Expedition 73

Active Mission

Expedition 73 began on April 19, 2025, and ends in November. The crew welcomed the Axiom Mission-4 crew and will soon welcome the SpaceX Crew-11 mission while continuing to conduct advanced space research.

Mission Type

Humans in Space

meet the crew

Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Kirill Peskov, Jonny Kim, Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritsky, Takuya Onishi

start

April 19, 2025

Landing

November 2025

Crew Members

Anne McClain, Flight Engineer
Nichole Ayers, Flight Engineer
Kirill Peskov, Flight Engineer
Jonny Kim, Flight Engineer
Sergey Ryzhikov, Flight Engineer
Alexey Zubritsky, Flight Engineer
Takuya Onishi, Commander

Crew and Cargo Missions

7/15/2025 – Axiom Mission 4 Splashdown
7/14/2025 – Axiom Mission 4 Undock
7/5/2025 – Progress 92 Dock
7/3/2025 – Progress 92 Launch
7/1/2025 – Progress 90 Undock
6/26/2025 – Axiom Mission 4 Dock
6/25/2025 – Axiom Mission 4 Launch
5/23/2025 – SpaceX CRS-32 Undock
4/22/2025 – SpaceX CRS-32 Dock
4/21/2025 – SpaceX CRS-32 Launch
4/19/2025 – Soyuz MS-26 Land
4/19/2025 – Soyuz MS-26 Undock

Spacewalks

Date: May 1, 2025
Duration: 6 hours, 35 minutes
Spacewalkers: Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers

Expedition 73 Image Gallery

255 Images

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The official portrait of the International Space Station's seven-member Expedition 73 crew from three different space agencies. Seated in the front...

The official insignia of the Expedition 73 crew on the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Nichole Ayers is pictured during a spacewalk to upgrade the orbital outpost's power generation sys...

NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Anne McClain is pictured near one of the International Space Station's main solar arrays during a ...

(From left) Astronauts Jonny Kim of NASA and Takuya Onishi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Expedition 73 Flight Engineer and Commande...

The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft, with its nosecone open, approaches the International Space Station for an automated docking to the Harmony module's ...

The Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft is pictured backing away from the International Space Station shortly after undocking from the Rassvet module. The Soyuz...

JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut and Expedition 73 Commander Takuya Onishi inspects science hardware inside the Kibo laboratory ...

NASA astronauts Anne McClain (bottom) and Nichole Ayers (top), both Expedition 73 Flight Engineers, checkout spacesuit hardware in the Quest airloc...

NASA astronaut and Expedition 73 Flight Engineer Nichole Ayers prepares mixture tubes containing research samples for the Nanoracks Module-9 series...

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Expedition 73 Resources

Mission Blogs

The daily blog updates for Expedition 73 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 73 crew is conducting.

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 73 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 73 gallery.