As planned, the Soyuz MS-17 manned transport vehicle was successfully re-docked between the Rassvet and Poisk small research modules – this was done in order to make room for the spacecraft with the next expedition to the ISS – Soyuz MS-18 … The whole procedure was carried out normally and with the help of a manual control system.

A few hours before undocking, the Soyuz MS-17 crew consisting of cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Kathleen Rubins from NASA went into the spacecraft and closed the transfer hatches. Then they carried out preparatory operations and on March 19 at 19:38 Moscow time undocked the spacecraft from the ISS and moved away from the station at a distance of about 40 meters.

Having flown around the ISS, at 20:12 the spacecraft moored to the docking port of the Poisk module. The operations of pulling the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft, fly-over and subsequent docking were performed by its commander, Sergei Ryzhikov. Two hours after docking and equalizing the pressure, the crew checked the tightness of the joint, opened the hatches and returned back to the ISS.

Already on April 9, the next manned spacecraft Soyuz MS-18, which is planned to be launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome using the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket, should dock at the vacated docking port of the Rassvet research module. The new spacecraft should deliver the next long-term ISS-65 crew consisting of commander Oleg Novitsky, flight engineer Peter Dubrov and second flight engineer Mark Vande Hai (this NASA specialist, by agreement with the United States, replaced Sergei Korsakov).

Also, as explained in Roskosmos, the re-docking of the Soyuz MS-17 is due to the need to conduct a spacewalk (EVK-48) in order to complete preparations for undocking and withdrawal from the Pirs module for subsequent docking in its place of the laboratory module “The science”. During EVA-48 it is planned to use the Search module as an airlock. This will allow the procedure to be carried out more efficiently and safer.