Expedition 6 commander Kenneth Bowersox, flight engineer Nikolai Budarin and science officer Donald Pettit officially replaced the international space station's fifth full-time crew tonight after installing and testing custom-fitted emergency gear.

The official transition was marked at 9:28 p.m. EST when Bowersox told flight controllers his crew's custom seatliners were in place aboard the station's Soyuz lifeboat and that the Russian Sokol pressure suits they would use for an emergency return to Earth had been successfully tested.

"And with those words, we officially welcome you and Nikolai and Donald to your brand new home," astronaut Barbara Morgan radioed from Houston.

"Thanks a lot, it's great to be here," Bowersox replied.

The station's outgoing crew - Expedition 5 commander Valery Korzun, flight engineer Sergei Treschev and science officer Peggy Whitson - are now officially members of the shuttle Endeavour's crew. From this point forward, they will sleep aboard the shuttle and the Expedition 6 crew will sleep aboard the station.

An official change-of-command ceremony will be staged Friday.

Expedition 5 took off aboard Endeavour on June 5. Assuming an on-time landing aboard Endeavour Dec. 4, they will have logged 181 days 23 hours and 26 minutes off the planet. The official length of their tour of duty aboard the space station, which does not include time in space as part of a shuttle crew, was 171 days three hours and 33 minutes. As of late this evening, the space station has been continuously staffed for 753.5 days.