Expedition 72 was the 72nd long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). The expedition began with the departure of Soyuz MS-25 on 23 September 2024 with NASA astronaut Sunita Williams taking over the ISS command and concluded with the departure of Soyuz MS-26. It continued the extensive scientific research conducted aboard the ISS, focusing on biology, human physiology, physics, and materials science. The crew members also maintained and upgraded the space station systems.

Background, Crew, and Events The expedition consisted of Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, and Aleksandr Gorbunov, and NASA astronauts Barry E. Wilmore, Sunita Williams, Donald Pettit, and Nick Hague.

Wilmore and Williams arrived at the station on 6 June 2024 for what was expected to be a brief visit as part of the Boeing Crew Flight Test mission. However, their spacecraft experienced technical issues and returned to Earth uncrewed, and Wilmore and Williams were added to the Expedition 71/72 crew.

Ovchinin, Vagner, and Pettit arrived at the station on 11 September aboard Soyuz MS-26.

Hague and Gorbunov arrived to the station on 29 September aboard SpaceX Crew-9. The handover between Crew-9 and Crew-8 was far longer than normal. Additional time was needed to reconfigure Crew-8's Dragon capsule to remove the temporary seat structures that were added in case Wilmore and Williams needed to evacuate. The departure was further delayed due to poor weather conditions in the splashdown zones surrounding Florida caused by Hurricane Milton and several other storms. The cumulative delays caused Crew-8 to become the longest Dragon mission when it departed with NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin on 23 October.

The expedition saw three spacewalks. On 19 December 2024, Ovchinin and Vagner conducted a 7-hour, 17-minute EVA to work on externally mounted science systems. On 16 January 2025, Hague and Williams completed a 6-hour EVA focused on maintenance and upgrades. This was the first full-length EVA by U.S. astronauts in over a year, following a June 2024 incident in which a leak in an EMU cut a spacewalk short. The final EVA took place on 30 January with Williams and Wilmore removing a radio frequency group antenna assembly during a 5-hour, 26-minute spacewalk. During this EVA, Williams set a new record for total spacewalking time by a female astronaut.

Williams handed over command of the space station to Ovchinin on 7 March to prepare for her departure. SpaceX Crew-10 arrived at the ISS on 16 March, transporting NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, and featured a shorter than normal handover with Crew-9 of just two days. It was shortened due to a delay in an upcoming supply flight, which necessitated conserving resources like food and a brief window of favorable weather in the Gulf of Mexico for splashdown. Crew-9 departed with Hague, Gorbunov, Wilmore, and Williams on 18 March.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, along with NASA astronaut Jonny Kim arrived at the station aboard Soyuz MS-27 on 8 April. After a handover period, Ovchinin handed over command of the space station to Onishi on 18 April. The expedition came to a close on 19 April with the departure of Ovchinin, Vagner, and Pettit on Soyuz MS-26.

Events manifest Events involving crewed spacecraft are listed in bold.

Previous mission: Expedition 71

23 September 2024 - Soyuz MS-25 undocking, official switch from Expedition 71 29 September 2024 - SpaceX Crew-9 docking 23 October 2024 - SpaceX Crew-8 undocking 3 November 2024 - SpaceX Crew-9 redocking 5 November 2024 - CRS SpX-31 docking 19 November 2024 - Progress MS-27 undocking 23 November 2024 - Progress MS-29 docking 16 December 2024 - CRS SpX-31 undocking 19 December 2024 - EVA 1 (VKD-63) Ovchinin/Vagner: 7 hrs, 17 mins 16 January 2025 - EVA 2 (US-91) Hague/Williams: 6 hrs 30 January 2025 - EVA 3 (US-92) Williams/Wilmore: 5 hrs, 26 mins 25 February 2025 - Progress MS-28 undocking 1 March 2025 - Progress MS-30 docking 7 March 2025 - ISS Expedition 72 change of command from Sunita Williams to Aleksey Ovchinin 16 March 2025 - SpaceX Crew-10 docking 18 March 2025 - SpaceX Crew-9 undocking 28 March 2025 - CRS NG-21 unberthing and release 8 April 2025 - Soyuz MS-27 docking 18 April 2025 - ISS Expedition 72/73 change of command from Aleksey Ovchinin to Takuya Onishi 19 April 2025 - Soyuz MS-26 undocking, official switch to Expedition 73

Next mission: Expedition 73

Crew

FlightAstronautIncrement 72aIncrement 72bIncrement 72cIncrement 72dIncrement 72eIncrement 72fIncrement 72g23-29Sep 202429Sep-23Oct 202423Oct 2024-7Mar 20257-16Mar 202516-18Mar 202518Mar-8Apr 20258-19Apr 2025Soyuz MS-26 Aleksey Ovchinin, RoscosmosThird spaceflightFlight engineerCommander Ivan Vagner, RoscosmosSecond spaceflightFlight engineer Donald Pettit, NASAFourth spaceflightFlight engineerSpaceX Crew-8 Matthew Dominick, NASAFirst spaceflightFlight engineerOff station Michael Barratt, NASAThird spaceflightFlight engineerOff station Jeanette Epps, NASAOnly spaceflightFlight engineerOff station Alexander Grebenkin, RoscosmosFirst spaceflightFlight engineerOff stationSpaceX Crew-9 Barry E. Wilmore, NASAThird and last spaceflightFlight engineerOff station Sunita Williams, NASAThird and last spaceflightCommanderFlight engineerOff station Nick Hague, NASASecond and last spaceflightOff stationFlight engineerOff station Aleksandr Gorbunov, RoscosmosFirst spaceflightOff stationFlight engineerOff stationSpaceX Crew-10 Anne McClain, NASASecond spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Nichole Ayers, NASAFirst spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Takuya Onishi, JAXASecond spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Kirill Peskov, RoscosmosFirst spaceflightOff stationFlight engineerSoyuz MS-27 Sergey Ryzhikov, RoscosmosThird spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Alexey Zubritsky, RoscosmosFirst spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Jonny Kim, NASAOnly spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer

Vehicle manifest VehiclePurposePortDocking dateUndocking dateVehicles inherited from Expedition 70 or Expedition 71 SpaceX Crew-8 "Endeavour"Exp. 70/71/72 crewHarmony forward5 Mar 2024 (Exp. 70)2 May 2024 (Exp. 71; redock)Harmony zenith2 May 2024 (Exp. 71; redock)23 Oct 2024 Progress MS-27CargoPoisk zenith1 Jun 2024 (Exp. 71)19 Nov 2024 CRS NG-21CargoUnity nadir6 Aug 2024 (Exp. 71)28 Mar 2025 Progress MS-28CargoZvezda aft17 Aug 2024 (Exp. 71)25 Feb 2025 Soyuz MS-26 "Burlak"Exp. 71/72 crewRassvet nadir11 Sep 2024 (Exp. 71)19 Apr 2025Vehicles docked during Expedition 72 SpaceX Crew-9 "Freedom"Exp. 72 crewHarmony forward29 Sep 20243 Nov 2024 (redock)Harmony zenith3 Nov 2024 (redock)18 Mar 2025 CRS SpX-31CargoHarmony forward5 Nov 202416 Dec 2024 Progress MS-29CargoPoisk zenith23 Nov 20241 Jul 2025 (Exp. 73) Progress MS-30CargoZvezda aft1 Mar 20259 Sep 2025 (Exp. 73) SpaceX Crew-10 "Endurance"Exp. 72/73 crewHarmony forward16 Mar 20257 Aug 2025 (Exp. 73) Soyuz MS-27 "Favor"Exp. 72/73 crewPrichal nadir8 Apr 20259 Dec 2025 (Exp. 73) Segment U.S. Orbital Segment Russian Orbital SegmentPeriodHarmony forwardHarmony zenithHarmony nadirUnity nadirRassvet nadirPrichal nadirPoisk zenithZvezda aft23–29 Sep 2024 VacantSpaceX Crew-8 VacantCRS NG-21Soyuz MS-26 Vacant Progress MS-27Progress MS-2829 Sep–23 Oct 2024SpaceX Crew-923 Oct–3 Nov 2024 Vacant3–5 Nov 2024 VacantSpaceX Crew-95–19 Nov 2024CRS SpX-3119–23 Nov 2024 Vacant23 Nov–16 Dec 2024Progress MS-2916 Dec 2024–25 Feb 2025 Vacant25 Feb–1 Mar 2025 Vacant1–16 Mar 2025Progress MS-3016–18 Mar 2025SpaceX Crew-1018–28 Mar 2025 Vacant28 Mar–8 Apr 2025 Vacant8–19 Apr 2025Soyuz MS-27 The Prichal aft, forward, starboard, and aft ports all have yet to be used since the module originally docked to the station and are not included in the table.

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