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. 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. Continued international collaboration on ISS missions has been thrown into doubt by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and related sanctions on Russia. Statistics. A Russian national has commanded the station 30 times. A US national has commanded the station 28 times including the current one. A Japanese national has commanded the station 2 times. Belgian, British, Canadian, German, Italian and French nationals have commanded the station once each. Gennady Padalka  has commanded the station on 4 separate occasions, more than any other inhabitant. Fyodor Yurchikhin has commanded the station thrice. Scott Kelly, Oleg Kononenko, Oleg Kotov, Anton Skhaplerov, Pavel Vinogradov, Peggy Whitson and Jeffrey Williams have commanded the station twice each.