Expedition 72

Mission Type

Humans in Space

meet the crew

Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, NIck Hague, Don Pettit, Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, Aleksandr Gorbunov

start

Sep. 23, 2024

Landing

April 19, 2025

The official portrait of the International Space Station’s Expedition 72 crew. At the top (from left) are, Roscosmos cosmonaut and Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin, NASA astronaut and space station Commander Suni Williams, and NASA astronaut and Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore. In the middle row are, Roscosmos cosmonaut and Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut and Flight Engineer Don Pettit. In the bottom row are, Roscosmos cosmonaut and Flight Engineer Aleksandr Gorbunov and NASA astronaut and Flight Engineer Nick Hague.

NASA/Bill Stafford/Robert Markowitz

Crew Members

Suni Williams, Commander
Butch Wilmore, Flight Engineer
Nick Hague, Flight Engineer
Don Pettit, Flight Engineer
Alexey Ovchinin, Flight Engineer
Ivan Vagner, Flight Engineer
Aleksandr Gorbunov, Flight Engineer

Crew and Cargo Missions

4/19/2025 – Soyuz MS-26 Undock
4/8/2025 – Soyuz MS-27 Dock
4/8/2025 – Soyuz MS-27 Launch
3/28/2025 – Cygnus NG-21 Release
3/18/2025 – SpaceX Crew-9 Splashdown
3/18/2025 – SpaceX Crew-9 Undock
3/15/2025 – SpaceX Crew-10 Dock
3/14/2025 – SpaceX Crew-10 Launch
3/1/2025 – Progress 91 Dock
2/27/2025 – Progress 91 Launch
2/25/2025 – Progress 89 Undock
12/16/2024 – SpaceX CRS-31 Undock
11/23/2024 – Progress 90 Dock
11/21/2024 – Progress 90 Launch
11/19/2024 – Progress 88 Undock
11/5/2024 – SpaceX CRS-31 Dock
11/4/2024 – SpaceX CRS-31 Launch
11/3/2024 – SpaceX Crew-9 Relocation
10/25/2024 – SpaceX Crew-8 Splashdown
10/23/2024 – SpaceX Crew-8 Undock
9/29/2024 – SpaceX Crew-9 Dock
9/28/2024 – SpaceX Crew-9 Launch
9/23/2024 – Soyuz MS-25 Land
9/23/2024 – Soyuz MS-25 Undock

Spacewalks

Date: Jan. 30, 2025
Duration: 5 hours, 26 minutes
Spacewalkers: Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore

Date: Jan. 16, 2025
Duration: 6 hours
Spacewalkers: Nick Hague, Suni Williams

Date: Dec. 19, 2024
Duration: 7 hours, 17 minutes
Spacewalkers: Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner

Expedition 72 Image Gallery

615 Images

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Expedition 72 Resources

The official insignia of the Expedition 72 crew that will live and work aboard the International Space Station for a six-month space research mission beginning in late 2024. The simple patch design highlights the configuration of the orbital laboratory with its six roll-out solar arrays augmenting the station's power generation system.

Mission Blogs

The daily blog updates for Expedition 72 highlighting crew and cargo missions, spacewalks, and advanced space research.

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

Learn more about the range of advanced space research, technology demonstrations, and more the Expedition 72 crew is conducting.

SpaceX Crew-9 Science

The SpaceX Crew-9 members will investigate blood cell development in space, X-rays emitted by neutron stars, taking a vitamin supplement to improve vision, space agriculture, and more.

The SpaceX Crew-10 patch was thoughtfully designed by the four-person crew. They used AI for initial inspiration, while the ever-irreplaceable human perfected the design and brought the patch to fruition. It is a 10-sided patch with the roman numeral X boldly in the center, representing the 10th operational flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The Dragon, also the capsule’s namesake, is wings out in full flight, representing the four professional pilots that make up the crew complement. The Dragon, illuminated by one of Earth’s stunning and beautiful sunrises, is focused on the ISS and its mission, while keeping a watchful position above Earth. The stars are red, white, and blue for the flag colors of each crew members’ home country, and the brightest stars represent the crew’s closest family members and support system.

SpaceX Crew-10 Science

The SpaceX Crew-10 members are studying how microgravity affects production of protein by microalgae, testing a microscope to capture microbial activity, and studying genetic activity in biofilms.

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

The Expedition 72 crew is taking images of the Earth, the orbiting station, their daily lives aboard, and the experiments they conduct during their stay, plus so much more. Check out some of the images in the Expedition 72 gallery.