Two spacewalks conducted from the ISS in June 2009, successfully completed activities anticipating Poisk module's future berthing.

On 14 January 2010, cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Maksim Suraev conducted a spacewalk to outfit the Poisk module to prepare for receiving Soyuz and Progress ships in the future.

[11] The Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft undocked from the aft end of the Zvezda service module at 10:03 UTC and backed away to a distance of about 30m (100 feet) from the space station.

Re-docking occurred at 10:24 UTC after Suraev fired the Soyuz maneuvering thrusters to fly halfway around the orbiting space station and line up with the Poisk module.

In addition, Progress crafts are preferred for Zvezda’s aft port as this enables them to perform ISS reboosts using their main engines.

According to NASA Poisk carried about 816 kg (1,799 lb) of cargo to the ISS including new Russian Orlan spacesuits, life support equipment, medical supplies and crew hygiene items.

On 12 November, Progress began its automated final approach to the station on a Kurs rendezvous radar system and at 15:41 UTC[19] Poisk docked to the Zvezda module's zenith port.

Cosmonauts Maksim Suraev and Roman Romanenko entered the module for the first time by opening the hatch leading into Poisk at 12:17 UTC on 13 November 2009.