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Several astronauts have traveled into space aboard one spacecraft, only to return aboard a different spacecraft. Naturally this happened many times while the Space Shuttle was servicing the ISS, with crew members often returning aboard a different Shuttle than the one they arrived on.

It also happened at least once "unplanned," in 2023, when Soyuz MS-22 was damaged and Soyuz MS-23 was launched unmanned to return the crew.

In all of these cases, though, the astronauts returned aboard the same class of spacecraft.

Has there ever been an instance of an astronaut traveling to space aboard one class of spacecraft, and returning on another?

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    $\begingroup$ I just noticed that this is probably a duplicate of space.stackexchange.com/questions/18933/… (by reading the "related" links at the right) I didn't vote to close because I think it would insta-close due to the space-shuttle tag and I don't care for that. The answer there lists another example from Mir (STS-71 / TM-21). $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Aug 7 at 21:03
  • $\begingroup$ @OrganicMarble Indeed; it didn't show up in my search attempts before posting, or on the post review page. Thanks for finding that and for your answer. $\endgroup$
    – TypeIA
    Commented Aug 7 at 22:34
  • $\begingroup$ I didn't see it either until an hour ago. $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Aug 7 at 22:57
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    $\begingroup$ You might be surprised how many people launched and landed on different vehicles of the same type. By my count it has been 23 on Shuttle and 40 on Soyuz. In the case of Shuttle since it could only stay in space for a couple of weeks anyone that rode it up to be on an Expedition had to come back on a different Shuttle. Meanwhile Soyuz often had an “empty” third seat available which tourists, ESA astronauts etc. rode up with the arriving crew and came back a few days later with the departing crew. And there were some Soyuz ferry flights simply to replace capsules that had been up for too long. $\endgroup$
    – Steve Pemberton
    Commented Aug 8 at 4:08
  • $\begingroup$ Of course the elephant in the room is that the other question's answer will likely need to be updated next April to include Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams return on Dragon Crew 9, after launching on Starliner. I'm guessing that is the reason for this newer question. At the moment NASA says it is only considering that possiblity, but it seems pretty inevitable at this point and will likely be announced within a week. $\endgroup$
    – Steve Pemberton
    Commented Aug 8 at 17:41

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  • ISS Expedition 1 (Shepherd, Gidzenko, Krikalev) launched on a Soyuz (TM-31) and returned on a shuttle (STS-102).

  • ISS Expedition 6 (Bowersox, Budarin, Pettit) launched on a shuttle (STS-113) and returned on a Soyuz (TMA-1).

Source

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  • $\begingroup$ ASTP? The definitional example, perhaps? $\endgroup$
    – geoffc
    Commented Aug 7 at 17:08
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    $\begingroup$ @geoffc don't recall any crew/vehicle swapping on ASTP. $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Aug 7 at 17:22
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    $\begingroup$ Not sure if it counts but you might also be able to include Sergei Zalyotin, Frank De Winne, and Yury Lonchakov who launched on a TMA class (2002–2011) Soyuz and landed in a TM class (1986–2002). That was on TMA-01 which launched to ISS on November 1st, 2002. They landed eight days later in TM-34 the last TM Soyuz. Landing in TMA-01 in May 2003 were the three astronauts that you mentioned who rode up on STS-113. Generally speaking TM was the Mir Soyuz (29 flights) although it also made the first four Soyuz flights to ISS. TMA had an upgraded interior including the first Soyuz glass cockpit. $\endgroup$
    – Steve Pemberton
    Commented Aug 8 at 5:05
  • $\begingroup$ Future readers: there is a superior (but unaccepted) answer at space.stackexchange.com/q/18933/6944 $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Aug 8 at 13:05
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    $\begingroup$ @geoffc that did not happen. They landed in the craft they launched in. In fact the Apollo splashdown is famous because the (US) crew made an error and almost killed themselves. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo%E2%80%93Soyuz $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Aug 8 at 20:07

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