Posted: Wed, Sep 27, 2006, 7:52 PM ET (2352 GMT)
The Expedition 14 crew officially took over control of the International Space Station Wednesday as the Expedition 13 crew and a commercial passenger prepared for their trip back to Earth. Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria relieved Expedition 13 commander Pavel Vinogradov during a brief ceremony on the station Wednesday. Lopez-Alegria and Mikhail Tyurin arrived at the ISS on a Soyuz last week to take over for Vinogradov and Jeffrey Williams; the third member of the Expedition 13 crew, Thomas Reiter, will remain on the station until he is replaced by astronaut Sunita Williams on a shuttle mission scheduled for December. Vinogradov, Williams, and commercial passenger Anousheh Ansari, who flew to the ISS with the Expedition 14 crew, will return to Earth late Thursday.
