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Station crew drives its Soyuz to another docking spot BY JUSTIN RAY SPACEFLIGHT NOW Posted: October 10, 2006 The three-man crew of the International Space Station took a short trip today, flying their Soyuz capsule from one docking port to another in preparation for receiving a resupply ship later this month. Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and European astronaut Thomas Reiter undocked from the Zvezda service module's rear port at 3:14 p.m. EDT while flying 222 miles over the southern tip of South America. The crewmates had placed station systems in caretaker mode in the unlikely event the Soyuz was unable to redock and had to make an emergency return to Earth. But the capsule relocation proceeded smoothly. The craft backed away from Zvezda, maneuvered to the underside of the station and linked up with the Earth-facing docking port on the Zarya control module. The docking occurred at 3:34 p.m. EDT above the west coast of Africa. After completing leak checks between Soyuz and station, the crew was expected to open the hatchway and enter the outpost by 5:30 p.m. Today marked the 23rd day in space for Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin. They rode this Soyuz to orbit for the start of Expedition 14. Reiter has been aloft of 98 days, having launched aboard shuttle Discovery in July for a five-month mission. The now-vacant Zvezda docking port will be filled by the next Russian Progress cargo freighter scheduled for liftoff at 9:40 a.m. EDT October 23 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The vessel -- loaded with 4,800 pounds of food, water, fuel, equipment and supplies -- is slated to fly a three-day trajectory to the station for docking at 10:36 a.m. October 26. Meanwhile, station engineers in Houston has spun down one of the four orientation-controlling gyroscopes and placed the device in standby. The gyro had shown signs of higher than allowable vibrations, prompting the action while further analysis is carried out. NASA said the complex's orientation can be maintained with three of the electrically-powered gyros. The alternate method of controlling the station uses thrusters on the Russian portion of the outpost. Astronauts replaced a failed gyro during the shuttle return to flight mission in July 2005. |
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The Russian Soyuz TMA-9 space capsule carrying the Expedition 14 resident crew and space tourist Anousheh Ansari safely docks to the International Space Station's Zvezda service module.
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