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On Tuesday, September 28, three astronauts moved a Russian Soyuz crew capsule to a new space station port to make way for the arrival of another Soyuz vehicle next week carrying a Russian film crew.
Soyuz Cmdr. Oleg Novitsky, cosmonaut of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, piloted the spacecraft during the short 40-minute trip, assisted by fellow cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrovnik and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei. The procedure went well.
“Perfect approach and flawless docking,” NASA spokesman Rob Navias said during the agency’s broadcast of the maneuver.
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The spacecraft detached from the Earth-facing Rassvet module of the International Space Station at 8:21 a.m. EDT (1221 GMT) and first withdrew 150 feet (45 meters) from the Russian segment of the station. . At this distance, he rolled to the side before pulling away further, 393 feet (120 m) away and making a small detour to the American segment. The purpose of this detour was to capture new photographs and video of the entire orbital outpost.
Novitsky then returned the spacecraft to the Russian segment, where it attached to the active docking port of the newly arrived Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module at 9:04 a.m. EDT (1:04 p.m. GMT).
“Today’s relocation is complete, the stage is now ready for the arrival of the Soyuz MS-19 next Tuesday,” Navias said. “Lots of activity to come to the International Space Station over the next few days.”
The docking is the first to the struggling Russian science module, which limped to the space station in July with a faulty propulsion system and telemetry issues. The module, previously plagued by delays in development, caused an emergency shortly after her mooring when her thrusters fired unexpectedly due to a computer glitch, causing the entire station to rotate around its axis one and a half times.
But all seems to be going for the best with Nauka now that the space station is preparing to welcome its first two non-astronauts since 2009. Russian actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko are scheduled to arrive on October 5 with cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov. The two artists will shoot a film called “The Challenge” during their stay, the first film ever to be shot in space. They will return to Earth on October 17 on Soyuz MS-18 with Novitsky.
Vande Hei and Dubrovnik are expected to remain on board the station until March 2022. Upon his return, Vande Hei will have set the record for the longest single space flight for an American.
Before the arrival of new visitors, the space station will see the departure of the SpaceX cargo dragon supply ship packed with scientific equipment and cargo for return to Earth. Cargo Dragon is scheduled to disconnect from the Harmony Module International Advanced Docking Adapter on Thursday, September 30 at 9:05 a.m. EDT (1:05 p.m. GMT).
Follow Tereza Pultarova on Twitter @TerezaPultarova. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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