Expedition 33

Expedition 33 was a 2012 International Space Station resident increment commanded by NASA astronaut Sunita Williams. The increment began when Soyuz TMA-04M undocked in September 2012, leaving Williams, Yuri Malenchenko, and Akihiko Hoshide aboard from the Soyuz TMA-05M crew. Soyuz TMA-06M arrived in October with Oleg Novitsky, Yevgeni Tarelkin, and Kevin Ford, bringing the station back to six-person operations. The crew supported station research, maintenance, robotics, commercial cargo activity, and external maintenance during the early post-Shuttle period. The increment included Dragon CRS-1, SpaceX's first operational Commercial Resupply Services mission to the ISS, as well as station work that continued into the Expedition 34 handover. Expedition 33 ended when Williams, Malenchenko, and Hoshide returned to Earth on Soyuz TMA-05M, leaving Ford, Novitsky, and Tarelkin aboard for Expedition 34.