Expedition 23

Expedition 23 was a 2010 International Space Station resident increment commanded by Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kotov. The increment began when Soyuz TMA-16 departed on March 18, 2010, leaving the Soyuz TMA-17 crew of Kotov, Soichi Noguchi, and Timothy Creamer aboard the station. Soyuz TMA-18 arrived in early April with Aleksandr Skvortsov, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, and Mikhail Kornienko, restoring the ISS to a six-person crew. The expedition supported laboratory research in human physiology, plant growth, fluid physics, materials science, and station operations while receiving visiting Shuttle and Progress traffic. STS-131 delivered the Leonardo logistics module and major station supplies, and STS-132 later delivered the Rassvet module during the same increment. Expedition 23 ended when Kotov, Noguchi, and Creamer returned to Earth on Soyuz TMA-17, after which Skvortsov, Caldwell Dyson, and Kornienko continued into Expedition 24.