[3][15][16][8] On 19 March 2021, the crew of Soyuz MS-17 boarded their spacecraft to relocate it from Rassvet to Poisk to make way for the arrival and docking of the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft,[9] which launched on 9 April 2021 carrying cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky, Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut, Mark T. Vande Hei to the ISS ahead of a six-month stay.

[11] Early planning had listed Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Chub as the mission's Flight Engineer 2, pending a NASA decision on whether they would purchase more seats on the Soyuz.

In May 2020, NASA purchased a Soyuz seat and assigned NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins to the Flight Engineer 2 position, backed up by astronaut Mark T. Vande Hei.

[17][20] Originally Russian cosmonauts Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner were set to fly as Commander and Flight Engineer 1 respectively.

Babkin remains an active cosmonaut, but has not yet been to space, while Tikhonov has retired from Roscosmos' astronaut corps.