A Russian cosmonaut performed on Thursday a complex task of moving a spacecraft from one docking port to another on the International Space Station.
Maxim Surayev has manually piloted the Soyuz TMA-16 from its usual docking port on the ISS to the new Poisk module, a Russian Mission Control spokesman said.
He was assisted by U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams who was also on board the Soyuz spacecraft during the 25-minute operation.
The task has been carried out to free up a docking port on the Russian Zvezda module and to test for the first time the performance of a docking port on the new scientific Poisk module that arrived on the ISS in November last year.
The docking port on the Poisk will be frequently used in the future to receive Russia's Soyuz and Progress spacecraft.
Russia plans to launch four manned and six cargo supply missions to the ISS in 2010.
MISSION CONTROL (Moscow Region), January 21 (RIA Novosti)
