Interactive video lesson plan for: Expedition 51 Crew Hands Over the Space Station to Expedition 52

The reins of command of the International Space Station were passed from NASA’s Peggy Whitson to Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) during a ceremony on the orbital outpost June 1. Although Whitson is remaining on the station as an Expedition 52 crew member, Yurchikhin will serve as Expedition 52 commander until he, Whitson and NASA’s Jack Fischer return home in early September. Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency will return to Earth as a two-man crew on June 2 in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, completing a six and a half month mission.

Tagged under: NASA,International Space Station,Expedition 51,Expedition 52,Russian Federal Space Agency,Roscosmos,Change Command,Ceremony,Peggy Whitson,Fyodor Yurchikhin,Jack Fischer,Thomas Pesquet,European Space Agency,ESA,Oleg Novitskiy