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It is busy season on the International Space Station (ISS), with a host of departures and arrivals of crew and craft scheduled over the next few weeks.

The hubbub started last week with the departure of the Japanese cargo vessel HTV-4 on September 4. It burned up in the atmosphere a few days later over the Pacific Ocean, carrying the station’s waste with it. On September 9, half of the ISS crew began preparations to leave with the traditional change of command ceremony. Expedition 36 Commander Pavel Vinogradov passed the baton to Fyodor Yurchikhin, who will command Expedition 37. Expedition 37 begins when the door to the Soyuz closes behind Vinogradov, Chris Cassidy, and Alexander Misurkin on September 10. They will land back in Kazakhstan a few hours later.

That leaves Yurchikhin, Karen Nyberg, and Luca Parmitano on their own until September 25 when their next crew complement arrives. Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov, Mike Hopkins and Sergey Ryazanskiy will launch aboard Soyuz TMA-10M on that date, arriving at the station a few hours later.

Before that happens, though, the three members of Expedition 36/37 are preparing to receive the first Cygnus cargo vessel to berth with the station. Orbital Sciences will become the second commercial entity to supply the station once it successfully completes the upcoming mission. Cygnus is scheduled to launch aboard an Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia on September 17. It will rendezvous with ISS on September 22, when Parmitano and Nyberg will grapple it with the station’s robotic arm.

Stay tuned as we look for the successful completion of these undertakings.

Watch the change of command below:

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About the author

Merryl Azriel

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Having wandered into professional writing and editing after a decade in engineering, science, and management, Merryl now enjoys reintegrating the dichotomy by bringing space technology and policy within reach of an interested public. After three years as Space Safety Magazine’s Managing Editor, Merryl semi-retired to Visiting Contributor and manager of the campaign to bring the International Space Station collaboration to the attention of the Nobel Peace Prize committee. She keeps her pencil sharp as Proposal Manager for U.S. government contractor CSRA.

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