SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Expedition 15 Takes Charge After Ceremony*

Image above: Expedition 14 hands over control of the station to Expedition 15 during a change-of-command ceremony. Image credit: NASA TV

TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin is now in charge of the International Space Station. Staying with him after Expedition 14 leaves are flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams. The change-of-command ceremony took place in the Destiny laboratory at 4:40 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi leave the station April 21 in a Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft. They will land northeast of Arkalyk which is southeast of the usual landing site in Kazakhstan.

On Monday, Suni Williams became the first human to run the Boston Marathon in space. She finished the race on a specially designed treadmill in 4 hours, 23 minutes and ten seconds.

+ Read more http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition14/exp14_boston_marathon.html + Listen to message from Williams to marathon participants http://www.nasa.gov/mp3/174328main_103_Suni_Thanks_for_Running.mp3

+ Read more about Expedition 15 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/index.html + Read more about Expedition 14 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition14/index.html + View Crew's Daily Timelines http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/timelines/index.html