Expedition 57 to 58 Change of Command Ceremony December 18, 2018

The reins of the International Space Station were passed from Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency to Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos during a ceremony on the orbital outpost on Dec. 18. Gerst is returning to Earth Dec. 20 with his Expedition 57 crewmates, Serena Aunon-Chancellor of NASA and Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft for a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to complete a six-and-a-half month mission. Kononenko remains on the station as commander of Expedition 58 along with Flight Engineers Anne McClain of NASA and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency.

>>> EXPEDITION 57, WE ARE READY TO BEGIN THE

CHANGE OF COMMAND CEREMONY.

>> WE HAVE AND SEE YOU LOUD AND

CLEAR.

READY TO BEGIN.

>> WELL, DEAR CREWS ON THE

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION AND

ON THE GROUND.

DEAR THOUSANDS OF HUMANS DOWN THERE

WORKING ON THIS PROJECT IN THE

CONTROL CENTER.

ENGINEERS, PLANNERS, TECNICIANS

SCIENTISTS.

EXPEDITION 57 IS COMING TO AN

END.

AND ACTUALLY A SUCCESSFUL END, DESPITE SOME

OF THE CHALLENGES THAT WE HAD

AND EVERY ONE OF THE SITUATIONS

WE WERE ABLE TO COME TOGETHER,

THE INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS, THE

CREWS, THE CONTROL CENTERS, AND

DO WHAT WE ARE REALLY GOOD AT,

THIS INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION

TO ADAPT TO CHALLENGES, TO CHANGES,

AND ALL TURN SITUATIONS TO THE BEST,

MAKING THE BEST OUT OF IT.

THAT'S WHAT WE DID.

HERE WE ARE, SIX HUMANS ON THE
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.

THE EMBASSY OF HUMANKIND
OUT IN SPACE.

CONTINUING AN 18 YEARS

UNINTERPRETED HUMAN PRESENCE
ON THIS FANTASTIC LABORATORY.

AT THE SAME TIME, WE ALSO WERE ABLE

TO COMPLETE A GREAT SCIENTIFIC

PROGRAMME.

AND WE HAD ABOUT 300 SCIENTIFIC

EXPERIMENTS.

WE LOOKED AT NEW MATERIALS, WE

INVESTIGATED CLIMATE CHANGE, WE

OBSERVED LIFE CELLS, WE

WORKED ON CANCER MEDICATIONS.

TO IMPROVE TREATMENTS
AGAINST CANCER.

WE IMPROVED TREATMENTS AGAINST

PARKINSON'S AND ALZHIEMER'S, WE

DID PLASMA AND QUANTUM PHYSICS,

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST
WE TESTED NEW TECHNOLOGIES THAT WILL

ENABLE US TO GO FURTHER TO MOON

AND MARS.

>> AND SPEAKING ABOUT MOON AND MARS,

DURING THIS EXPEDITION, THIS HALF YEAR
UP HERE ON THE SPACE STATION, WE

COMPLETED ABOUT 3.000 ORBITS
AROUND OUR PLANET.

COVERING THE DISTANCE BETWEEN

MOON AND EARTH 200 TIMES OVER,

FRONT AND BACK.

AND IN ADDITION TO THAT, WE

ALSO COMPLETED HALF AN ORBIT AROUND

SUN WITH ALL OF YOU GUYS

TOGETHER.

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK MY SOYUZ

CREW, MY FRIENDS, SERGEY

AND SERENA

FOR A FANTASTIC

TIME UP HERE, HALF A YEAR ON THE

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.

NOT ONLY YOU GUYS WORKED

PROFESSIONALLY AND WITH A GREAT ATTITUDE TO MAKE THIS

EXPEDITION SUCCESSFUL.

BUT IN ADITION TO THAT, YOU GUYS SHOWED SUCH A GREAT

ATTITUDE TOWARDS LIVING UP HERE

ON STATION.

MAKING THIS A GREAT DISPLAY OF

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION.

THANKS FOR THAT.

IN THE SAME BREATH, I HAVE TO

THANK ALL OUR FAMILIES.

BECAUSE THEY SUPPORTED US DURING THIS

SIX MONTHS UP HERE.

ALL THE PREPARATION TIME BEFORE.

AND WITHOUT THAT SUPORT

THIS MISSION WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE AT ALL.

WE KNOW THAT YOU GUYS ACTUALLY
HAVE THE HARDEST JOB OF THIS

MISSION, AND WE WILL NEVER

FORGET THAT.

THE SAME GOES FOR THE MISSION TEAMS

ALL THE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE DOWN THERE,

WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THAT MISSION, TO THIS
FANTASTIC PROJECT.

WHAT THEY HAVE IS A TALENT:

COMING TOGETHER,

BRINGING THEIR DEDICATION. WITHOUT

THIS, THIS WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE

AT ALL.

>> AND YOU CREW, FANTASTIC TO SEE

YOU GUYS, YOU JOINING EXPEDITION 57

FOR 2.5 WEEKS, AND YOU HIT THE

GROUND RUNNING, AND YOU DID

SOMETHING SOME PEOPLE SAID WAS

NOT POSSIBLE.

YOU GOT READY IN 2.5 WEEKS TO

TAKE OVER THIS FANTASTIC PLACE,

THIS FANTASTIC MACHINE, AND IF I SEE YOU GUYS,

I REALLY HAVE TO SAY, YOU ARE READY.

OLEG OF COURSE, I DON'T HAVE TO SAY MUCH,

>> YOU'VE BEEN HERE MANY TIMES BEFORE,
I THINK THIS IS YOUR FOURTH MISSION.

SO YOU ARE VERY EXPERIENCED

COMMANDER, AND I KNOW THIS PLACE

WILL BE IN VERY VERY GOOD HANDS, YOUR

HANDS.

WHEN WE CLOSE THAT HATCH TOMORROW

WE'LL BE BOTH HAPPY AND SAD.

WE WILL LEAVE THIS PLACE
WITH LAUGHING AND A CRIYNG EYE.

MOSTLY BECAUSE WE MISSED YOU,

OUR FRIENDS UP HERE.

AND ALSO THIS FANTASTIC MAGICAL

PLACE.

THIS IS THE ONLY PLACE THAT

HUMANS HAVE OUTSIDE OF PLANET

EARTH, WHERE HUMANS CAN LIVE.

IF YOU LIKE DOWN THERE ON EARTH,

YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE WITH YOUR NAKED EYE.

JUST GO TO THE ISS WEBSITE AND TELLS
WHEN TO SEE US.

YOU CAN LOOK UP INTO THE SKY,

AND YOU WILL SEE THIS BRIGHT
LITTLE STAR MOVING OVER THE SKY.

YOU CAN SEE THAT MANY, MANY

NIGHTS.

AND IF YOU SEE, THINK ABOUT THAT:

HUMANS ACTUALLY BUILD THIS.

THAT ARE, RIGHT NOW, SIX HUMANS, SOON
ONLY THREE HUMANS UP HERE.

OUT OF THE 7 BILLION HUMANS THAT LIVE DOWN ON EARTH.

SO GIVE THE GUYS A WAVE WHEN YOU SEE THEM.

I'LL HEAR IT.

HAND OVER COMMAND OF THE

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

TO OLEG DIMITRIYEVICH KONONENKO AS

THE COMMANDER OF EXPEDITION 58.

CONGRATULATIONS OLEG.

AND WE RING THE BELL, TRADITIONALLY, AND I WILL HAND OVER

THE KEY TO THE I.S.S. TO OLEG.

>> THANK YOU, ALEX FIRST OF ALL.

THANK YOU FOR THE GREAT HAND OVER
WE'VE GOT FROM YOU.

THANK YOU FOR THE GREAT JOB THAT YOU

HAVE DONE AS STATION COMMANDER.

YOU HAVE BEEN GOOD KEEPING THE

STATION IN EXCELLENT CONDITION.

WE APRECIATE YOUR WARM WELCOME,

AND SHARING YOUR EXPERIENCES
WITH OUR CREW.

IT WAS SHORT HAND OVER, BUT EXTREMELLY PRODUCTIVE.

SERENA: THANK YOU FOR FOR YOUR KINDNESS,
YOUR ATTITUDE,

(?) AND FRIENDLY THE ATMOSPHERE IN OUR CREW.

IT'S BEEN A PLEASURE TO WORK

WITH YOU.

YOU SUCCESSFUL COMPLETED ALL THE TASKS
HERE ONBOARD.

IT WAS A BIT LONGER EXPEDITION
AS UNEXPECTED.

RIGHT NOW IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO

GO WORK HOME AND MEET YOURS

FAMILIES.

WE MISS YOU. GOODSPEED
AND (RUSSIAN).

EXPEDITION 58 TO 59.
WE ARE GOING TO BE VERY BUSY, AND

WE ARE READY TO GET TO WORK.

THANKS TO EVERYONE ON THE

GROUND.

ONE MORE THANKS ALEX TO YOU, SERENA, SERGEY.

I'M READY TO ASSUME COMMAND OF

THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

>> TOO SOON THIS CONCLUDES THE EVENT.