Expedition 30

Expedition 30 was a 2011-2012 International Space Station resident increment commanded by NASA astronaut Daniel Burbank. The expedition began when Soyuz TMA-02M departed on November 21, 2011, leaving Burbank, Anton Shkaplerov, and Anatoli Ivanishin aboard from the Soyuz TMA-22 crew. Soyuz TMA-03M arrived in December with Oleg Kononenko, André Kuipers, and Donald Pettit, restoring six-person operations. The crew supported station research, maintenance, and visiting-vehicle work during the first full post-Shuttle year of ISS operations. A major focus was ESA's third Automated Transfer Vehicle, Edoardo Amaldi, which docked during the increment and carried supplies, propellant, and experiment hardware. Expedition 30 ended when Burbank, Shkaplerov, and Ivanishin returned to Earth on Soyuz TMA-22, while Kononenko, Kuipers, and Pettit continued into Expedition 31.