Expedition 61

Expedition 61 was the 61st Expedition to the International Space Station, which began on 3 October 2019 with the undocking of the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft.^[1] The Expedition was commanded by ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, who became the third European and first Italian astronaut to command the ISS.^[3] Parmitano, along with his Soyuz MS-13 colleagues Aleksandr Skvortsov^[3] and Andrew Morgan,^[3] and Christina Koch from Soyuz MS-12,^[4] transferred over from Expedition 60. They were joined by Oleg Skripochka^[4] and Jessica Meir,^[4] who launched on 25 September 2019 on board Soyuz MS-15.^[4]

Expedition 61

Promotional Poster
Mission type	Long-duration expedition
Mission duration	125d 22h 12m
Expedition
Space station	International Space Station
Began	3 October 2019, 07:37:32 UTC[1][2]
Ended	6 February 2020, 05:50:28 UTC
Arrived aboard	Soyuz MS-12 Soyuz MS-13 Soyuz MS-15
Departed aboard	Soyuz MS-13
Crew
Crew size	6
Members	Expedition 60/61: Luca Parmitano Aleksandr Skvortsov Expedition 60/61/62: Andrew Morgan Expedition 59/60/61: Christina Koch Expedition 61/62: Oleg Skripochka Jessica Meir
EVAs	9[2]
EVA duration	54h 27m[2]
Expedition 61 mission patch From left: NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, astronaut Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency), Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, and NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch. ISS expeditions ← Expedition 60 Expedition 62 →

Crew

Position	Crew member
Commander	Luca Parmitano, ESA Second spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1	Aleksandr Skvortsov, RSA Third and last spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2	Andrew Morgan, NASA First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 3	Christina Koch, NASA First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 4	Oleg Skripochka, RSA Third spaceflight
Flight Engineer 5	Jessica Meir, NASA First spaceflight

Other crewed spaceflights to the ISS

According to a Flight Planning Integration Panel (FPIP) document obtained by NASAspaceflight.com in June 2019, Expedition 61 was tentatively scheduled to see two visits from Commercial Crew Development spacecraft.^[5] However, schedule slippages meant these visits will not occur.

• The Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission with American astronauts Bob Behnken and Douglas Hurley had a planning date for a 15 November 2019 launch and 22 November landing, with a brief stay on the ISS in between.
• The Boeing Crewed Flight Test of the Starliner capsule had a planning date for a 30 November 2019 launch. It was proposed American astronauts Mike Finke, Nicole Mann, and Chris Ferguson would dock to the International Space Station on 1 December and remain on the station until May 2020; it was unclear if these astronauts would have been formally considered ISS visitors, part of the Expedition 61 crew, or prompt the start of Expedition 62.

Spacewalks

Further information: List of spacewalks since 2015 § 2019 spacewalks

Expedition 61 crew conducted nine spacewalks, more than in any other increment in the history of the ISS.^[6]

Four spacewalks were conducted to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. The repairs were conducted by ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan. Both of them were assisted by NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir who operated the Canadarm2 robotic arm from inside the Station. The spacewalks were described as the "most challenging since Hubble repairs".^[7][6][8]

There were multiple spacewalks in order to repair and improve ISS batteries. On 18 October 2019 Christina Koch and Jessica Meir took the first all female spacewalk in history.^[9]

Jessica Meir (left) and Christina Koch (right) before their spacewalk, next to (left to right) Aleksandr Skvortsov, Luca Parmitano (commander), Oleg Skripochka, and Andrew Morgan