Russian Cargo Ship Arrives At Station

A Russian cosmonaut took manual control of a robotic spacecraft this morning after an automatic system aboard the cargo carrier failed during its final approach to the International Space Station.

Operating a telerobotic docking system from inside the station's Zvezda command-and-control module, flight engineer Yury Lonchakov guided the Progress 31 spacecraft to a safe mooring at 7:28 a.m.

"Congratulations Yury. Excellent work," a flight controller at the Russian Mission Control Center said.

"Thank you very much," Lonchakov replied.

Filled with more than 2.5 tons of food, water, oxygen, fuel and supplies, the Progress arrived at the Pirs docking compartment as the spacecraft and the station flew 225 miles above the east coast of China.

It was unclear exactly what went wrong with the Ukrainian-built Kurs automatic docking system, but cameras aboard the spacecraft showed it began to sway a bit just before flight controllers told Lonchakov to take manual control of the docking.

The spacecraft was about 20 meters from the station at the time.

Station skipper Mike Fincke and flight engineer Sandra Magnus were onboard the station with Lonchakov.

The Progress was launched earlier this week from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

ABOUT THE IMAGES: Click to enlarge and save NASA TV images. The first shows the Progress 31 spacecraft as it approached the International Spavce Station. The second is a camera view from the Progress spacecraft as it flew within about 30 meters of the International Space Station.