Live in orbit: Soyuz parked in new station spot

Despite poor lighting conditions, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka this afternoon safely guided a Soyuz spacecraft and two crewmates to a new parking space on the International Space Station.

"I see contact, I feel it," said one of crew members, apparently Padalka, according to a Russian translator.

A 26-minute flight moved the Soyuz TMA-14 from the aft port on the Zvezda Service Module to the Pirs docking compartment a short distance away.

Padalka seemed frustrated by what he said was a weak floodlight at the front of his spacecraft as it approached the new docking port, but made a smooth connection with no trouble.

The move opened up a port for a cargo ship to dock at later this month.

This sequence of photos shows the lateral move and the final docking approach.

Padalka was joined for the short trip by flight engineers Mike Barratt and Koichi Wakata, of the United States and Japan, respectively.

The three-person crew - half of the station's permanent crew of six - undocked at 5:29 p.m. EDT and redocked and 5:55 p.m.

Hooks and latches closed to form a hard mate between the spacecraft and port at 6:06 p.m., prompting a round of leak checks before hatches could be opened.

Pakalka backed the Soyuz about 75 meters from the Russian service module, then moved the ship to its left.

Before making a final approach, he rotated the spacecraft's solar arrays so they wouldn't interfere with the station's other Soyuz, TMA-15, parked on the Zarya module.

A floodlight was supposed to help Padalka see a diamond-shaped docking target below the port so he could line up cross hairs with it.

"The floodlight is very weak," the translator reported him saying. "Is it always like this?"

But he had no problem executing the docking maneuver, which was completed about 220 miles above the northeast coast of South America.

The Pirs docking compartment was vacated Tuesday by an unmanned Russian freighter, Progress 33, that will eventually burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

The Progress will return close to the station on July 12 - a day after space shuttle Endeavour's planned launch to the station from Kennedy Space Center - to test antennas installed in recent spacewalks.

Those antennas will help an automated Russian vehicle, called Mini Research Module-2, to dock this fall. The module will serve as a new docking port and airlock.

Another freighter, Progress 34, is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan July 24 and dock at the station July 27.

However, it could loiter and delay its arrival if Endeavour's launch is delayed slightly.

Endeavour and seven astronauts plan a 16-day mission, including nearly 12 days docked at the station.

The joint crews will install the third and final piece of Japan's Kibo science complex, and Endeavour mission specialist Tim Kopra will replace Wakata on the station crew.

Wakata will return home on Endeavour, which is targeting a July 27 landing if it launches July 11.