SPACE.com -- Pirs Module Docks with International Space Station

Line drawing of the Pirs Docking Module.

A Soyuz rocket stands ready to carry the Pirs docking module to the ISS Alpha from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sept. 14, 2001. Click to enlarge.

The Pirs docking compartment approaches to dock with Space Station Alpha on September 16, 2001.

Russia's new docking module is seen here attached to the ISS after automatically connecting itself on September 16, 2001.

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	Pirs Module Docks with International Space Station By Jim Banke Senior Producer, Cape Canaveral Bureau posted: 09:19 pm ET 16 September 2001

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., -- A barrel-shaped Russian docking compartment that will double as an airlock successfully attached itself to the International Space Station on Sunday.

The so-called "Pirs" Russian for Pier -- compartment arrived at the station and automatically docked to the outpost at 9:05 p.m. EDT Sunday (0105 GMT Monday).

"We felt that," said Expedition Three commander Frank Culbertson as the spacecraft contacted the frontier facility.

Riding atop a Soyuz booster, the 8,000-pound (3,600-kilogram) module blasted off from the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:35 p.m. EDT (2335 GMT) Friday, beginning a two-day journey to reach the station.

On Sunday the new hardware pulled up next to the station right as planned and joined to the Zvezda service module as the outpost and its three Expedition Three occupants flew high above Mongolia.

Problems routing the television signal from the docking compartment in space to Houston prevented the scene from being shown on NASA TV, but Mission Control in Houston recorded the activity from a station camera for later playback.

At the same time, Cosmonaut Vladimir Dezhurov stood by to take manual control of the docking procedure in case the automatic system failed and use that TV view to help him guide Pirs into place, but that wasnt required Sunday.

Pirs arrival as the sixth pressurized module to be added to space station Alpha marked the final major station assembly task for this calendar year.

Docked to an Earth-facing port on the station's Russian-built crew quarters, the 16-foot-long (4.85-meter-long) Pirs module is large enough to serve as a stowage closet for Russian spacesuits, tools and other equipment.

Its first use is planned for October when Dezhurov and cosmonaut Mikhail Turin will step outside to outfit the exterior of the new docking compartment.