CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The International Space Stations crew made a quick port-to-port flight in a Russian lifeboat Friday, opening up a parking place for visitors due to arrive at the outpost next week.
Strapped into a cramped Soyuz spacecraft, pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and crewmates Mikhail Turin and Frank Culbertson pulled away from a port on the Earth-facing side of the stations Russian Zarya space tug at 6:48 a.m. EDT (1048 GMT).
Leaving the station unoccupied for 16 minutes, the trio flew the bug-shaped craft around to a docking port on the stations new Russian Pirs airlock, which doubles as an extra parking place for Soyuz crew transport vehicles and Progress cargo carriers.
The 115-foot (35-meter) move took place while the Soyuz and the station were flying in formation over western Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, the easternmost part of Europe and central Asia. Dezhurov docked the Soyuz to the Pirs module at 7:04 a.m. EDT (1104 GMT).
"Congratulations," said a flight controller at Russias Mission Control Center outside Moscow.
"Great flying," Culbertson added.
"Thank you," Dezhurov replied.
The short flight cleared the Zarya berthing port for a new Soyuz that will be ferried to the station next week by a visiting crew that includes Russian cosmonauts Victor Afanasyev and Konstantin Kozeev and French astronaut Claudie Haignere.
Set for launch Sunday at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, that trio will deliver the new lifeboat next Tuesday and then return to Earth Oct. 30 in the Soyuz now parked at the end of the Pirs module.
Clearing the Zarya port for the visiting crew will enable Turin to remain inside the station rather than the soon-to-be-delivered Soyuz during a spacewalk now scheduled to take place at the outpost on Nov. 8.
If the new Soyuz docked at the Pirs module, Turin would have to remain inside the craft while crewmates Dezhurov and Culbertson hooked up docking system cables during the planned five-hour excursion.
Flight safety rules call for astronauts and cosmonauts inside the station always to have a clear path to a Soyuz lifeboat while crewmates are carrying out a spacewalk.
And since the upcoming spacewalk will be staged from the new Pirs airlock, the barrel-shaped module will be depressurized during the sortie, rendering a Soyuz docked to the end of it inaccessible during the excursion.
Consequently, parking the soon-to-arrive Soyuz at the Zarya port rather than the Pirs port will enable Turin to remain inside the station during the Nov. 8 spacewalk.
Russian Soyuz spacecraft have an orbital life of six months and are replaced twice a year to make certain that full-time station tenants always have a lifeboat at their disposal in case an emergency forces them to abandon ship and return to Earth
The Soyuz craft now at the station arrived there in late April with a visiting crew that included American millionaire Dennis Tito, the worlds first fare-paying space tourist.
Launched in August, the so-called Expedition Three crew is in the midst of a four-month research tour aboard the outpost. The trio is scheduled to return to Earth Dec. 10 aboard NASAs shuttle Endeavour.
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