The first two crew members, Sergey Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, were launched on 8 April 2008, aboard the Soyuz TMA-12.

Once aboard the station, they joined Garrett Reisman, who transferred from Expedition 16 to join the Expedition 17 crew.

Reisman was replaced by Gregory Chamitoff, who launched aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-124 on 31 May 2008.

Volkov and Kononenko landed safely on 24 October 2008, while Chamitoff remained aboard the station as an Expedition 18 crewmember.

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.