Expedition 61

Expedition 61 was an International Space Station increment commanded by ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano. The expedition began on October 3, 2019, after Soyuz MS-12 undocked and left Parmitano, Andrew Morgan, Alexander Skvortsov, Christina Koch, Oleg Skripochka, and Jessica Meir as the station's resident crew. NASA highlighted the increment's work on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer repair campaign, radiation-protection testing, rover-control research from orbit, cotton-plant growth studies, and a busy sequence of visiting vehicle operations. Expedition 61 was also notable for nine station spacewalks, including the first all-woman spacewalks by Koch and Meir and multiple complex spacewalks by Parmitano and Morgan to service the station's cosmic-ray detector. The increment ended on February 6, 2020, when Parmitano, Skvortsov, and Koch landed aboard Soyuz MS-13 and command passed to Oleg Skripochka for Expedition 62.