Expedition 72 Crew Members: New Images | International Space Station

Expedition 72 Crew Members: New Images | International Space Station

Clockwise from left, are Expedition 72 flight engineers Takuya Onishi from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, and Don Pettit, all three from NASA. The quartet is posing inside the vestibule between the International Space Station's Unity module and the Cygnus space freighter that would depart the orbital outpost soon after this photograph was taken.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 flight engineer Nichole Ayers opens the hatch to the Kibo laboratory module's airlock aboard the International Space Station.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut and Expedition 72 flight engineer Takuya Onishi monitors the Japanese Experiment Module Internal Ball Camera 2 aboard the International Space Station's Kibo laboratory module. The spherical, free-flying robotic camera tests the automation of capturing video and imagery enabling more crew time for important duties, such as microgravity research.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut and Expedition 72 flight engineer Takuya Onishi inserts a cryogenic storage unit, called a dewar, containing blood samples collected from a crew member into a science freezer for preservation and later analysis. The Minus Eighty-Degree Laboratory Freezer for International Space Station, or MELFI, is a research freezer that maintains experiment samples at ultra-cold temperatures in microgravity.

Expedition 72 flight engineers and NASA astronauts Don Pettit and Nichole Ayers prepare the NanoRacks External Platform with its grapple fixture attached for stowage aboard the International Space Station's Kibo laboratory module. The commercial research platform housed three different electrical and optical experiments that tested operations while exposed to the vacuum of space.

Expedition 72 flight engineers and NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers and Don Pettit extract the NanoRacks External Platform from the Kibo laboratory module's airlock aboard the International Space Station. The commercial research platform housed three electrical and optical experiments that tested operations while exposed to the vacuum of space.

City lights dot the northeastern landscape of China with a wispy aurora above Earth's horizon in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 262 miles above Asia. In the bottom foreground, is the Kibo laboratory module's Exposed Facility, an external research platform, and the orbital outpost's main solar arrays.

City lights dot the cloudy, midwestern landscape of the United States with a wispy aurora above Earth's horizon in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 261 miles above the Sunflower State of Kansas. In the bottom foreground, is the Kibo laboratory module's Exposed Facility, an external research platform, and the orbital outpost's main solar arrays.

April 2, 2025 Update: The International Space Station is orbiting higher today after the Progress 91 cargo craft fired its thrusters for over 17 minutes while docked to the Zvezda service module. The reboost places the orbital outpost at the correct altitude for the arrival of the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft and its three crew members next week.

NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexander Zubritsky will lift off aboard the Soyuz MS-27 at 1:47 a.m. on April 8, 2025, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They will orbit Earth twice before docking to the Pirs docking compartment just over three hours later. The trio will stay in space for an eight-month research mission.

Less than two weeks after the new crew’s arrival, NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit will return to Earth with Expedition 72 Commander Alexey Ovchinin and Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner. Ovchinin and Vagner are Roscosmos cosmonauts. The veteran crewmates will board the Soyuz MS-26 crew ship, undock from the Rassvet module, and parachute to a landing in the steppe of Kazakhstan less than three-and-a-half hours later ending a seven-month mission.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi will take over command of the space station from Ovchinin the day before he leaves with Pettit and Vagner. Expedition 72 will end and Expedition 73 will officially begin the moment the Soyuz MS-26 undocks from Rassvet.

Expedition 72 Updates:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 72 Crew

Station Commander: Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin (Russia)
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Ivan Vagner, Kirill Peskov
NASA Flight Engineers: Don Pettit, Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers 

JAXA Flight Engineer: Takuya Onishi

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science
For more information about STEM on Station:
https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation

Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Image Dates: March 15-March 28, 2025

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