Expedition 31

Expedition 31 was the 31st long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). It began on 27 April 2012 with the departure from the ISS of the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft, which returned the Expedition 30 crew to Earth.^[1] The expedition ended on 1 July 2012, when crew members Oleg Kononenko, André Kuipers and Don Pettit departed from the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-03M, marking the beginning of Expedition 32.^[2]

Expedition 31

Promotional Poster
Mission type	Long-duration expedition
Expedition
Space station	International Space Station
Began	27 April 2012, 08:15 (2012-04-27UTC08:15Z) UTC[1]
Ended	1 July 2012, 04:48 (2012-07-01UTC04:49Z) UTC[2]
Arrived aboard	Soyuz TMA-03M Soyuz TMA-04M
Departed aboard	Soyuz TMA-03M Soyuz TMA-04M
Crew
Crew size	6
Members	Expedition 30/31: Oleg Kononenko André Kuipers Don Pettit Expedition 31/32: Joseph M. Acaba Gennady Padalka Sergei Revin
Expedition 31 mission patch (l-r) Acaba, Padalka, Revin, Kuipers, Kononenko and Pettit ISS expeditions ← Expedition 30 Expedition 32 →

Crew

Position	First part (April 2012 to May 2012)	Second part (May 2012 to July 2012)
Commander	Oleg Kononenko, RSA Second spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1	André Kuipers, ESA Second spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2	Don Pettit, NASA Third spaceflight
Flight Engineer 3		Joseph M. Acaba, NASA Second spaceflight
Flight Engineer 4		Gennady Padalka, RSA Fourth spaceflight
Flight Engineer 5		Sergei Revin, RSA Only spaceflight

Source

NASA^[3][4][5][6]

Mission highlights

Soyuz TMA-22 departure

Expedition 31 formally began on 27 April 2012, with the departure from the ISS of the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft. Soyuz TMA-22 successfully returned Expedition 30 astronauts Dan Burbank, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoli Ivanishin to Earth.^[1] The ISS was left under the command of astronauts Kononenko, Kuipers and Pettit, who had arrived at the station aboard Soyuz TMA-03M on 23 December 2011.

Soyuz TMA-04M arrival

The final three members of Expedition 31 – Acaba, Padalka and Revin – arrived at the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-04M, which launched on 15 May 2012,^[7] and docked to the ISS on 17 May at 4:36 UTC.^[8]

SpaceX Dragon test mission

SpaceX's unmanned Dragon spacecraft conducted a test rendezvous with the ISS during Expedition 31, as part of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program; it was the first commercial spacecraft to rendezvous with the ISS. Following a series of delays,^[9] Dragon launched on 22 May 2012, and berthed successfully with the ISS on 25 May, after conducting a series of orbital test manoeuvres.^[10][11] Dragon carried around 460 kilograms (1,010 lb) of cargo to the ISS, including food, clothing, a laptop computer and 15 student experiments.^[10] After being loaded with 660 kilograms (1,460 lb) of downmass cargo, including completed experiments and redundant equipment, it undocked from the station and returned to Earth on 31 May 2012.^[12][13] Dragon landed intact in the Pacific Ocean and was successfully recovered, allowing SpaceX to begin regular cargo flights to the ISS.^[14] The first such logistics mission, CRS SpX-1, launched successfully in October 2012.^[15][16]

Soyuz TMA-03M departure

Soyuz TMA-03M departed from the ISS on 1 July 2012, successfully returning Kononenko, Kuipers and Pettit to Earth. Their departure marked the formal end of Expedition 31, and the beginning of Expedition 32.^[2]

In popular culture

In the 2012 The Big Bang Theory episode "The Friendship Contraction", character Howard Wolowitz reveals that he will be a member of a fictionalized version of Expedition 31, alongside Dimitri Rezinov, a character created for the show, and Mike Massimino, playing a fictional version of himself.^[17]

Gallery

• 
  Soyuz TMA-22 departs the ISS on 27 April 2012, marking the beginning of Expedition 31.
• 
  An Orthodox priest blesses the Soyuz rocket on 14 May 2012.
• 
  The Expedition 31 crew wave goodbye before the launch on 15 May 2012.
• 
  The launch of Soyuz TMA-04M on 15 May 2012.
• 
  SpaceX's unmanned Dragon spacecraft approaches the ISS on 25 May 2012.
• 
  Expedition 31 posing inside the docked Dragon capsule on 29 May 2012.