The crew of the International Space Station (ISS) went for a short ride on the evening of Tuesday, October 10. However, the main reason for their trip was not to admire the remarkable view of planet Earth, but to move their Soyuz spacecraft to a different position on the Station.
Before leaving their orbital home, American Michael Lopez-Alegria, Russian Mikhail Tyurin and ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter shut down vital systems and put the ISS into stand-by mode. This precaution meant that the ISS would remain safe if a serious problem arose during the brief flight, forcing the crew to abandon the Station and make an emergency return to Earth.
Wearing their white Sokol pressure suits, the crew floated into their spacecraft and prepared for undocking. With Soyuz Commander Tyurin at the controls, the spacecraft undocked from the Zvezda Service Module at 9:14 p.m. CST. Twenty minutes later, the ship returned to the Station, safely redocking at the Earth-facing port on the Zarya module.
For ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter it was only the second time he had left the orbiting outpost since he arrived in Space Shuttle Discovery just over three months ago. His previous venture outside the Station was a 5 hour 54 minute spacewalk in August.
The short ride in the Soyuz was important because it freed the Zvezda docking port for the arrival of a new Russian Progress cargo spacecraft later this month. The Progress will bring fresh supplies to the Station, including fuel, water, food and equipment.
