[2] In March 2017, after agreements with RSA, NASA announced that Joseph Acaba will be assigned to Expedition 53 and 54 crews, which previously included only Mark Vande Hei and Alexander Misurkin.

[4] Soyuz MS-05 launched on July 28, 2017, transporting Randy Bresnik, Sergey Ryazansky and Paolo Nespoli, who would make up the Expedition 52/53 crew.

On September 17, the SpaceX CRS-12 Dragon cargo spacecraft was released by Bresnick and Nespoli using the Canadarm2, clearing the Harmony module's docking port.

[14] Bresnik was the subject of a study on physiological changes due to microgravity,[13] he is one of 33 astronauts that had signed on to participate in NASA's Biological Specimen Repository.

[21] Acaba setup hardware for the Veggie-3 experiment[22] that grew Extra Dwarf Pak Choi, Amara Mustard and Red Romaine Lettuce to set the ground work to feed future long-duration missions to space.

[32] In addition to their duties as researchers and maintenance technicians, astronauts Vande Hei and Acaba shared their science and technology studies with students from Shaker Heights High School in Cleveland, Ohio.

[34] Vande Hei also setup gear to analyze the air in the space station for dust[35] to highlight any health impacts and maintain crewmember well being.

[43] The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (or BEAM) was outfitted in late November for future stowage operations by removing excess gear including inflations tanks and sensors.

[48] Mark T. Vande Hei 12:56 19:22 Joseph M. Acaba 12:46 19:36 Resupply missions that visited the International Space Station during Expedition 53: