Departure Preps and Handover Activities for Crew

Expedition 24 Commander Alexander Skvortsov and Flight Engineers Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Mikhail Kornienko made final preparations Wednesday for their departure from the International Space Station and their return home.

The Expedition 24 crew members participate in a ceremonial change of command ceremony aboard the International Space Station Wednesday. Credit: NASA TV

They are set to depart the station aboard their Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft Thursday with hatch closure scheduled for 6:20 p.m. EDT, undocking at 9:35 p.m. and landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan at about 12:55 a.m. Friday.

To prepare the Soyuz for departure, Skvortsov, Kornienko and Caldwell Dyson conducted a checkout of its systems and stowed items for return to Earth.

Once they undock, Expedition 25 will begin its increment with Commander Doug Wheelock and Flight Engineers Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin continuing their stay on the station.

Skvortsov ceremonially handed command of the station over to Wheelock on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Wheelock, Walker and Yurchikhin participated in an emergency Soyuz descent drill with Russian flight control teams to prepare for the unlikely event that they would need to evacuate the station aboard the spacecraft.

Wheelock, Walker and Caldwell Dyson also had time scheduled to relocate crew living quarters from the Japanese Kibo laboratory to the U.S. Harmony module.