On November 21, 2016, the US "Cygnus” (CRS OA--5 “Alan Poindexter”) unmanned supply spacecraft was undocked from the International Space Station. The spacecraft, which had been attached to the space station since October 23, 2016, was released by astronauts aboard the station using the orbiting complex's huge robotic arm at 13:22 UTC. Astronauts Robert Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet managed the departure procedures from a robotics work station inside the cupola module. It was the 6th successful flight of "Cygnus” to the ISS. But Cygnus CRS-5 spacecraft’s mission is not over.

On November 19, 2016 at 21:58 UTC (on November 20 at 00:58 Moscow time) the Russian "Soyuz MS-03” spacecraft docked with the Russian “Rassvet” (MIM-1) module of the International Space Station.

The spacecraft delivered three new members of Expedition 50 to the ISS, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet and American astronaut Peggy Whitson. The new comers joined current ISS expedition members – Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko as well as American astronaut Robert Kimbrough.