International Space Station Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Sunita Williams moved their Soyuz TMA spacecraft from the Earth-facing port of the station's Zarya module to the aft port of the Zvezda module Thursday.
The Soyuz docked at the Zvezda port at 6:54 p.m. EDT, almost 30 minutes after the undock command. During that time they traveled about a third of the way around the world. On the station, the Soyuz is about 80 feet from where it started.
The move, with Tyurin at the controls, was made to clear the Zarya port for the arrival of Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, along with spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi.
Docking the Expedition 15 Soyuz to the now-vacant Zarya port after that crew's scheduled April 7 launch will allow them to avoid a relocation move later in their expedition.
+ Read more about the Soyuz relocation
In preparation for Thursday's activities, the unpiloted Progress 23 cargo craft was undocked from the aft port of the Zvezda service module on Tuesday. The cargo craft, filled with trash and unneeded items from the station, was commanded several hours after undocking to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and burn up over the Pacific Ocean.
The Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft undocks from the station's Zarya module. Image credit: NASA TV