Astronauts
on the International Space Station welcomed the arrival of a brand-new Russian
module Thursday, an orbital room adds more research space and an extra parking spot for
visiting spacecraft.
The
unmanned module Poisk, which means "explore" in Russian, docked smoothly at a berth
on top of the space station as they flew 222 miles (357 km) over northern
Kazakhstan in Asia.
"The
arrival of this
new module for the Russian segment went great," Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suarev
radioed Mission Control in Moscow after the smooth docking. Suarev and fellow
cosmonaut Roman Romanenko were poised to take remote control of the automated
Poisk if the craft strayed off-course, but it flew true as expected.
The module
docked at 10:41 a.m. EST (1541 GMT), just four days ahead of NASA's own launch
of the shuttle Atlantis to the orbiting laboratory. The six astronauts set to
blast off on Atlantis Monday headed to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
today to prepare for their upcoming flight.
Poisk
launched Tuesday and is the first new Russian addition to the space station
since the 2001 launch of the Pirs docking compartment, which is due to be
discarded in 2011, NASA officials said. The space station has been under
construction since 1998.
More station
parking
Also known
as the Mini-Research Module 2, Poisk can serve as a vital fourth Russian
docking port for the station, as well as an airlock for Russian spacewalks. It can also be used as research space or as a storage room, astronauts have said.
The station
now has five docking ports in all, one on the American side for visiting shuttles and four on the
Russian segment to host crew-carrying Soyuz vehicles and unmanned cargo ships. Unmanned
Japanese cargo ships can also be attached to berthing points on the
station's American segment.
Because the
space station's full crew increased to six people this year, two Soyuz
spacecraft are required to be docked at all times to serve as ferries to Earth
and emergency lifeboats. Before Poisk's arrival, that left only one remaining
parking spot for cargo ships and other Soyuz vehicles bringing new crewmembers
to the station.
Poisk's rooftop
docking port should ease traffic concerns for flights to and from the station,
NASA officials have said.
"Having
four ports is a really big deal," NASA's deputy space station program manager
Kirk Shireman told SPACE.com. "It gives us a lot of flexibility."
The Poisk
module is just over 13 feet (4 meters) long, about 8 feet (2.5 meters) wide and
weighs about 8,000 pounds (17,636 kg). It has about 380 cubic feet (10.7 cubic
meters) of actual living space inside. The station room launched with about
1,764 pounds (800 kg) of cargo for the station's six-person crew.
NASA
spokesperson Rob Navias said the supplies delivered aboard Poisk includes water
supply gear, crew hygiene supplies, medical equipment, personal items and spare
parts.
Spacewalk
ahead
It will
take some time before Poisk is ready to host visiting spacecraft or spacewalks.
First, the
module's rocket engine section must detach in December to clear the top-mounted
docking port. Russian cosmonauts will perform a spacewalk in January to outfit
the port to accommodate spacecraft, then make the first docking later that
month, mission managers said.
"It's going
to be a new capability for us," Shireman said, adding that Soyuz crews will now
be able to see the Earth behind the station when they dock at Poisk. "We'll have
neat views
of the station that we haven't seen before."
Poisk is
one of three new Russian modules to be launched to the station over the next
two years, NASA officials said. Its counterpart, the still-unnamed
Mini-Research Module 1, will be delivered in May 2010 aboard NASA's shuttle
Atlantis. Poisk launched first because it was ready earlier.
A much larger
room, currently called the Multipurpose Laboratory Module, is slated to launch
in 2011 to replace Pirs, NASA officials added.
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