CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In an initial move aimed at clearing the way for a visiting crew, an instrumented rocket pack was jettisoned from the International Space Station Wednesday and then sent toward a destructive plunge back through Earth's atmosphere.
With the station and its three-man crew circling high over eastern Asia, pyrotechnic bolts holding the cylindrical segment to the outpost's new Russian docking compartment ignited at 11:36 a.m. EDT (1536 GMT).
A set of springs then pushed the rocket pack away from the station as outpost commander Frank Culbertson and Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin peered out windows within the 17-story complex.
"I'm watching it back off," Turin told flight controllers at the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow. "On the background of the sky, we can see the vehicle."
"Congratulations on a successful undocking," a Russian flight controller replied.
Equipped with a pair of solar wings, the so-called instrumentation and propulsion segment of the Russian docking compartment pitched left a bit and then righted itself as it drifted to a point about 9 miles (15 kilometers) away from the station.
Jet thrusters then were to be fired later Wednesday to propel the segment on a fiery plunge back through the atmosphere as it crossed high above the Pacific Ocean.Outfitted with steering thrusters and navigation gear, the segment guided the station's so-called Pirs docking compartment to an automatic link-up with the outpost on Sept. 16.
Named after the Russian word for "pier," the barrel-shaped docking compartment was launched Sept. 14 and will serve as a parking place for Russian Soyuz crew transport vehicles and Progress cargo carriers.
Additionally, the Pirs module will provide a second station airlock that will serve as an orbital portal for spacewalking astronauts and cosmonauts working outside the outpost in Russian spacesuits.
A $164 million U.S.-built airlock was delivered to the station by a visiting shuttle crew in June and is equipped to service either U.S. or Russian spacesuits. The new Pirs module only can accommodate spacewalkers wearing Russian Orlan, or eagle, spacesuits.
The jettison of the instrumented rocket pack cleared the way for the station crew to move their Soyuz lifeboat from an Earth-facing port on the station's Russian Zarya space tug to the new Russian docking compartment in mid-October.
Culbertson and his two cosmonaut colleagues all will board the bug-shaped craft for the Oct. 19 move, which will set the stage for the arrival four days later of a visiting Soyuz crew.
Flying with French astronaut Claudie Haignere, Russian cosmonauts Victor Afanasyev and Konstantin Kozeev will deliver a new Soyuz to the station and then return to Earth in the lifeboat now parked at the outpost.
Russian Soyuz spacecraft have an on-orbit life of about six months and are replaced at the outpost twice each year.
Coming up soon for Culbertson and his crew: Three spacewalks primarily aimed at outfitting the exterior of the newly arrived Russian docking compartment. Those sorties are scheduled for Oct. 8, Oct. 14 and Nov. 5.
Launched in early August aboard shuttle Discovery, Culbertson and his crewmates are scheduled to return to Earth on Dec. 10.
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