Cape Canaveral, Fla. — Space shuttle Discovery's astronauts arrived at the international space station on Saturday and, after handshakes, bear hugs and somersaults, quickly began the crucial exchange of crews.
The two Russian Yuris were the first to swap places.
Cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev, left, and Yuri Gidzenko relax in the Destiny module of the International Space Station in this view from television Saturday. The pair will return to Earth aboard the space shuttle Discovery after a four-month stay in space.
Yuri Usachev moved into space station Alpha, and station resident Yuri Gidzenko took the vacated spot aboard Discovery.
Americans Jim Voss and Susan Helms had to go out on a spacewalk before joining Usachev over on the station for a four-month stay.
The spacewalk was to get under way late Saturday night.
Among the highlights: moving a station docking port to make room for the Leonardo cargo carrier that was ferried up aboard Discovery, and installing gear in advance of next month's delivery of the station's robotic arm.
NASA hoped the spacewalk would go better than Saturday morning's docking, which was accompanied by a pair of vexing problems.
The linkup was delayed one hour when one of Alpha's two giant solar wings would not lock into place, apparently because of a bad latch motor. It was the first stalled rendezvous in eight shuttle-station hookups.
Flight controllers eventually locked the solar wing in place by using another latch.
Then a problem at the White Sands, N.M., relay station prevented Mission Control and the shuttle astronauts from talking to one another immediately following the docking. Station commander Bill Shepherd had to pass along messages until communication was restored.
All the trouble was soon forgotten as the hatches swung open and the two crews seven aboard Discovery and three aboard Alpha greeted one another.
"Mission accomplished," said a relieved John Shannon, the lead flight director.
Saturday was Space Day 130 for Shepherd, Gidzenko and their Russian crewmate Sergei Krikalev. They arrived at the space station as its first crew on Nov. 2 following a launch two days earlier from Kazakstan.
Usachev, Voss and Helms will remain aboard the space station until late July. They're already familiar with half the station; they briefly visited the orbiting complex last spring, when it was just two rooms. Now there are four rooms.
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