Expedition 51
Expedition 51 (April – June 2017) was the 51st expedition to the International Space Station, which began upon the departure of Soyuz MS-02 on April 10, 2017, and concluded upon the departure of Soyuz MS-03 on June 2, 2017. Peggy Whitson, Oleg Novitskiy and Thomas Pesquet were transferred from Expedition 50, with Peggy Whitson taking the commander role. She is the first woman to command two expeditions to the ISS, having previously commanded Expedition 16.
Promotional Poster | |
| Mission type | ISS Expedition |
|---|---|
| Expedition | |
| Space station | International Space Station |
| Began | 10 April 2017 UTC |
| Ended | 2 June 2017 UTC |
| Arrived aboard | Soyuz MS-03 Soyuz MS-04 |
| Departed aboard | Soyuz MS-03 Soyuz MS-04 |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 5 |
| Members | Expedition 50/51: Oleg Novitsky Thomas Pesquet Expedition 51/52: Fyodor Yurchikhin Jack Fischer Expedition 50/51/52 Peggy Whitson |
| EVAs | 2 |
Expedition 51 mission patch (l-r) Fischer, Yurchikhin, Pesquet, Whitson, Novitskiy ISS expeditions | |
Due to a decision to cut down the number of participating Russian cosmonauts in 2017, only two cosmonauts were launched on Soyuz MS-04 on April 20, 2017 - bringing the total crew number to five. Transfer of Command from Expedition 51 to Expedition 52 was done on June 1, 2017. Expedition 51 officially ended on June 2, 2017 10:47 UTC, with the undocking of Soyuz MS-03.