ISS Expedition 74 Returns After 1,400+ Hours of Research — NASA Stages Public Homecoming

Six astronauts and cosmonauts from Expedition 74 completed long-duration ISS missions spanning 237-241 days, logging 1,400+ research hours across cancer pharma, 3D printing, and Artemis-critical life support.

NASA will host a public homecoming event at Space Center Houston on November 17 for the six crew members of Expedition 74, marking the conclusion of two overlapping long-duration missions aboard the International Space Station. The event doubles as an awards ceremony for key mission contributors.

The crew arrived and departed the station via two different vehicles, underscoring the ISS program's continued dependence on both Russian and American launch infrastructure. Chris Williams, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, and Sergei Mikaev launched aboard Soyuz MS-28 from Baikonur on November 27, 2025, and returned to Kazakhstan on July 26 after 241 days and 3,856 orbits. Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, and Sophie Adenot launched aboard SpaceX Crew-12's Dragon from Cape Canaveral on February 13, splashing down off Los Angeles on October 8 after 237 days and 3,792 orbits. A seventh crew member, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, flew with Crew-12 but is unavailable for the event. The mission's research portfolio was substantial: more than 1,400 hours of science and technology demonstrations. The crew tested metal and tissue 3D-printing technologies relevant to in-space manufacturing, ran blood flow studies and piloting-capability assessments under variable gravity, and activated a new compact exercise system — all feeding directly into NASA's long-duration exploration planning for Artemis lunar missions and eventual Mars expeditions. Pharmaceutical research stood out as a distinct thread. The crew crystallized proteins for cancer medications, advanced tumor-targeting treatments, and grew stem cells for therapeutics — work that exploits microgravity's unique advantages for molecular structure research. They also tended the first set of plants studied outside curated growing systems and upgraded an instrument for matter science and quantum technology development. Operationally, the crew managed visiting spacecraft traffic and performed maintenance essential to keeping the 26-year-old laboratory running. The ISS has been continuously occupied for more than two decades, and every expedition now carries the dual burden of frontier research and aging-infrastructure upkeep. Beyond the lab, Expedition 74 conducted educational outreach through live events and imagery sharing — a low-cost, high-return investment in public engagement that sustains political support for the program. The ISS remains the primary platform for understanding long-duration spaceflight physiology and expanding commercial low-Earth-orbit opportunities before the station's planned retirement. The homecoming event is open to the public at Space Center Houston, with media interview requests due by 5 p.m. November 16 via jsc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov.