Expedition 56

The Expedition 56 crew demonstrated sequencing microbial DNA to protect humans in space. The crew also installed the Cold Atom Lab to observe quantum and atomic processes and tested a handheld sextant as an alternate method of space navigation.

Mission Type

ISS Expedition

meet the crew

Oleg Artemyev, Drew Feustel, Ricky Arnold, Sergey Prokopyev, Alexander Gerst, Serena Auñon-Chancellor

Launch

March 21, 2018

Landing

Oct. 4, 2018

iss056-s-002 (March 8, 2018) — The official portrait of the Expedition 56 crew. In the front row from left are astronauts Drew Feustel of NASA and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency. In the rear from left are crew members Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos, Ricky Arnold of NASA, Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos and Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA.
NASA

The official insignia of the Expedition 56 mission aboard the International Space Station.
NASA

Crew Members

Oleg Artemyev, Commander
Drew Feustel, Flight Engineer
Ricky Arnold, Flight Engineer
Sergey Prokopyev, Flight Engineer
Alexander Gerst, Flight Engineer
Serena Auñón-Chancellor, Flight Engineer

Crew and Cargo Missions

10/4/18 – Exp 55/56 Undock/Land
9/27/18 – HTV-7 Kounotori Capture
9/22/18 – HTV-7 Kounotori Launch
8/22/18 – ISS Progress 69 Undock
8/3/18 – SpaceX CRS-15 Release
7/15/18 – Cygnus CRS-9 Release
7/9/18 – ISS Progress 70 Launch/Dock
7/2/18 – SpaceX CRS-15 Capture
6/29/18 – SpaceX CRS-15 Launch
6/8/18 – Exp 56/57 Dock
6/6/18 – Exp 56/57 Launch

Spacewalks

Date: Aug. 15, 2018
Duration: 7 hours, 46 minutes
Spacewalkers: Oleg Artemyev, Sergey Prokopyev

Date: June 14, 2018
Duration: 6 hours, 49 minutes
Spacewalkers: Drew Feustel, Ricky Arnold

Expedition 56 Resources

Mission Blogs

The daily blog updates for Expedition 56 highlighting crew and cargo missions, spacewalks, and advanced space research.

The sun's first rays burst over the Earth's horizon

Mission Summary

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 56, 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 56 in the gallery.