Expedition 15 Returns Home

The Expedition 15 crew members have returned home.

After bidding farewell to the Expedition 16 crew Saturday night, the Expedition 15 crew, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, boarded their Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft for the return to Earth. They undocked from the station around 3:14 a.m. EDT Sunday and landed in the steppes of Kazakhstan at 6:36 a.m.

Joining Expedition 15 for the journey home was spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, a Malaysian flying under an agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). He arrived at the station with the Expedition 16 crew, Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko, on Oct 12.

At a change of command ceremony Friday afternoon, the Expedition 15 crew formally handed over command of the station to Expedition 16.

Accepting command of the station from Yurchikhin, Whitson remarked, “It’s been a very impressive mission, and you guys have performed exceptionally.”

Flight Engineer Clay Anderson, who joined Expedition 15 in June, will remain onboard as a member of Expedition 16, until his replacement, astronaut Dan Tani, arrives on the STS-120 shuttle mission later this month.