Consider the focusing P H 1=2 -critical semilinear Schrödinger equation in R 3 (0.1)It admits an eight-dimensional manifold of special solutions called ground state solitons.We exhibit a codimension-1 critical real analytic manifold N of asymptotically stable solutions of (0.1) in a neighborhood of the soliton manifold. We then show that N is center-stable, in the dynamical systems sense of Bates and Jones, and globally-in-time invariant.Solutions in N are asymptotically stable and separate into two asymptotically free parts that decouple in the limit-a soliton and radiation. Conversely, in a general setting, any solution that stays P H 1=2 -close to the soliton manifold for all time is in N .The proof uses the method of modulation. New elements include a different linearization and an endpoint Strichartz estimate for the time-dependent linearized equation.The proof also uses the fact that the linearized Hamiltonian has no nonzero real eigenvalues or resonances. This has recently been established in the case treated here-of the focusing cubic NLS in R 3 -by the work of Marzuola and Simpson and Costin, Huang, and Schlag.