SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Station Crews Begin Handover*

Expedition 14 and Expedition 15Image above: In the front row is Expedition 15 with Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi (at right). In the back row is the outgoing Expedition 14 crew. Flight Engineer Suni Williams will stay onboard with Expedition 15. Image credit: NASA TV TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Expedition 15 arrived at the International Space Station at 3:12 p.m. EDT Monday. Both station crews have begun handover activities and are working together to complete standard tasks.

+ Read more about the docking http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/exp15_launch_advancer.html

The Expedition 14 crew members continue their maintenance tasks and exercise activities. The three cosmonauts onboard the station – Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov and Expedition 14 Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin – will be working together as Expedition 14 hands over control of the station to Expedition 15.

Since the first station element, the Zarya cargo module, was launched, the International Space Station has orbited the Earth 48,000 times. This is the equivalent of traveling 1.26 billion miles or traveling to Mars and back 20 time