Expedition 31

Expedition 31 was a 2012 International Space Station resident increment commanded by Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko. The expedition began when Soyuz TMA-22 departed on April 27, 2012, leaving the Soyuz TMA-03M crew of Kononenko, André Kuipers, and Donald Pettit aboard the station. Soyuz TMA-04M arrived in May with Gennady Padalka, Sergei Revin, and Joseph Acaba, restoring the station to six-person operations. The crew carried out station research, maintenance, robotic operations, and visiting-vehicle work during the early post-Shuttle period. A defining event of the increment was the SpaceX Dragon C2+ demonstration, the first commercial spacecraft mission to berth with the ISS. Expedition 31 ended when Kononenko, Kuipers, and Pettit returned to Earth on Soyuz TMA-03M, leaving Padalka, Revin, and Acaba to continue into Expedition 32.