Expedition Crews Work Together

The newly arrived Expedition 16 crew members are familiarizing themselves with life aboard the International Space Station as Expedition 15 nears the end of its mission.

_{Image at Right: Flight Engineer Clay Anderson and Commander Peggy Whitson take a break from handover activities to talk to the press Monday.}

The Expedition 16 crew, Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineers Yuri Malenchenko and Clay Anderson, joined with Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov for several hours of dedicated handover activity on Monday.

Whitson and Anderson reviewed the Crew Medical Restraint System and the exercise equipment aboard the station.

Malenchenko began his first shuttle photography training session. The station crew will use digital cameras to take high-resolution images of space shuttle Discovery's thermal protection system when it approaches the station for docking later this month.

Whitson, Malenchenko and spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor docked with the station aboard their Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft at 10:50 a.m. Friday.

Expedition 15 welcomed the new crew aboard the station when the hatches were opened at 12:22 p.m. Friday. Afterwards, Anderson, who joined Expedition 15 in June, became an Expedition 16 crew member when his seatliner was moved from the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft to Soyuz TMA-11.

Both crews will work together until Oct. 21, when Yurchikhin, Kotov and Shukor depart aboard Soyuz TMA-10. Anderson will remain with Expedition 16 and return to Earth with the Discovery crew on the STS-120 mission.

Image Credit: NASA TV