Visiting expeditions to the International Space Station are teams of one to three astronauts who visit the ISS by Soyuz on short duration expeditions. EP-N is a term used by RKK Energia, meaning both "Visiting Crew" as "Visiting Expedition".
Humans have been on the ISS on a temporary basis since December 1998 and on a permanent basis since November 2000. The permanent occupation of the station is carried out by core crews, who usually stay for six months. Along with this, space shuttles have also been to the ISS during the construction of the station.
Three-seat, single-use Soyuz serve as lifeboats on the ISS, changing every six months. If transporting the core members does not fully occupy the Soyuz, the ships end up being crewed by astronauts returning after a week or ten days on the space shuttle (usually representatives of space agencies other than Russia or space tourists) or by the Soyuz. These crew members are the "visiting team" and their expeditions are called "visiting expeditions" (Russian: экспедиция посещения, or ЭП). In the period 2000–2002, when crews were switched to the space shuttle, visiting expeditions ended up being three people. From 2003 to 2009, there was only one seat available on the Soyuz in addition to two main crew seats. Since 2009, the main crews have been six crew members and the Soyuz was solely used for its transportation until the Crew Dragon launch. The next short visit did not occur until September 2015, in connection with the one-year mission to the ISS, and then in 2019.
Continued international collaboration on ISS missions has been thrown into doubt by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and related sanctions on Russia.
List Dates beside "Expedition X" are from the stay at the station.
Nº Crew Image Launch (UTC) Landing (UTC) Backup Ref. 1st Visiting Expedition30 April 2001 – 6 May 20011 Talgat Musabayev Yuri Baturin Dennis Tito 28 April 200107:37:19(Soyuz TM-32)6 May 200105:41:28(Soyuz TM-31) Viktor Afanasyev Konstantin Kozeyev 2nd Visiting ExpeditionAndromeda Program23 October 2001 – 31 October 20012 Viktor Afanasyev Claudie Haigneré Konstantin Kozeyev 21 October 200108:59:34(Soyuz TM-33)31 October 200104:59:25(Soyuz TM-32) Sergei Zalyotin Nadezhda Kuzhelnaya 3rd Visiting ExpeditionMarco Polo Program27 April 2002 – 5 May 20023 Yuri Gidzenko Roberto Vittori Mark Shuttleworth25 April 200206:26:35(Soyuz TM-34)5 May 200203:51:40(Soyuz TM-33) Gennady Padalka Oleg Kononenko 4th Visiting ExpeditionOdissea Program1 November 2002 – 9 November 20024 Sergei Zalyotin Frank De Winne Yuri Lonchakov30 October 200203:11:10(Soyuz TMA-1)10 November 200200:04:20(Soyuz TM-34) Yuri Lonchakov Aleksandr Lazutkin 5th Visiting ExpeditionCervantes Program20 October 2003 – 27 October 20035 Pedro Duque18 October 200305:38:03(Soyuz TMA-3)28 October 200302:40:20(Soyuz TMA-2) André Kuipers 6th Visiting ExpeditionDelta Program21 April 2004 – 29 April 20046 André Kuipers19 April 200403:19:00(Soyuz TMA-4)30 April 200400:11:15(Soyuz TMA-3) Gerhard Thiele 7th Visiting Expedition16 October 2004 – 24 October 20047 Yuri Shargin14 October 200403:06:27(Soyuz TMA-5)24 October 200400:35:08(Soyuz TMA-4)Without backup. 8th Visiting ExpeditionEneid Program17 April 2005 – 24 April 20058 Roberto Vittori15 April 200500:46:25(Soyuz TMA-6)24 April 200522:08:27(Soyuz TMA-5) Robert Thirsk 9th Visiting Expedition3 October 2005 – 10 October 20059 Gregory Olsen1 October 200503:54:53(Soyuz TMA-7)11 October 200501:09:47(Soyuz TMA-6) 10th Visiting ExpeditionMissão Centenário1 April 2006 – 8 April 200610 Marcos Pontes30 March 200602:30:20(Soyuz TMA-8)8 April 200623:47:12(Soyuz TMA-7) Sergey VolkovVisiting astronaut 11th Visiting Expedition20 September 2006 – 29 September 200611 Anousheh Ansari19 September 200604:08:42(Soyuz TMA-9)29 September 200601:13:37(Soyuz TMA-8)Without backup. 12th Visiting Expedition9 April 2007 – 21 April 200712 Charles Simonyi7 April 200717:31:14(Soyuz TMA-10)21 April 200712:31:04(Soyuz TMA-9)Without backup. 13th Visiting Expedition12 October 2007 – 21 October 200713 Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor10 October 200713:22:38(Soyuz TMA-11)21 October 200710:35:49(Soyuz TMA-10) Faiz KhaleedVisiting astronaut 14th Visiting ExpeditionKorean Astronaut Program10 April 2008 – 19 April 200814 Yi So-yeon8 April 200811:16:38(Soyuz TMA-12)19 April 200808:29:43(Soyuz TMA-11) Ko SanVisiting astronaut 15th Visiting ExpeditionGeneration II Astronaut14 October 2008 – 24 October 200815 Richard Garriott12 October 200807:01:33(Soyuz TMA-13)24 October 200803:36:49(Soyuz TMA-12) Nik Halik 16th Visiting Expedition28 March 2009 – 8 April 200916 Charles Simonyi26 March 200911:49:18(Soyuz TMA-14)8 April 200907:15:09(Soyuz TMA-13) Esther Dyson 17th Visiting ExpeditionPoetic Social Mission2 October 2009 – 11 October 200917 Guy Laliberté30 September 200907:14:44(Soyuz TMA-16)11 October 200904:31:43(Soyuz TMA-14) Barbara Barrett 18th Visiting Expedition4 September 2015 – 19 September 201518 Andreas Mogensen Aidyn Aimbetov2 September 201504:37:43(Soyuz TMA-18M)12 September 201500:51:30(Soyuz TMA-16M) Thomas Pesquet Sergey Prokopyev 19th Visiting ExpeditionUAE Astronaut Mission 125 September 2019 – 3 October 201919 Hazza Al Mansouri25 September 201913:57:42(Soyuz MS-15)3 October 201910:59:21(Soyuz MS-12) Sultan Al NeyadiVisiting astronaut Visiting ExpeditionVyzov5 October 2021 – 17 October 2021– Klim Shipenko Yulia Peresild5 October 202108:55:02(Soyuz MS-19)17 October 202104:35:42(Soyuz MS-18) Aleksei Dudin Alyona MordovinaSpaceflight participants 20th Visiting Expedition8 December 2021 – 20 December 202120 Aleksandr Misurkin Yusaku Maezawa Yozo Hirano 8 December 202107:38:15(Soyuz MS-20) 20 December 202103:13:18(Soyuz MS-20) Alexandr Skvortsov Shun Ogiso 21st Visiting Expedition23 March 2024 – 6 April 202421 Oleg Novitsky Maryna Vasileuskaya 23 March 202412:36:10(Soyuz MS-25) 6 April 202407:17:47(Soyuz MS-24) Ivan Vagner Anastasia Lenkova
Cancelled Expeditions canceled due to the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Crew Launch Duration Backup Ref. 5th Visiting Expedition Gennady Padalka Pedro Duque28 April 2003(Soyuz TMA-2A)10 days Sergei Krikalev Oleg Kotov 6th Visiting Expedition Sergei Krikalev André Kuipers18 October 2003(Soyuz TMA-3A)10 days Yury Onufriyenko Oleg Skripochka
See also Space tourism Spaceflight participant List of human spaceflights List of ESA space expeditions List of International Space Station expeditions
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