 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 | |
Expedition 56 was the 56th expedition to theInternational Space Station, which began on June 3, 2018, upon the departure ofSoyuz MS-07.Andrew Feustel,Oleg Artemyev, andRichard R. Arnold were transferred from Expedition 55, with Andrew Feustel taking the commander role.Alexander Gerst,Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, andSergey Prokopyev launched aboardSoyuz MS-09, on June 6, 2018.[1][2] Expedition 56 ended with the departure ofSoyuz MS-08 on October 4, 2018.
| Position | First part (June 3 – 6, 2018) | Second part (June 6 – October 4, 2018) |
|---|---|---|
| Commander |  Andrew Feustel,NASAThird spaceflight[3] | |
| Flight Engineer 1 |  Oleg Artemyev,RSASecond spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 2 | Richard R. Arnold,NASA Second spaceflight[4] | |
| Flight Engineer 3 | Sergey Prokopyev,RSA First spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 4 |  Alexander Gerst,ESASecond spaceflight[5] | |
| Flight Engineer 5 | Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor,NASA First spaceflight[6] | |
Originally NASA AstronautJeanette 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crew member[7] and the 15th African American to fly in space, but on January 16, 2018, NASA announced that Epps had been replaced by her backupSerena M. Auñón-Chancellor with no announced explanation as to why.[8][9]
| EVA # | Spacewalkers | Start (UTC) | End (UTC) | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expedition 56 EVA 1 | Andrew J. Feustel | June 14, 2018, 12:06 | June 14, 2018, 18:55 | 6 hours 49 minutes |
| Feustel and Arnold installed new high-definition cameras nearIDA 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 theSpaceX Crew Dragon andBoeing 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 filmNASA TV and closed an aperture door on theCATS experiment outside the JapaneseKibo module in preparation for disposal onSpaceX 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 beatJerry Ross, hisSTS 125 crewmateDr. John Grunsfeld,Fyoder Yurchikhin, andPeggy Whitson to become third on the list of all time space walkers.[10] | ||||
| Expedition 56 EVA 2* | Oleg Artemyev | August 15, 2018, 16:17 | August 15, 2018, 00:03 | 7 hours 46 minutes |
| 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 thePirs docking compartment andPoisk module[11] | ||||
*denotes spacewalks performed from thePirs docking compartment in RussianOrlan suits.
All other spacewalks were performed from theQuest airlock.
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 |
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 theorbital 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]
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