Two astronauts flying high
above Earth took a brief trip outside the International Space Station (ISS) early
Monday aboard a Russian lifeboat.
ISS Expedition
12 commander Bill McArthur and flight engineer Valery Tokarev moved their
Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft between station docking ports in a 22-minute maneuver that
paves the way for the next station crew's arrival.
"Ah sunrise, that's
beautiful," McArthur said during the spaceflight.
Answering to the call sign "Sunrise," Tokarev commanded the Soyuz flight as the spacecraft undocked from the Earth-facing
docking port outside the station's Zarya control module.
"We are observing
separation," said Tokarev as the Soyuz left the ISS at 1:49 a.m. EST (0649
GMT) while both spacecraft passed over the South Atlantic Ocean.
The Soyuz spacecraft
completed its 214-foot (65 meter) flight at 2:11 a.m. EST (0711 GMT), when it
docked at the aft end of the station's Zvezda control module while flying over Libya.
"Congratulations,"
Russian ISS flight controllers said. "You are the first crew to dock at
all the ports on the station."
McArthur and Tokarev arrived
at the ISS in October 2005, when they docked their Soyuz spacecraft at the
station's Russian-built Pirs docking compartment. They moved
the Soyuz to the Zarya control module one month later, clearing Pirs for the
Russian Progress
20 cargo ship that docked in December.
Relocating the Soyuz TMA-7
craft once more to the Zvezda docking port, which until last
month was occupied by the Progress
19 supply ship, allows the Expedition 12 crew to free up the Zarya berth
for the March 31 arrival of the next ISS crew. Expedition
13 commander Pavel Vinogradov, flight engineer Jeffrey Williams and ISS
visitor Marcos
Pontes, Brazil's first astronaut, are set to launch toward the station
aboard their Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft on March 29 EST.
McArthur and Tokarev will
open their Soyuz spacecraft's hatch at about 4:55 a.m. EST (0955 GMT) and reenter
the ISS about 40 minutes later before concluding their day at 12:30 p.m. EST
(1730 GMT).
The two astronauts are
nearing the end of their six-month mission and will return to Earth with Pontes
aboard their Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft in early April.
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