MISSION/STUDY INFORMATION
The 47/48 crewmembers launched on March 18, 2106, and returned on September 6, 2016, on Soyuz TMA-20M. The crewmembers are:
- Commander Jeffrey Williams, NASA
- Flight Engineer 1 Aleksey Ovchinin, RSA
- Flight Engineer 2 Oleg Skripochka, RSA
The 48/49 crewmembers launched on July 6, 2016, and docked on July 9, 2016. They are scheduled to return in November, 2016, on Soyuz MS-01. The crewmembers are:
- Flight Engineer 4 Anatoli Ivanishin, RSA
- Flight Engineer 5 Takuya Onishi, JAXA
- Flight Engineer 6 Kathleen Rubins, NASA
The official start of Expedition 48 began when the 46/47 crew returned to Earth and handed the command of the International Space Station (ISS) over to Jeffrey Williams on June 18, 2016. Williams, The expedition ended when Ovchinin, and Skripochka returned after 172 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 47 and 48 crews onboard the ISS. They landed safely southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan. Having completed his fourth mission, Williams now has spent 534 days in space, making him first on the all-time NASA astronaut list. Skripochka now has 331 days in space on two flights, while Ovchinin spent 172 days in space on his first. Together, the Expedition 48 crewmembers contributed to hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard humanity’s only orbiting laboratory.
