Live in orbit: Soyuz undocking for ISS port swap

Update: Physical separation of the two spacecraft officially occurred at 5:29 p.m. EDT.

Hooks and latches are freeing a Soyuz spacecraft from its International Space Station docking port 220 miles over the South Pacific, as three crew members prepare to park it in a different spot.

The Soyuz is piloted by Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, commander of the station's 20th expedition. Seated to his left is American astronaut Mike Barratt and to his right, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.

The trio, wearing Russian Sokol spacesuits, is relcoating Soyuz TMA-14 from the aft docking port on the Zvezda Service Module to the Pirs docking compartment a short distance to its left.

The move will open up the Zvezda port for an unmanned cargo freighter scheduled to arrive July 27 with 2.5 tons of food and supplies.

Padalka, using the call sign "Altair," will pull the Soyuz less than 100 meters from the service module before making the lateral move.

Monitoring the move inside are Frank De Winne of the European Space Agency, Roman Romenenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Bob Thirsk of the Canadian Space Agency.

A second Soyuz for their return home is parked at the Zarya module.