Expedition 31

Occurred 11 years ago

The Expedition 30 and 31 crews explored the space-caused changes of blood vessels and bone structure to sustain astronaut health during long-duration space missions. A space investigation wrapped up that monitored over 1,000 X-ray sources in outer space. A fire investigation observed how fuels burn and extinguish in microgravity advancing fire detection and suppression techniques.

Mission Type

ISS Expedition

meet the crew

Oleg Kononenko, Sergey Revin, Gennady Padalka, Joe Acaba, André Kuipers, Don Pettit

Launch

Dec. 21, 2011

Landing

July 1, 2012

Expedition 31 Official Crew Portrait — Expedition 31 crew members take a break from training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to pose for a crew portrait. Pictured on the front row are Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (right), commander; and Gennady Padalka, flight engineer. Pictured from the left (back row) are NASA astronaut Joe Acaba, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Revin, European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers and NASA astronaut Don Pettit, all flight engineers.
NASA

Expedition 31 Official Crew Insignia — The official insignia of the Expedition 31 mission aboard the International Space Station.
NASA

Crew Members

Oleg Kononenko, Commander
Sergei Revin, Flight Engineer
Gennady Padalka, Flight Engineer
Joe Acaba, Flight Engineer
André Kuipers, Flight Engineer
Don Pettit, Flight Engineer

Crew and Cargo Missions

7/1/12 – Expedition 30/31 Land
5/31/12 – SpaceX Demo Flight Splashdown
5/25/12 – SpaceX Demo Flight Capture
5/22/12 – SpaceX Demo Flight Launch
5/17/12 – Expedition 31/32 Dock
5/14/12 – Expedition 31/32 Launch

Expedition 31 Resources

Earth's Moon, Venus, Jupiter and the crescent of Earth at the top.

Expedition Press Kit

Get an overview of the Expedition, its crew and the activities they are working on during this mission to the International Space Station.

The Solid Fuel Ignition and Extinction (SoFIE) Growth and Extinction Limits (GEL) experiment aboard the International Space Station (ISS) studies flame growth and extinction in an effort to improve fire safety in space. This image shows a sequence of snapshots taken about 3 seconds apart. During this test point, the ambient oxygen concentration starts relatively high (28%). Initially, the flame is seen as yellow and sooty. As the ambient pressure is reduced, the flame becomes bluer and continues to shrink until fully extinguished. This gives researchers pressure limit data points for flame extinction that could help improve crew and spacecraft safety for future exploration missions.

Mission Science

Explore hands-on activities, interactive, lesson plans, educator guides, and other downloadable content about this topic.

One of the Expedition 41 crew members aboard the International Space Station, flying at an altitude of 222 nautical miles above a point in the Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles off the coast of Africa near the Tropic of Cancer, photographed this eye-catching panorama of the night sky and the Milky Way on Sept. 27. NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, flight engineer, tweeted the image, which was taken with an electronic still camera, set with a 24mm focal length. In his accompanying comments, Wiseman stated, "Sahara sands make the Earth glow orange."

Mission Imagery

During Expedition 31, the crew took images of the Earth views, the orbiting station, their daily lives aboard and the experiments they conducted during their stay, plus so much more. Check out some of the image highlights from Expedition 31 in the gallery.