ISS, December 7. /TASS/. Roscosmos cosmonaut and commander of the International Space Station (ISS) Sergey Ryzhikov has handed over the command of the station to NASA astronaut Michael Fincke and the command of the station’s Russian segment to Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, who will also be TASS’ next special correspondent aboard the ISS.

"Today, the 73rd ISS expedition, which is finishing its space mission, handed over the Russian segment to the 74th expeditions. I took over the command and we signed a corresponding document with Sergey Ryzhikov," Kud-Sverchkov said.

Later, Ryzhikov handed over his duties as the ISS command and the symbolic key to the station to NASA astronaut Michael Fincke.

The Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle, carrying the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft, blasted off from the Baikonur space center on Thursday at 12:28 p.m. Moscow time (9:28 a.m. GMT). The spacecraft docked with the Rassvet module at 3:38 p.m. Moscow time (12:38 p.m. GMT). The crew is expected to spend 242 days in the orbit and return to the Earth in late July 2026.

Their eight-month mission will feature over 40 scientific experiments and two spacewalks. The first extravehicular activity will focus on installing the Sun-Terahertz instrument, designed to predict solar flares. During the second spacewalk, cosmonauts will perform maintenance on the Zarya module and replace worn components.

The 73rd expedition crew of Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritsky (TASS special correspondent on the ISS), and Oleg Platonov, alongside NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Michael Fincke, Jonny Kim, and Japanese astronaut Yui Kimiya arrived in the ISS on April 8. During their space misson, they performed many scientific experiments and made two spacewalks. Ryzhikov, Zubritsky, and Kim are expected to return to Earth on December 9 onboard the Soyuz MS-27 manned spacecraft.