Handover Activities Continue on Station

The astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station continued Thursday to press ahead with handover, cargo transfer and science activities. Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu had ISS handover discussions and walkthroughs with their replacements, Expedition 8 Commander Michael Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri.

Meanwhile, European Space Agency Astronaut Pedro Duque worked on the experiments that he is performing for European scientists. Thursday’s experiments focussed on physical science and bioastronautics research.

The crewmembers continued to transfer cargo between the International Space Station and the two Soyuz spacecraft. Kaleri placed a Russian experiment into the ISS Soyuz 6 spacecraft so it could return to Earth with Expedition 7 on Monday.

Earlier in the day, all five astronauts and cosmonauts fielded questions from reporters in the United States and Russia during their Joint Crew News Conference.

The two crews will hold a change of command ceremony at 1:20 p.m. CDT (1820 GMT) Friday. The official change of command will take place when Malenchenko, Lu and Duque leave the Station on Monday. The Expedition 8 crew will spend the next six months on the Station.