Change of Command Ceremony on the Space Station

Today November 24 at 21:13 UTC the Change of Command Ceremony aboard the International Space Station was completed. The American astronaut Doug Wheels who until today was Commander of the Expedition 25 changed the post with his countryman Scott Kelly who assumed the command of the International space station.

Previously at 13:00 UTC Wheelock handed over command of the station to Kelly as Commander of Expedition 26. Kelly will be the first astronaut to have commanded both a space shuttle mission and the station.

Wheels gave a short overview on his experience on the ISS and also mentioned that around 130 experiments are currently on going onboard the outpost. Moreover he thanked the ground teams for their constant support starting with the European Flight Control team in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich, Germany; contining with the Japanese colleagues at SSIPC in Tsukuba; and finalizing with the Russian and American controllers in Moscow, Houston and Huntsville respectively.

Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA Expedition 25 Commander Doug Wheelock and NASA Flight Engineer Shannon Walker are scheduled to land in the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft on the northern steppe of Kazakhstan on Nov. 25 (Nov. 26 European and Western time).

In Spanish

Noticias abordo de la Estacion Espacial:

A bordo de la Estacion Espacial se llevo a cabo la ceremonia del cambio de Commandante. El astronauta Norteamericano Doug Wheels quien hasta hoy era Commandante del Incremento 25 le cedio el puesto a su compatriota Scott Kelly quien desde este momento asumió el mando de la Estación Espacial Internacional.

Juan Martín Canales Romero

ISS Columbus Operations Coordinator

Columbus Control Center

Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany