Expedition 56

Expedition 56
	Promotional Poster
Mission type	Long-duration expedition
Mission duration	124d 13h 30m (Change Of Command to Soyuz MS-08 Undocking); 122d 22h 41m (Official)
Expedition
Space station	International Space Station
Began	June 1, 2018 (Change of Command); June 3, 2018 (Official) UTC
Ended	October 4, 2018, UTC
Arrived aboard	Soyuz MS-08; Soyuz MS-09
Departed aboard	Soyuz MS-08; Soyuz MS-09
Crew
Crew size	6
Members	Expedition 55/56:; Andrew Feustel ; Oleg Artemyev ; Richard R. Arnold; Expedition 56/57:; Alexander Gerst; Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor; Sergey Prokopyev
EVAs	2
	; Expedition 56 mission patch; ; (l-r) Artemyev, Feustel, Arnold, Prokopyev, Gerst, and Auñón-Chancellor ISS expeditions ← Expedition 55 Expedition 57 →

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, Oleg Artemyev, and Richard R. Arnold were transferred from Expedition 55, with Andrew Feustel taking the commander role. Alexander Gerst, Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, and Sergey Prokopyev launched aboard Soyuz MS-09, on June 6, 2018.^[1]^[2] Expedition 56 ended with the departure of Soyuz MS-08 on October 4, 2018.

Crew

Position	First part (June 3 – 6, 2018)	Second part (June 6 – October 4, 2018)
Commander	Andrew Feustel, NASA Third spaceflight^[3]
Flight Engineer 1	Oleg Artemyev, RSA Second spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2	Richard R. Arnold, NASA Second spaceflight^[4]
Flight Engineer 3		Sergey Prokopyev, RSA First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 4		Alexander Gerst, ESA Second spaceflight^[5]
Flight Engineer 5		Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, NASA First spaceflight^[6]

Originally NASA Astronaut Jeanette Epps was assigned as flight engineer for Expeditions 56 and 57, becoming the first African American space station crew member^[7] and the 15th African American to fly in space, but on January 16, 2018, NASA announced that Epps had been replaced by her backup Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor with no announced explanation as to why.^[8]^[9]

Spacewalks

EVA #	Spacewalkers	Start (UTC)	End (UTC)	Duration
Expedition 56 EVA 1	Andrew J. Feustel Richard R. Arnold	June 14, 2018, 12:06	June 14, 2018, 18:55	6 hours 49 minutes
Expedition 56 EVA 1	Feustel and Arnold installed new high-definition cameras near IDA 2 mated to the front end of the station's Harmony module. The additions will provide enhanced views during the final phase of approach and docking of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing CST 100 Starliner commercial crew spacecraft that will soon begin launching from American soil. The astronauts also swapped out a camera assembly on the starboard truss of the station used to film NASA TV and closed an aperture door on the CATS experiment outside the Japanese Kibo module in preparation for disposal on SpaceX CRS 15 and replacement by its successor, ECOSTRESS. Get aheads involved relocating an adjustable grapple bar to the S1 Truss and securing the Flex Hose Rotary Coupler in preparation for replacement on the next spacewalk. During the spacewalk Feustel beat Jerry Ross, his STS 125 crewmate Dr. John Grunsfeld, Fyoder Yurchikhin, and Peggy Whitson to become third on the list of all time space walkers.^[10]
Expedition 56 EVA 2*	Oleg Artemyev Sergey Prokopyev	August 15, 2018, 16:17	August 15, 2018, 00:03	7 hours 46 minutes
Expedition 56 EVA 2*	The cosmonauts launched four cubesats and installed the Icarus experiment. Spacewalk fell behind schedule when Icarus failed to seat properly putting the spacewalk 90 minutes behind schedule and calling for an hour extension. The cosmonauts finished the spacewalk by retrieving experiments from the Pirs docking compartment and Poisk module^[11]

*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:

Spacecraft - ISS flight number	Country	Mission	Launcher	Launch (UTC)	Docked/Berthed (UTC) ^†	Undocked/Unberthed (UTC)	Duration (Docked)	Deorbit
SpaceX CRS-15 - CRS SpX-15	United States	Logistics	Falcon 9	June 29, 2018, 09:42	July 2, 2018, 13:50	August 3, 2018, 16:38	32d 2h 48m	August 3, 2018, 22:17
Progress MS-09 - ISS 70P	Russia	Logistics	Soyuz-2.1a	July 9, 2018, 21:51:34	July 10, 2018, 01:30:48	January 25, 2019, 12:55	199d 11h 24m	January 25, 2019, 16:50
Kounotori 7 - HTV-7	Japan	Logistics	H-IIB	September 22, 2018, 17:52:27	September 27, 2018, 14:09	November 6, 2018, 23:32	40d 9h 23m	November 10, 2018, 21:14

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.^[12]^[13]

References

^ "Future Expeditions". NASA. March 8, 2018. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
^ "Expedition 55 Mission Summary" (PDF). NASA. 2018. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
^ "Andrew J. Feustel (PH.D.) NASA Astronaut". NASA. August 3, 2017. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
^ "Richard R. Arnold II NASA Astronaut". NASA. March 6, 2018. Archived from the original on April 16, 2019. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
^ "Alexander Gerst". ESA. February 9, 2018. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
^ "Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor (M.D.) NASA Astronaut". NASA. August 3, 2017. Archived from the original on July 3, 2017. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
^ Karen Northon (January 4, 2017). "NASA Assigns Upcoming Space Station Crew Members". NASA press release 17-001. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
^ Karen Northon (January 18, 2018). "NASA Announces Updated Crew Assignments for Space Station Missions". NASA press release 18-004. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
^ "NASA removes astronaut Jeanette Epps, Syracuse high school grad, from flight crew". syracuse.com. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
^ Garcia, Mark (June 14, 2018). "Spacewalkers Complete HD Camera Installation Work". NASA.
^ Richardson, Derek (August 16, 2018). "Russian spacewalk runs into overtime during 'Icarus' experiment installation". Orbital Velocity.
^ Garcia, Mark (August 30, 2018). "International Space Station Status". Blogs. NASA. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
^ Foust, Jeff (August 30, 2018). "ISS leak highlights concerns about orbital debris and station operations". SpaceNews. Retrieved October 24, 2018.

[futreexp-1] "Future Expeditions". NASA. March 8, 2018. Retrieved March 12, 2018.

[exp55-2] "Expedition 55 Mission Summary" (PDF). NASA. 2018. Retrieved March 12, 2018.

[feustel-3] "Andrew J. Feustel (PH.D.) NASA Astronaut". NASA. August 3, 2017. Retrieved March 12, 2018.

[arnold-4] "Richard R. Arnold II NASA Astronaut". NASA. March 6, 2018. Archived from the original on April 16, 2019. Retrieved March 12, 2018.

[gerst-5] "Alexander Gerst". ESA. February 9, 2018. Retrieved March 12, 2018.

[serena-6] "Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor (M.D.) NASA Astronaut". NASA. August 3, 2017. Archived from the original on July 3, 2017. Retrieved March 12, 2018.

[56exp-7] Karen Northon (January 4, 2017). "NASA Assigns Upcoming Space Station Crew Members". NASA press release 17-001. Retrieved January 21, 2017.

[nasa-18-004-8] Karen Northon (January 18, 2018). "NASA Announces Updated Crew Assignments for Space Station Missions". NASA press release 18-004. Retrieved January 21, 2017.

[9] "NASA removes astronaut Jeanette Epps, Syracuse high school grad, from flight crew". syracuse.com. Retrieved January 21, 2018.

[10] Garcia, Mark (June 14, 2018). "Spacewalkers Complete HD Camera Installation Work". NASA.

[11] Richardson, Derek (August 16, 2018). "Russian spacewalk runs into overtime during 'Icarus' experiment installation". Orbital Velocity.

[nasablog-12] Garcia, Mark (August 30, 2018). "International Space Station Status". Blogs. NASA. Retrieved October 24, 2018.

[spacenews-13] Foust, Jeff (August 30, 2018). "ISS leak highlights concerns about orbital debris and station operations". SpaceNews. Retrieved October 24, 2018.

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v t e Expeditions to the International Space Station
See also: Crewed ISS flights Uncrewed ISS flights
2000–2004	Expedition 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10	International Space Station Emblem
2005–2009	Expedition 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
2010–2014	Expedition 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
2015–2019	Expedition 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61
Since 2020	Expedition 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73+
Related	List of spaceflights to the ISS List of ISS visitors crew commanders visiting expeditions
Displayed and current expeditions are in underline Future expeditions in italics Category List