Two Russian astronauts and a NASA astronaut quickly made a detour into the International Space Station on Friday (March 19) as they moved their Soyuz spacecraft in preparation for the arrival of the next crew.
Expedition 64 commander Sergey Ryzhikov and flight engineer Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, both of the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos, and flight engineer Kate Rubins of NASA put on their Sokol print suit, boarded their Russian Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft and then towed them from the Earth-facing port of the Rassvet Mini-Research Module 1 (MRM 1) of the station at 12:38 EDT (1638 GMT).
“Separation!” Ryzhikov was sent to the Russian mission control outside Moscow when the Soyuz left the space station.
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At a speed of less than one foot per second (0.2 meters per second), which slowly disappeared from Rassvet, the Soyuz reached a separation distance of about 130 meters (40 meters) and stopped while land controllers and Ryzhikov made sure that the Soyuz systems are properly set up.
Ryzhikov drove the Soyuz at an airport of the Russian segment of the orbital laboratory, from nadir to senit, and passed the fixed Progress MS-16 and Progress MS-14 trucks as he moved to the spacecraft of the Poisk Mini. -Research module 2 (MRM 2).
After another short break to ensure the Soyuz were aligned with Poisk, Ryzhikov, Kud-Sverchkov and Rubins reconnected to the space station at 13:12 EDT (1712 GMT), 34 minutes after decoupling.
“Get ready for contact. Contact confirmed!” said Ryzhikov.
“Congratulations on the successful dock,” the mission control replied.
The shutters between the Soyuz and the station are expected to open around 3:30 PM EDT (1930 GMT).
The relocation of Soyuz MS-17 freed the Rassvet port for the arrival of another Soyuz spacecraft, MS-18, launching three crew members for the station’s expedition 65 in April. The cosmonauts of Roscosmos, Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, will depart with NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei on April 9 from the Russian Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Related: The International Space Station
The Soyuz move was made to keep Poisk open for future spatial walks. The module was first used as an airlock in November 2020. With the MS-17 crew departing from the space station to Earth on April 17 and uploading Soyuz MS-18 to the Rassvet, Poisk will be open to support Russians. extravehicular activities.
Soybean relocations do not occur frequently, but are also not uncommon. In the 20-year history of human operations at the International Space Stations, teams have now reshaped their Soyuz spacecraft 19 times in different ports. An additional 29 Soyuz movements were made by cosmonauts on former Russian space stations, for a total of 48 relocations since 1978.
Robert Pearlman is a contributing author of Space.com and the editor of collectSPACE.com, a Space.com partner site and the leading space history news story. Follow collectSPACE on Facebook and Twitter at @collectSPACE. Follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook.