 Promotional Poster | |
| Mission type | Long-duration expedition |
|---|---|
| Expedition | |
| Space station | International Space Station |
| Began | 27 April 2012, 08:15 (2012-04-27UTC08:15Z) UTC[1] |
| Ended | 1 July 2012, 04:48 (2012-07-01UTC04:49Z) UTC[2] |
| Arrived aboard | Soyuz TMA-03M Soyuz TMA-04M |
| Departed aboard | Soyuz TMA-03M Soyuz TMA-04M |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 6 |
| Members | Expedition 30/31: Oleg Kononenko André Kuipers Don Pettit Expedition 31/32: Joseph M. Acaba Gennady Padalka Sergei Revin |
 Expedition 31 mission patch  (l-r) Acaba, Padalka, Revin, Kuipers, Kononenko and Pettit | |
Expedition 31 was the 31st long-durationexpedition to theInternational Space Station (ISS). It began on 27 April 2012 with the departure from the ISS of theSoyuz TMA-22 spacecraft, which returned theExpedition 30 crew to Earth.[1] The expedition ended on 1 July 2012, when crew membersOleg Kononenko,André Kuipers andDon Pettit departed from the ISS aboardSoyuz TMA-03M, marking the beginning ofExpedition 32.[2]
| Position | First part (April 2012 to May 2012) | Second part (May 2012 to July 2012) |
|---|---|---|
| Commander |  Oleg Kononenko,RSASecond spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 1 |  André Kuipers,ESASecond spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 2 |  Don Pettit,NASAThird spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 3 | Joseph M. Acaba,NASA Second spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 4 | Gennady Padalka,RSA Fourth spaceflight | |
| Flight Engineer 5 | Sergei Revin,RSA Only spaceflight | |
Expedition 31 formally began on 27 April 2012, with the departure from the ISS of theSoyuz TMA-22 spacecraft. Soyuz TMA-22 successfully returnedExpedition 30 astronautsDan Burbank,Anton Shkaplerov andAnatoli Ivanishin to Earth.[1] The ISS was left under the command of astronauts Kononenko, Kuipers and Pettit, who had arrived at the station aboardSoyuz TMA-03M on 23 December 2011.
The final three members of Expedition 31 – Acaba, Padalka and Revin – arrived at the ISS aboardSoyuz TMA-04M, which launched on 15 May 2012,[7] and docked to the ISS on 17 May at 4:36UTC.[8]
SpaceX's unmannedDragon spacecraft conducteda test rendezvous with the ISS during Expedition 31, as part ofNASA'sCommercial Orbital Transportation Services program; it was the firstcommercial spacecraft to rendezvous with the ISS. Following a series of delays,[9] Dragon launched on 22 May 2012, andberthed successfully with the ISS on 25 May, after conducting a series of orbital test manoeuvres.[10][11] Dragon carried around 460 kilograms (1,010 lb) of cargo to the ISS, including food, clothing, alaptop computer and 15 student experiments.[10] After being loaded with 660 kilograms (1,460 lb) ofdownmass cargo, including completed experiments and redundant equipment, it undocked from the station and returned to Earth on 31 May 2012.[12][13] Dragon landed intact in thePacific Ocean and was successfully recovered, allowing SpaceX to beginregular cargo flights to the ISS.[14] The first such logistics mission,CRS SpX-1, launched successfully in October 2012.[15][16]
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 ofExpedition 32.[2]
In the 2012The Big Bang Theory episode "The Friendship Contraction", characterHoward Wolowitz reveals that he will be a member of a fictionalized version of Expedition 31, alongside Dimitri Rezinov, a character created for the show, andMike Massimino, playing a fictional version of himself.[17]
This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration.
| 2000–2004 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| 2005–2009 | ||
| 2010–2014 | ||
| 2015–2019 | ||
| Since 2020 | ||
| Related | ||
