The International Space Station's (ISS) Expedition 46 begins with the scheduled undocking of Soyuz TMA-17M in November 2015. New crew members will arrive shortly thereafter on Soyuz TMA-18M.
ISS Expedition 46 will be commanded by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly. His crewmates, all flight engineers, include: Roscosmos cosmonauts Mikhail Korniyenko, Sergey Volkov and Yuri Malenchenko, NASA astronaut Tim Kopra and European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake.
The 46 icon in the foreground of the patch represents the forty-sixth expedition mission to the International Space Station.
Earth is depicted at the top with the flags of the countries of origin of the crew members: United States, Russia and the United Kingdom. The Union flag of the UK is displayed in a position of prominence in recognition of the significance of the first British ESA astronaut (Tim Peake) to fly in space.
The outer border is in the shape of a triangle with an unbroken border, symbolizing the infinite journey of discovery for past, present and future space explorers. The names of the six Expedition 46 astronauts and cosmonauts are shown in the border.