Geline Salac

New commander takes charge of ISS before crew departure

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ISS CHANGE OF COMMAND

Reuters Wires

NASA conducted a ceremonial change of command aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday (January 12), as U.S. astronaut Mike Fincke handed leadership of Expedition 74 to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, commemorating 25 years of continuous human presence in space.&quot;The ISS is a wonder of engineering, science, and diplomacy,&quot; Fincke said, while Kud-Sverchkov pledged to continue scientific and maintenance tasks aboard the station, adding, &quot;Let&#x27;s continue working together.&quot;A &quot;serious medical condition&quot; with a crew member aboard the International Space Station has led NASA to bring the astronaut and three crewmates back to Earth months earlier than planned, the first such emergency return in the orbiting laboratory&#x27;s 25-year history, senior space agency officials said.Last week, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told reporters in a short-notice press conference in Washington that he and medical officials made the decision to return the astronaut, whom he did not identify, because &quot;the capability to diagnose and treat this properly does not live on the International Space Station.&quot;The NASA officials did not identify which of the Crew-11 mission&#x27;s four astronauts was experiencing the medical issue or describe its nature, citing the crew member&#x27;s privacy.NASA Chief Health and Medical Officer James Polk said, &quot;this was not an injury that occurred in the pursuit of operations,&quot; meaning it did not happen while the astronaut was working.The crew includes U.S. astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. They have been on the space station since launching from Florida in August and were scheduled to return around May this year.Fincke, the station&#x27;s designated commander, and Cardman, assigned as flight engineer, were scheduled to conduct a 6.5-hour spacewalk on last week to install hardware outside the station.NASA&#x27;s astronaut corps regards medical situations on the ISS as closely held secrets, and astronauts rarely acknowledge or describe publicly their medical conditions.Spacewalks are arduous and risky missions that require months of training, involving bulky spacesuits and carefully coordinated instructions while tethered to the ISS.NASA in 2024 called off a planned spacewalk last-minute because an astronaut experienced &quot;spacesuit discomfort.&quot; U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei in 2021 called off his spacewalk over a pinched nerve.(Production: Geraldine Downer)

NASA conducted a ceremonial change of command aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday (January 12), as U.S. astronaut Mike Fincke handed leadership of Expedition 74 to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, commemorating 25 years of continuous human presence in space.

NASA conducted a ceremonial change of command aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday (January 12), as U.S. astronaut Mike Fincke handed leadership of Expedition 74 to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, commemorating 25 years of continuous human presence in space.

New commander takes charge of ISS before crew departure

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New commander takes charge of ISS before crew departure

Reuters

Published Jan 13, 2026 07:43 AM PHT

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ISS

NASA

international space station

Mike Fincke

Sergey Kud-Sverchkov

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