Article Posted on : - Jan 22, 2010

NASA photo of the International Space Station

NEW DELHI (BNS): Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev has piloted the Soyuz TMA-16 from its usual docking port on the ISS to the new Poisk module, a Russian Mission Control spokesman said.

Maxim Surayev with the help of U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams, on Thursday, performed the complex task of shifting the spacecraft from one docking port to another on the International Space Station.

The task of moving the Soyuz spacecraft which took 25-minutes has been carried out to free up a docking port on the Russian Zvezda module, a report by Ria Novosti said.

The operation also tested 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 Russia's Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, it said.

The Soyuz craft are used to ferry crew to and from the space station.