Command Changes At International Space Station

U.S. astronaut Mike Fossum just took the helm at the International Space Station as outgoing commander Andrey Borisenko and his Expedition 28 crew prepared to depart the outpost and return to Earth tomorrow.

Borisenko relinquished command of the station during a short ceremony in the Japanese Kibo module on the U.S. side of the orbiting outpost. Returning to Earth with him: Russian cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyaev and US. astronaut Ron Garan. The trio launched to the station on April 4 and arrived at the complex two days later.

You can watch live coverage of a farewell ceremony, undocking, deorbit burn and landing here in The Flame Trench between 5 p.m. and midnight tomorrow night. Click the NASA TV box on the right to launch our NASA TV viewer and live coverage. Refresh this page for periodic updates.

Remaining onboard with Fossum: Russian flight engineer Sergei Volkov and Satoshi Furukawa of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. They launched to the station June 7 and arrived June 9. The three are scheduled to return to Earth on Nov 16.

The next crew of the station -- Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin, and U.S. astronaut Dan Burbank -- are tentatively scheduled to launch Nov. 12, pending completion of return-to-flight activities in the wake of an Aug. 24 Soyuz rocket failure.

ABOUT THE IMAGE: Click to enlarge the NASA TV screen grab. Borisenko, Samokutyaev and Garan are stacked one behind the other on the left. Fossum, Volkov and Furukawa are one behind the other on the right.