Expedition 74 was the 74th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). The expedition began with the departure of Soyuz MS-27 on 9 December 2025 with NASA astronaut Michael Fincke taking over the ISS command and concluded with the undocking of Soyuz MS-28 on 26 July 2026. It continued the extensive scientific research conducted aboard the ISS, focusing on various fields, including biology, human physiology, physics, and materials science. The crew members also maintained and upgraded the space station systems.
Background, Crew, and Events The expedition commenced with a crew consisting of NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Michael Fincke, and Christopher Williams, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Platonov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, and Sergey Mikayev.
On January 7, 2026, NASA announced that SpaceX Crew-11 would return to Earth about a month early due to an undisclosed "medical situation" affecting one crew member. The incident led to the cancellation of two planned spacewalks on January 8 and 15, including preparations for installation of ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs) and other maintenance tasks on the Harmony module and the station’s S6 and S4 truss. NASA administrator Jared Isaacman confirmed the early return on January 8.
On January 12, Fincke handed over command of the space station to Kud-Sverchkov. Crew-11 departed with Cardman, Fincke, Yui, and Platonov on January 14 approximately one month ahead of schedule. Fincke later stated that he experienced the medical event, was stabilized by crewmates under the guidance of NASA flight surgeons, and returned early to access advanced medical imaging unavailable on the station. After splashdown, he was treated at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla and later reported he was "doing very well".
SpaceX Crew-12 arrived at the ISS on February 14, transporting NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
The expedition saw three spacewalks. On March 18, Meir and Williams conducted a 7-hour, 2-minute spacewalk to prepare the 2A power channel for future installation of another iROSA solar array. On May 27, Kud-Sverchkov and Mikayev conducted a 6-hour, 5-minute spacewalk to install a solar experiment on the Zvezda service module, remove science hardware from the Poisk and Nauka modules, and photograph the Kurs rendezvous antenna on the Progress MS-33 cargo spacecraft that had failed to deploy after its March launch. On June 30, Williams and Meir conducted a 7-hour, 20-minute spacewalk to repair Canadarm2, removing a spare wrist joint from ESP2, swapping it for the broken one, and bringing the broken joint inside the station for return to Earth for inspection and potential refurbishment.
Soyuz MS-29 arrived at the station on July 14, transporting Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, along with NASA astronaut Anil Menon. After a two-week handover period, Kud-Sverchkov transferred command of the ISS to Meir on July 25. The expedition came to a close on July 26 with the departure of Kud-Sverchkov, Mikayev, and Williams on Soyuz MS-28.
Events manifest Events involving crewed spacecraft are listed in bold.
Previous mission: Expedition 73
9 December 2025 – Soyuz MS-27 undocking, official switch from Expedition 73 7 January 2026 – Undisclosed "medical situation" experienced by Fincke, US EVAs cancelled 12 January 2026 – ISS Expedition 74 change of command from Michael Fincke to Sergey Kud-Sverchkov 14 January 2026 – SpaceX Crew-11 undocking 14 February 2026 – SpaceX Crew-12 docking 26 February 2026 – CRS SpX-33 undocking 6 March 2026 – HTV-X1 unberthing and release 12 March 2026 – CRS NG-23 unberthing and release 16 March 2026 – Progress MS-31 undocking 18 March 2026 – EVA 1 (US-94) Meir/Williams: 7hrs, 2mins 24 March 2026 – Progress MS-33 docking 13 April 2026 – CRS NG-24 capture and berthing 20 April 2026 – Progress MS-32 undocking 28 April 2026 – Progress MS-34 docking 17 May 2026 – CRS SpX-34 docking 27 May 2026 – EVA 2 (VKD-66) Kud-Sverchkov/Mikayev: 6hrs, 5mins 16 June 2026 – CRS SpX-34 undocking 30 June 2026 – EVA 3 (US-95) Williams/Meir: 7hrs, 20mins 14 July 2026 – Soyuz MS-29 docking 25 July 2026 – ISS Expedition 74/75 change of command from Sergey Kud-Sverchkov to Jessica Meir 26 July 2026 – Soyuz MS-28 undocking, official switch to Expedition 75
Next mission: Expedition 75
Crew FlightAstronautIncrement 74aIncrement 74bIncrement 74cIncrement 74d9Dec 2025–14Jan 202614Jan–14Feb 202614Feb–14Jul 202614–26Jul 2026Soyuz MS-28 Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, RoscosmosSecond spaceflightFlight engineerCommander Sergey Mikayev, RoscosmosFirst spaceflightFlight engineer Christopher Williams, NASAFirst spaceflightFlight engineerSpaceX Crew-11 Zena Cardman, NASAFirst spaceflightFlight engineerOff station Michael Fincke, NASAFourth and last spaceflightCommanderOff station Kimiya Yui, JAXASecond spaceflightFlight engineerOff station Oleg Platonov, RoscosmosFirst spaceflightFlight engineerOff stationSpaceX Crew-12 Jessica Meir, NASASecond spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Jack Hathaway, NASAFirst spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Sophie Adenot, ESAFirst spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Andrey Fedyaev, RoscosmosSecond spaceflightOff stationFlight engineerSoyuz MS-29 Pyotr Dubrov, RoscosmosSecond spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Anna Kikina, RoscosmosSecond spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Anil Menon, NASAFirst spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer
Vehicle manifest VehiclePurposePortDocking dateUndocking dateVehicles inherited from Expedition 73 Progress MS-31CargoPoisk zenith5 Jul 202516 Mar 2026 SpaceX Crew-11 "Endeavour"Exp. 73/74 crewHarmony zenith2 Aug 202514 Jan 2026 CRS SpX-33CargoHarmony forward25 Aug 202526 Feb 2026 Progress MS-32CargoZvezda aft13 Sep 202520 Apr 2026 CRS NG-23CargoUnity nadir18 Sep 202524 Nov 20251 Dec 2025 (reberth)12 Mar 2026 (Exp. 74) HTV-X1CargoHarmony nadir29 Oct 20256 Mar 2026 Soyuz MS-28 "Gyrfalcon"Exp. 73/74 crewRassvet nadir27 Nov 202526 Jul 2026Vehicles docked during Expedition 74 SpaceX Crew-12 "Freedom"Exp. 74/75 crewHarmony zenith14 Feb 20267 Oct 2026 (Exp. 75) Progress MS-33CargoPoisk zenith24 Mar 20267 Sep 2026 (Exp. 75) CRS NG-24CargoUnity nadir13 Apr 20269 Oct 2026 (Exp. 75) Progress MS-34CargoZvezda aft28 Apr 2026Nov 2026 (Exp. 75) CRS SpX-34CargoHarmony forward17 May 202616 June 2026 Soyuz MS-29 "Tigris"Exp. 74/75 crewPrichal nadir14 Jul 20261 Apr 2027 (Exp. 75) Segment US Orbital Segment Russian Orbital SegmentPeriodHarmony forwardHarmony zenithHarmony nadirUnity nadirRassvet nadirPrichal nadirPoisk zenithZvezda aft9 Dec 2025–14 Jan 2026CRS SpX-33SpaceX Crew-11HTV-X1CRS NG23Soyuz MS-28 VacantProgress MS-31Progress MS-3214 Jan–14 Feb 2026 Vacant14–26 Feb 2026SpaceX Crew-1226 Feb–6 Mar 2026 Vacant6–12 Mar 2026 Vacant12–16 Mar 2026 Vacant16–24 Mar 2026 Vacant24 Mar–13 Apr 2026Progress MS-3313–20 Apr 2026CRS NG-2420–28 Apr 2026 Vacant28 Apr–17 May 2026Progress MS-3417 May–16 Jun 2026CRS SpX-3416 Jun–14 Jul 2026 Vacant14–26 Jul 2026Soyuz MS-29 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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