spacetoday.net: ISS crew moves Soyuz spacecraft

Posted: Mon, Nov 29, 2004, 7:20 AM ET (1220 GMT)
Soyuz TMA-5 moves from ISS (NASA)

The two-man crew of the International Space Station took a brief trip Monday morning, moving a Soyuz spacecraft from one docking port to another. The Expedition 10 crew of Leroy Chiao and Salizhan Sharipov boarded the Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft and undocked it from the Pirs airlock module of the station at 4:32 am EST (0932 GMT). They moved the Soyuz about 15 meters over to a docking port on the station's Zarya module, docking there 21 minutes later. The move was designed to free up the exit from the Pirs module to permit the crew to perform two spacewalks from that airlock later during their six-month stay on the station. The maneuver was the first time a Soyuz spacecraft was repositioned by an ISS crew since the three-man Expedition Four crew moved a Soyuz spacecraft in April 2002.