Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford handed command of the International Space Station over to Flight Engineer Chris Hadfield during a change of command ceremony on Wednesday. Hadfield, a veteran of the Canadian Space Agency, is the first Canadian commander of the station.
Expedition 35 will officially begin with the undocking of the Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft on Thursday.
Ford and Flight Engineers Evgeny Tarelkin and Oleg Novitskiy continued preparations for their journey back to Earth, stowing items and making final equipment checks. The departing trio is scheduled to undock aboard their Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft from the station’s Poisk Mini-Research Module 2 at about 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, landing in the steppe of Kazakhstan northeast of the remote town of Arkalyk about 3 ½ hours later.
NASA TV undocking coverage will begin Thursday at 4:45 p.m. with a crew farewell ceremony. Hatch closure between the Soyuz and station is set for 5:15 p.m.
Chris Hadfield becomes the first Canadian commander