Expedition 48 Crew Hands Over the Space Station to Expedition 49

The reins of the International Space Station were passed from NASA’s Jeff Williams to cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos during a ceremony on the orbital outpost on Sept. 5. Williams is returning to Earth Sept. 7 with his Expedition 48 crewmates, Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos in the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft for a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to complete a 172-day mission. Ivanishin remains on the station as commander of Expedition 49 along with Flight Engineers Kate Rubins of