ISS 34: Expedition news, updates and videos

Expedition 33 commander Suni Williams ceremonially handed over command of the International Space Station on Saturday (Nov. 17) to fellow NASA astronaut Kevin Ford on the eve of her departure from the complex along with Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Roscosmos Soyuz commander Yuri Malenchenko.

Ford, who has served as an Expedition 33 flight engineer since arriving at the station Oct. 25, will become commander of Expedition 34 at the time the Soyuz TMA-05M carrying Williams, Hoshide and Malenchenko undocks from the station Sunday (Nov. 18) at 4:26 p.m. CST (2226 GMT) for a landing in the steppe of Kazakhstan several hours later.

Ford and his crewmates, flight engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin, will tend to the station as a three-man crew until the arrival of three additional flight engineers in December.

NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Roman Romanenko are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome Dec. 19 and dock to the station two days later for a five-month stay.