Soyuz Switches Spots on Space Station
By RASHA MADKOUR
HOUSTON – The Russian Soyuz capsule switched parking spots Tuesday, moving from the rear port of the international space station to the Earth-facing port, to make room for a cargo ship.
NASA called the maneuver a "short ride around the block." It took 20 minutes, ending at 3:34 p.m. EDT as the capsule and orbiting space lab floated over the west coast of Africa, 220 miles above the Earth.
The astronauts had closed the hatch between the capsule and the station, unlatched hooks and attachments that kept the capsule in place, backed out about 100 feet and rotated 135 degrees before moving in on the Earth-facing port. The capsule will stay there until it returns to Earth in March after six months in space.
Russia’s unmanned Progress cargo ship leaves Earth on Oct. 23 and arrives at the space station three days later to deliver 2 1/2 tons of supplies, including oxygen, food, fuel and experiment hardware.
NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency prefer to have cargo ships at the rear port because they are periodically used to boost the station’s altitude by firing their engines, NASA spokeswoman Kylie Clem said. Because of a phenomenon called atmospheric drag, the station sinks a minute amount every day. The cargo ship is due to boost the space station’s altitude sometime in November.
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