An artist's concept of the Soyuz nearing the international space station. Photo: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying the international space station's first full-time crew successfully docked with the orbital outpost early today in a historic milestone in humanity's bid to establish a permanent foothold on the final frontier.

Station commander William Shepherd promptly put NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin on the spot and proposed naming the complex "Alpha," the informal name used in the mid 1990s during a major redesign.

Shepherd, a veteran shuttle flier and a former Navy SEAL, made it clear before the crew's launch Tuesday aboard a Soyuz rocket that he believed the complex should have a name like any other vessel.

And today, he took matters into his own hands.

"We do have one request," he said in a radio chat with Goldin shortly after boarding the space station. "The first expedition on space station requests permission to take the radio call sign 'Alpha.'"

"Temporarily take it as Alpha," Goldin said as Shepherd and his crewmates, floating in the Russian Zvezda command module, clasped hands, prompting applause in mission control. "Go ahead. Have a good day!"

After other dignitaries chatted briefly with the crew, Goldin ended the conversation by saying: "I want to be more specific. I think it's a wonderful thing and not just for today, but I authorize 'Station Alpha' for the entire Expedition One mission. Now you can sleep well at night and not have any concerns."

"Thank you, sir," Shepherd replied. "I think there are about a hundred thousand people on the ground who now know what the name of the station is."

With Soyuz commander Yuri Gidzenko standing by to take over if necessary, the Russian spacecraft carried out a smooth, fully-automated approach to the 81-ton space station, docking to the Zvezda command module's aft port at 4:21:00 a.m. EST.

"We have initial contact, initial contact of the Soyuz capsule with the Expedition One crew to the international space station, contact occurring exactly 21 minutes after the hour," said NASA commentator Kyle Herring in the Russian mission control center near Moscow.

"All went very smoothly with the entire rendezvous and final approach."

Black-and-white television views from a camera on the Soyuz showed the final approach to the station. Clearly visible were components installed during a shuttle mission last month, including the station's new Ku-band antenna, a structural truss and a new shuttle docking port, all attached to NASA's Unity module at the far end of the complex.

Working ahead of schedule, Gidzenko and flight engineer Sergei Krikalev opened two hatches and entered Zvezda's main compartment at 5:23 a.m.

The station as seen by a camera mounted on the Soyuz during final approach. Photo: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now

Shepherd followed shortly thereafter. He decided well before launch Tuesday, a NASA spokesman said, to give his Russian crewmates the honor of officially beginning the station's permanent occupancy.

"I'd like to say we're all really glad to be here. It was a long journey, but we made it," Shepherd said.

Floating in Zvezda's main compartment, Gidzenko said "we are happy we are here at last. As you saw, the docking went nominally, no problems, thanks to the trajectory people and of course, the automatic system, and hopefully everything else will be according to the plan."

Krikalev added that "it was very pleasant to find ourselves in a place that is going to be our home, with good, clean air. We are getting ready to set up for manned habitation of the space station."

Shepherd then said: "On behalf of the first expedition, I'd like to give a big thanks to all the people on the ground in Russia, the United States and all the partner countries that have worked long and hard to make this possible. It's a great moment for all of us, we're sure enjoying it up here."

After talking with Goldin and others in mission control, Shepherd signed off as the station sailed out of contact with Russian ground stations, saying "Out, from Space Station Alpha."

NASA managers were elated with the crew's successful docking. "There's a tremendous sense of accomplishment and pride, a new confidence now that the team actually can function together, and this is an extraordinary, unprecedented international team," said James Van Laak, manager of space station integration and operations. "It's a great moment.

"You look back at the movies like '2001: A Space Odyssey' and we thought we'd have a colony on the moon at this point. Practical matter is, it's a lot harder than we thought and we have to take one step at a time. The technology, the understanding of how to keep people alive in space for long periods of time comes slowly, but the space station is a critical first step in that.

"Hopefully, from this point on we'll never have a period where humans are not living in space," Van Laak said. "We'll learn to conquer low-Earth orbit, how to keep people alive for years at a time and move on to the moon and on to Mars and who knows where we can go from there."

Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikalev, known as Expedition One, plan to remain aboard the station until mid February when they will be replaced by Expedition Two commander Yuri Usachev, Susan Helms and James Voss.

Barring any major malfunctions or political setbacks, the station will be staffed indefinitely by rotating crews of astronaut researchers.

Shepherd and company faced a busy first few hours aboard their new home, activating critical electrical circuits, the lab's alarm systems, its toilet and communications equipment.

Shortly after entering the Zvezda module, Gidzenko and Krikalev opened hatches leading to the Russian-built, NASA-financed Zarya propulsion and storage module.

The station's third pressurized module, NASA's multi-hatch Unity node, will not be opened for another month or so, after a shuttle crew installs a huge set of solar arrays in early December.

Until then, the station will not have enough power to run the heaters necessary to control the internal temperature and dewpoint to avoid condensation.

The docking port of Zvezda as seen by Soyuz. Photo: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now

Given the heavy workload, the station fliers may not have time to notice the cramped accommodations.

On Nov. 18, an unmanned Progress supply ship will dock to the Zarya module's Earth-facing port. Just 12 days later, the shuttle Endeavour is scheduled for launch to deliver the P6 solar arrays.

The P6 arrays will be mounted atop the $273 million Z1 truss installed by the shuttle Discovery's crew last month. The solar arrays will stretch 220 feet from tip to tip, providing some 30 kilowatts of power.

Once the arrays are in place, NASA plans to launch another shuttle flight in late January to install the U.S. laboratory module, Destiny, the scientific heart of the growing orbital complex.

Shepherd and company will help activate and check out the laboratory before their replacements arrive in mid February.

"The last four or five months, the pace has constantly been accelerating and I've been using the analogy of a roller coaster where you've crested the first hill and the pace has really started to pick up on the back side," Van Laak said.

"We're going to have about a flight every three weeks for the next year and not a whole lot less pace than that for the next five years. The team that's working it is a very dedicated, competent team. But there are only so man balls any human being can keep in the air at one time.

"What had previously been an ambitious plan now is a plan that almost defies our comprehension of how we're going to work it," he said. "But the team is working it hard, they're working it well and it's very, very exciting to see these things rolling along."