space Station Expeditions pageEnd of Expedition 30/Beginning of Expedition 31 videoExpedition 30/31 - Change of Command Ceremony videoEnd of Expedition 31/Beginning of Expedition 32 videoExpedition 31/32 - Change of Command Ceremony video
{{Use British English, date=August 2010 Expeditions to the International Space Station 2012 in spaceflight