Zvezda Docks with Space Station

Zvezda Docks with Space Station

Russian flight controllers have docked the space module Zvezda with the International Space Station (ISS).

Live television pictures showed the module successfully docked, seven minutes ahead of schedule at 0046GMT on Wednesday.

"All the manoeuvres have worked," said Valery Lyndin, the Mission Control spokesman.

However, mission scientists will only know if the mechanical locking system performed properly an hour and a half after the linkup.

The docking comes two weeks after Zvezda was launched aboard a Proton-K rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

A full-scale dress rehearsal of the docking had been carried out with both the primary and back-up docking systems on board Zvezda performing as expected.

Zvezda carried out a series of engine firings designed to put the module in close proximity to the existing seven-story station, comprising the Zarya control module and the Unity module.