A drive in the park

The crew of the ISS took their Soyuz out for a drive to move to a different parking spot.

The short Soyuz spaceflight clears the space station's Earth-facing Zarya docking port to receive a new Russian spaceship on Oct. 12. That spacecraft, Soyuz TMA-11, will ferry the station's new Expedition 16 crew and Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor -- Malaysia's first astronaut -- to the ISS after an Oct. 10 launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Kotov undocked the 24-foot (7.3-meter) long Soyuz TMA-10 from its Zarya berth at 3:27 p.m. EDT (1937 GMT) as the two spacecraft passed high above the southeast Pacific Ocean. He deftly piloted the eight-ton Soyuz along a graceful arc to the station's aft-mounted docking port on the end of the Russian-built Zvezda service module.

The two spacecraft reconnected at 3:47 p.m. EDT (1947 GMT) as they flew 211 miles (339 kilometers) above western Africa.