Posted: Sat, Oct 16, 2004, 11:17 AM ET (1517 GMT)
A Soyuz spacecraft carrying the next crew for the International Space Station docked there early Saturday, but not after a malfunction forced the Soyuz crew to take over the docking manually. The Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft docked with the Pirs airlock module of the ISS at 12:16 am EDT (0416 GMT) Saturday, and the three-man Soyuz crew entered the station about three hours later. While such dockings are normally handed by an automated system, Soyuz commander Salizhan Sharipov took over the docking manually when he and ground controllers noticed the Soyuz was approaching the station too fast. The cause of the docking system malfunction wasn't immediately known. The Soyuz carried the Expedition 10 crew of Leroy Chiao and Sharipov, as well as visiting Russian military cosmonaut Yuri Shargin. Shargin, along with the Expedition 9 crew of Michael Fincke and Gennady Padalka, will return to Earth on the Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft on October 23.
