Cosmonaut Ryzhikov handed over ISS command to American Walker
Russian cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov handed over command of the International Space Station (ISS) to American Shannon Walker, RIA Novosti reports.
The symbolic ceremony of handing over the keys to the station took place on April 15 in the US module Destiny in the presence of the entire station's ten-member crew.
Sergei Ryzhikov, along with another Russian, Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, and an American, Kathleen Rubins, will return to Earth on the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft on April 17. This crew has been working at the station since October 2020.
After the return of the Soyuz MS-17 to Earth, the ISS, besides Walker, will remain American astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Mark Vande Hai, the Japanese Soichi Noguchi, as well as the Russians Oleg Novitsky and Petr Dubrov.
Earlier, Russian cosmonauts Ryzhikov, Kud-Sverchkov, Dubrov and Novitsky congratulated the Russians on Cosmonautics Day.
