On January 21, 2010 Russian cosmonaut Maksim Suraev performed a complex task of moving a spacecraft from one docking port to another on the International Space Station. Maxim Surayev has manually piloted the Soyuz TMA-16 from its usual docking port on the ISS to the new Poisk module. He was assisted by U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams who was also on board the Soyuz spacecraft during the 25-minute operation. The task has been carried out to free up a docking port on the Russian Zvezda module and to test for the first time the performance of a docking port on the new scientific Poisk module that arrived on the ISS in November last year. The docking port on the Poisk will be frequently used in the future to receive Russiaan Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. Attachments: |