The Soyuz MS-18 crew has successfully relocated their spacecraft from the Rassvet module to the Nauka module at the International Space Station.
The relocation began at 12:21 UTC on Tuesday, clearing Rassvet for Soyuz MS-19’s arrival next week while providing the first opportunity to test Nauka’s temporary docking port.
The crew of Soyuz MS-18 made the trip with their spacecraft, with Oleg Novitskiy as Soyuz’s commander and fellow Roscosmos cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei as flight engineers.
Soyuz MS-18 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 9 and arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) the same day, docking to the Rassvet module where it has remained since.
Before the relocation, the three-member crew donned their Sokol launch and entry suits and entered the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft. Hatches between the Rassvet module and Soyuz were then closed before the vestibule between the vehicles was depressurized.
Soyuz MS-18 is being taken for a spin around the block. Relocating to the Nauka docking port.
Live on NASA TV:https://t.co/DPTxO69p4f pic.twitter.com/KUplwiPSdA
— Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) September 28, 2021
Prior to physical separation, commands were sent to retract a series of hooks between Soyuz and Rassvet’s docking port.
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At 12:21 UTC, the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft undocked as planned with Novitskiy manually flying the spacecraft via two hand controllers — one for translational control and the other for rotational control.
After backing away from the station, Novitskiy flew Soyuz on an arcing 30-degree path that took Soyuz 45 meters over portions of the US segment for a planned photographic survey.
With the survey complete, Novitskiy then maneuvered Soyuz out to 120 meters distance from the station and aligned the craft with Nauka’s temporary docking port.
He then guided Soyuz back to the ISS for a docking with the Nauka module at 13:04 UTC — 43 minutes after leaving Rassvet.
Soyuz MS-18’s path during its relocation. (Credit: NASA)
Shortly after “contact and capture,” when the docking probe was captured by the docking cone, the probe retracted to allow the hooks on the docking system to close, ensuring a tight fit between Soyuz MS-18 and Nauka.
Novitskiy, Dubrov, and Vande Hei now rejoin the station crew while preparing for the arrival of Soyuz MS-19 on October 5.
Tuesday’s relocation was the 20th port swap made by a Soyuz spacecraft on the ISS and the first time a Soyuz — or any vehicle — docked to Nauka.
The relocation clears the port on Rassvet for the docking of Soyuz MS-19 — a special mission serving two purposes.
First, it will launch veteran cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos as well as first-time space travellers Klim Shipenko and Yulia Peresild to the station on a brand new Soyuz that can stay at the outpost for six months.
The Soyuz MS-19 crew. Left to right: Yulia Peresild, Anton Shkaplerov, Klim Shipenko. (Credit: Roscosmos)
However, while Shkaplerov will remain on the station until March 2022, Shipenko and Peresild will only stay for a week while they film a movie: The Challenge.
Shipenko is the producer of the film while Peresild is one of the actresses. They will both return on Soyuz MS-18 with Oleg Novitskiy.
This means that, unlike most recent Soyuz missions where the same crew launches and lands with the same craft, Dubrov and Vande Hei will remain on the station when Soyuz MS-18 returns to Earth.
To mark the special nature of the Soyuz MS-19 mission, the Soyuz 2.1a rocket for the flight will have a special livery.
Meanwhile, Soyuz MS-18 is currently scheduled to return to Earth following an undocking from Nauka at 01:13 UTC on October 17. A landing on the Kazakh Steppe is scheduled for 04:36 UTC that same day.
I’ll be staying on @Space_Station until March 2022 for a ~353-day mission, a possibility that I was prepared for from the beginning. The opportunity to experience this with wonderful crewmates while contributing to science and future exploration is exciting! https://t.co/oweCK6L1wN
— Mark T. Vande Hei (@Astro_Sabot) September 14, 2021
With Dubrov and Vande Hei now set to return on Soyuz MS-19 in March 2022, Vande Hei will set a record for the longest single spaceflight by an American at 353 days.
Dubrov will not set a Russian record, however, as that currently belongs to Valeri Polyakov for his 437-day single spaceflight.
(Lead image: A Soyuz spacecraft docks to the Nauka module. Credit: Mack Crawford for NSF/L2).
