CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A U.S. Navy skipper relinquished command of the International Space Station to a Russian cosmonaut Sunday as astronauts aboard shuttle Discovery set out to ferry the outpost's vanguard crew back to Earth.
In a ceremony steeped in naval tradition, outgoing station commander Bill Shepherd handed the ship's logs and the helm of the outpost -- also known by the radio call sign "Alpha" -- to Yuri Usachev, a veteran of two tours aboard the doomed Russian Mir complex.
| Undocking Next |
| With the first full-time tenants of the International Space Station in tow, shuttle Discovery will depart the outpost about 11:32 p.m. EST Sunday (04:32 GMT Monday), circling the complex as they head off on a two-day trip back to Earth. Click here for live coverage. |
"We pass to your care Alpha's log with the hope that many successful entries here are recorded, that explorations are prodigious and discoveries wondrous," Shepherd said as Discovery and the station flew in tandem high above Earth. "May the good will, spirit and sense of mission we had enjoyed on board endure. Sail her well."
Added Usachev: "Congratulations on the successful completion of your flight on ISS. Thanks again for having the station in a good condition, and [for passing] the station from your hands, to our hands, to our minds and to our hearts."Coming just four days before the 15-year-old Mir is expected to make a controlled but destructive dive back through the atmosphere, the first changing-of-the-guard at the new international outpost capped a 136-day station "shakedown cruise" for Shepherd and two cosmonaut colleagues.
Launched Oct. 31 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the so-called Expedition One crew -- which includes Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev -- boarded the station two days later.
Since then the three men struggled to activate crucial life support and other operational systems within the Russian Service Module, which doubles as a command post and crew quarters at the outpost.
They also oversaw the delivery and activation of a $600 million U.S. electric power tower and the American-made Destiny science laboratory, which is the first of six research facilities that the U.S., Russia and 14 other project partners plan to launch to the station.
And during the past week, they helped unload an Italian moving van that was launched March 8 aboard Discovery with five tons of supplies and equipment for the station's second expedition crew, which includes U.S. flight engineers Susan Helms and Jim Voss.
"We are on a true spaceship now," Shepherd said as 10 astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the linked shuttle-station complex floated in the $1.4 billion Destiny lab.
"We have made Alpha come alive. We gave her a name and put substance to the idea that our crews can work together as equals and our countries as partners -- that we may proceed with bolder and more enterprising voyages in space."
Discovery commander Jim Wetherbee, meanwhile, expressed amazement at both the growing station and the accomplishments of Shepherd and his crew, who turned a long-vacant outpost into a fully functional science center in orbit.
"We are in awe of the skill of the designers and the builders of this vehicle," Wetherbee said, noting that his shuttle crew took its temporary stewardship aboard the station seriously.
"While aboard, we took great care of the systems for this is not our ship. We merely sail on it. This ship belongs to the people of Earth," he said.
"For Captain Shepherd and his crew, we hold you in admiration as we prepare to bring you home. This has been an arduous duty for you. This ship was not built in a safe harbor. It was built on the high seas."
Rookie shuttle pilot Jim Kelly planned to back Discovery away from the outpost late Sunday and then circle the station before heading off on a two-day trip back to Earth.
With Shepherd and his Russian crewmates in tow, Discovery remains scheduled to land here at Kennedy Space Center at 12:55 a.m. EST (05:55 GMT) Wednesday.
"We witness your departure with both regret and happiness," astronaut Cady Coleman told Shepherd and his crewmates from NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas. "Regret because we will miss working with you [and] happiness because you are speeding home towards a reunion with family and friends and a well-deserved rest."
Touchdown will come 141 days after the Expedition One crew's launch.
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