New Space Station Crew Takes Charge

Two Russian cosmonauts turned over control of the International Space Station to their replacements Wednesday as they prepare to return to Earth with an American space tourist.

Space station commander Sergei Volkov and flight engineer Oleg Kononenko, both of Expedition 17, handed the orbiting laboratory?s reins to its new Expedition 18 crew during a traditional change of command ceremony. The two cosmonauts are due to land on the Central Asian steppes of Kazakhstan late Thursday with American space tourist Richard Garriott.

?I would like to thank everyone for the support we?ve received throughout our six-month stay on board the station,? Volkov said during the televised ceremony. ?We tried to do our best here. We accomplished a lot of tasks.?

Volkov and Kononenko arrived at the station in April and hosted one visiting NASA shuttle in June that delivered Japan?s tour bus-sized Kibo lab. They also performed two spacewalks outside the station in July. During one, they retrieved a suspect explosive bolt from their Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft for the return trip to Earth.

The Expedition 17 crew?s landing will mark a human spaceflight first. It will be the first time two second-generation spaceflyers, Volkov and Garriott, will return to Earth together.

Volkov?s father is famed Russian long-duration cosmonaut Alexander Volkov. Garriott?s father is retired NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, a veteran station flyer aboard the U.S. Skylab outpost in 1973.

?Thanks to both crews for welcoming me here onto your station,? said Garriott, who is paying about $30 million for his 10-day trip under a deal between Russia?s Federal Space Agency and the Vienna, Va.-based firm Space Adventures. He is the sixth paying visitor to the space station and the first American second-generation spaceflyer.

Volkov turned command of the station over to Expedition 18 commander Michael Fincke, of NASA, and Russian flight engineer Yury Lonchakov. The two veteran spaceflyers launched toward the station with Garriott on Oct. 12 and arrived two days later.

?You guys did so much and you left the ship in really fine shape,? said Fincke, a veteran station astronaut making his second long-duration trip. ?We?re very proud to be able to take the ship and to work with it hopefully as well as you have.?

The third member of the new crew is NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff, who joined the Expedition 17 crew during the June shuttle mission. He will stay on for the first part of Expedition 18 until his replacement arrives aboard NASA?s shuttle Endeavour next month.

?It?s been an honor and a privilege to serve onboard the International Space Station as part of Expedition 17,? said Chamitoff, adding that Volkov and Kononenko have become lifelong friends. ?It?s really sad for me to see them go, but I hope maybe we can fly again in space someday.?

Garriott and the Expedition 17 crew are slated to undock from the space station at around 8:15 p.m. EDT (0015 Oct. 24 GMT) and land at 11:36 p.m. EDT (0336 Oct. 24 GMT).

Richard Garriott is chronicling his spaceflight training and mission at his personal Web site: www.richardinspace.com.

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