On October 23, 2016, the American "Cygnus” (CRS OA--5 “Alan Poindexter”) private unmanned supply spacecraft was docked to the International Space Station (ISS). The cargo spacecraft was docked to the station’s "Unity” module at 14:53 UTC. The spacecraft delivered about 3300 kilograms of supplies to the Space Station. It was the 6th docking of a "Cygnus” spacecraft with the ISS.

On October 21, 2016 at 09:58 UTC the Russian "Soyuz MS-02” spacecraft docked with the Russian “Poisk” (MIM-2) module of the International Space Station.

The spacecraft delivered three new members of Expedition 49 to the ISS, Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko as well as American astronaut Robert Kimbrough. The new comers joined current ISS expedition members – Anatoliy Ivanishin, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi (大西 卓哉) and American astronaut Kathleen Rubins to form Expedition 49 crew of 6 members.