List of commanders of the International Space Station

This is a chronological list of commanders of the International Space Station. A pre-decided inhabitant of the ISS assumes command upon departure of the previous commander, at the end of an expedition, in a small hand-over ceremony. Their responsibility is defined by the ISS Code of Conduct, which states that the ISS commander has some authority over the operations of the ISS, but should ultimately defer most decisions to the Flight Director.[1]

A typical ISS commander handover ceremony during Expedition 57/58

The commander keeps a symbolic key of the station with them during their tenure, that is, a copy of the handle opening the hatches to the Russian segment. It is passed on to a new astronaut when they replace the existing commander as the new station commander.[2]

Continued international collaboration on ISS missions has been thrown into doubt by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and related sanctions on Russia.[3]

  1. ^ U.S. Government. "Subpart 1214.4—International Space Station Crew" (PDF).
  2. ^ @Anton_Astrey (November 6, 2021). "I was glad to take command of the @Space_Station from @Thom_astro 🤝The transfer of authority happens during the t…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  3. ^ Witze, Alexandra (11 March 2022). "Russia's invasion of Ukraine is redrawing the geopolitics of space". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-022-00727-x. PMID 35277688. S2CID 247407886. Retrieved 13 March 2022.