Expedition 59


Expedition 59 was the 59th Expedition to the International Space Station. It started with the arrival of the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft carrying Aleksey Ovchinin, Nick Hague and Christina Koch, joining Oleg Kononenko, David Saint-Jacques and Anne McClain who transferred from Expedition 58. The expedition formally began on March 15, 2019. Ovchinin and Hague were originally meant to fly to the ISS aboard Soyuz MS-10, but returned to Earth minutes after takeoff due to a contingency abort. The expedition formally ended with the undocking of the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft carrying Kononenko, Saint-Jacques and McClain on 24 June 2019; Ovchinin, Hague and Koch transferred to Expedition 60.

Crew

Spacewalks

Uncrewed spaceflights to the ISS

Resupply missions that visited the International Space Station during Expedition 59:
Spacecraft
- ISS flight number		CountryMissionLauncherLaunch
Docked/Berthed
Undocked/Unberthed
Duration Deorbit
Progress MS-11
- ISS 72P		LogisticsSoyuz-2.1a4 Apr 2019, 11:01:354 Apr 2019, 14:2229 Jul 2019, 10:4429 Jul 2019, 13:50
Cygnus NG-11
- CRS NG-11		LogisticsAntares 23017 Apr 2019, 20:46:0719 Apr 2019, 09:286 Aug 2019, 16:156 Dec 2019, 15:28
SpaceX CRS-17
- SpX-17		LogisticsFalcon 94 May 2019, 06:486 May 2019, 13:333 Jun 2019, 16:013 Jun 2019, 20:56

Mission summary

Researchers on Expedition 59 will conduct experimentation on tissue chips since the microgravity environment can replicate the effects of aging and disease. The expedition will also conduct experiments on regolith simulants, Earth's atmospheric carbon cycle, and Astrobee robots designed to conduct routine chores aboard the ISS.