CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. A wobbling Russian space freighter linked up with Space Station Alpha (ISS) Friday after a failed automatic docking system forced the outpost crew to take control of the high-flying hook-up.

With the Progress supply ship flying erratically some 330 feet (100 meters) from the station, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko eased the craft up to the outpost with a backup manual docking system used as a last resort.

The linkup came Friday at 10:48 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (Saturday, 03:48 GMT) or 40 minutes later than planned -- as the international outpost soared beyond contact with Russian ground tracking stations.

Another 40 minutes passed before anxious ground controllers regained communications with the station crew and verified a linkup some 240 miles (384 kilometers) above Earth.

"I want to congratulate you on your bravery, your heroism," Victor Blagov, deputy chief flight director of the Russian Mission Center outside Moscow, told the crew after the successful docking. "You guys have used a lot of adrenaline."

To say the least.

The Progress cargo carrier which is designed to dock automatically with the station simply failed to do so.

Its navigation system for some reason did not lock on to its target a docking port on the Russian space tug Zarya, one of three permanent, pressurized wings that now make up the 13-story station.

Gidzenko and his crew mates cosmonaut colleague Sergei Krikalev and U.S. astronaut Bill Shepherd were watching from inside the station as the bug-shaped Progress began its final approach to the station.

Floating in front of a black-and-white TV screen at the stations central command post, the crew was quick to note that the 8-ton cargo carrier was in the midst of a fitful flight.

"Its wandering all over the screen," Gidzenko told ground controllers. "Youre observing this, right?"

The response from the Russian Mission Control Center: "We see it. Were watching it."

On the TV screen: a fuzzy image of the international station, wavering in and then out of the picture. The point of view: A camera aboard the Progress spacecraft.

The Progress "seems to be stabilizing slightly, and then it seems to wander off again. It seems to be oscillating," Gidzenko reported. "Its still rocking around its sort of an inelegant rocking of the image here. We seem not to be going over into a lock or capture mode."

With the hefty spacecraft closing in on the station, Blagov gave Gidzenko the go-ahead to take over manual control of the docking.

His prime tool: A remote-control docking system comprising the black-and-white TV monitor, a joystick-like hand controller and computer-equipment installed on the station last week.

Similar "manual dockings" have been carried out many times at Russias Mir space station. But one that went amiss led to a 1997 Progress collision that punctured the hull of the aging outpost, nearly killing U.S. astronaut Michael Foale and two cosmonaut colleagues.

And as it turned out, the manual Progress docking at the new Alpha station was no easy task.

Gidzenko first used the remote control system to maneuver the supply ship within a scant 16.5 feet (5 meters) of the station, but then glaring sunlight washed out the TV picture, making it impossible for the crew to adequately eyeball the approaching spacecraft.

So Gidzenko sent computer commands to fly the Progress to a point 165 feet (50 meters) from the station, buying time until the outpost could circle around to the dark side of Earth.

The veteran cosmonaut "put the brakes on, if you will," said NASA Mission Control spokesman Rob Navias, until the sun could set, providing better lighting conditions.

Not too long after that, the station passed out of range of Russian ground communications stations. And while sporadic bursts of telemetry data showed the Progress made contact with the station, a long wait ensued until officials were able to verify a safe and successful linkup.

The nail-biting docking, meanwhile, started up a 13-day time clock key to the upcoming launch of NASAs shuttle Endeavour and a visiting outpost construction crew.

The Progress is carrying some 5,335 pounds (2,420 kilograms) of fuel, oxygen, equipment and supplies for the international stations first full-time tenants, who boarded the outpost early this month.

Among the supplies: fresh food, water, clean clothes and a sleeping bag for Gidzenko, who is setting up a makeshift camp in the Russian Zarya tug. Shepherd and Krikalev, meanwhile, are staying in closet-like "staterooms" in the stations crew quarters.

Among the equipment: Medical instruments, a variety of tools, laptop computers, alarm system components and spare parts for the stations crucial life support systems.

The Alpha crew this weekend will begin unloading all of the gear and stowing it in an already cramped outpost and theyll have less than two weeks to finish the job.

The reason: The Progress must be unpacked before shuttle Endeavour and a visiting station construction crew can be cleared for a planned November 30 launch from Kennedy Space Center.

The Progress, meanwhile, is destined for a fiery finish.

The supply ship ultimately will be loaded with trash and then jettisoned from the station the day after Endeavours launch and a day before its scheduled arrival at the station.

Doubling as a garbage scow, the Progress will be destroyed during an intentional plunge back through Earths atmosphere.