Blurry camera causes tricky docking at space station

The International Space Station

MOSCOW, Russia -- Two Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station had to lock on an approaching supply ship by hand after it started shaking and the video guidance system went "blurry".

The International Space Station crew monitored the craft into position through a window, Russian state television reported.

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The Progress cargo ship, carrying two and a half tons of food, water, fuel and other supplies, shook so much as it approached the station for docking that mission control told the crew to switch off the automatic system and guide it manually.

As the Progress came closer, a blur appeared on the video camera, RTR state television said.

Mission control in Moscow was unsure whether the defect was caused by solar glare or a problem with the camera and told the crew to hold off until the sunlight vanished.

But when it did, so did radio contact with the crew.

When contact returned, the crew's two cosmonauts, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalyov, had already docked the ship. They peered at it through a window, as the camera's image had not improved.

"They were relaxed," Pyotr Klimuk, head of the cosmonaut training center, told RTR.

"Yuri was doing the docking itself and Seryoga (Krikalyov) was looking through the window at the object and telling him what to do. Thanks to their cooperation, they managed to dock in very difficult conditions."

The station's first live-in crew, which also includes U.S. commander William Shepherd, blasted off on October 31 and will stay 118 days in space.

The ISS involves Europe, Japan, Canada and Brazil, but is mainly being built by Russia and the United States.

Moscow, which has flown its own Mir orbiter for 14 years, has by far the world's most extensive experience in building and operating permanently manned space stations.

Manual docking maneuvers have proven dangerous in the past.

In 1997 the crew aboard Mir botched a manual docking with a Progress cargo ship, which crashed into the station, sending it spinning out of control, smashing solar panels and puncturing holes in one of its modules.

The crew escaped death only by sealing the airlock to the damaged module before the entire station depressurized.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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NASA

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