Expedition 40 Hands Over the Space Station to Expedition 41

The reins of the International Space Station were passed from NASAs Steve Swanson to Max Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) during a ceremony on the orbital outpost on Sept. 9. Swanson will return to Earth Sept. 11, Kazakh time, in the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft with Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev to wrap up almost six months in orbit. Suraev will remain on board with NASA Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst, awaiting the arrival of Alexander Samokutyaev of Roscosmos, Barry Wilmore of NASA and Elena Serova of Roscosmos, who will launch to the complex on Sept. 26, Kazakh time.