Expedition 72

Mission Type

Humans in Space

meet the crew

Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, Don Pettit, Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Takuya Onishi, Kirill Peskov

start

Sep. 23, 2024

Landing

April 19, 2025

Crew Members

Alexey Ovchinin, Commander
Ivan Vagner, Flight Engineer
Don Pettit, Flight Engineer
Anne McClain, Flight Engineer
Nichole Ayers, Flight Engineer
Takuya Onishi, Flight Engineer
Kirill Peskov, 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

613 Images

Go To Gallery

The official insignia of the Expedition 72 crew that will live and work aboard the International Space Station for a six-month space research missi...

The NICER X-ray telescope is reflected on NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Nick Hague's spacesuit helmet visor in this high-flying ...

NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Suni Williams peers at the Earth below from inside the International Space Station's cupola. The o...

The four SpaceX Crew-9 members are suited up in their Dragon pressure suits testing them for a fit check one week before their departure aboard the...

The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft, with its nose cone open, is pictured shortly after undocking from the International Space Station's space-fac...

NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Nichole Ayers inserts a cryogenic storage unit, called a dewar, containing blood samples collected...

Hurricane Milton, a Category 5 storm at the time of this photograph, is pictured in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Yucatan Peninsula from the ...

Roscosmos cosmonaut and Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin is maneuvered using the European robotic arm during a seven-hour and 17-minut...

Go To Gallery

Expedition 72 Resources

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.

The mission insignia for the SpaceX Crew-8 mission

SpaceX Crew-8 Science

The SpaceX Crew-8 members explored the causes of neurodegenerative disorders, protecting plants from space radiation, space-caused changes in eye structure and vision, and more.

SpaceX Crew-9 Science

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

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 71 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 71 gallery.