# Expedition 71

Expedition 71 was the 71st long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The expedition began with the departure of Soyuz MS-24 on 6 April 2024 with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko continuing his ISS command from Expedition 70. It ended with his departure on Soyuz MS-25 with crewmates from MS-24 and MS-25 on 23 September 2024.

## Background, Crew, and Events

Initially, the expedition consisted of Kononenko, his Russian Soyuz MS-24 crewmate Nikolai Chub (both on a year long ISS mission since 15 September 2023), and his American Soyuz MS-25 crewmate, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, who launched on 23 March 2024, as well as SpaceX Crew-8 crewmates, American astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, who launched on 4 March 2024 and were transferred from Expedition 70 after Soyuz MS-24 departure.
NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams arrived at the station on 6 June 2024 as part of the Boeing Crew Flight Test. Their visit was planned to be brief. However, due to technical issues with their spacecraft, their stay was extended, and they became de facto members of the ISS crew. They assisted with various tasks, including research, housekeeping, and maintenance. On 24 August 2024, NASA announced that the Boeing Starliner spacecraft would return to Earth unmanned with Wilmore and Williams returning on the SpaceX Crew-9 mission in early 2025. NASA also announced that Wilmore and Williams would formally be added to the Expedition 71/72 crew.

## Events manifest

Events involving crewed spacecraft are listed in bold.
Previous mission: Expedition 70
6 April 2024 – Soyuz MS-24 Undocking (includes Visiting Expedition 21), official switch from Expedition 70
25 April 2024 – EVA-1 (VKD-62) Kononenko/Chub: 4 hrs, 36 mins
28 April 2024 – CRS SpX-30 Undocking
2 May 2024 – SpaceX Crew-8 Redocking
28 May 2024 – Progress MS-25/86P Undocking
1 June 2024 – Progress MS-27/88P Docking
6 June 2024 – Boeing Crew Flight Test Docking
24 June 2024 – EVA-2 (US-90) Dyson/Barratt: 0 hrs, 31 mins
12 July 2024 – CRS NG-20 Unberthing & Release
6 August 2024 – CRS NG-21 Capture & Berthing
13 August 2024 – Progress MS-26/87P Undocking
17 August 2024 – Progress MS-28/89P Docking
4 September 2024 – Wilmore and Williams' seat liner moved from Boeing CFT swapped to SpaceX Crew-8 for CFT uncrewed landing
6 September 2024 – Boeing Crew Flight Test Uncrewed Undocking
11 September 2024 – Soyuz MS-26 Docking
22 September 2024 – ISS Expedition 71/72 Change of Command Ceremony from Oleg Kononenko to Sunita Williams
23 September 2024 – Soyuz MS-25 Undocking, official switch to Expedition 72
Next: Expedition 72

## Crew
### Expedition Crew

| Flight | Crew member | Increment 71a | Increment 71b | Increment 71c |
| Flight | Crew member | 6 Apr – 6 Jun 2024 | 6 Jun – 11 Sep 2024 | 11 – 23 Sep 2024 |
| Soyuz MS-25 | Oleg Kononenko, Roscosmos Fifth spaceflight | Commander | Commander | Commander |
| Soyuz MS-25 | Nikolai Chub, Roscosmos First spaceflight | Flight Engineer | Flight Engineer | Flight Engineer |
| Soyuz MS-25 | Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, NASA Third spaceflight | Flight Engineer | Flight Engineer | Flight Engineer |
| SpaceX Crew-8 | Matthew Dominick, NASA First spaceflight | Flight Engineer | Flight Engineer | Flight Engineer |
| SpaceX Crew-8 | Michael Barratt, NASA Third spaceflight | Flight Engineer | Flight Engineer | Flight Engineer |
| SpaceX Crew-8 | Jeanette Epps, NASA First spaceflight | Flight Engineer | Flight Engineer | Flight Engineer |
| SpaceX Crew-8 | Alexander Grebenkin, Roscosmos First spaceflight | Flight Engineer | Flight Engineer | Flight Engineer |
| Boeing Crew Flight Test | Barry E. Wilmore, NASA Third spaceflight | Off Station | Flight Engineer | Flight Engineer |
| Boeing Crew Flight Test | Sunita Williams, NASA Third spaceflight | Off Station | Flight Engineer | Flight Engineer |
| Soyuz MS-26 | Aleksey Ovchinin, Roscosmos Third spaceflight | Off Station | Off Station | Flight Engineer |
| Soyuz MS-26 | Ivan Vagner, Roscosmos Second spaceflight | Off Station | Off Station | Flight Engineer |
| Soyuz MS-26 | Donald Pettit, NASA Fourth spaceflight | Off Station | Off Station | Flight Engineer |

### Crewed test flight

| Mission | Astronauts | Docking (UTC) | Undocking (UTC) | Duration |
| Boeing Crew Flight Test | Barry Wilmore, NASA Sunita Williams, NASA | 6 June 2024, 17:34 | 6 September 2024, 22:04 (uncrewed) | 93 days |
| Besides the expedition crew, a Boeing Starliner spacecraft visited the station for a crewed flight test, consisting of NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams. The spacecraft Calypso launched and docked to the station in June 2024. The flight marked the first crewed test flight of the Starliner. Crew members were scheduled to stay aboard the station for approximately 6 days, but the mission was extended due to issues with the spacecraft. Despite months of testing, NASA felt it was not able to understand why the thrusters malfunctioned and decided that it was too risky to return Wilmore and Williams to Earth aboard Starliner. Instead, they will ride down on the SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon capsule, and the Boeing spacecraft returned uncrewed. Until Crew-9 arrived, they along with their seat liners moved to SpaceX Crew-8, their temporary emergency evacuation spacecraft, after which they and their seat liners transferred to Crew-9. It was the first launch of humans from Cape Canaveral since Apollo 7 in October 1968 and first launch of humans from SLC-41. ||||

## Vehicle manifest

| Vehicle | Purpose | Port | Docking/capture date | Undocking date |
| Vehicles inherited from Expedition 70 |||||
| Progress MS-25 | Cargo | Poisk zenith | 3 Dec 2023 | 28 May 2024 |
| CRS NG-20 | Cargo | Unity nadir | 1 Feb 2024 | 12 Jul 2024 |
| Progress MS-26 | Cargo | Zvezda aft | 17 Feb 2024 | 13 Aug 2024 |
| SpaceX Crew-8 "Endeavour" | Exp. 70/71 crew | Harmony forward | 5 Mar 2024 | 2 May 2024 (redock) |
| CRS SpX-30 | Cargo | Harmony zenith | 23 Mar 2024 | 28 Apr 2024 |
| Soyuz MS-25 "Kazbek" | Exp. 70/71 crew, Visiting Expedition 21 | Prichal nadir | 25 Mar 2024 | 23 Sep 2024 |
| Vehicles docked during Expedition 71 |||||
| SpaceX Crew-8 "Endeavour" | Exp. 70/71 crew | Harmony zenith | 2 May 2024 (redock) | 23 Oct 2024 (Exp. 72) |
| Progress MS-27 | Cargo | Poisk zenith | 1 Jun 2024 | 19 Nov 2024 (Exp. 72) |
| Boeing CFT "Calypso" | Visiting CCDev mission | Harmony forward | 6 Jun 2024 | 6 Sep 2024 |
| CRS NG-21 | Cargo | Unity nadir | 6 Aug 2024 | 21 Mar 2025 (Exp. 72) (scheduled) |
| Progress MS-28 | Cargo | Zvezda aft | 17 Aug 2024 | 25 Feb 2025 (Exp. 72) |
| Soyuz MS-26 "Burlak" | Exp. 71/72 crew | Rassvet nadir | 11 Sep 2024 | 20 Apr 2025 (Exp. 72) (scheduled) |
| Segment | US Orbital Segment | US Orbital Segment | US Orbital Segment | US Orbital Segment | Russian Segment | Russian Segment | Russian Segment | Russian Segment |
| Period | Harmony forward | Harmony zenith | Harmony nadir | Unity nadir | Rassvet nadir | Prichal nadir | Poisk zenith | Zvezda aft |
| 6–28 Apr 2024 | SpaceX Crew-8 | CRS SpX-30 | Vacant | CRS NG-20 | Vacant | Soyuz MS-25/71S | Progress MS-25/86P | Progress MS-26/87P |
| 28 Apr–2 May 2024 | SpaceX Crew-8 | Vacant | Vacant | CRS NG-20 | Vacant | Soyuz MS-25/71S | Progress MS-25/86P | Progress MS-26/87P |
| 2–28 May 2024 | Vacant | SpaceX Crew-8 | Vacant | CRS NG-20 | Vacant | Soyuz MS-25/71S | Progress MS-25/86P | Progress MS-26/87P |
| 28 May–1 Jun 2024 | Vacant | SpaceX Crew-8 | Vacant | CRS NG-20 | Vacant | Soyuz MS-25/71S | Vacant | Progress MS-26/87P |
| 1–6 Jun 2024 | Vacant | SpaceX Crew-8 | Vacant | CRS NG-20 | Vacant | Soyuz MS-25/71S | Progress MS-27/88P | Progress MS-26/87P |
| 6 Jun–12 Jul 2024 | Boeing CFT | SpaceX Crew-8 | Vacant | CRS NG-20 | Vacant | Soyuz MS-25/71S | Progress MS-27/88P | Progress MS-26/87P |
| 12 Jul–6 Aug 2024 | Boeing CFT | SpaceX Crew-8 | Vacant | Vacant | Vacant | Soyuz MS-25/71S | Progress MS-27/88P | Progress MS-26/87P |
| 6–13 Aug 2024 | Boeing CFT | SpaceX Crew-8 | Vacant | CRS NG-21 | Vacant | Soyuz MS-25/71S | Progress MS-27/88P | Progress MS-26/87P |
| 13–17 Aug 2024 | Boeing CFT | SpaceX Crew-8 | Vacant | CRS NG-21 | Vacant | Soyuz MS-25/71S | Progress MS-27/88P | Vacant |
| 17 Aug–6 Sep 2024 | Boeing CFT | SpaceX Crew-8 | Vacant | CRS NG-21 | Vacant | Soyuz MS-25/71S | Progress MS-27/88P | Progress MS-28/89P |
| 6–11 Sep 2024 | Vacant | SpaceX Crew-8 | Vacant | CRS NG-21 | Vacant | Soyuz MS-25/71S | Progress MS-27/88P | Progress MS-28/89P |
| 11-23 Sep 2024 | Vacant | SpaceX Crew-8 | Vacant | CRS NG-21 | Soyuz MS-26/72S | Soyuz MS-25/71S | Progress MS-27/88P | Progress MS-28/89P |
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.