Mike Fincke transfers ISS command to Sergey Kud-Sverchkov as Crew-11 prepares to depart

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke handed over command of the International Space Station to Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov at 2:35 p.m. EST today. The Change of Command Ceremony precedes the targeted departure of Fincke with Zena Cardman of NASA, Kimiya Yui of JAXA, and Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos aboard the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission is targeted to undock from the Harmony module’s space-facing port at 5:05 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Jan. 14, and is planned to complete a parachute-assisted landing inside Dragon to a splashdown off the coast of California less than 12 hours later at about 3:40 a.m.

on Thursday, Jan. 15. NASA and SpaceX support personnel will retrieve Dragon and the crew from the Pacific Ocean and return them to California before the crewmates fly back to their home agencies. Fincke, with assistance from his three homebound crewmates, packed gear and personal items inside Dragon throughout Monday.

At the end of Monday’s shift the foursome retrieved computer tablets from inside Dragon and reviewed the steps they will use while departing the station and reentering Earth’s atmosphere. The three crew members remaining aboard—Kud-Sverchkov with Chris Williams of NASA and Sergey Mikaev of Roscosmos—will await the arrival of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 members Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, both from NASA, Sophie Adenot of ESA, and Andrey Fedyaev of Roscosmos.

Key Topics

Science, International Space Station, Mike Fincke, Sergey Kud-sverchkov, Spacex Dragon, Harmony Module