WATCH: Soyuz spacecraft successfully docks at new Russian-made Nauka module on International Space Station for 1st time

A manned Soyuz spacecraft has docked at the Nauka module on the International Space Station for the first-ever time, marking another success for the newly arrived Russian segment of the planet’s oldest inhabited orbital satellite.

On Tuesday, the Soyuz MS-18 unattached from Zarya, the space station’s oldest module. It was then manually controlled by Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Peter Durov, as well as NASA astronaut Mark T. Vande Hei, and moved to the new Nauka section.

The Nauka module was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome earlier this year and docked to the ISS on July 29. Nauka is designed to be used for scientific experiments, can also generate oxygen for six people and regenerate water from urine.

It has a second toilet for Russian cosmonauts and is able to accommodate a third crew member. Attached to the module is a European Robotic Arm (ERA) that can help with installing and replacing station components without the need to perform a spacewalk.

The maneuver had to be performed to make room for the soon-arriving Soyuz MS-19, a vehicle that will soon carry a director and actress to the ISS to make the first-ever feature-length movie filmed in space.

The filmmakers, Klim Shipenko and Yulia Peresild, are due to arrive at the ISS on October 5, together with Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov. Over a period of two weeks, they will shoot the movie ‘Vyzov’ – which means ‘Challenge’ in Russian.

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