With less than a week remaining in its time aboard the space station, the Expedition 11 crew is busy handing over operations to the Expedition 12 crew.

Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer and NASA ISS Science Officer John Phillips are briefing the new crew about vehicle maintenance and science operations.

Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev arrived in a Soyuz TMA spacecraft Monday to begin their six-month stay in space. With them was American Greg Olsen, the third private citizen in space, flying under a contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Olsen will spend about eight days on the station before returning to Earth with the Expedition 11 crew. Their Soyuz TMA spacecraft will undock from the station Monday at 5:45 p.m. EDT and land in Kazakhstan at 9:10 p.m.

Copyright 2005 by Space Daily, Distributed United Press International