Joining Whitson are first-time fliers Shubhanshu Shukla from India, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland, and Tibor Kapu from Hungary. The mission brings a return to human spaceflight for these three countries, as in over 40 years the countries have not seen a government-sponsored astronaut.

The launches were the 52nd and 53rd orbital rocket liftoffs thus far this year from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center.