Expedition 61

Occurred 5 years ago

Expedition 61 serviced a cosmic ray detector, tested a radiation protection vest, explored controlling rovers from space, and studied healthier cotton crops.

Mission Type

ISS Expedition

meet the crew

Andrew Morgan, Alexander Skvortsov, Luca Parmitano, Oleg Skripochka, Jessica Meir, Christina Koch

Launch

July 20, 2019

Landing

Feb. 6, 2020

Official Expedition 61 Crew Portrait — The official Expedition 61 crew portrait with (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.
NASA

Official Expedition 61 Crew Insignia — The official insignia of the Expedition 61 mission aboard the International Space Station.
NASA

Crew Members

Luca Parmitano, Commander
Andrew Morgan, Flight Engineer
Alexander Skvortsov, Flight Engineer
Oleg Skripochka, Flight Engineer
Jessica Meir, Flight Engineer
Christina Koch, Flight Engineer

Crew and Cargo Missions

2/6/20 – Exp 60/61 Land
1/31/20 – Cygnus CRS-12 Release
1/7/20 – SpaceX CRS-19 Release
12/9/19 – ISS Progress 74 Dock
12/8/19 – SpaceX CRS-19 Capture
12/6/19 – ISS Progress 74 Launch
12/5/19 – SpaceX CRS-19 Launch
11/29/19 – ISS Progress 73 Undock
11/4/19 – Cygnus CRS-12 Capture
11/2/19 – Cygnus CRS-12 Launch
11/1/19 – HTV-8 Kounotori Release
9/25/19 – Exp 61/62 Launch/Dock

Spacewalks

Date: Jan. 25, 2020
Duration: 6 hours, 16 minutes
Spacewalkers: Luca Parmitano, Andrew Morgan

Date: Jan. 20, 2020
Duration: 6 hours, 58 minutes
Spacewalkers: Jessica Meir, Christina Koch

Date: Jan. 15, 2020
Duration: 7 hours, 29 minutes
Spacewalkers: Jessica Meir, Christina Koch

Date: Dec. 2, 2019
Duration: 6 hours, 2 minutes
Spacewalkers: Luca Parmitano, Andrew Morgan

Date: Nov. 22, 2019
Duration: 6 hours, 33 minutes
Spacewalkers: Luca Parmitano, Andrew Morgan

Date: Nov. 15, 2019
Duration: 6 hours, 39 minutes
Spacewalkers: Luca Parmitano, Andrew Morgan

Date: Oct. 18, 2019
Duration: 7 hours, 17 minutes
Spacewalkers: Christina Koch, Jessica Meir

Date: Oct. 11, 2019
Duration: 6 hours, 45 minutes
Spacewalkers: Andrew Morgan, Christina Koch

Date: Oct. 6, 2019
Duration: 7 hours, 1 minute
Spacewalkers: Christina Koch, Andrew Morgan

Expedition 61 Resources

Mission Blogs

The daily blog updates for Expedition 61 highlighting crew and cargo missions, spacewalks, and advanced space research.

The sun's first rays burst over the Earth's horizon

Mission Summary

Get an overview of the Expedition, its crew and the activities they are working on during this mission to the International Space Station.

The Solid Fuel Ignition and Extinction (SoFIE) Growth and Extinction Limits (GEL) experiment aboard the International Space Station (ISS) studies flame growth and extinction in an effort to improve fire safety in space. This image shows a sequence of snapshots taken about 3 seconds apart. During this test point, the ambient oxygen concentration starts relatively high (28%). Initially, the flame is seen as yellow and sooty. As the ambient pressure is reduced, the flame becomes bluer and continues to shrink until fully extinguished. This gives researchers pressure limit data points for flame extinction that could help improve crew and spacecraft safety for future exploration missions.

Mission Science

Learn more about the range of microgravity science encompassing human research, space phsyics, and more the Expedition 61 crew has conducted.

One of the Expedition 41 crew members aboard the International Space Station, flying at an altitude of 222 nautical miles above a point in the Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles off the coast of Africa near the Tropic of Cancer, photographed this eye-catching panorama of the night sky and the Milky Way on Sept. 27. NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, flight engineer, tweeted the image, which was taken with an electronic still camera, set with a 24mm focal length. In his accompanying comments, Wiseman stated, "Sahara sands make the Earth glow orange."

Mission Imagery

During Expedition 61, the crew took images of the Earth views, the orbiting station, their daily lives aboard and the experiments they conducted during their stay, plus so much more. Check out some of the image highlights from Expedition 61 in the gallery.