Two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut took a quick ride around the International Space Station on Friday (March 19), moving their Soyuz spacecraft in preparation for the arrival of the next crew.
Expedition 64 commander Sergey Ryzhikov and flight engineer Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, both from the Russian state space company Roscosmos, and flight engineer Kate Rubins from NASA, donned their Sokol pressure suits, climbed aboard their Russian Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft, and then were disconnected from the Earth-facing port of the station’s Rassvet Mini-Research Module 1 (MRM 1) at 12:38 a.m. EDT (1638 GMT).
“Separation!” Ryzhikov was sending the radio to the Russian mission outside Moscow when the Soyuz left the space station.
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The Soyuz retreated slowly from Rassvet at a speed of less than a foot per second (0.2 meters per second), reached a separation distance of about 40 meters, and paused while the ground controllers and Ryzhikov made sure that the Soyuz’s systems were correct . configured.
Ryzhikov piloted the Soyuz on a scenic flight of the Russian section of the orbital laboratory from trough to zenith, maneuvering past the docked cargo vehicles Progress MS-16 and Progress MS-14 as he maneuvered towards the space-facing port of the Poisk Mini . -Research Module 2 (MRM 2).
After another short pause to make sure the Soyuz was aligned with Poisk, Ryzhikov, Kud-Sverchkov, and Rubins reconnected to the space station at 1:12 p.m. EDT (1712 GMT), 34 minutes after the disconnect.
“Available for contact. Contact confirmed!” Ryzhikov said.
“Congratulations on the successful mooring,” replied Mission Control.
The shutters between the Soyuz and the station were expected to open at approximately 3:30 PM EDT (1930 GMT).
The relocation of the Soyuz MS-17 freed up the port of Rassvet for the arrival of another Soyuz spacecraft, MS-18, which will launch three crew members for the station’s Expedition 65 in April. The cosmonauts of Roscosmos Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, along with NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, will take off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 9.
Related: The International Space Station
The Soyuz Movement was created to keep Poisk open to future spacewalks. The module was first used as an airlock in November 2020. With the crew of the MS-17 due to depart from the space station to Earth on April 17 and dock the Soyuz MS-18 at Rassvet, Poisk is open to Russian extravehicular activities.
Soyuz relocations are uncommon, but they are not uncommon either. In the 20-year history of human operations on the International Space Stations, crews have now relocated their Soyuz spacecraft to different ports 19 times. A further 29 Soyuz movements have been made by cosmonauts on previous Russian space stations, for a total of 48 movements since 1978.
Robert Pearlman is a contributing writer to Space.com and the editor of collectSPACE.com, a Space.com affiliate site and the leading space history news publication. Follow collectSPACE on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook.