Preparations for Crew-11 return continue

Crew-11 and NASA astronaut Mike Fincke wrapped up his time as commander of the International Space Station on Monday, Jan. 12, after just over a month in the position, and around the same amount of time sooner than he expected to give up the position. 

During a change of command ceremony broadcast from the ISS, Fincke, 58, handed over the symbolic key to the space station to Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, 42. He called the early departure “bittersweet.”

Naturally, the next few days on the ISS are going to be relatively news-intensive, and we just gotta know that they're not going to have a crew on the ISS - even a 3 man crew as there will be - without a commanding officer. Choosing a CO and passing on the chain of command seems essential.

“I just want to say thank you for the first part of Expedition 74, but also the last part of Expedition 73. It’s been really amazing,” Fincke said. “My friend Scott Kelly says that spaceflight is the biggest team sport and it’s true. We got a great time.

“Everybody really rose to the occasion for our expeditions and it’s been really a pleasure to be here.”

Fincke thanked his crew mates individually, wrapping up his comments by calling fellow NASA astronaut and fellow member of Crew-11, Zena Cardman, 38, “a rock star, superstar, awesome star.”

The crew-11 team again: in the front row, Mike Fincke, and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui. Back row is Russia's Oleg Platonov, and NASA's Zena Cardman.

The schedule for the departure and return is essentially as we published Saturday. Crew-11 will undock from the space-facing port of the Harmony module at approximately 5:00 p.m. EST (2200 UTC) on Wednesday, Jan. 14, and splash down off the coast of California around 3:40 a.m. EST (0840 UTC) on Thursday, Jan. 15.

The early departure of CREW-11 will leave the ISS with only three people on board,Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, 42, the new commander, NASA astronaut Chris Williams, 42, a Harvard-educated physician, and another cosmonaut: Sergey Mikayev, 39. Crew-12's launch date hasn't been officially announced but NextSpaceflight has moved the date from NET February 12 to February 15th.