Soyuz move sets table for Atlantis launch

Three International Space Station crew members have successfully relocated a Soyuz spacecraft, clearing a port for a new module that is set to launch Friday afternoon aboard Atlantis.

This morning's 27-minute move was required for the 12-day shuttle flight to proceed as planned.

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, American astronaut T.J. Creamer and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi backed away from the Earth-facing port of the station's Zarya module at 9:26 a.m. and docked to the Zvezda Service Module's aft end at 9:53 a.m.

"Everything nominal," a voice said through a Russian translator, as the joined Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft and station flew over the northwest Pacific Ocean southeast of Japan.

Springs shoved the Soyuz spacecraft from its starting point, and Kotov then guided it 150 meters away before executing a flyaround to line up the new port. The Soyuz rolled to its correct docking orientation and slowly made its final approach at a tenth of a meter per second.

Meanwhile, at Kennedy Space Center, NASA managers are reviewing the status of Atlantis' scheduled 2:20 p.m. launch. You can watch a pre-launch news conference, scheduled no earlier than 11 a.m., live here -- click on the NASA TV box at right to launch a viewer.

Kotov, Creamer and Noguchi are scheduled to depart the station in their Soyuz again June 1, for their return to Earth.

IMAGES: Top, a view of the Soyuz TMA-17 as it approached its new new docking port on the Zvezda Service Module's aft end. Below, a view of the station from the Soyuz as it approached.