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"[1] as "Visiting Expedition".[2]
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.[3]
List
Dates beside "Expedition X" are from the stay at the station.
Soyuz TMA-2 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle. The spacecraft docked with the ISS on April 28, 2003 and undocked on October 28, 2003. Soyuz TMA-2 was the second flight for the TMA modification of the Soyuz spacecraft, and the 6th Soyuz to fly to the ISS.
Soyuz TMA-8 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle.
Oleg Viktorovich Novitsky is a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Russian Air Force who logged over 700 hours of flight time and was awarded for bravery. He is currently serving as a Russian cosmonaut with Roscosmos and has participated in multiple expeditions, during which he has spent over 531 days in space.
Oleg Dmitriyevich Kononenko is a Russian cosmonaut. He has flown to the International Space Station five times as a flight engineer for Expedition 17 aboard Soyuz TMA-12, as a flight engineer on Expedition 30 and commander of Expedition 31 aboard Soyuz TMA-03M, as a flight engineer on Expedition 44 and Expedition 45 aboard Soyuz TMA-17M, and as commander of Expedition 58 and Expedition 59 aboard Soyuz MS-11 and Expedition 70 and Expedition 71 aboard Soyuz MS-24/MS-25.
Spaceflight participant is the term used by NASA, Roscosmos, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for people who travel into space, but are not professional astronauts.
Anton Nikolaevich Shkaplerov is a former Russian cosmonaut. He is a veteran of four spaceflights.
Andrey Ivanovich Borisenko is a Russian cosmonaut. He was selected as a cosmonaut in May 2003, and is a veteran of two long duration missions to the International Space Station.
Expedition 27 was the 27th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), starting on 16 March 2011. Expedition 27 saw numerous notable events, including the undocking of the Progress M-09M and Kounotori 2 spacecraft, the arrival of the Soyuz TMA-21 and Progress M-10M spacecraft, and the final rendezvous with the ISS of NASA's Space Shuttle Endeavour, on its last mission, STS-134. The expedition ended on 23 May 2011 with the departure of the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft, although command of the station was ceremonially handed over to the crew of Expedition 28 on 22 May.
Soyuz MS-13, also designated ISS flight 59S, was a crewed Soyuz mission launched on 20 July 2019 – the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing – carrying three members of the Expedition 60 crew to the International Space Station: a Russian commander, an American and a European flight engineer. Soyuz MS-13 was the 142nd flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. It was at one point the last Soyuz flight contracted by NASA in the expectation that subsequent astronaut transport would be provided by the Commercial Crew Program, but in early 2019 NASA sought to purchase two additional Soyuz seats to provide greater certainty given delays in that program.
Soyuz MS-14 was a Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station. It carried no crew members, as it was intended to test a modification of the launch abort system for integration with the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle. It launched successfully on 22 August 2019 at 03:38 UTC. It was the first mission of the Soyuz crew vehicle without a crew in 33 years, and the first ever unpiloted mission of Soyuz to the ISS.
Soyuz MS-20 was a Russian Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) on 8–20 December 2021. Unlike previous Soyuz flights to the ISS, Soyuz MS-20 did not deliver any crew members for an ISS Expedition or serve as a lifeboat for any crew members on board the station. Instead, it was commanded by a single professional cosmonaut and carried two space tourists represented by company Space Adventures, which had executed eight space tourism missions to the ISS in 2001–9. The flight to reach the ISS took six hours.
Soyuz MS-19 was a Soyuz spaceflight which launched on 5 October 2021, at 08:55:02 UTC. It was the 147th flight of a crewed Soyuz spacecraft. The launching crew consisted of Russian commander Anton Shkaplerov, Russian film director Klim Shipenko and Russian actress Yulia Peresild. Shipenko and Peresild spent about twelve days on the International Space Station before returning to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-18, while filming a movie in space, Vyzov. The MS-18 flight launched two crew members of the Expedition 66. Without an American astronaut, this launch marked the first time in more than 21 years that a Soyuz crew only included Russian cosmonauts and travelers and the ship had to be upgraded to be piloted by a single person at launch. This is also the first mission to the ISS with an entirely Russian crew.
Pyotr Valerievich Dubrov is a Russian engineer and cosmonaut selected by Roscosmos in 2012.
Progress MS-17, Russian production No. 446, identified by NASA as Progress 78P, was a Progress spaceflight operated by Roscosmos to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). This was the 169th flight of a Progress spacecraft.
Marina Vitalyevna Vasilevskaya is a flight instructor and flight attendant for Belavia Airlines in Belarus. She is the first Belarusian woman to be launched into space.
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