Category The International Space Station

The ISS Management and Cost Evaluation Task Force

On October 16, 2001, a tearful Dan Goldin announced his resignation as NASA’s longest serving Administrator. His term of office had begun in March 1992 and lasted 8.5 years. Goldin had overseen the redesign of ISS to meet President Clinton’s demands. On his President’s instructions, it had been Goldin who invited the Russians to join the ISS programme. He had also overseen the initial privatisation of the Shuttle programme and the beginning of the ISS flight programme with its associated delays and massive budget overruns. In the end, it would be the budget overruns and the hardware cancellations that brought Goldin’s tenure to a close. In his retirement speech he told the audience proudly, “I had a lease on this programme. I am handing back that lease.’’

In July 2001, even as he prepared for his retirement, Goldin had established the International Space Station Management and Cost Evaluation Task Force (IMCE) under the leadership of Thomas Young. Predictably, it became known as the Young Committee. The Task Force was established to answer the criticism surrounding NASA’s management and funding of the ISS programme, with its huge overspend. The programme had overspent by $13 billion in just four years.

In setting up the Committee, Goldin told the media:

“In the last year we have successfully carried out all of the scheduled assembly missions to the International Space Station. We did so with unbelievable precision and execution, completing the second phase of Space Station construction. It’s an incredible management and engineering achievement, but we must ensure it is carried out in a more efficient and effective manner.

“Since April, we’ve been working to select a team of outstanding innovators in the fields of science, engineering, finance and business to advise NASA and the Administration how to maximise the scientific returns on the Station while living within the guidelines of the President’s budget… The financial management of the International Space Station needs an overhaul, but we’re going to do it in a

way that doesn’t sacrifice safety… This panel has been empowered to leave no stone unturned. We have experts in all fields that have the capacity to dig deep to help us restructure the business and financial approach to the programme.’’

Goldin’s resignation was effective from November 15, 2001 and the Final Report of the Young Committee was dated six days later. It read, in part:

ISS Management and Cost Evaluation Task Force Terms of Reference

These Terms of Reference establish the International Space Station (ISS) Manage­ment and Cost Evaluation (IMCE) Task Force of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC). The IMCE Task Force is chartered to perform an independent external review and assessment of cost and budget and provide recommendations on how to ensure that ISS can provide maximum benefit to the U. S. taxpayers and the International Partners within the Administration’s budget request.

In addition there are reviews of the ISS financial management tools being conducted by the IMCE Financial Management Team (FMT) to identify and recom­mend Agency-wide improvements in these tools. The report of the FMT will be integrated into the report of the IMCE Task Force…

The integrated final report is to focus specifically on the following items

• Assess the quality of the ISS cost estimates approved for the ISS Program, including identification of high-risk budget areas and potential risk mitigation strategies.

• Ensure that the program can remain within its available budget, assess program assumptions and requirements—specifically those that led to significant cost growth relative to FY 2001 budget estimates—and identify options for smaller growth and/or budget savings and efficiencies that offset any additional spending recommended by the Task Force and approximately $500 million in unfunded cost growth.

• Review the management reforms in the ISS Program Management Action Plan—particularly cost estimating and reporting issues, early warning of potential growth, and managing program reserves—and make recommendations for additional and/or refined management reforms. Integrate results from the FMT.

• Identify opportunities for maximizing capability to meet priority research program needs within the planned ISS budget and International Partner contributions.

• In addition, assess cost estimates for potential U. S.-funded enhancements to the core station (e. g. providing additional crew time for enhanced research) and recommend refinements as necessary to achieve high-confidence estimates.

SPECIAL FINDINGS

1. The ISS Program, while taking a conservative approach and making safety paramount, has achieved excellent progress in integration of diverse inter­national technologies.

2. NASA has not accomplished a rigorous ISS cost estimate. The program lacks the necessary skills and tools to perform the level of financial management needed for successful completion within budget.

3. The cost to achieve comparable expectations at assembly complete [original design complete with American Habitation Module and American CRV] has grown from an estimate of $17.4B to over $30B. Much of this cost growth is a consequence of underestimating cost and a schedule erosion of 4+ years.

4. A cost of $8.3B (FY02-06) is not credible for the core complete baseline [No American Habitation Module, no Node-3, and no American CRV] without radical reform.

5. The management focus is on technical excellence and crew safety with emphasis on near-term schedules, rather than total program costs.

6. The Program is being managed as an “institution” rather than as a program with specific purpose, focused goals and objectives, and defined milestones.

7. The financial focus is on fiscal year budget management rather than on total Program cost management.

8. Lack of a defined program baseline has created confusion and inefficiencies.

9. Current research support funding represents a 40-percent reduction in buying power from that originally planned.

10. The Office of Biological and Physical Research (OBPR) is not well coordinated with the Office of Space Flight (OSF) or the program office for policy and strategic planning. The scientific community representation is not at an effective level in the program office structure.

11. A centrifuge is mandatory to accomplish meaningful biological research. Availability as late as FY08 is unacceptable.

12. There are opportunities to maximize scientific research on the core station with modest cost impact.

13. Cost estimates for the U. S. funded enhancement options need further develop­ment to assess credibility.

PROGRESS M1-9

On September 6, 2002, the Russians announced a delay in the launch of Progress M1-9, from September 20 to September 25, caused by problems with the spacecraft’s computer and its KURS docking system antenna. The relevant hardware was returned to RCS Energia for repair on September 3.

Even as Progress M1-9 was being prepared for flight, officials at Energia released details of the company’s dire financial position. Valeri Ryumin announced that the company had ten Soyuz and Progress vehicles in manufacture but contractors were reluctant to release vitally needed parts to complete the spacecraft to a company that already owed millions of roubles to the bank and its contractors. He stated that the $79 million that Energia would receive from the Russian government for FY2003 would be only half that required to finance the company’s commitment to ISS for the year. This consisted of two Soyuz TMA spacecraft and four Progress Ml vehicles. Ryumin blamed the Russian government for not meeting its commitment to ISS and even went so far as to suggest that the station be powered down and left unmanned between Shuttle flights. American officials once again ignored their own unilateral disregard for the legal contract between the ISS partners and replied to the Russian news by saying that they expected Energia to meet their contractual commitments to ISS.

Progress Ml-9 was launched at 13: 37, June 26, 2002, and was station-keeping 1 km from ISS on September 28. At that time the spacecraft was used to test the two­way flow of data between the KURS automatic docking system in the two spacecraft. Progress docked automatically to Zvezda’s wake, at 13: 01, September 29. The internal hatches were opened that afternoon, but unloading did not begin until the following day.

STS-112 DELIVERS THE STARBOARD-1 ITS

STS-112

COMMANDER

Jeffrey Ashby

PILOT

Pamela Melroy

MISSION SPECIALISTS

David Wolf, Piers Sellers, Sandra Magnus,

Fyodor Yurchikhin

STS-112 Atlantis had originally been planned for launch on August 22, 2002, but this was cancelled when cracks were found in the cryogenic propellant duct liners in the SSMEs of each of the Shuttle orbiters, leading to the grounding of the entire Shuttle fleet. Following an engineering review of the cracks, the launch was set for not earlier than September 26. Over August 10-12 the cracks were repaired, by welding and polishing. By August 18, the three SSMEs had been installed in the rear of Atlantis.

On August 22, the launch was set for October 2, 2002, but during the final preparations for launch Hurricane Lilli threatened to make landfall and threaten Houston, the location of NASA’s MCC. As there was no way of telling how the hurricane might affect control of the flight, it was decided to delay for 24 hours. On October 2 that was extended for a further four days as the control centre in Houston was shut down and control of ISS handed over to the Russians for the duration of the storm. The hand-over meant a restriction in communications as the Russian network could not handle the station’s Ku-band and S-band channels. As Korolev was also unable to monitor the ability of the American P-6 ITS photo­voltaic arrays to track the Sun, the arrays were locked in position. Houston resumed control of ISS on October 4, and it was returned to full operation. The problems caused the Russians to cancel a test of Progress M1-9’s thrusters on October 4, and a station re-boost manoeuvre on October 5. The new STS-112 launch date was set for October 7.

On that date Atlantis lifted off at 15: 46, to deliver the Starboard-1 (S-1) truss to the station. Throughout the launch a small camera mounted on the ET showed the external view looking back past Atlantis. Similar videos captured on throw-away rockets had proved very popular with the public. As the Shuttle lifted off, ISS was over the Pacific Ocean and the Expedition-5 crew were on their 122nd day onboard and their 124th day in space.

Post-launch inspection showed that all ten back-up pyrotechnics in the SRB hold-down bolts had failed to ignite. Each bolt had a primary charge to sever the bolt at lift-off. The back-up charges were then fired a fraction of a second later, to ensure all of the bolts were separated. On this occasion no serious damage was sustained because all ten primary charges had fired. NASA engineers acknowledged that the problem was most likely in the transmission, or receipt of the firing signal for the secondary charges, an echo of the problems with the wiring in the Shuttle fleet, which had grounded the entire fleet in 2000.

Having achieved orbit, Atlantis followed the standard rendezvous pattern while her crew performed all of the usual activities in advance of docking with ISS. They also performed their own solo experiment programme. As Atlantis performed the rendezvous Korzun, Whitson, and Treschev were unloading Progress M1-9 and packing items for return to Earth on STS-112.

Ashby performed a manual docking with PMA-2 on Destiny’s ram at 11: 17, October 9. Following pressure checks Whitson asked Ashby if he had brought the salsa that she had asked for. When Ashby replied that he had, Whitson conceded, “OK, we’ll let you in.’’ The hatches between the two spacecraft were opened and the Shuttle’s crew left Atlantis and moved into Destiny, the first visitors to ISS in four

PROGRESS M1-9

Figure 23. STS-112 crew (L to Right) Sandra Magnus, David Wolf, Pamela Melroy, Jeffrey Ashby, Piers Sellers, Fyodor Yurchikhin.

PROGRESS M1-9

Figure 24. STS-112: Atlantis delivers the Starboard-1 Integrated Truss Structure.

months. The two crews immediately began work preparing for the installation of the S-l ITS, and the first of the three EVAs associated with it.

On October 10, Whitson and Magnus used the SSRMS to lift the l5-metre-long, 14-tonne S-l ITS out of Atlantis’ payload bay and manoeuvre it into a position where it could be soft-docked with the Starboard end of the S-0 ITS, which was mounted on Destiny’s zenith CBM. Once soft-docking had been achieved motorised bolts were driven into place to secure the two units together at 09:36.

Wolf and Sellers exited the Quest airlock at 11:21. Wolf rode a foot restraint mounted on the SSRMS while Sellers used his hands to move around. Wolf con­nected power, fluid, and data umbilicals between the 2 ITS elements while Sellers used a motorised tool to undo the 18 launch locks on the 3 space radiators mounted on S-1, allowing them to be oriented for maximum cooling when they were deployed. The two then worked together to deploy an S-band antenna on the S-1 ITS. Wolf placed the antenna in the end-effector of the SSRMS and it was then moved into place near the join between the S-1 and S-0 ITS elements. Sellers held the antenna in place while Wolf secured the bolts that would hold it there.

As they passed over the Pacific Ocean Sellers looked at Earth and asked, “Where am I? Wow, its too beautiful for words, unbelievable!” After a short break to take in the view he remarked, “That’s it, back to work.’’

They then worked together to release the bolts that held the Crew and Equipment Transition Aid (CETA) to the S-1 truss and configured its brakes. The CETA would

PROGRESS M1-9

Figure 25. STS-112: Piers Sellers wears an American Extravehicular Mobility Unit near the open hatch of the Quest airlock.

PROGRESS M1-9

Figure 26. STS-112: The S-l Integrated Truss Structure. The SSRMS is mounted on the MBS which runs along a track on the ram face of the Starboard-0 Integrated Truss.

be used to transport future EVA astronauts and their equipment along rails travelling the length of the ITS when it was complete. Their final task was to fix the S-l outboard nadir exterior camera in position. At that point the SSRMS suffered a mechanical failure and the two astronauts completed their tasks without it. This was the first of two cameras to be fixed on the S-l truss for use in future EVAs. The first STS-112 EVA ended at 18: 22, after 7 hours 1 minute. With the two astronauts back in the airlock Houston told them, “You guys did an awesome job. You saved us.” Both crews took time out to relax on October 11, before beginning the task of transferring equipment from Atlantis to Destiny. Wolf and Sellers prepared the equipment for their second EVA, planned for October 12. During the evening both crews answered questions from the Russian and American media. Questioned about their first EVA Wolf replied, “I tell you what, it’s pretty tough. We got plenty tired, and I believe our heart rates got up over 170 during that task.’’ On the subject of EVA-2 he added, “We’re ready to go again.’’

Sellers, who had been on his first EVA, described his first view through the open airlock hatch:

“I was completely knocked out of my socks, which were luckily in my suit. I could see a landscape with clouds and a river, and it was just huge. It was fantastic. So the first five minutes, I was pretty much non-functional. My little brain was overloaded.’’

The principal task of the second EVA had been identified by engineers working with the ITS elements on the ground. They found that in some of the older ISS plumbing pressure could build up, and the pipes might not twist and disconnect as planned, thereby leading to a destructive failure. After many hours of work, a work­around was designed for the problem: fit Spool Positioning Devices (SPDs) on the plumbing connection to release the pressure.

After breakfast and prior to the second EVA, Ashby and Melroy fired Atlantis’ thrusters to raise the station’s orbit. EVA-2 then began at 10:31, October 12. Following preparations, Wolf and Sellers worked to further prepare the CETA for use during future EVAs. They also installed 22 Spool Positioning Devices on fluid lines in an attempt to prevent pressure build-up in the pipes preventing the correct use of the quick-disconnect fittings if required in the future. When he fitted the first device Wolf reported that there had already been a pressure build-up in the pipe and he had released it when he fitted the SPD. As Wolf put it, “I heard it burp.’’ Two other SPDs could not be fitted because the fluid lines “were of a different configuration” from that on which the SPD was designed to fit. What the euphemism in the NASA STS-112 Status Report actually meant was that Wolf had discovered that the two pipes in question had been launched with certain parts not installed. That discovery came as a surprise to everyone. Some of the joints were in positions that were hard to reach, but Sellers achieved the task and was congratulated from inside ISS by Melroy, “It is quite possible you’re the only person in the astronaut office who could have done that task.’’ The two astronauts also connected the ammonia cooling system to the S-1 ITS radiators and fitted a camera on the exterior of Destiny. The EVA ended approximately 30 minutes early, at 16: 35, after 6 hours 4 minutes.

During the end-of-day press conference, mission planners explained why the SSRMS had failed during the first EVA. The SSRMS and the MBS both worked on separate software programmes, which have to work together. If they were not correctly synchronised, then the entire unit stopped working. To ensure that two software programmes were synchronised required both the SSRMS and the MBS to be powered off and then powered back on in order to reset them, like re-booting a computer. There had not been enough time to do that before EVA-2, but Houston expected the MBS/SSRMS combination to be available for use during EVA-3.

October 13 was spent on equipment transfers and repairs. The Expedition-5 crew made a temporary repair to the TVIS, which was returned to a usable condition, despite the fact that they found a broken cable associated with the gyroscope, which would require a new one to be delivered on a future Shuttle, or Progress. The radiators on the S-l ITS were rotated into position, but their deployment was cancelled after adjustments were required to the tolerance levels of protective circuits used to monitor the initial stages of deployment. The time required to make those adjustments meant that Houston could no longer watch the deployment live, so it was delayed until the following day. Wolf and Sellers made their preparations for EVA-3, scheduled for October 14. During the afternoon press conference Whitson told how she had shared the new salsa delivered by STS-112 with her Expedition-5 crewmates. She also explained how her taste for certain foods that she enjoyed eating on Earth had changed in space so that she no longer enjoyed them. It was a common complaint among long-duration crews that food tasted extremely bland in space. Therefore, strong-flavoured food, or sauces such as Whitson’s salsa, became popular among these individuals.

That day began with the de-orbiting of Progress M-46 at 04: 34. Ashby and Melroy also performed a second re-boost manoeuvre commencing at 07: 20. The two series of manoeuvres had placed the station in the correct orbit to receive Soyuz TMA-1 later in the month, but this second manoeuvre used sufficient propellant to prompt Houston to reduce the planned 360° post-docking fly-around of ISS to just 180°, before Melroy performed the standard separation manoeuvre.

Houston then commanded the middle of three radiator panels on the S-1 ITS to deploy. As it reached its full length the crew played a recording of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus and Houston commented, “That’s very appropriate music.’’ The remaining two radiators were scheduled to be opened in 2003, at which time their heat-shedding function would be activated.

Wolf and Sellers began EVA-3 at 10: 11. Their first task was to remove the bolt that had prevented the cable cutter on the Mobile Transporter, mounted on the S-0 Truss, from activating at the end of the STS-111 flight. Next, they fitted ammonia lines between the S-0 and S-1 ITS elements and removed structural support clamps that had held the S-1 ITS in place during launch. At one point 46-year-old Wolf remarked, “We’re over the hill.’’ He quickly added, “I mean over the hill on the station.’’ Sellers, 47, replied, “No comment.’’ They also fitted two more SPDs to the pump motor assembly that circulated the ammonia throughout the cooling system. This was a “get-ahead’’ task, carried out because the two men had completed their primary tasks well ahead of schedule. As the EVA drew to a close Houston told them, “You guys are doing a great job. Our only concern is that you’re making it look too easy for us.’’ The EVA ended at 10: 11, after 6 hours 36 minutes.

Next day, both crews were given some free time to spend together before the STS-112 crew began preparing for their departure. While the final items were transferred between the two spacecraft, Ashby and Whitson worked together to replace a humidity separator in the Quest airlock. That evening the two crews said their farewells. Whitson and Magnus hugged each other as they said goodbye. When it came to saying goodbye to her good friend and remaining in orbit for a further month, Whitson commented, “I didn’t know it was going to be so hard.’’

PROGRESS M1-9

Figure 27. STS-112: As Atlantis departed the International Space Station, the Starboard-1 Integrated Truss Structure was clearly visible.

Melroy thanked Whitson and her colleagues for making the STS-112 crew welcome onboard the station and then concluded with, “You look wonderful. You look great. We miss you. Come home soon.” Ashby led his crew back to Atlantis and the hatches between the two vehicles were sealed. Both crews spent the night in their individual spacecraft. In Houston, mission manager Robert Castle told a press conference, “Overall, things are going very, very well, and I don’t think they could have done better.’’

As Atlantis passed over the Russia/Ukraine border Melroy told controllers, “We want to stay.’’ But they could not stay, and she undocked Atlantis from Destiny’s ram at 09: 13, October 16, and completed the reduced 180° fly-around manoeuvre to allow the other members of the crew to photograph ISS with the S-1 Truss in place. Melroy then performed the separation manoeuvre to allow the two spacecraft to drift apart under the influence of orbital mechanics.

October 17 was spent packing everything away in preparation for retrofire. Houston told the astronauts, “Just to make you jealous, it’s [the temperature] in the 50s here in Houston, and the weather is absolutely gorgeous, the air is dry.’’

As Atlantis continued to fall through the vacuum of space, Ashby replied, “It’s pretty dry up here too.’’ He added, “Sounds like a real good day to come home tomorrow.’’ Atlantis performed retrofire on October 18, and Ashby turned his space­craft for re-entry. As Atlantis fell out of the Florida sky it was struck by some of the strongest crosswinds experienced by any landing Shuttle. Ashby, the most experi­enced Naval aviator in the Astronaut Office flew his spacecraft to a perfect landing at KSC, touching down on the runway centreline at 11:44. His only comment at the time was “It’s great to be back in Florida.’’ Melroy commented on Ashby’s smooth landing after the flight saying, “We’re so proud of him we could burst our buttons.’’ Ashby saved his comments for the flight in general, commenting at the post-landing ceremony to welcome them home, “What an incredible adventure we’ve been on. As I stand here. I can’t help but think about all the people that helped us take the [S-1] Truss up there. It’s been an amazing team effort.’’ British-born Sellers, who had just completed his first flight in space, called ISS an “Island in the sky that is a completely different place that has different rules. It was an experience like nothing I’ve seen or even dreamed of before. Things float. You’re climbing underneath structures like a spider underneath a gutter. It’s a magical place.’’

At a post-flight press conference James Wetherbee, Commander of STS-113, which would fly a similar flight to ISS in November, commented, “It was great to see them pull off the mission so successfully. That makes us feel a lot better and we’re that much more prepared.’’

With Atlantis gone, the Expedition-5 crew had returned to their daily routines. On October 24, Whitson and Korzun put the SSRMS through the manoeuvres that would be required to install the P-1 ITS, which would be delivered by STS-113 in November. That flight would also carry the Expedition-6 crew to ISS. In the same week Whitson brought her experiment programme to an end, in preparation for the Expedition-5 crew’s return to Earth. During the same period flight controllers in Houston up-linked new software to the three systems computers housed in Destiny. This was the first major update to the software since the laboratory module had been docked to ISS in February 2001.

SOYUZ TMA-1, FIRST OF A NEW CLASS

SOYUZ TMA-1

COMMANDER

Sergei Zalyotin

FLIGHT ENGINEER

Frank de Winne (ESA, Belgium)

FLIGHT ENGINEER

Yuri Lonchakov

Soyuz TMA-1 was originally scheduled for launch on October 28, 2002, but it was not to be. On October 15, 2002, a new version of the Soyuz-U launch vehicle, carrying a “Foton” satellite, was launched out of Plesetsk. The launch failed and the vehicle fell in a nearby forest killing 1 soldier and injuring 20 other people. The failure was later identified as being caused by contamination in the hydrogen peroxide system. As a result of the failed satellite launch the Soyuz TMA-1 launch was delayed on October 18, and rescheduled for October 29.

Soyuz TMA-1 was the first of a new class of Soyuz spacecraft, with the new Descent Module interior arrangement to facilitate couch frames designed to be adjustable to allow them to carry taller and heavier, or shorter and lighter than average crew members. The new arrangement had been developed after NASA recognised that the restrictions demanded by the standard Soyuz TM spacecraft meant that many American astronauts would not be able to serve on ISS Expedition crews as they would not be able to squeeze into the Soyuz TM CRV in the event of an emergency return to Earth. The new Descent Module also had improved instrumentation and avionics.

The new spacecraft was launched from Baikonur at 22:11, October 29,2002. Ten minutes later Soyuz TMA-1 was in orbit with its antennae and photovoltaic arrays deployed. Unlike on previous occasions, the Expedition-5 crew did not transfer Soyuz TM-34 from Zarya’s nadir to Pirs’ nadir before the launch of the replacement Soyuz. After following the standard 2-day rendezvous, the Soyuz docked to Pirs at 00: 01, November 1. Docking took place over central Russia and was monitored by the Expedition-5 crew inside Zvezda. Whitson described the rendezvous:

“Although the timing for the Soyuz arrival and docking was based on lighting and communication] coverage, it seemed to be choreographed for aesthetic purposes. I was using our new camera at the end of the S-1 Truss to film the docking. I was trying to find a tiny speck of light (we were in eclipse) in the general direction of the approach. I saw a brighter than normal ‘star’ and zoomed the camera for maximal magnification… As the Soyuz capsule began to fill my video monitor, the sun began to peek around the edge of the planet, making that incredible royal blue curvilinear entrance. Alpha [ISS] and the new Soyuz capsule were soon bathed in brilliant white light from the sun. While the Earth below was still dark, the Soyuz made contact and became our new rescue vehicle. Valeri and Sergei had

PROGRESS M1-9

Figure 28. Expedition-5: The Expedition-5 and Soyuz TMA-1 crews pose together in Zvezda. (rear row) Peggy Whitson, Yuri Lonchakov, Sergei Treschev. (centre) Sergei Zalyotin, Frank De Winne. (front) Valeri Korzun.

a close-up view of the docking from the Service Module (SM). From the nadir windows in the SM it is possible to see the docking compartment, which extends below from the forward end of this module. In other words, the new Soyuz docked about 2 meters before their eyes.”

Following pressure checks the hatches between the two spacecraft were opened at 01: 26. After a safety briefing the three cosmonauts were welcomed aboard ISS. Over the next week, de Winne conducted his own experiment programme related to genetic engineering and the effects of microgravity on genes. The cosmonauts also performed protein crystal growth and materials processing experiments. Having swapped their couch liners with those of the Expedition-5 crew the Soyuz TMA-1 crew undocked Soyuz TM-34 Zarya’s nadir at 15:44, November 9, and manoeuvred clear of the station. Following retrofire Soyuz TM-34 landed in Kazakhstan at 07: 04, November 10. Soyuz TMA-1 was left docked to Pirs. It would serve as the ISS CRV for the next 6-months.

Whitson wrote:

“After the Soyuz undocked, we were able to watch as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, about 2 orbits later. The ground control team had provided instruc­tions of where to look in order to see the spacecraft, and since it was during the eclipse, I shut off all the lights in the [Destiny] lab to watch from the window there. The thing I noticed first was what appeared to be a milky white contrail in the darkness. It brightened and the Soyuz became visible as it began to glow from the heat of re-entry. The Soyuz consists of three parts, the engine section, the ‘living compartment’, which is not any larger than a subcompact car volume, and the cramped descent module, sandwiched in between them. I was surprised to actually see ‘razdalenea’ (separation) of these three modules. The three glowing pieces separated, and the engine compartment and the living compartment trailed behind the descent module and began a fiery disintegration, looking much like a bright orange 4th of July sparkler. The central portion, the descent module, has a heat shield to protect the vehicle from the high temperatures (on the order of 3,000°F) generated during re-entry. We were able to see the descent module for a few minutes after separation, before it seemed to be swallowed up in the cloudy darkness below. About 4 hours after separation from the station, the taxi crew had landed in the cold desert of Kazakstan.’’

On November 10, the Expedition-5 crew waited in vain for the launch of STS-113. Following the cancellation of the launch attempt, Whitson pointed out to flight controllers in Houston that the crew had been rationing their drinks to make them last until Endeavour’s arrival at ISS. With the Shuttle’s launch delayed for one week she pointed out that the crew would run out of drinks before the Shuttle arrived. She asked for, and was given permission to take additional drinks from the equipment already delivered to the station for the Expedition-6 crew. She also sought permission to commence the Expedition-6 experiment programme, as the

Expedition-5 crew had completed their own science programme and packed away the equipment they had used.

A report entitled Assessment of Directions in Microgavity and Physical Sciences Research at NASA by the National Research Council’s (NRC) Space Study Board was made public on November 6. The report praised the advance in NASA’s micro­gravity research programme since its beginning during Project Skylab in the 1970s. It said that the present programme consisted of five areas

• biotechnology

• combustion

• fluid physics

• fundamental physics, and

• material sciences

all of which were threatened by the budgetary restrictions placed on ISS by mis­management and the Bush Administration’s restrictions, including the limiting of the Expedition crews to just three people. The report advised NASA to maximise microgravity research both on ISS and in laboratories on Earth.

On November 8, NASA announced plans to alter their FY2003 budget request to allow for the implementation of a new Integrated Space Transportation Plan (ISTP), including plans for the Orbital Space Plane CTV/CRV. In order to fund the ISTP NASA had entered an amendment to its $15 billion FY2003 budget. Of this $6.6 billion would be assigned to the “completion” (Core Complete) of the construction of ISS by 2006. Over the next four years, the OSP would consume $2.4 billion, with the first flight taking place in 2008, carrying up to ten crew members to ISS. A further $1.6 billion would be spent on Space Shuttle enhancements allowing it to continue flying through 2012 and possibly up to 2020. In order to bring ISS to Core Complete in 2006, NASA would spend $15.2 billion by adding a fifth Shuttle flight to the annual launch manifest.

As if to prove that there was an urgent requirement for the proposed OSP, Yuri Koptev, head of Rosaviakosmos, reported that the Russian space budget for FY2003 would not increase over that for FY2002, with no allowance for inflation. Koptev stated, “The problem is that our legislators wonder why they need to set aside the same amount or more for space if our partner countries have cut their ISS budgets.’’ The Russians asked the International Partners to assist with the funding for the new Soyuz TMA spacecraft, stating that production might be delayed, or even brought to an end if no assistance was forthcoming. One suggestion put forward by Rosaviakosmos was to stop flying Expedition crews to the station and evacuate ISS. NASA made it clear that they would not consider that option, saying that, even if Russia stopped flying cosmonauts to the station on Soyuz spacecraft, NASA would continue to fly Shuttle construction flights, involving occupation of the station for a few days at a time. (The original Space Station Freedom, without the Soviets/ Russians, would have been constructed with crews only visiting the station on construction flights and not permanently occupying it until the final element, the Habitation Module, had been installed.)

One anonymous Russian source even suggested that if Russia alone was to maintain its ISS budget at the original level, in order to keep its contractual agree­ments to supply Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, then control of the programme should be passed from America to Russia. This naive view overlooked the millions of US dollars that America had given Russia to keep them in the programme from the beginning and the vast sums that America paid to support ISS operations. The same Russian source also naively suggested that Japan’s delaying completion of the Kibo science module threatened that country’s political relations with America and the ESA member states.

Meanwhile, the Russian Channel-1 television station had paid an original $20 million to Rosaviokosmos to begin funding a competition to place a journalist on ISS during a Soyuz taxi flight in October 2003. International journalists meeting Rosaviokosmos’ strict health and fitness programme and passing the standard Space Flight Participant training programme would be applicable to take part in the com­petition. The entire selection and training competition would be filmed by Channel-1.

STS-113 INSTALLS THE PORT-1 ITS

STS-113

COMMANDER

James Wetherbee

PILOT

Paul Lockhart

MISSION SPECIALIST

Michael Lopez-Alegria, John Herrington

EXPEDITION-6 (up)

Ken Bowersox, Donald Pettit, Nikolai Budarin (Russia)

EXPEDITION-5 (down)

Valeri Korzun (Russia), Sergei Treschev (Russia), Peggy Whitson

The Pilot on STS-113 was originally to have been Christopher “Gus” Loria, but on August 14, 2002 Loria requested to be removed from the crew due to an un­specified injury at his home that had caused him to fall behind in training. NASA quoted their privacy rules as a reason for not giving further details at the time. Paul Lockhart, who had flown as Commander on STS-111, a similar flight involving ITS assembly work and an Expedition crew rotation took Loria’s position.

Likewise, the Expedition-6 crew had changed just 4 months before launch. It had originally consisted of Ken Bowersox, Nikolai Budarin, and Don Thomas. In June, Thomas was grounded because his combined radiation exposure over the long – duration Expedition-6 flight would take him beyond his allowed lifetime exposure limit. He was replaced by Donald Pettit, who would be making his first spaceflight. Pettit had been training as Thomas’ back-up since January 2001. Bowersox paid tribute to Thomas, “Thomas really, really wanted to fly long duration. We know this has been very, very hard for him. But he is a big part of our mission. Everywhere we go we see reminders of him.’’ Despite this compliment, Thomas did not contact the crew on launch day to wish them well.

STS-113 would continue the construction of the ITS with the delivery and installation of the Port-1 (P-1) ITS element to ISS. The P-1 ITS would be mounted on the opposite end of the S-0 ITS to the S-1 ITS, of which it was practically a mirror image. The flight would also deliver the CETA Cart-B, for mounting on the ITS in support of future EVA astronauts.

All preparations proceeded towards a launch on November 10, 2002. On that date, propellant loading had been completed when a problem arose with Endeavour’s oxygen system, which had allowed higher than acceptable amounts of oxygen to build up in the mid-body of the orbiter. The launch was cancelled and rescheduled for no earlier than November 18, 2002. De-tanking the propellants in the ET began the following morning and was completed before engineers entered Endeavour to rectify the oxygen system. That work required the payload bay doors to be opened while the STS-113 stack stood on LC-39. A leak was discovered in an oxygen hose located in Endeavour’s mid-section, where fatigue from normal use, coupled with a weak design had caused the problem. The affected section of hose was cut out and replaced. While engineers were carrying out that repair a work platform struck the RMS in its parked

PROGRESS M1-9

Figure 29. STS-113 crew (L to R): John Lockhart, Michael Lopez-Alegria, John Herrington, James Wetherbee. These four were joined by the Expedition-6 crew on launch and the Expedition-5 crew during recovery.

position, alongside the payload bay door hinge. The thermal cover was ripped and the RMS’ laminated protective cover was scratched. The RMS was subjected to X-ray and ultrasonic inspections, which revealed an area of de-lamination on the arm. Tests were carried out in Toronto to see if the de-lamination would affect the RMS’ performance. Two sets of repair plans were established:

• For a repair to be carried out in situ at LC-39, resulting in a new launch date of “no earlier than November 22’’.

• For a repair if the RMS needed to be removed from Endeavour, causing the launch to be delayed until December.

At the same time the nitrogen flex hose located in the mid-deck, next to the failed oxygen flex hose, was also replaced.

The Expedition-5 crew spent their extra time in space packing and labelling experiment racks and ran through the SSRMS manoeuvres required to fit the P-1 Truss when STS-113 finally arrived at the station.

STS-113 was finally launched at 1950, November 23, 2002, and successfully climbed into orbit. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe was in Florida for the launch. At the post-launch press conference he made the comment, “The maximum period of time [in space] we’ve hit as Americans is 196 days. That’s less than half the time needed for a one-way trip to Mars. And we believe in round trips at NASA.’’

PROGRESS M1-9

Figure 30. STS-113: Endeavour delivers the Port-1 Integrated Truss Structure.

After following the standard two-day rendezvous, Whitson told the approaching Shuttle crew, “You guys look pretty good out there.” As the Shuttle made a slow approach to ISS she told them, “You guys fly that like you stole it.” Wetherbee docked Endeavour to Destiny’s ram at 16:59, November 25. Following pressure checks the hatches between the two vehicles were opened at 18:31.

The Expedition-5 crew welcomed their visitors to ISS before Korzun gave them their safety briefing. Endeavour’s crew began transferring equipment immediately, including the Expedition-6 crew’s Soyuz seat liners and Sokol pressure suits. Bowersox, Pettit, and Budarin installed their seat liners in Soyuz TMA-1 and carried out pressure and leak tests on their suits before taking over command of ISS.

Asked to describe the crew exchange, Bowersox explained:

“Well, it just depends on who you talk to. On paper we’re supposed to go across, we’re supposed to put our seat liners in the Soyuz, we’re supposed to put on our Russian… Sokol entry suit, try them on, make sure that they’re leak-free, and then we’re supposed to do a test, all three of us together, to make sure that we’re ready to take over the Soyuz. Once we’ve done that, then officially we can be left on orbit. But if you talk to the guys who are there now, as soon as we show up, they’re going home… and our job is to figure out how we’re going to get back.’’

Korzun, Whitson, and Treschev ended their occupation as the Expedition-5 crew after 171 days 3 hours 33 minutes. They now became part of Endeavour’s STS-113 crew.

On November 26, Wetherbee secured Endeavour’s RMS to the P-1 ITS, secured in the Shuttle’s payload bay. At 10: 22, the bolts securing the truss in place were commanded to release and Wetherbee lifted the huge structure out of the payload bay and handed it over to the SSRMS operated by Bowersox and Whitson. The latter pair transferred the P-1 ITS up to the port side of the S-0 ITS and commanded the motorised bolts to secure it in place.

At 14:49, 30 minutes earlier than planned, Herrington and Lopez-Alegrla exited the Quest airlock to begin the first of three EVAs to connect the P-1 ITS to the S-0 ITS and the ISS systems. “How do you like the view?’’ asked Lopez-Alegrla, as they made their way outside. “The view is phenomenal, just fabulous. Life is good!’’ Herrington, the first Native American astronaut, replied.

Copying the procedures used to install the S-1 Truss in October, the two astro­nauts connected electrical cables and installed SPDs to allow for the quick disconnec­tion of pipes in the case of a future emergency. They also released the locks on the second CETA cart, before removing the two large metal rods, called drag links, that had supported the P-1 Truss during launch. The drag links were secured to the P-1 framework. Herrington then returned to Quest to top off his oxygen supply before rejoining Lopez-Alegrla to install the Wireless video system External Tranceiver Assembly (WETA) antenna on Unity. The WETA would allow the pictures from an EVA astronaut’s helmet cameras to be received in the control centre without the need for a Shuttle to be present with the necessary antennae. The EVA ended at 21:35, after 6 hours 45 minutes. Mission control told them, “Great work. You’ve got a happy control team down here.’’

The two Expedition Crews spent the remainder of the day conducting hand-over briefings. Bowersox had described what he expected these to be like:

“There’s a lot of things that we just can’t cover in training because the actual configuration of the station is too fluid and too complex to track on the ground and to reflect in our ground simulators. So there’s a lot that we’ll pick up during the docked time frame that will help us early in the mission. It’s things that we just can’t train for: where the cameras really are, where items are located, where cables have been arranged, where people are sleeping, a lot of small things that you just don’t have time to cover in training.’’

November 27 was Wetherbee’s 50th birthday. The STS-113 crew spent the day transferring equipment between Endeavour and ISS, while the hand-over briefings continued between the two Expedition crews. Wetherbee, Lockhart, Herrington, and Lopez-Alegria also spent time in the afternoon preparing for the second EVA, while Whitson and Bowersox worked together to clear debris from the vent lines on the Carbon Dioxide Removal system in Destiny. Wetherbee and Lockhart also performed the first of three orbital re-boost manoeuvres using Endeavour’s thrusters.

PROGRESS M1-9

Figure 31. STS-113: John Herrington and Michael Lopez-Alegria install the Port-1 Integrated Truss Structure.

November 28 was American Thanksgiving Day, but there was to be no holiday on ISS. NASA’s Bob Castle told a press conference, “It will be a very busy day for them. I suspect they will celebrate Thanksgiving some other day.’’

The second EVA began at 13:36, November 28, 45 minutes ahead of the time in the flight plan. Herrington and Lopez-Alegria connected two fluid jumpers to connect the P-1 ITS ammonia cooling system to the system in the S-0 ITS and the rest of ISS. Next they removed the starboard keel pin, a launch support. They used the CETA handcart to manoeuvre it to its permanent storage location on the P-1 ITS and secured it in place before installing a second WETA antenna on the P-1 ITS. Having removed and stowed the port keel pin they carried out the “get-ahead” task of releasing the launch locks on the P-1 radiator beams.

Herrington used a foot restraint mounted in the SSRMS to leave both hands free to allow him to pick up the P-1 CETA cart. Whitson and Pettit then swung the SSRMS so that Herrington moved across the front of ISS, passing across Endeavour’s payload bay, to secure the P-1 CETA cart on the S-1 ITS, next to the S-1 CETA cart. This cleared the P-1 CETA tracks for the SSRMS to move along them at a later date on its MT in order to extend that side of the ITS. Their final task was to reconnect a cable from the WETA mounted on Unity before stowing their equipment and returning to Quest. The EVA ended at 19: 46, after 6 hours 10 minutes. Space Station programme manager Bill Gerstenmaier told the media:

“It’s really been a textbook mission so far. It looks easy. It looks like it comes together without much trouble. That is totally counter to what really happens. It comes out so smoothly because of all the hard work we put in place.’’

During the end-of-day press conference Herrington described the EVAs, “The work is very difficult. Your hands get very tired. When the Sun goes down, you have this beautiful station illuminated in front of you. It gets incredibly dark, pitch-black, except the little spot your headlamp is aimed at. So you lose the perspective of what is around you.’’ He also admitted, “I was amazed at how massive the Earth is.’’

On the station, the hand-over briefings continued and the CDRA was working properly after Bowersox and Whitson’s repairs. The two crews shared a traditional holiday dinner courtesy of NASA’s unique home delivery service: Endeavour.

November 29 was a day of equipment transfers. Whitson transferred the PCG-STES Unit 7 to Endeavour while Bowersox transferred its replacement, the PCG-STES Unit 10, to Destiny. Lopez-Alegria and Pettit transferred the Plant Generic Bio-processing Apparatus (PGBA) from Endeavour to Destiny. The new equipment would allow researchers on the ground to observe plants being grown on ISS. During the morning Wetherbee and Lockhart used Endeavour’s thrusters to make a second boost to the station’s orbit. Whitson and Pettit also carried out troubleshooting tasks on the Microgravity Science Glovebox, following its failure on November 20.

During the afternoon Korzun, Whitson, and Treschev held a small ceremony to officially hand ISS over to Bowersox, Pettit, and Budarin. During the changeover

Korzun told the Expedition-6 crew, “We were so happy to live here, to work here… We will miss our space house.” He then told Bowersox, “I am ready to be relieved.” Bowersox replied, “And I relieve you.”

This was followed by a press conference, in which all ten astronauts took part. Bowersox told the conference that the Expedition-5 crew had set a very high standard of work that would be difficult to live up to. He added, “I only hope that my crew, Don, Nikolai, and I, will be able to work as well over the four, or however many months, we end up living on the station; hopefully more than four.”

Wetherbee, Commander of STS-113, told the new crew, “Expedition-6, it is your duty to sail on and disappear over the horizon, but return after discovering new land and make the world a better place.” It was a tall order.

Whitson admitted, “I do think I’m ready to go, but it’s been a kind of a gradual process. A month ago, when I started to pack, I was definitely not ready to go. My husband reminded me it’s much better to leave while you still want to stay, rather than the other way round. I’m happy to go, while I still wouldn’t mind staying here.’’ She explained how she had asked a NASA food specialist for a special meal on her return, “I asked if they would cook up a nice steak with a caesar salad with lots of garlic on it. I’m looking forward to getting some food that doesn’t come in a bag.’’ To go with her meal she wanted a cold drink, “We don’t have any carbonated drinks up here so I’m looking forward to that, and anything with ice in it would be nice as well.’’

Planning towards the third EVA began at 11:21, November 30, when Whitson and Bowersox prepared to command the SSRMS to attach its free end to the MT and then release its hold on the fixture on the exterior of Destiny. The transfer was delayed when the MT stopped 3 metres short of the intended transfer location. As a result, Herrington and Lopez-Alegria exited Quest at 14: 25 and began their EVA by searching for anything that may have caused the MT to stop. Harrington found a UHF communications antenna that had failed to deploy and had snagged one of the MT’s trailing umbilicals. He cleared the umbilical and deployed the antenna, which allowed the MT to continue on its journey, arriving at Work Point-7 (WP-7) at 17: 11. The MT was latched in place, and prepared to receive the SSRMS by 18: 00. The delay caused the astronaut’s EVA tasks to be re-prioritised and when they voiced the opinion that they could complete all of their tasks without using the SSRMS the walk-off from Destiny to the MT was cancelled. The two men completed all of their tasks, including the connecting of 33 SPDs at various locations around the exterior of the station. They also connected the Ammonia Tank Assembly umbilicals and reconfigured a circuit breaker on the Main Bus Switching Unit. Finally, they recon­figured the Squib Firing Unit on the P-1 radiator unit in preparation for their deployment in 2003. The EVA ended at 21 : 25 after exactly 7 hours.

December 1 was the final full day of joint operations. Herrington and Lopez – Alegria cleaned and stowed their EMUs and the tools they had used during their three EVAs. Wetherbee and Lockhart completed the third series of re-boost manoeuvres and the two Expedition Crews continued their hand-over briefings. With most of the two-way equipment transfers complete the two crews enjoyed some free time during the day to recover from their hectic earlier schedule.

PROGRESS M1-9

Figure 32. STS-113: As Endeavour departs the station, the Starboard-1 Integrated Truss Structure is mirrored by the Port-1 Integrated Truss Structure. Following the loss of the solo Shuttle flight STS-107 and the grounding of the Shuttle fleet, the station would remain in this configuration for three years.

Wetherbee led his crew back to Endeavour on December 2, with the hatches between the two spacecraft being closed at 12:57. Before that happened, the two Expedition crews embraced each other. Bowersox told the three people he was relieving, “This is a big moment for us.” Pettit added, “We promise to take good care of the Space Station.” Korzun, the outgoing Station Commander, assured them, “Each crew does better than the last.”

With bad weather threatening Florida and a delayed landing likely, the Shuttle crew were told not to leave any of their remaining food with the Expedition-6 crew, as most crews did. Endeavour undocked at 15: 05, the same day and made a 90° fly – around of the station before manoeuvring clear. The Expedition-5 crew had been in residence for 178 days. Two Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) mini-satellites were released from Endeavour’s payload bay. The two satellites were tethered together and designed to test micro-technologies and nano-technologies during their three days of free flight.

December 3 was spent preparing for landing the following day. That landing attempt was cancelled due to heavy, low cloud and stormy weather over the Kennedy Space Centre. Likewise, the landing attempts on December 5 and 6 were cancelled due to rain and windy conditions in Florida. Endeavour finally came home to KSC, landing under Wetherbee’s control at 14: 37, December 7, after a flight lasting 13 days 18 hours 25 seconds. As Endeavour came to wheel-stop Houston radioed, “Welcome home to Valeri, Peggy, and Sergei after your half-year off planet. Great job.’’

Peggy Whitson was just 3 days short of taking the world endurance record for a female astronaut from Shannon Lucid. Even so, she did hold the new endurance record for an American astronaut on a single flight into space. The American record for total flight time accumulated over a number of flights stood at 196 days and was held jointly by Bursch and Walz following the Expedition-5 occupation of ISS. The Expedition-5 crew, who had been in space for 185 days, underwent the usual 45-day long battery of medical and physical re-acclimatisation tests that awaited all returning Expedition crews.

No one knew it on December 7, but this would be the last ISS construction flight for the next three years.

PROGRESS Ml-11

In the immediate aftermath of the loss of STS-107 in February 2003, NASA had asked the Russians to launch an additional, fourth, Progress in 2003. Despite having requested the extra launch, NASA was unable to offer any payment in support of it, due to the terms of the Iran Non-Proliferation Act, which forbade American com­panies and government departments from spending their money in countries that supported Iran’s attempts to develop nuclear power and, through that programme, nuclear weapons. The launch of the extra Progress had been delayed from November 2003 to January 29, 2004.

On that date Progress M1-11 was launched at 06: 58, and followed a standard two-day rendezvous trajectory, before docking to Zvezda’s wake at 08: 13, January 31. The Expedition-8 crew spent the next week unpacking the new arrival. Following a test-firing of the Progress’ thrusters, the crew observed a small strip of material drifting away from the station, but noted that it did not appear to represent any danger to ISS. Two weeks later the object was identified as a bolt and washer used to hold the photovoltaic arrays on Progress M1-11 in their folded position during launch. They served no purpose after the spacecraft’s arrays had been deployed. During the week ending January 31, Foale also initiated the ESA PROMISS-3 cell culture growth experiment that had been carried into space on Progress M1-11. It would be run for 30 days and the results would be returned to Earth on Soyuz TMA-3.

February began with a period of silence to mark the first anniversary of the loss of STS-107, and the unloading of Progress M1-11. The crew also began a highly toxic Japanese experiment called the Granada Crystallisation Facility. Kaleri commenced the Russian Mimtec-K protein crystal growth experiment. He also deployed the Russian Brazdoz radiation detectors inside Zvezda. On February 4, Kaleri began repairs of the Elektron oxygen generator and the Vozdukh carbon dioxide remover. A fan in the latter had begun making a loud noise and would be replaced during the following week. The international experiment programme continued throughout the next week alongside routine maintenance and exercise. During the second week of the month the crew completed the ongoing regular collection of air and swab samples from surfaces inside ISS. Progress M1-11 had been emptied by February 11, and the crew began loading the spacecraft with unwanted items. Elektron failed during the day, but Kaleri had it working again within 24 hours. It failed once more on February 16, and it took 3 days of efforts by Kaleri, with Korolev’s assistance, to put it back in action. It failed again the following day and the station’s atmosphere was topped up using oxygen from Progress M1-11.

On February 16, Korolev released details of the problem with the Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft. It was

“… a minute pressure decay in the two helium systems that pressurise the Soyuz propellant tanks and lines… The pressure decay was first noted on system-2 when the Soyuz arrived at the station in October, and was confirmed on system-1 during a routine thruster test… Flight directors have concluded that the decay poses no concern. The decay was extremely small and there are no plans to change normal entry and landing procedures.”

As they approached 4 months (February 18) in their occupation, Foale and Kaleri commenced early preparations for their only Stage EVA, planned for February 26. They shifted their sleep schedule to accommodate the start of the EVA. Foale also positioned the SSRMS so that its cameras and lights could offer maximum coverage of their external activities. The EVA would take place from Pirs, with both men wearing Orlan pressure suits. It would be the first EVA from ISS where all crew members were outside of the station, and no one was inside monitoring the station’s systems and choreographing the EVA against the flight plan, or operating the SSRMS to provide the best possible video coverage. Although NASA was originally unhappy about this arrangement, the Soviets/Russians had used it throughout their Salyut and Mir space station programmes.

The following week was spent preparing for the planned EVA. Both men unpacked their Orlan EVA suits and checked them over, working closely with controllers at Korolev. They also carried out another, successful, exercise that proved they could move between Pirs and Soyuz TMA-3 while wearing Orlan pressure suits, in the event that they had to abandon ISS as a result of an unexpected event occurring during the EVA, which prevented them re-entering the station.

After configuring the station for a period of non-occupation, Foale and Kaleri locked themselves inside Pirs. At 16: 17, February 26, they opened the hatch and made their way into open space, leaving ISS unoccupied. They collected their tools, secured their tethers, and made their way to the exterior of Zvezda. There, they replaced one of two cassettes of long-duration material exposure samples that were part of the Japanese Micro-Particle Capture and Space Environment Exposure Devices (MPAC/SEEDs) experiment that had been put in place, to measure micro­meteoroid impacts, in October 2001. Next they installed the Russian “Matryoshka” experiment on handrails on Zvezda’s exterior. The experiment housed simulated human tissue samples, which would be used to study radiation absorption. As they completed this work Kaleri reported water droplets forming on the inside of his visor and a rise in the temperature inside his suit. It was approximately 18: 00. A few minutes later, engineers at Korolev reported problems with the cooling system in Kaleri’s suit, leading to a build-up of condensation on the inside of his helmet.

Kaleri returned to Pirs, while Foale replaced one of two cassettes of long – duration exposure material samples on Zvezda’s wake airlock housing before joining his colleague in Pirs. The hatch was closed at 20: 12, after an EVA lasting 3 hours 55 minutes. After pressurising the airlock Foale climbed out of his suit, so that he could carry out an inspection of Kaleri’s suit. During the inspection he discovered a kink in a cooling water tube. When the kink was straightened out the water began flowing freely once more. The two men re-entered ISS, which had performed flaw­lessly in autonomous mode throughout the EVA. American fears of leaving the station unoccupied had proved groundless. The week following the EVA began with light duties, but the crew also worked on their experiments and routine housekeeping tasks.

Progress M1-11’s thrusters were used to raise the station’s altitude on March 2. During preparations for the burn a momentary spike was observed in the electrical current reaching CMG-3. After the spike all readings returned to normal and CMG-3 continued to operate as planned. Foale had prepared Destiny’s window for the replacement of the jumper hose that had been identified as the source of the pressure leak earlier in the month. The gaps between the various panes of glass in the window were vented over the weekend to disperse condensation that had built up. On Friday March 5, a vacuum was re-established between the panes of glass in the window in advance of replacing the jumper hose. Once installed the new jumper hose was fitted with a new cover, to prevent it being knocked accidentally.

The week ending March 12 began with a three-day weekend off, after which the crew spent three days working closely with Houston to disassemble their exercise treadmill and remove the gyroscope that had malfunctioned in November 2003. They then replaced a bearing within the gyroscope before replacing the gyroscope and reassembling the treadmill. Houston monitored the first few days of treadmill use with the Vibration Isolation System re-activated, to ensure it was functioning correctly. NASA reported:

“The crew heard noises coming from the treadmill in November, which engineers determined was a failed bearing in the gyroscope that stabilises movement in the roll direction. A repair kit was sent to the station in January [on Progress M1-11] … After this week’s repair work, Foale reported the noises had stopped.”

Kaleri continued to work on the Elektron oxygen generator in Zvezda. On March 12, he began a total review of the system, to identify what items needed replacing. Following a final replenishment of oxygen from Progress M1-11, two Russian SFOG oxygen candles were burned each day in Zvezda, commencing on March 13, to supplement the oxygen supply while the Elektron repairs continued. At the end of the week Foale performed further activities while wearing the FOOT experiment to record how he used his limbs in microgravity. He also used a computer training package to familiarise himself with the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity (ADUM) experiment. Later in the flight, Foale would use the experi­ment to make an ultrasound examination of Kaleri. On March 14, CMG-2 in the Z-1 Truss fell off-line for 2 minutes before the emergency system restored it to correct operation. Similar failures and recoveries would occur over the next several days.

The following week Foale and Kaleri spent two days replacing a liquids unit and a water flow system in the Elektron oxygen generator. Following earlier repairs, Russian engineers had decided that air bubbles in the liquids unit had repeatedly caused the Elektron unit to shut down after only a few minutes of operation. The work on Elektron necessitated the re-scheduling of other, lower priority tasks. Following the repair the Elektron unit was activated on Saturday March 20, and performed well. It was left running and the crew stopped burning SFOGs. NASA was at pains to point out that over 100 SFOG candles remained in storage on ISS, along with two tanks of high-pressure oxygen in the Quest airlock, which could supply the crew with breathable oxygen for several months if required. On March 22 and 23, both men participated in noise level measurements. The working week ended on March 26, when Foale carried out a regular inspection of one of the two American EMUs held on the station.

As March turned to April the Expedition-8 crew began their final month onboard ISS. They completed an initial maintenance of the two Russian Orlan suits delivered to the station on Progress M1-11 in January, to replace three older Orlan suits that had been used by earlier Expedition crews. Foale completed a final session of training on the SSRMS on April 2. He used the arm’s cameras to complete an external inspection of the station. He also noted that the noise that the crew had reported earlier in the flight was repeated each time he commanded Destiny’s external

camera to pan up and down. In Russia, controllers were considering having the crew replace the fan in the Soyuz TMA-3 descent module that had failed during the journey up to the station in October. The fan assisted in maintaining the humidity inside the cabin.

American controllers successfully completed tests of the software that would control the Thermal Rotary Radiator Joints on the ITS when its installation con­tinued, following the Shuttle’s Return to Flight. The software would be used to automatically position the cooling radiators mounted on the Truss once the station’s cooling system was activated, following the flight of STS-116.

Foale spent the last two weeks of his occupation completing the FOOT and PFMI experiments, and Kaleri changed a set of two ventilation and humidity fans in Soyuz TMA-3. They also began preparing the items that they would take back to Earth with them. During the week ending April 16, both men participated in a test of Soyuz TMA-3’s thrusters, during which controllers in Korolev noticed the same helium leak that had been monitored during the rendezvous with ISS. Korolev conducted additional tests of the helium system, which was used to pressurise the spacecraft’s propellant tanks, to time the leak rate. The crew also completed environ­mental sampling at various points inside ISS for return to Earth for investigation. Foale also set up the ESA HEAT experiment in the MSG in anticipation of the arrival of Soyuz TMA-4 with Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers, who would use the experiment to see if a grooved heat pipe can be used to transfer heat from hot surfaces, such as electronics, to cold surfaces, such as radiators, in microgravity.

SOYUZ TMA-4 DELIVERS THE EXPEDITION-9 CREW

SOYUZ TMA-4

COMMANDER

Gennady Padalka

FLIGHT ENGINEER

Michael Fincke

ENGINEER

Andre Kuipers (Holland)

The Soyuz TMA-4/Expedition-9 crew was originally named as Commander Valeri Tokarev and Flight Engineer William McArthur. On January 12, 2004 NASA announced that McArthur had been removed from the crew for “unspecified medical reasons’’ and replaced by Leroy Chiao. Tokarev and Chiao subsequently proved incompatible as a crew, and in February 2004 they were replaced by the original Soyuz TMA-5 prime crew of Gennady Padalka and Michael Fincke, the original Expedition-10 crew. Andre Kuipers, a Dutch ESA astronaut, would continue to fly to ISS with the new crew. By the time the crew change was announced McArthur had already recovered his health, but he and Tokarev had lost too much time training, so they were named as the new Soyuz TMA-7/Expedition-12 crew.

Soyuz TMA-4 was launched at 23: 19, April 18, 2004. Docking with the nadir port on Zarya occurred at 01: 01, April 21, and following pressure checks the hatches were opened at 14:00. The three newcomers entered the station and were given a safety briefing. Padalka and Fincke would spend 6 months on the station as the Expedition-9 crew and make two Stage EVAs from Pirs. Kuipers, the second Dutch national to fly in space, would return to Earth with the Expedition-8 crew, after spending 9 days in flight. While the Expedition-9 crew began their familiarisation and hand-over period, the Expedition-8 crew exercised rigorously prior to their return to Earth. After his recovery, Kuipers would describe his feelings:

“It was amazing, better than I had ever expected. All the different colours of

Earth; such brilliance… Gliding past huge clouds, and vast expanses of water.

You see cities from above and lightning on top of clouds instead of underneath.

At times like that it hits you that you really are in space.”

Kuipers had begun his Dutch Expedition for Life Siences, Technology and Atmospheric Research (DELTA) experiment programme during the solo portion of Soyuz TMA-4’s flight, performing a package of 21 ESA experiments. He com­menced his programme on ISS almost as soon as the hatches were open between the two spacecraft. On April 21, two runs of the HEAT experiment in the MGS were terminated automatically when the upper temperature limit was reached, and a third

PROGRESS Ml-11

Figure 44. Expedition-9: ESA astronaut, Dutchman Andre Kuipers participated in every astronaut’s favourite off-duty pastime, watching the Earth turn outside the window, during his short stay on ISS. Arriving with the Expedition-9 crew, he returned to Earth with the Expedition-8 crew.

run of the experiment was cancelled. After troubleshooting of the experimental hardware the following day, a further four runs of shorter duration were completed before the experiment was stored in Zvezda. Kuipers suffered continual problems with some of his experiments’ hardware, including a centrifuge. Throughout the remainder of the week the Dutchman became a human subject for a number of microgravity and life science experiments. He also assisted Foale and Kaleri to prepare Soyuz TMA-3 for their return to Earth.

On April 21 the Expedition-9 crew were informed that CMG-2 had gone off-line at 16: 20, after the RPCM, a circuit breaker mounted on the S-0 ITS, had mal­functioned and cut power to the CMG. CMG-1 and CMG-2 continued to perform flawlessly and were sufficient to control the station’s attitude. Controllers in Houston began planning an unscheduled third Stage EVA, on June 10, to replace CMG-2 with a CMG held in storage on the station.

The official hand-over ceremony between the Expedition-8 and Expedition-9 crews took place in Destiny on April 26. On the same day Foale, Kaleri, and Kuipers spent several hours in Soyuz TMA-3, rehearsing their undocking and re-entry procedures. Two days later propellant was transferred from Progress M1-11 while the crew slept.

After a week-long hand-over, Foale, Kaleri, and Kuipers said farewell to Padalka and Fincke and sealed themselves in Soyuz TMA-3, preparing to return to Earth. Soyuz TMA-3 undocked at 16:52, April 28, retrofire occurred at 18: 20, with no difficulties, and the re-entry module landed at 20: 12 the same day. The Expedition-8 crew had spent 194 days 18 hours 35 minutes in space. They were just one day behind the Expedition-4 crew. Foale’s personal accumulative record stood at 374 days 11 hours 19 minutes, including his Shuttle flights and his stay on Mir. He was the first American astronaut to spend a total of over one year in space. All three men were in good health and excellent spirits following their landing. As usual, the returning Expedition crew members underwent a 45-day rehabilitation programme.

Meanwhile, NASA admitted that they would be unlikely to meet the March 6, 2005 target date for STS-114, the Return to Flight mission. One of the limiting factors remained the development of the OBSS. The OBSS would give access to most of the Shuttle’s TPS, but not all of it. It would also be strong enough to support an EVA astronaut if any repairs had to be made to a Shuttle’s damaged TPS. It was not even guaranteed that STS-114 would carry the OBSS. If it did not, then the TPS inspection would have to be made by astronauts on an EVA to inspect those areas of the orbiter that could not be seen from the flight deck windows, or with the cameras on the Shuttle’s standard RMS.

SPECIAL RECOMMENDATIONS

A. Establish the ISS Program Office separate from, but residing at JSC, reporting to a new Associate Administrator (AA) for ISS.

B. Consolidate prime and non-prime contracts into a minimum number of resulting contracts all reporting to the program office.

C. Develop a life cycle technical baseline and manage the ISS Program to total cost and schedule as well as fiscal year budgets.

D. Consider revising the ISS crew rotation period to 6 months and reducing the

Space Shuttle flight rate accordingly. The result would be a delay in U. S. core complete assembly sequence by up to 2 months. Target cost savings: $668m, and continue to examine Strategic Resources Review (SRR) and institutional cost reductions. Target cost savings: S350M-S450M.

E. Develop a credible program road map starting with core complete and leading to an end state that achieves expanded research potential. Include gate decisions based on demonstrated ability to execute the program and identify funding to maintain critical activities for potential enhancement options.

F. Establish research priorities. The Task Force is unanimous in that the highest research priority should be solving problems associated with long-duration human space flight, including the engineering required for human support mechanisms, and provide the Centrifuge Accommodation Module (CAM) and centrifuge as mandatory to accomplish top priority biological research. Availability as late as FY08 is unacceptable, and establish a research plan consistent with the priorities, including a prudent level of reserves, and compliant with the approved budget.

G. Provide additional crew time for scientific research through the use of extended duration Shuttle and overlap of Soyuz missions.

H. Create a Deputy Program Manager for Science position in ISS Program Office. Assign a science community representative with dual responsibility to the Program and OBPR.

I. “The IMCE Report proposes a strategy to restore confidence in the ISS Programme”

J. “The goals of the US International Space Station Programme are not well – defined”

K. “The IMCE strategy raises serious issues for the ISS International Partners”

L. “NASA cannot afford to delay”

M. Manage strategically

N. Provide aerospace products and capabilities

O. Generate knowledge

P. Communicate knowledge.

The IMCE addressed the two major concerns over the ISS programme. The problem of severe cost overruns was responsible for the introduction in the report of the new concept of bringing ISS to “American Core Complete”, rather than the original, legally agreed, “Station Complete”. Core Complete was a unilateral American decision to save money by reducing American involvement in ISS while retaining America’s role as the controlling partner in the alliance. Core Complete deleted the American Habitation Module, the American CRV, and Node-3 from the ISS design, without any negotiation with Russia and the International Partners. The decision to eliminate the Habitation Module effectively limited future Expedition crews to just three people for the foreseeable future, which would severely constrain the European and Japanese agencies’ access to their own laboratories.

The cancellation of the X-38 CRV development programme meant that the Space Shuttle would remain NASA’s only access to ISS for the foreseeable future, given that American access to the Russian Soyuz spacecraft was limited by the Iran Non-proliferation Act at that time. Even without that legislation, the idea of NASA paying the Russians to carry American astronauts to and from space had never been very palatable to the Americans, even though it would be cheaper than continuing to fly the Shuttle. Attempts to replace the Shuttle were plagued by lack of long-range goals and a too narrow focus on ISS. Problems developing the X-33 Flight Test Article proved that Lockheed-Martin’s bold talk of the VentureStar vehicle were nothing but hyperbole. The Orbital Space Plane (OSP) would be criticised as being too poorly defined and too narrowly focused on the ISS CRV role. Finally, in the wake of disaster (STS-107, with seven people onboard would be lost in February 2003), NASA would be set a new goal and the definition of a new spacecraft would become easier to complete.

The second area that the IMCE addressed was the lack of science that would be able to be completed on a station that was restricted to the new Core Complete configuration. One recommendation that the committee made was one-month-long Soyuz taxi flights. In this scenario one Expedition crew would already be in space. Their relief would be launched one month before the original crew’s occupation came to an end. The six astronauts would then work together for one month with two Soyuz CRVs docked to the station. At the end of that month the original crew would return to Earth, leaving the new crew in orbit. In turn their relief crew would be launched one month before the end of their occupation and the two crews would work together for one month before the second crew returned to Earth, leaving the third crew alone in orbit. Due to restrictions on consumables, Shuttle flights would only visit the station during the periods when a single Expedition crew was in occupation. This recommendation would not be acted on after Node-3 was re-instated with living quarters for a further three occupants.

ISS, THE FUTURE

On December 5, 2002, representatives of all the national space programmes partici­pating in ISS met in Tokyo, Japan to discuss the future of the programme. Despite earlier words of warning to the contrary, a Rosaviakosmos representative said that his company was not only prepared to meet its Soyuz and Progress commitments to ISS, but was ready to begin work on a living module designed to raise the Expedition crew to six people. The representative pointed out that NASA was responsible for the station’s advanced living quarters and Rosaviakosmos could only construct their new module if NASA compensated them, paid for it. The Russian representative stated that ISS member states had reached an accord to begin six-person operations in 2006.

EXPEDITION-6

Following Endeavour’s departure on December 2, Bowersox, Petitt, and Budarin spent the afternoon unpacking items that the Shuttle had delivered to ISS. Asked what his priorities were for the Expedition-6 occupation, Bowersox had told a pre-launch interview:

“Our number one goal is to have a positive experience for the crew and for the people on the ground. There’s a lot of things that come under that sub-goal: [N]umber one being come back alive, for it to be a safe flight; number two, to show people that Americans and Russians can work together in space and accomplish something meaningful; and then, the last thing is to accomplish some of our science objectives for the mission.’’

EXPEDITION-9

Padalka and Fincke began their solo occupation of ISS with three days of light duties to help them get over the hectic hand-over week that had just passed. Padalka described his goals for the occupation as follows:

“The biggest goal for us as a crew is to keep the Space Station in operational condition and maintain the human presence aboard the Space Station because [the] last malfunction—I mean the situation with the leakage—showed us that if we had not had crew on board, we could have lost the Space Station.”

He added:

“We have the West science program, and currently about 40 experiments on behalf of the American side and the same number on behalf of the Russian side, are scheduled for us, and about 20 experiments for the European Space Agency… If we conduct all of the science program, if we can keep Space Station in operational condition, if we manage to perform scheduled spacewalks, if we keep our friendship with Mike, if we hand Space Station in operational condition to the next crew, in this case I would say that our mission was successful.”

The first week of May was spent carrying out a programme of Russian, Amer­ican, and European biomedical experiments to determine how their bodies adapted to microgravity. They also completed maintenance on the battery chargers and the batteries in the American EMUs and the station’s EVA tools, as well as beginning a procedure to regenerate the canisters that would remove C02 in their exhaled breath from the EMUs. The EMUs had not been used for over a year. A second

EXPEDITION-9

Figure 45. Expedition-9: Gennady Padalka and E. Michael Fincke pose in the Pirs airlock with two Russian Orlan extravehicular activity suits.

series of battery recharging took place at the beginning of the next week, while Fincke serviced the water-cooled underwear that would be worn under the EMUs. Both men also spent part of the week loading rubbish, including an Orlan EVA suit that was past its maintainable date, into Progress M1-11, which was scheduled for undocking on May 24. During the week American flight controllers up-linked new software to two multiplexer/demultiplexers and two S-0 ITS MDM computers, as part of a major programme to update the software on the station throughout 2004. The crew also installed the EarthKam in one of Zvezda’s windows on May 11, and performed biomedical experiments.

The Expedition-9 crew’s first month on ISS ended with a week of preparations for the Stage EVA to replace the CMG that had lost electrical power in April. The EVA was originally planned to take place on June 10, with both men wearing American EMUs and egressing from Quest. That changed on May 19, when they began a planned 7-hour check of the two pressure suits. Shortly after beginning the checks, Padalka reported that he had no circulation of cooling water in his EMU. Closer inspection revealed that the water held in the suit was bubbling and frothing. During the same tests Fincke’s EMU also suffered difficulties with its water-cooling system, caused by a sticking valve. On May 21 the water tank in Padalka’s EMU was drained and refilled. America admitted that only one of the three EMUs on ISS was operational. As a result, the EVA was delayed until June 16, and on that date both men would wear Russian Orlan suits and egress from Pirs. Russia would negotiate “compensation’’ for the use of their suits and consumables by having American astronauts spend additional hours working on Russian ISS experiments. The new plans complicated the EVA in that the astronauts would now exit Pirs and use one of the two Russian Strela cranes to reach the required area on the S-0 ITS, which was not as readily accessed from Pirs as from Quest. The two ISS Strela cranes had not been human-rated at that time, and the Russians were concerned for their capabil­ities. Also, the two men would be under Russian control while they exited the station and used the Strela to reach the junction between the Russian and American segments of ISS; once they were on the outside of the American sector and making their way to the S-0 ITS they would pass to American control. They would return to Russian control as they returned to the exterior of the Russian segment for their return to Pirs.

During the week, Progress M1-11’s thrusters were fired to raise the station’s altitude in preparation for the launch of Progress M-49. The burn also corrected the station’s orbital inclination, as NASA explained:

“Since the last inclination correction, about 3 years ago, [the] orbit inclination has decreased by approximately 0.01 degree, to a current value roughly mid-way between the ground rule range of 51.62 and 51.68 degrees. The lower limit would be approached in approximately 5 years, but doing part of the upward correction right now propellant is more efficiently used. Once the inclination is adjusted to the upper limit, no further inclination adjustments should be required for the remaining life of the ISS.’’

Progress M1-11 undocked from ISS at 05: 19, May 24, manoeuvred clear of the station, and entered a parking orbit. For the next 10 days the spacecraft was

monitored to see if future Progress vehicles could be used to support microgravity experiments, although no experiments were conducted on this occasion. Progress M1-11 was commanded to re-enter the atmosphere and burn up on June 3, 2004.

“Pioneer the future”

Goldin’s replacement as NASA Administrator was the former Deputy Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget Sean O’Keefe. On taking up his new post on December 21, 2001, O’Keefe stated that he intended to adhere to the rec­ommendations of the Young Committee on how to bring the ISS budget back under control. The report had suggested that NASA be placed on probation until ISS reached “Core Complete’’, with a three-person crew performing both maintenance and science. O’Keefe had said that, if NASA brought the ISS budget under control, then consideration might be given to going beyond “Core Complete’’, such as reinstating an American Habitation Module and the X-38 CRV. He stated that the question of crew size was vital to the programme. The new Administrator was blunt and warned, “If NASA fails to meet the standards, then an end-state beyond ‘Core Complete’ is not an option.’’

O’Keefe also stated that he would ensure that ISS did not dominate NASA’s programmes ‘‘at the expense of everything else this organisation does.’’ The new Administrator said that he believed the civil and military sectors should increase their co-operation on space programmes, especially on the development of any future Shuttle replacement.

In the weeks that followed, the management of ESA demanded a meeting with O’Keefe. The Europeans were unhappy at NASA’s unilateral decision not to con­struct and launch the Habitation Module and the X-38 CRV, thereby restricting the ISS crew to three people and severely limiting the amount of scientific research that could be performed on the station. The Europeans considered that all of the ISS partners, including America, had signed legal documents that committed America to constructing and launching a Habitation Module and thereby supporting an Expedition crew of up to seven people. However, NASA and the American govern­ment now considered that their commitment ended when Node-2 was launched, thereby allowing the European and Japanese Science modules to be launched and docked to ISS. Ultimately, NASA negotiated with ESA to have Node-3, which was being constructed in Italy, reinstated and outfitted with additional sleeping quarters and life support equipment.

At 14:00, April 12, 2002, while STS-110 was docked to ISS, O’Keefe made a public address at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, during which he voiced his vision of the future of NASA under his leadership. In his speech he described NASA’s mandate as:

to pioneer the future, to push the envelope, to do what has never been done before.’’

He called it, “An amazing charter indeed,’’ and continued, “Our greatest asset in fulfilling this demanding charter is the excellence of our people.’’

O’Keefe stated NASA’s mandate under his charge in three simple terms.

• To improve life here.

• To extend life to there.

• To find life beyond.

He expanded each of these three goals, but his vision for NASA was summed up by the headings that he gave to those expansions.

• To understand and protect our home planet.

• To explore the Universe and search for life.

• To inspire the next generation of explorers… as only NASA can.

The Young Report would become a major planning tool by which NASA’s future involvement in the ISS programme would be ruled.

He also tried to describe a normal day on ISS

“It just depends on who you talk to how normal a day would be. But, the typical days without a Soyuz visit or without [an] EVA on board, or without a Progress arrival, you wake up, you have an hour-and-a-half or so to do your morning cleanup and have some breakfast. Then there’s a half-hour conference, or fifteen – minute conference, with the ground, the daily planning conference. Then you start into the work time. There’s about eight hours booked for work but part of that is also booked for exercise, so we only consider about six-and-a-half hours as work time. And then in the end of the day it’s the same sort of wind down—we have

He also tried to describe a normal day on ISS

Figure 33. Expedition-6: Nikolai Budarin wears his Sokol launch and re-entry suit in the Soyuz re-entry module. Kenneth Bowersox is visible in the lower right corner. The view illustrates the cramped conditions inside Soyuz.

another conference, then a couple of hours to put things away and get ready for bed, relax a little bit. And then an eight-and-a-half-hour sleep period, and the whole day starts again.”

Their first day alone on the station began with some free time to get over the hectic hand-over period of joint activities. Thereafter, they began their daily regime of maintenance, experiments, and personal exercise by reconfiguring the station’s com­puter network and loading it with new software. They also checked the HRF rack in Destiny and the station’s defribillator, as well as performing maintenance tasks around the station. By the end of their third week in space they had completed their first PuFF and Renal Stone Experiment runs. Pettit also completed a monthly check of the GASMAP experiment.

As Christmas approached, the Expedition-6 crew were finishing their first month on the station. They spent the week ending December 20 working on their experi­ments, including the Zeolite Crystal Growth (ZCG) experiment, designed to produce zeolite crystals in space that are larger than those produced on Earth. Bowersox completed a practice run of the Foot/Ground Forces experiment (FOOT), which he had described before launch:

“The way it works is there’s a suit that the subject wears, and it’s got sensors on it that measure the angles of the ankle and the knee and the hip, in addition to electrodes on different muscles on the leg and some on the arm. And that senses the electrical activity in the muscles and all that’s being recorded as you do normal daily tasks. There’s also some sensors that are on the bottom of shoes so that if you’re running on a treadmill or standing on the platform doing resistive exercise, those pads will measure the amount of force on your feet. And we’ll collect seven or eight hours of data in that suit three, four times during the mission, about one month apart.’’

Pettit set up the EXPRESS Rack-3 laptop computer prior to activating and checking out the rack itself. The crew also tested the station’s KURS automatic docking system, working with Russian controllers. On December 19, they completed more than 3 hours of SSRMS operations, including a series of grapples on an MBS fixture, to collect Force Movement Sensor (FMS) data. Their final task on December 20 was to install the High Rate Communications Outage Recorder (HCOR) on Destiny. This recorder would store data for later transmission to Earth when the station was not in contact with an American TDRS satellite. It replaced a medium – rate recorder, thereby offering a greater storage capacity. Just before 01: 00, December 21, the crew manoeuvred ISS so that the starboard side was facing the direction of travel. This was called the YW attitude. The manoeuvre was carried out because some areas of the station had been overheating.

Christmas Day, December 25, marked the beginning of the crew’s second month on ISS. They had a day off, although they had to perform some housekeeping chores and their usual two hours of physical exercise each. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe spoke to the crew and each man had a 15-minute private conversation with his family and opened presents that had been delivered to the station by STS-113. Later in the day they returned ISS to its standard attitude, with Destiny at the ram and the P-6 SAWs locked to the Sun once more, this was the so-called XPOP attitude. During the next week, Bowersox completed the FOOT experiment, recording data on changes in microgravity of his leg joints and muscles. Throughout the same week Budarin worked on the Russian plant growth experiment and Pettit continued work­ing inside Destiny. Prior to launch Pettit had described the basic principles behind the microgravity experiments on the station:

“The microgravity science experiments are generally physical science experi­ments: crystal growth, combustion, things like that. And, they are utilizing an environment where there are small sedimentation forces, no buoyancy forces or reduced buoyancy forces, things that will allow you to do containerless proces­sing, where you can have something floating around without touching the walls of a container, or a high vacuum, high pumping rate environment like an experiment done outside of the pressurized modules on an exposure platform… many observations in science are key around the balance of forces, measuring one force in the absence of another. And many of the phenomenon that we see on Earth are governed by the balance of these forces. So if you remove, say, gravitational force, now all of a sudden you can see surface tension force. And so, experiments done on Space Station are designed around the reduction in the gravitational force so that you can see other forces manifest themselves and you can make new observations that are very difficult, if not impossible, to make any other way.”

The crew celebrated New Year 2003 at midnight GMT, December 31. January 2 saw them carry out a fire drill and setting up the ultrasound equipment in the HRF, which would be used to “image” the crew’s body organs for both research and medical use. The following day, they recorded sound levels in the different ISS modules for health and safety at work monitoring, and continued their work with the Zeolite Crystal Growth experiment. Budarin continued to work with experiments in the Russian sector of the station and also checked the wake docking port on Zvezda in preparation for the arrival of Progress M-47, in February.

All three men spent the week preparing Quest for the upcoming Stage EVA and completed their monthly lung function test. Bowersox and Pettit operated the SSRMS on January 9, to complete a video survey of the thermal control equipment associated with the growing ITS. NASA made an announcement the following day that the 50th EVA dedicated to the construction of ISS was delayed until January 15, with Pettit accompanying Bowersox outside in place of Budarin. During a December 5, pre-EVA session on the station’s stationary bicycle, Budarin had registered a rate of oxygen consumption that was too low to meet American protocols for an EVA that used the EMU and the American-controlled Quest airlock. For NASA, Rob Navias announced that the delay had “no mission impact whatsoever… There is no mission impact to anything else that this crew is doing on orbit or to the objectives.” He added, “There was no rush to conduct this spacewalk and we decided to delay it.’’

While America refused to release the reason behind Budarin’s replacement, quoting the medical privacy of the individual concerned, the Russians did release the information, stating that if it had been a Russian EVA using the Russian Orlan suit and the Pirs airlock Budarin’s oxygen consumption rate would not have barred him from making the EVA. Bowersox had discussed the idea behind the EVA:

“[I]t’s proof of concept as much as anything. We’re trying to show that a station crew, with just three people, really can get suited up, go outside, and do simul­taneous EVA arm ops with the Canadian robot arm, and a mixed-nationality EVA. It’s a lot to take on, if you think about it, and there’s only three of us there when we do these things during the docked time frame, with a Shuttle crew there, there’s a whole lot more support, there’s more cameras from the orbiter, there’s an extra airlock, an extra door to go in and out and a lot more people to help you get things done. It’s quite the challenge to do it with just three people, and so what we’re going to be doing mostly is proving that it is possible.’’

Ironically, it was Budarin who had described the EVA during his own pre-launch interview:

“Well, speaking about EVA, I very much hope that we’ll have this EVA. There will be two crewmembers going outside, stepping outside the station; one will stay

behind, supporting their activity in space. Jim Wetherbee’s crew will have installed the P-1 segment on the S-0 Truss; we will pick up with installing equipment on this truss segment. We will install a UHF antenna, we will install a radiator, we will have to deploy it. It is stowed and latched. In order to deploy this radiator we will need to open the latches, open the locks… there are eighteen of them, so there will be a lot of tedious work. I’m doing these locks. We will also have to install some struts with lights on the CETA cart … and we will also be transferring tools from one truss segment to another; we will be using the robotic arm. I’m hoping that I will get a chance to participate in this EVA. I have eight spacewalks under my belt from the Mir experience, and I’m hoping to get EVA experience on the International Space Station. Maybe there will be other objec­tives, but for now, this is the program of our EVA. But, we are ready to do whatever comes our way.’’

On the day, the EVA was delayed by problems opening Quest’s outer hatch, which the Americans said was caused by dirt in the lock, but the Russians quickly blamed on the inexperience of the two astronauts, who were both making their first EVA. With the hatch finally open, the two men switched their EMUs to internal battery power at 07:50. Bowersox reported a loss of digital data in his EMU, but the problem cleared up when he cycled the internal power switch. Having collected their tools they made their way to the P-1 ITS, where they released ten launch restraint straps on the P-1 radiators. A further eight restraints had been previously released during the STS-113 EVAs in November 2002, when the P-1 ITS was installed on ISS. Controllers in Houston then commanded the central radiator to extend to its full 15 metres. The deployment took 9 minutes to complete. The two men then inspected equipment on the P-1 ITS before making their way to the exterior of Unity, where Pettit used sticky tape to remove grit from the CBM docking seals in preparation for the arrival of the MPLM Raffaello on the next Shuttle flight, STS-114, then planned for March.

Moving to the S-1 ITS, the two men failed to remove a stanchion from its stowed location for installation on one of the two handcarts that future EVA astronauts would use to move themselves along the completed ITS. A pin was interfering with the stanchion’s movement and its installation was deferred to a later EVA. Pettit retrieved tools from a storage box on the Z-1 Truss prior to checking the ammonia system on the P-6 ITS. This task was performed in advance of an ammonia cooling system test on a Shuttle flight planned for later in the year. Returning to Quest, the astronauts used a pair of scissors to cut the strap that had delayed the hatch opening at the start of the EVA. The EVA was completed at 14: 41, after 6 hours 51 minutes. All three men had a rest day on January 16, performing only routine exercise and maintenance.

PROGRESS M-49

Progress M-49 lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 09: 34, May 25, 2004, carrying 2,566 kg of food, water, propellant, and equipment for the two men on the station. The spacecraft completed an automatic docking to Zvezda’s wake at 09: 55, May 27. Following pressure and leak checks the crew spent the next few days unloading the new vehicle, beginning on May 28.

RUSSIA CALLS FOR 12-MONTH EXPEDITION FLIGHTS

In Moscow, Russia was pressing for the Expedition-10 crew to spend 12-months in orbit. While NASA was not prepared to consider such a mission all the time the ISS programme was flying with two-man caretaker crews and relying on the Soyuz TMA for return to Earth, the Russians were adamant that the time had come to advance the Expedition crews’ stay time, and increase the amount of science performed by each crew. Yuri Semenov, director of Energia stated:

“Our position is rigid—the next crew [Expedition-10] must make a long flight. I would urge our American colleagues not to drag their feet on solving this issue. We are ready for long flights. Our equipment is ready and our partners [the Americans] must listen to their Russian colleagues… Russia is keeping the station running while the USA and Japan are cutting down their budgets. This cannot last for long because Russia has had to freeze the construction of later ISS hardware and stop selling trips to rich tourists in order to mobilise its resources to keep the ISS afloat.’’

The Russians were careful not to mention that 12-month Expedition crews would leave two seats available for sale to paying passengers on intervening Soyuz TMA “taxi’’ flights.

NASA replied to Russia’s request that “The time is not right.’’ They explained that the Expedition-10 crew would not stay in space for 12 months, but that the Expedition-11 crew might do so in 2005; but only if the Shuttle was flying again by then. In July, ESA managers also began to call for a six-person Expedition crew. They suggested that this could be achieved by using two Soyuz CRVs and having the three extra astronauts finding sleeping accommodation wherever they could. They did not address the question of who would pay for the extra Soyuz spacecraft, but did criticise America for cancelling the American Habitation Module and the X-38 CRV. Meanwhile, NASA had also failed to act on the Young Committee recommendation that two Expedition crews could work side by side on the station for one month, rather than just one week during hand-over periods.

On June 3, Padalka and Fincke began preparation for the EVA that had been rescheduled after the May 19 EMU checks. The EVA was tentatively planned for no earlier than June 15. During the first week of June, their sixth week on ISS, they also performed experiments and routine housekeeping. On June 10, programme managers scheduled the EVA for June 24. The move placed the EVA at a better time in the crew’s workday, optimised Russian communications coverage, and offered additional time for preparation. The crew carried out training with the tools that they would use and prepared their Orlan suits; they also performed cardiovascular evaluation sessions on the fixed bicycle in Zvezda. Much of the rest of the first half of the month was spent unloading Progress M-49 and performing their experiment programmes in Destiny and Zvezda.

Fincke’s wife, Renita, gave birth to their second child on June 18. The astronaut took the opportunity to remind the world that many men and women in the service of their country were also forced to miss similar important family occasions. Mean­while, EVA preparations, including fitting American EMU helmet lights on to the helmets of their Russian Orlan suits, continued alongside mass measurement checks and software replacement in three racks of experiments in Destiny.

In his pre-launch interview, Fincke had described how he felt about the two planned Stage EVAs during his occupation of ISS:

“[O]nly recently did I actually start to think how really exciting that is, to be alone in the cosmos without a spacecraft around me except for this suit that was put together by human hands. It’s made out of material and a little bit of metal and a lot of plastic, and yet we’ll be able to look out there on our planet below and the stars in the sky and really experience a true spaceflight. [I]t’s an honour as a rookie to get a chance to perform two spacewalks, and it’s an honour to be able to fly on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and to work in a Russian spacesuit. My instructors spent a lot of time with me, and I’m glad I’ve earned their confidence in the U. S. and Russia to get a chance to do that.’’

The EVA to repair the RPCM finally began at 17: 56, June 24, 2004. Following depressurisation of the Pirs airlock they opened the hatch and made their way outside. Almost immediately, Russian flight controllers noticed that the primary oxygen bottle in Fincke’s PLSS was losing pressure much faster than expected. The two men were ordered to return to the airlock and terminate the EVA. The hatch was closed and the EVA ended at 18: 10, after just 14 minutes 22 seconds. NASA announced, “The overall pressure in Fincke’s suit remained stable at all times and he was not in danger.’’

Following immediate troubleshooting, the astronauts were instructed to remove their pressure suits, return to the station, and reconfigure it for normal use. Although the Russian controllers were not able to immediately identify the cause of the prob­lem, Fincke thanked both control teams for being alert and noticing the problem so quickly. He informed Korolev that the two of them would sleep late the following morning and then resume their normal work/sleep routine until it was time to prepare for a second attempt at the EVA. Programme managers rescheduled the EVA for no earlier than June 29, as dictated by Russian communication coverage. The problem with Fincke’s suit was identified as an injector switch that controlled the flow of oxygen.

Although investigations would continue for the next few days, the crew were informed that they had followed the correct procedures when preparing for the EVA and could expect to wear the same Orlan suits when they completed the rescheduled EVA. On June 29, the EVA was rescheduled again, for the following day. On the same date, Russian engineers confirmed that the selector switch in Fincke’s suit had not seated properly when it was set. Energia told the media, “This valve has a particular design feature—whilst it is being closed, one must make sure not only that the signal light goes out, but also that the handle has been locked.’’ New procedures were put in place to confirm the switch’s seating when preparing for future EVAs.

The second attempt to repair the RPCM began at 17: 19, June 30, 20 minutes ahead of schedule, when the two men left Pirs. Padalka described the scene outside as “Dark, but very beautiful.’’ They moved over to the Strela crane, Padalka turned the hand crank to extend it to its full 15m length, and Fincke made his way along to the end of it. Padalka manoeuvred Finke to a position where he secured the crane to the handrails on Zarya’s wake. Padalka then made his way along the Strela to Fincke’s position before they both transferred to the handrails on the exterior of Unity, at 18: 09. At that time, control of the EVA passed from Korolev to Houston and the two men stopped speaking Russian and began speaking English. Controllers in Houston guided them to their work position on the S-0 ITS, where, by 18: 52, they had completed their tasks to replace the RPCM. Fifteen minutes later, word was passed to the astronauts that power was flowing to CMG-2 once more and that it was spinning at 30rpm. The two men collected their tools and made their way back to the Strela crane, where control of the EVA was handed back to Korolev, at 21 : 11, and they began speaking Russian once more. Having traversed the Strela crane, Padalka cranked the telescopic crane back to its stowed position, bringing Fincke back to the exterior of Pirs. They also completed get-ahead tasks in preparation for later EVAs, when they installed two flexible handrails, mounted a contamination monitor to measure station thruster exhaust, and added end caps to two handrails on the exterior of Pirs. Having entered the airlock they closed the hatch at 22: 59, after an EVA lasting 5 hours 40 minutes. CMG-2 was powered up to verify its full 6,600 rpm, at 14: 30, July 1. After performing tests overnight, the CMG was returned to its role of helping the two working CMGs to control the ISS’s attitude, at 07: 20, July 2. The fourth CMG remained off-line. The two astronauts spent July 2 tidying up after the EVA, after which they had a three-day weekend off, to celebrate July 4, American Independence Day. Meanwhile, controllers in Korolev pumped air from the tanks in Progress M-49 into the station’s atmosphere.

Back at work the crew concentrated their efforts on their experiments and general maintenance of the station. Padalka used the new ultrasound experiment to examine Fincke, and thereby demonstrated a capability to transmit medical data to a flight surgeon on the ground in real time. Meanwhile, Fincke continued to troubleshoot the cooling systems in the two American EMUs. The problems experienced prior to the last EVA were traced to pumps in the cooling system. New pumps would be sent up to the station on the next Progress, due for launch in August. Throughout the third week of July the crew performed more experiments, studying their cardiovascular systems and fluid motion in microgravity. They also spent the week loading rubbish in to Progress M-49 and removing the KURS automatic docking system. Both men donned their Sokol launch and re-entry suits and made their way into Soyuz TMA-4 for fit-checks in their couches, on July 7. A full fire drill at the end of the week was followed by a round of taking air and swab samples around the station. Two false activations of the station’s fire alarms led to the crew cleaning the fire alarms. During his weekend off Padalka completed sessions with the Russian Pulse medical experiment and the ESA Eye Tracking Device experiment. The following week saw him beginning a new round of Russian biomedical experiments. Fincke worked on American experiments in Destiny.

On July 16, Russian controllers at Korolev made an unsuccessful attempt to upload software into computers in Zvezda. The software was designed to support the rendezvous and docking of the ESA-developed Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) to Zvezda’s wake. The ATV would be launched by Ariane-V from the ESA launch site in French Guiana. It would carry 2.5 times the payload that a Progress could carry, including propellants, water, oxygen, and nitrogen. It would also be able to re­boost the station’s orbit. At that time the ATV was due to make its maiden flight in 2005 and then operate alongside Progress. During the day, Padalka replaced a pump in Zvezda’s cooling system, which had failed two days earlier. The back-up cooling system had continued to work properly throughout the malfunction and its repair.

Padalka and Fincke passed the halfway point of their mission on July 19. Fincke spent the day removing the water pump from one of the failed EMUs. Two spare water pumps would be launched on Progress M-50. The following day, a computer failed on the station’s starboard thermal radiator, but had no impact on operations, as the radiator was not active. On July 21, they both participated in celebrations of the 35th anniversary of the Apollo-11 Moon landing. The crew spent the week loading rubbish into Progress M-49. On July 23, they began preparations for their second EVA, before they manoeuvred the SSRMS to a position where it could video the EVA planned for August 3.

The leaders of the international space agencies involved in ISS met at Noordwijk, Holland, on July 23. They reviewed the status of ISS operations, and the final configuration of ISS at the end of the decade. The group reaffirmed their commitment to international co-operation and to the completion of the station’s construction and operation. They also committed their agencies to continually review launch schedules and opportunities to accelerate that schedule. American and Russian representatives renewed their commitment to continued occupation of ISS throughout its construc­tion phase. The representatives recognised America’s efforts to return the Shuttle to flight status and Russia’s commitment to maintaining access to the station and to its re-supply. They also discussed access to the station after Energia’s contract to supply Soyuz and Progress spacecraft came to an end. At the beginning of the ISS

programme Russia had agreed to supply 11 Soyuz spacecraft free of charge. The last of those spacecraft was due to be launched in October 2005, and recovered in April 2006. The Russians made it clear that they would require payment for their Soyuz spacecraft when a new contract was negotiated. This presented a major problem, in that the Iran Non-proliferation Act banned NASA from paying money directly to Russia. Congress put the Act in place, in fear that President Clinton’s relationship with Russia’s President Putin was allowing him to overlook Russia’s part in the Iranian nuclear programme. Although the Clinton White House fought the new Act, it was voted into law and forced the President to operate sanctions against any country that helped Iran’s programme. Following the loss of STS-107 a Democratic Party proposal to change the Act, to allow additional Soyuz spacecraft to be purchased from Russia, had received only 3 signatures in 17 months. Mean­while, the prospect arose that, after April 2006, America might only be able to fly short-duration Shuttle flights to ISS because they were unable to pay for American astronauts’ places on the Soyuz CRV docked to the station for return to Earth in the event of an emergency. In such an event all American astronauts would have to be launched to and returned from ISS by Shuttle. A further problem also arose if the Constellation spacecraft were not ready to start crewed orbital flight before the Shuttle was retired in 2010.

Progress M-49 undocked from ISS at 02: 05, July 30. Fincke filmed the spacecraft as it departed. The station’s cameras also recorded the Progress re-entry. The Expedi­tion-10 crew spent the remainder of the week preparing for their third EVA. Fincke also spent part of the week completing soldering experiments in microgravity.

Padalka and Fincke wore Orlan suits when they exited Pirs, at 02: 58, August 3, and made their way to Zvezda’s wake. The EVA was intended to last up to 6 hours. Their first task was to replace the SKK material exposure experiment with a new container full of fresh samples. They also replaced the Kromka experiment, which measured the contamination from the thrusters on Zvezda. Next, the two men made their way onto the wake face of Zvezda, where they installed two antennae and replaced three laser reflectors with more advanced models. The three old reflectors were replaced with a single three-dimentional reflector. All of these items would be used to support the rendezvous and docking of ESA’s ATVs. While they worked at the rear of Zvezda the three CMGs that controlled the station’s orientation approached saturation level. This condition was anticipated, and the station was placed into free drift. As a result, S-band communication was lost as the antennae drifted. At 05: 15, the astronauts were 40 minutes ahead of their flight plan, and were instructed to leave the area. The CMG resumed attitude control at 06: 00, and the two men were allowed to return to the area at the rear of Zvezda. Finally, they disconnected a cable on a malfunctioning camera that would be collected on a later EVA, before removing the Platan-M materials exposure experiment. The crew returned to Pirs and closed the hatch at 07 : 28, after an EVA lasting 4 hours 30 minutes.

The following day NASA pumped additional nitrogen from one of the two high – pressure tanks on the exterior of Quest into the station’s atmosphere. The week ended with the crew performing their experiment programmes.

PROGRESS M-50

The Expedition-9 crew was asleep and passing southwest of Baikonur when Progress M-50 lifted off at 01:03, August 11, 2004. The cargo ship, carrying pumps for the two malfunctioning EMUs, clothes for the Expedition-10 crew, and propellant, air, and water; a total of 2,542 kg of cargo. After a standard two-day rendezvous, Progress M50 docked to Zvezda’s wake docking port at 01: 01, August 14. The crew began unloading the cargo the following day.

Using items delivered on the new Progress, Fincke took 4 hours to replace the water pump in the cooling system of one of the malfunctioning Extravehicular Mobility Unit, before turning his hand to repairing an exercise machine. The follow­ing day, the EMU was subjected to several more hours of testing, during which it performed perfectly. Two of three American EMUs on the station were now func­tioning correctly. The third suit, which sufferred a similar problem in its cooling system was left to later. The crew spent most of the remainder of the week preparing for their fourth EVA. On August 25 the thrusters on Progress M-50 were fired to raise the station’s orbit, in preparation for the arrival of Soyuz TMA-5, due for launch in October. Throughout the period the Elektron unit in Zvezda failed, on average, once every three days. NASA referred to the Elektron as “a major source of trouble’’.

Commencing the Integrated Truss Structure

STS-108, and the beginning of the Expedition-4 occupation of ISS, was where Creating the International Space Station ended. This manuscript returns to STS-108 as it provides a natural starting point for the original flight accounts that occupy the remainder of this volume.

STS-108 BEGINS EXPEDITION-4

STS-108

COMMANDER

Dominic Gorie

PILOT

Mark Kelly

MISSION SPECIALISTS

Linda Godwin, Daniel Tani

EXPEDITION-4 (up)

Yuri Onufrienko (Russia), Daniel Bursch, Carl Walz

EXPEDITION-3 (down)

Frank Culbertson, Vladimir Dezhurov (Russia), Mikhail Tyurin (Russia)

In Florida preparations progressed, aiming to launch STS-108, Endeavour, on November 29, 2001. Following the Russians’ difficulty confirming Progress M1-7’s hard-docking to ISS the launch was delayed for 24 hours. On November 30, the launch was held at T — 11 hours, ultimately for 96 hours. The Rotating Service Structure was put back around the vehicle to protect it as it remained on the pad in a powered-up, flight-ready condition. The countdown would be resumed at T— 11 hours on December 4.

On that date, the countdown for STS-108 progressed until T — 5 hours when it was stopped and the launch cancelled due to bad weather. Because the fuelling of the ET had not started, it was possible to initiate a 24-hour recycle.

Commencing the Integrated Truss Structure

Figure 11. STS-108 crew (L to R): Mark Kelly, Linda Goodwin, Daniel Tani, Dominic Gorie. These four astronauts were joined by the Expedition-4 crew during launch and the Expedition-3 crew during landing.

On December 5, the countdown was stopped due to software difficulties in the orbiter. New software was loaded and the countdown was re-cycled to T — 6 hours and restarted. Endeavour lifted off at 17: 19 (all times US Eastern), just 11 seconds before the launch window closed, and climbed into orbit without event. Once in space, the payload bay doors were opened. Gorie and Kelly entered the on-orbit software and set about the first manoeuvres in the rendezvous with ISS.

On the NASA Human Spaceflight website the Shuttle’s rendezvous with ISS was described in the following terms by Nicholas O’Dosey, a NASA Shuttle Rendezvous Guidance Procedure Officer:

“The operations that the Shuttle does from ‘go for orbiter ops’ to docking are as follows. The Shuttle does a series of burns to catch up to the station. These burns NC-1, NC-2, NP-C and NC-3, all use ground tracking to target a point 40 miles [74 km] behind ISS. Ground tracking is the process of using ground-based radars, like C-Bands or S-Bands (big radar dishes), and TDRS satellites to tell the position and velocity of the Shuttle or station at a certain time to the Earth.

Ground tracking is accurate to within a couple of hundred feet of the position. The final ground-targeted burn is done at NC-4, which is nominally 40 nautical miles [74 km] behind the station, sending the Shuttle to an 8-nautical-mile [15 km] point were the TI burn is done. The TI burn sends us on a course to roughly 2,000 feet [610m] away from the station. Now, the TI burn and the midcourse correc­tion burns are done using Onboard Navigation. Onboard Navigation uses either a Star Tracker or the Ku-Band radar to track the station from the Shuttle. Now, Onboard Navigation gives the relative position and velocity between the Shuttle and ISS. Onboard Navigation can tell the distance between the Shuttle and ISS to a couple of feet [0.6 m]. The last midcourse burn aims the Shuttle to arrive below the station. From there, the crew does a quarter-circle around the ISS to dock. Inside 2,000 feet, other sensors are used to measure distance and speed because ISS is too big for the Star Tracker and Ku-Band radar. The crew uses some laser sighting sensors, cameras with special overlays and the windows to pilot the Shuttle from 2,000 feet into docking with the ISS. The Commander has a tough job meeting the contact condition of bull’s-eying a circle to within a couple of feet, but by using the overhead window and a special camera overlay to measure distance inside 15 feet [4.6 m], they do a great job. In general, these are the burns done for ISS rendezvous flights.’’

STS-108 would deliver the MPLM Raffaello to ISS, with 3 tonnes of additional equipment for the Expedition-4 mission. Raffaello would be temporarily docked to Unity while it was unloaded. Goodwin and Tani would perform a single EVA to install thermal blankets around the motors that drive the P-6 ITS photovoltaic arrays.

In Endeavour’s payload bay two experiments were housed in a Multiple Application Customised Hitchhiker-1 (MACH-1) facility. The Capillary Pumped Loop Experiment (CAPL) was a multiple evaporator capillary-pumped loop system. The Prototype Synchrotron Radiation Detector (PSRD) measured cosmic ray data. Both experiments were active throughout the early days of the flight.

Following the crew’s first sleep period, Day 2 was spent preparing for the rendezvous. Gorie and Kelly continued to oversee the rendezvous manoeuvres from the flight deck. The crew also tested the RMS and used its cameras to record a video inspection of the payload bay, including the exterior of Raffaello. Later, Godwin and Tani prepared their EMUs and the tools for their EVA. Godwin powered up the Shuttle’s docking system and extended the docking ring. The Expedition-4 crew participated in the day’s activities as well as overseeing and performing a number of experiments onboard Endeavour. The workday ended with a few hours of sched­uled relaxation prior to the busy week ahead. On ISS, the Expedition-3 crew had spent the day unloading Progress M1-7, which had been launched on November 26 and had soft-docked to ISS two days later. Rubber debris on the ISS docking system had prevented hard-docking at that time, causing Dezhurov and Tyurin to make an unscheduled EVA to clear the debris on December 3, allowing the craft to hard-dock.

On December 7, Day 3, Gorie took manual control of Endeavour as his spacecraft followed the standard rendezvous, approaching ISS from below, before manoeuvring through 90° out in front of the station to place the orbiter with its docking system facing PMA-2 on Destiny’s ram. Viewing the approaching Shuttle through the station’s windows, Expedition-3 commander Frank Culbertson told Endeavour’s crew, “It will be real nice to see you guys.’’ Gorie replied, “It’s great to hear your voice.’’

Docking occurred at 15: 03. During the initial attempt the Shuttle’s docking ring was not correctly aligned with PMA-2. Remaining in the soft-docked position, both vehicles were left to allow their vibrations to damp out before a second, successful hard-docking attempt was completed. Following docking, Godwin and Terry com­pleted the necessary pressure checks before the hatches between the two vehicles were opened at 17: 22, and the Expedition-3 crew welcomed their replacements to ISS, along with the crew that would take them home. The newcomers received the now standard safety briefing given to all visitors to the station.

The following day Culbertson, Dezhurov, and Tyurin removed their couch liners and Sokol re-entry suits from Soyuz TM-33 and transferred them to Endeavour. Culbertson’s crew would now return to America on the Shuttle. The Expedition-4 crew, Onufrienko, Walz, and Bursch, moved their couch liners and pressure suits into the Soyuz. From that point onward Onufrienko and his crew were the new residents of ISS and would return to Earth in the Soyuz, landing in Kazakhstan. On NASA’s website Walz explained that American astronauts

have extensive theoretical and practical training in the Soyuz capsule. In the case of some dire emergency we could fly the Soyuz to a safe landing in accordance with flight procedures and with the help of the ground. Hopefully, that would never happen. Our Commander is a tremendous Soyuz pilot… but we do have the training.’’

The two Expedition crews then began the hand-over briefings that would continue throughout the week of docked operations. Before launch, Bursch had described the hand-over procedures in the following manner:

“I recently talked to Jim Voss… he was on Expedition 2, and he put it a way that I thought was pretty interesting. He says that in hand-over, you have three sets of notes or questions that you need to hand over between the crews. One set is an ongoing set of items that the ground keeps track of, maybe a system we’re operating in a different mode than we’ve been trained for, or … it’s had a failure so this is how we’re operating it… So that is one set of notes or questions. Another set might be just personal notes, from Expedition 3 that Frank and Mikhail or Vladimir will have of notes that they have seen that maybe surprised them when they got on station, that they didn’t realize that were different, or different from what they trained, or maybe tips that they can give us… So that’s the second thing… and then after we can see those first two notes, we’ll probably come up with our own questions, or maybe even after reading the first list we’ll come up with some questions… so it’s a list of our own personal questions. So, through those three lists I think that’s how we conduct the hand-over.’’

For Culbertson the crew change meant that he would have to come to terms with returning to an America still caught up in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The only American not on Earth when the attacks happened reflected that, “The most common thing I hear is that the United States is different now, that I will be surprised.”

During the day, Kelly operated the RMS, with Godwin’s assistance, to lift Raffaello out of Endeavour’s payload bay at 12: 01 and dock it to Unity’s nadir. The transfer was completed at 12:55, December 8. Following pressure checks the hatches giving access to Raffaello were opened at 19: 30 and the crews began unload­ing the MPLM. Expedition-4 Flight Engineer Carl Walz had described the transfer of equipment between the two spacecraft:

“I’m one of the loadmasters. So Linda Godwin and I will be working together to make sure that all the cargo comes off of Raffaello and then all the cargo that’s going back down gets onto Raffaello. And so it’s like moving into a house where the old occupant is moving out, you’re moving in, but you’re using one truck… you have to make sure that you don’t get your boxes mixed up. [W]e’ll be working very hard to make sure that we don’t do that. And then Frank Culbertson and his crew are going to have to help us out by getting their pre-packed items ready to go, so as the upcoming boxes come off, Frank’s boxes will come in, and so it’ll be kind of a constant logistical activity as we make sure that everything coming up comes up, everything going down gets stowed.’’

December 9 began with music from the Fire Department of New York Emerald Society Pipes and Drums. The music was given to Kelly when he visited the wreckage of the World Trade Centre with NASA Administrator Dan Goldin following the terrorist attack on September 11. The three crews took time out at 17: 24 that afternoon to remember the fallen, their families, and the rescue workers of the events of that day. Under Dan Goldin’s “Flags for Heroes and Families’’ initiative several US flags were flown on ISS and Endeavour during this flight. These included one flag that was recovered from “Ground Zero’’, the site of the two World Trade Centre towers, in New York, a Marine Corps flag that had been recovered from the Pentagon in Washington DC, and a US flag from the state of Pennsylvania, where the fourth hijacked aircraft had crashed. Endeavour also carried a New York Fire Department flag, 23 replica New York Police Department shields, and 91 New York Police Department patches for distribution following the Shuttle’s landing. Six thousand small American flags stored in Endeavour would be distributed to the families of victims of the September 11 atrocities.

Endeavour’s crew spent the day unloading Raffaello while the two Expedition crews continued their hand-over briefings. During the day, Gorie and Kelly oversaw the first series of orbital boost manoeuvres using Endeavour’s thrusters. Godwin and Tani checked their EMUs and the tools that they would use during their EVA, which was planned for December 10. In the evening, the STS-108 crew and the Expedition-3 crew made their way back to the Shuttle. The hatches between Endeavour and Destiny were closed at 19: 43, isolating the Expedition-4 crew on ISS for the first time. Endeavour’s internal pressure was then lowered in preparation for the EVA. Following their evening meal the two crews went to bed.

The highlight of December 10 was Godwin and Tani’s EVA. Godwin left Endeavour’s airlock at 12:2. Tani followed, telling his colleagues inside the Shuttle, “I’m going for a walk. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.’’ Taking in the view of Earth he remarked, “Wow, look at that view.’’ As Endeavour passed over Houston, Tani observed, “I see it, downtown Houston, Intercontinental Airport. I see Ellington Field and Clearlake. Beautiful.’’

Following the installation of the P-6 ITS on the Z-1 Truss, in November 2001, engineers in Houston had noticed that the P-6 Beta Gimbal Assembly (BGA) motors were drawing more electrical power than expected. Analysis of the problem had led to the conclusion that the additional power was being drawn because the motors were expanding each time the SAW passed from Earth’s shadow into sunlight and con­tracting again each time it passed from sunlight, back into Earth’s shadow. Each expansion caused the BGAs to bunch, creating additional friction, which required additional electrical power to overcome. Godwin and Tani would install thermal blankets in an attempt to equalise the temperature acting on the motors. Sally Davis, Lead Flight Director in Houston, described the thermal blanket installation in the following terms:

“It’s a matter of treating our hardware as carefully as we can. If a motor starts to stall and you don’t start treating it a little more carefully, it could eventually stall in the wrong position… The solar array would be in a position where we cannot generate electricity.’’

The two astronauts were lifted half-way up the P-6 ITS by the Shuttle’s RMS, which was operated by Kelly. From there, they made their way to the top of the 30 m tall tower, where they placed the thermal blankets around the two drum-shaped BGAs that drove the 40 m long SAWs. The blankets were intended to stabilise the heat reaching the two electrically driven motors. On their way back down the P-6 ITS they stopped at a storage bin and removed a cover that had been placed in the bin after it had been removed from an antenna on an earlier EVA. The cover would be returned to Earth. They also performed a number of “get ahead’’ tasks, including positioning two switches on the exterior of the station, where they would be installed during an EVA on STS-110, planned for spring 2002. The two astronauts also recovered a number of tools, which they took inside ISS for use on the STS-110 EVA. The STS-108 EVA ended at 15: 04, after 4 hours 12 minutes. Inside ISS, Onufrienko, Bursch, and Walz had spent the day unloading Raffaello.

December 11 was the 3-month anniversary of the atrocities in New York and was commemorated by President Bush’s “Anthems of Remembrance’’ initiative. In the mission control centres at Houston and Korolev, as well as on Endeavour and ISS, the American and Russian national anthems were played in remembrance of those who had died in the terrorist attacks. The American anthem was commenced at 08: 46, the time when the first aircraft impacted the World Trade Centre. During the day the American and Russian members of the various crews were given oppor-

Commencing the Integrated Truss Structure

Figure 12. Expedition-4: Daniel Bursch floats inside the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module docked to Unity’s starboard side.

tunities to express their personal feelings to their respective control centres regarding the events of September 11. In Houston, caps honouring the New York Police Department, Fire Department of New York, New York Port Authority, and New York Office of Emergency Management were displayed in the control centre. Wayne Hale, Flight Director in Houston, told the astronauts,

“More than 3,000 people perished this day three months ago, including more than

200 citizens from countries that are family members of the International Space

Station programme—Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Japan and Russia.”

During the morning Endeavour’s crew were told that their flight had been extended by one day. The extra time would be used to assist in routine maintenance on ISS. STS-108 would now land on December 17. At 15: 48 Culbertson made a ceremonial hand-over of command to Onufrienko. The remainder of the day was spent with all three crews participating in the unloading of Raffaello. Items already unloaded and moved to ISS included food, clothing, medical supplies, EVA equipment, experiments, and other crew provisions for use by the Expedition-4 crew.

December 12 was another day of cargo transfers. With most of the cargo already moved out of Raffaello, the crew began packing the near-empty module with items to be returned to Earth. Endeavour’s crew also spent the day assisting the Expedition-4

crew by replacing some components on the ISS treadmill. The work went well and the task was completed several hours ahead of schedule. Hand-over briefings for the Expedition-4 crew also continued throughout the day. Gorie and Kelly completed the third series of orbital re-boost manoeuvres using Endeavour’s thrusters. During the crews’ sleep period, one of Endeavour’s three Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) suffered a transient problem. The unit was one of three, of which two were powered on and one powered off whilst Endeavour was docked to the station. IMU-1 and IMU-2 were on-line when the fault occurred, with IMU-3 off-line. IMU-2 was taken off-line and IMU-3 was placed on-line to replace it. Only two IMUs were required to fly the Shuttle, the third was carried as a redundancy measure. Although IMU-2 continued to perform correctly, controllers considered it to be “failed”. Endeavour would return to Earth on IMU-1 and IMU-3.

The following day the STS-108 crew packed the last of 2 tonnes of cargo, including laundry, packaging foam, and equipment no longer required on the station inside Raffaello, while the Expedition crews continued their hand-over briefings. Culbertson noted, “Basically, everything’s over there that should go today.’’ He joked that the Expedition-4 crew would be glad “to get rid of those three extra bodies (the Expedition-3 crew).’’ At 16: 09, the three crews gathered together to watch Culbertson officially hand over command of ISS to Onufrienko. Houston reminded the Expedition-3 crew, “In just a few days you’ll be back on Earth, feeling the warm Sun on your faces.’’

Following the final loading of Raffaello, the hatches between the MPLM and Unity were closed at 11 : 00, December 14. After pressure checks Kelly and Godwin used the RMS to undock Raffaello, shortly after 14: 20, and successfully placed it back in Endeavour’s payload bay at 17: 44. The Expedition crews continued with their final briefings and Dezhurov worked with Onufrienko to replace a faulty compressor in an air-conditioning unit inside Zvezda. During the day America’s Space Command informed NASA that a Russian rocket upper stage from the 1970s would pass close to ISS and the decision was made during the night to use Endeavour’s thrusters to raise the station’s orbit before the Shuttle undocked the following day.

December 15 began at 05: 17. The STS-108 and Expedition-3 crews said their farewells and returned to Endeavour. Culbertson presented the Expedition-4 crew with a small Christmas tree, candy canes, and individual presents consisting of small silver pins. He then saluted Onufrienko before shaking his hand and exchanging farewells. Culbertson, Dezhurov, and Tyurin had spent 125 days on ISS. By the time they landed on December 17, they would have been in space for 129 days including the days spent on the Soyuz spacecraft that carried them into space. The hatches between Endeavour and Destiny were closed and the usual pressure checks were completed. At 09 : 55 Endeavour’s thrusters were pulse-fired over a 30-minute period to raise the station’s orbit and move it clear of the spent 30-year-old Russian rocket stage.

Prior to undocking, Culbertson, now settled in the mid-deck of Endeavour, commented, “It’s been a wonderful experience for all of us. The work continues, the research continues and will for many years to come.’’

Kelly undocked Endeavour at 12:28 and made a 90° fly-around of ISS before completing the separation burn. As Endeavour finally began to move away from the station Culbertson told Houston, “It feels wonderful to be heading home.” He made it clear that he was looking forward to seeing his wife and five children, but also that he wanted a hot shower, and a bowl of ice cream covered in chocolate syrup.

Dezhurov was equally personal, saying, “After landing I want to meet with my family. Maybe after that, I will think of some food. I also want to go to the sauna and take a shower.” Tyurin added his similar thoughts, “Mostly we are thinking about opportunities to see our families. But, also, I’ve said a big glass of cold beer would be fine.”

Gorie’s crew packed their gear in preparation for re-entry and then enjoyed a few hours free time before beginning their final night in space. On the station the Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS) recorded the vibrations associated with the undocking. The Protein Crystal Growth-Single Thermal Enclosure System (PCG-STES) had continued to operate throughout the crew hand-over as had the PCG-STES Unit 10 experiment activated on December 6.

At 10: 00, December 16, the last complete day in orbit, the STARSHINE satellite was launched from Endeavour’s payload bay. The crew spent the day preparing Endeavour for re-entry. The final day began on Endeavour at 04: 19, December 17. Endeavour’s payload bay doors were closed at 09: 10. The crew assumed their re-entry positions at 10:50 with Culbertson’s crew strapping themselves into their reclining seats on the mid-deck. Retrofire occurred at 11: 55 after which Gorie turned his spacecraft upright and nose forward for entry into the thick lower atmosphere. Endeavour landed at the Kennedy Space Centre at 12: 55, after a flight lasting 7 days 21 hours 25 minutes. Following the routine making safe of the orbiter, Culbertson, Dezhurov, and Tyurin were removed from the mid-deck to begin their readjustment to life under 1g. They underwent bed rest and initial medical examinations for several days, before being transported to Houston for the official rehabilitation programme undertaken by all returning long-duration space station crews. The third occupation of ISS was at an end.