Three
astronauts living aboard the International Space Station (ISS) took a short trip
Thursday to move their Russian-built lifeboat to a new parking spot.
ISS
Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and
Clayton Anderson spent only 20 minutes flying their Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft
between docking ports, but the successful move primed the station for the
October arrival
of its next crew.
"Nice
work," Anderson told Kotov, who commanded the brief Soyuz flight, after
the orbital hop.
The short
Soyuz spaceflight clears the space station's Earth-facing Zarya docking port to
receive a new Russian spaceship on Oct. 12. That spacecraft, Soyuz TMA-11, will
ferry the station's new
Expedition 16 crew and Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor --
Malaysia's first astronaut -- to the ISS after an Oct. 10 launch from Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Kotov
undocked the 24-foot (7.3-meter) long Soyuz TMA-10 from its Zarya berth at 3:27
p.m. EDT (1937 GMT) as the two spacecraft passed high above the southeast
Pacific Ocean. He deftly piloted the eight-ton Soyuz along
a graceful arc to the station's aft-mounted docking port on the end of the
Russian-built Zvezda service module.
The two
spacecraft reconnected at 3:47 p.m. EDT (1947 GMT) as they flew 211 miles (339 kilometers)
above western Africa.
"Congratulations,"
radioed Russia's Mission Control Center, located just outside Moscow, after the
successful docking.
Long hours
ahead
But the
Expedition 15 astronauts still have a long way to go before completing what
will ultimately be a 21-hour work day.
The
spaceflyers are expected to reenter the station at about 6:55 p.m. EDT (2255
GMT) tonight, then reopen hatches between the outpost's modules and power up
its space toilet, life support and other systems. The Expedition 15 astronauts
closed the hatches and powered down some systems as a precaution against the chance
that their Soyuz spacecraft would not be able redock with the ISS, forcing the crew
to return to Earth early, NASA said.
Yurchikhin
and his crew are not expected to completely reactivate the space station until
about 8:55 p.m. EDT (0055 Sept. 28 GMT). After taking time out for dinner and
other activities, the Expedition 15 crew will go to sleep at 2:00 a.m. EDT (0600
GMT) early Friday, NASA said.
Space
station mission managers have given the crew some time off Friday and a relaxed
weekend schedule to allow time for rest, NASA said.
Yurchikhin
and Kotov are nearing the end of a six-month tour aboard the ISS. They will
hand over control of the station to Expedition
16 commander Peggy Whitson, of NASA, and flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko,
of Russia, before returning to Earth with Shukor on Oct. 21. Anderson
will stay aboard to join the Expedition 16 crew for the first few weeks of its
six-month mission.
As the ISS
astronauts complete their Soyuz relocation tasks in Earth orbit, Russian flight
controllers are preparing for the Friday morning retraction of two older solar
arrays reaching out from the station's Zarya module.
Retracting
the solar arrays will provide clearance for a set of ISS radiators that will be
unfurled later this year, mission managers have said.
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