Expedition 56 was the 56th expedition to the International Space Station, which began on June 3, 2018, upon the departure of Soyuz MS-07. Andrew Feustel, Oleg Artemyev, and Richard R. Arnold were transferred from Expedition 55, with Andrew Feustel taking the commander role. Alexander Gerst, Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, and Sergey Prokopyev launched aboard Soyuz MS-09, on June 6, 2018. Expedition 56 ended with the departure of Soyuz MS-08 on October 4, 2018.

Crew PositionFirst part (June 3 – 6, 2018)Second part (June 6 – October 4, 2018)Commander Andrew Feustel, NASAThird and last spaceflightFlight engineer Oleg Artemyev, RSASecond spaceflightFlight engineer Richard R. Arnold, NASASecond and last spaceflightFlight engineerOff station Sergey Prokopyev, RSAFirst spaceflightFlight engineerOff stationAlexander Gerst, ESASecond spaceflightFlight engineerOff station Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, NASAOnly spaceflight

Originally, NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps was assigned as flight engineer for Expeditions 56 and 57, becoming the first African American space station crew member and the 15th African American to fly in space, but on January 16, 2018, NASA announced that Epps had been replaced by her backup Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor with no announced explanation as to why.

Spacewalks

EVA # Spacewalkers Start (UTC) End (UTC) DurationExpedition 56EVA 1 Andrew J. FeustelRichard R. ArnoldJune 14, 201812:06June 14, 201818:556 hours, 49 minutesFeustel and Arnold installed new high-definition cameras near IDA 2 mated to the front end of the station's Harmony module. The additions will provide enhanced views during the final phase of approach and docking of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing CST 100 Starliner commercial crew spacecraft that will soon begin launching from American soil.

The astronauts also swapped out a camera assembly on the starboard truss of the station used to film NASA TV and closed an aperture door on the CATS experiment outside the Japanese Kibo module in preparation for disposal on SpaceX CRS 15 and replacement by its successor, ECOSTRESS. Get aheads involved relocating an adjustable grapple bar to the S1 Truss and securing the Flex Hose Rotary Coupler in preparation for replacement on the next spacewalk. During the spacewalk Feustel beat Jerry Ross, his STS 125 crewmate Dr. John Grunsfeld, Fyoder Yurchikhin, and Peggy Whitson to become third on the list of all time spacewalkers.Expedition 56EVA 2* Oleg ArtemyevSergey ProkopyevAugust 15, 201816:17August 15, 201800:037 hours, 46 minutesThe cosmonauts launched four cubesats and installed the Icarus experiment. Spacewalk fell behind schedule when Icarus failed to seat properly putting the spacewalk 90 minutes behind schedule and calling for an hour extension. The cosmonauts finished the spacewalk by retrieving experiments from the Pirs docking compartment and Poisk module. *denotes spacewalks performed from the Pirs docking compartment in Russian Orlan suits.All other spacewalks were performed from the Quest airlock.

Uncrewed spaceflights to the ISS Resupply missions that visited the International Space Station during Expedition 56:

Spacecraft- ISS flight number Country Mission Launcher Launch(UTC) Docked/Berthed(UTC) Undocked/Unberthed(UTC) Duration (Docked) Deorbit SpaceX CRS-15 - CRS SpX-15 Logistics Falcon 9 June 29, 2018, 09:42 July 2, 2018, 13:50 August 3, 2018, 16:38 August 3, 2018, 22:17 Progress MS-09 - ISS 70P Logistics Soyuz-2.1a July 9, 2018, 21:51:34 July 10, 2018, 01:30:48 January 25, 2019, 12:55 January 25, 2019, 16:50 Kounotori 7 - HTV-7 Logistics H-IIB September 22, 2018, 17:52:27 September 27, 2018, 14:09 November 6, 2018, 23:32 November 10, 2018, 21:14

Leak

On August 29, 2018, a small leak was detected through a drop in air pressure by the flight controllers. After learning about the leak upon waking up, the astronauts discovered a 2 mm hole in the orbital module of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft. The hole was initially repaired with tape, followed by a permanent repair with gauze and epoxy.

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