Expedition 56 was the 56th expedition to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

, which began on June 3, 2018, upon the departure of Soyuz MS-07. Andrew Feustel,

Oleg Artemyev Oleg Germanovich Artemyev (; born December 28, 1970) is a Russian people, Russian Astronaut, Cosmonaut for the Russian Federal Space Agency. He was selected as part of the RKKE-15 Cosmonaut group in 2003. He was a flight engineer of Expedition 39 ...

, and

Richard R. Arnold Richard Robert "Ricky" Arnold II (born November 26, 1963, in Cheverly, Maryland) is an American educator and a NASA astronaut. He flew on Space Shuttle mission STS-119, which launched March 15, 2009, and delivered the final set of solar arrays ...

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 Serena may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Serena (genre), a 13th-century Occitan poetic genre * ''Serena'' (1962 film), a British crime thriller * ''Serena'' (2014 film), an American drama film starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper ...

, and Sergey Prokopyev launched aboard

Soyuz MS-09 Soyuz MS-09 was a Soyuz (spacecraft), Soyuz spaceflight that launched on 6 June 2018. It transported three members of the Expedition 56/Expedition 57, 57 crew to the International Space Station (ISS). is the 138th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. ...

, on June 6, 2018. Expedition 56 ended with the departure of

Soyuz MS-08 Soyuz MS-08 was a Soyuz spaceflight that launched on 21 March 2018. It transported three members of the Expedition 55 crew to the International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembl ...

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crew member and the 15th African American to fly in space, but on January 16, 2018, NASA announced that Epps had been replaced by her backup

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 The orbital module is a compartment of some space capsules used only in orbit. It is separated from the crewed reentry capsule before reentry. The orbital module provides 'habitat' space to use in orbit, while the reentry capsule tends to be focus ...

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