Russian craft docks to ISS after near mishap

KOROLYOV, Russia (AFP) - A rookie crew of two Russians and an American had a few scary moments as their craft approached too quickly to the International Space Station for docking before they put on the brakes in time to avoid a potential crash.
The tenth docking to the ISS was completed manually to loud cheers of relief at the Korolyov space center on the outskirts of Moscow as the Soyuz TMA-5 craft carrying Russian cosmonauts Salizhan Sharipov and Yuri Shargin and US astronaut Leroy Chiao lodged on to the mother ship.
Several more hours later they broke the hermetic seals and floated on board into the arms of the crew they are meant to replace -- Russia's Gennady Padalka and American Michael Fincke who have been living aboard the ISS since April.
They exchanged jokes about the two veterans' hair growing too long during their stay on board and tried to put aside the dodgy docking moment in another chapter of the decades' long quest to set out a permanent anchor out in space.
Sharipov and Chiao will stay on for another 180 days to carry out experiments and keep the increasingly controversial space station operational while Shargin is scheduled to accompany the departing crew back to Earth next week.
US and Russian officials broke with tradition by sending up a crew that had never before tested the reliable but ancient Soviet-era Soyuz craft.
Earlier missions to the ISS were carried out delivered by US shuttles -- grounded since the 2003 Columbia disaster.
The Soyuz rumbled off according to plan from the dust bowl of the Baikonur space base that Russia is renting from the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, and successfully entered orbit 10 minutes later.
It then spent two days delicately gliding through space as it tried to latch on to the ISS at just the right angle relying on ground control-based equipment.
But the Russian cosmonaut on board noticed that the ISS -- once in full view on his screen -- was growing far too big, far too fast.
"The craft was approaching the station, but at a distance of 200 meters (yards), the craft began to accelerate, risking a dangerous situation," said Vladimir Solovyov, head of mission control on the Russian space center.
"At that point we took the decision to switch to manual control. Commander Sharipov put on the brakes and was able to comfortably dock the craft."
The new ISS crew will conduct 41 scientific, medical, biological and technical experiments, including one focusing on research for a vaccination against the virus that causes AIDS, space officials said.
The new two-man crew, who have trained together for the past several months at the Star City facility outside Moscow, are also scheduled to make two space walks, one in December and one in February, while aboard the ISS.
Those space walks are to be used for preparing the ISS for the planned docking next year of the new European ATV space cargo vessel.
Chiao and Sharipov will be the 10th long-term crew aboard the ISS since the launch of its first module on November 20, 1998.
All crews traveling to and from the ISS do so at present aboard Russian vessels as the US space shuttle fleet remains grounded following the disintegration on reentry of the shuttle Columbia in February 2003.