Posts: 691
From: Salzburg, Austria
Registered: Jun 2003

posted 03-17-2013 05:54 AM               

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ISS Expedition 35 began when Chris Hadfield took command of the International Space Station on March 13, 2013. This is neither the docking day of the new crew nor undocking day of the old crew.

Is there an official list, when each ISS crew started and ended?

Posts: 1031
From: The Netherlands
Registered: Jan 2003

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 03-17-2013 10:11 AM               

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To elaborate on what Erik wrote, the reason the change of command occurs before the end/start of an expedition is to free the out-going commander from having to concern him/herself of anything but the preparations for returning to Earth.

From what I understand, it is mostly in case of an emergency, when the commander would be responsible for making sure the station's crew was either evacuating or taking the proper actions.

Current expeditions are staggered, with the station crew temporarily dropping to three members as they wait the arrival of the next three-person Soyuz. When the station's full crew was smaller or when the shuttle was used to rotate the crew, the expedition changed on the same day as the change of command.