Expedition 56

Expedition 56 was a 2018 International Space Station increment commanded by NASA astronaut Andrew Feustel. It began when Soyuz MS-07 undocked with Anton Shkaplerov, Scott Tingle, and Norishige Kanai, leaving Feustel, Oleg Artemyev, and Richard Arnold aboard from Expedition 55. Soyuz MS-09 arrived a few days later with Sergei Prokopyev, Alexander Gerst, and Serena Auñón-Chancellor, restoring the station to a six-person crew. The expedition supported research in biology, human health, materials, quantum physics, Earth observation, navigation, combustion, and technology demonstrations. NASA highlighted work that included the Cold Atom Laboratory, DNA sequencing, plant and cell science, and educational outreach, while the crew also handled cargo vehicles and station maintenance. Feustel and Arnold completed U.S. spacewalk work early in the increment, and Artemyev and Prokopyev later performed a Russian EVA that installed the ICARUS animal-tracking experiment and deployed small satellites. Expedition 56 ended when Soyuz MS-08 undocked with Feustel, Artemyev, and Arnold, handing the station to Gerst for Expedition 57.