Category The International Space Station

Progress M-46 was launched from Tyuratam at 13:37, June 26, 2002. While the spacecraft carried out a standard Soyuz rendezvous Korzun and Treschev rehearsed the back-up manual docking procedures using the TORU equipment set up in Zvezda. An automated docking occurred at 02: 23, June 29, and the hatches between the two vehicles were opened at 05: 30. The Expedition-5 crew began the long job of emptying the Progress and logging all of its contents on to the ISS’ computerised monitoring system. They also performed standard maintenance inside Zarya.

The first week of July was one of light duties with lots of free time for the three astronauts. On July 3, Whitson repaired the MCOR and bought it back on-line following a 3-week outage.

In a pre-flight interview Whitson had described the future tasks planned for the MT and the SSRMS:

“So, currently our arm is sitting on the Laboratory module. The shoulder is sitting on the Laboratory module, and we’ll use the arm off the Laboratory, grab the Mobile Base System out of the payload bay, and attach it to the Mobile Trans­porter. And then once the Shuttle’s gone… one of the things we’ll do is we’ll check out the Mobile Base, make sure it’s working correctly, and then we’re going to do the step-off procedure, which means we’ll grab one of the Payload and Data Grapple Fixtures with the arm and then release [it] from the Laboratory, so our new shoulder becomes on this Mobile Base System. And that allows us the capability of moving the arm along the truss. And that’s important for the next phase, when [STS-112] arrives with the next piece of truss, because from that Mobile Base on the end of the truss of S-0, we will reach down into the payload bay and grab the S-1 Truss and pick it up and attach it to S-0. And then during [STS-113] we’ll do the same from the other side, except because of the config­uration … the Shuttle arm will pick it up out of the payload bay and then we’ll grab it from the Shuttle and attach it to the station. So it’s going to be an interesting assembly complex, and the Mobile Base is key in positioning the arm in the appropriate place and it is a platform for the arm from which to work.’’

Whitson walked the SSRMS off Destiny for the first time on July 10, when she commanded the free end of the arm to attach itself to a fixture on the S-0 ITS. Following the walk-off, Korzun and Whitson put the SSRMS through the manoeuvres that would be required to support the installation of the S-1 ITS, during the flight of STS-112. Two days later the SSRMS was moved to a series of alternative PDGFs, in order to ensure the power and data flows required for the installation of the S-1 and P-1 ITS elements were functioning correctly.

On July 15, Korzun and Whitson worked together to replace the Desiccant/ Sorbent Bed Assembly in the Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA), in Destiny. While one bed had been performing normally, the bed being replaced had been malfunctioning since Destiny’s launch, in February 2001. A valve between the desiccant and sorbent sides of the bed was stuck in the open position. The replacement took 4 hours to complete, but when the unit was activated on July 20, the new bed showed a similar leak to the original bed, but at a lower rate.

Two days later, the entire crew performed a medical operations drill, to maintain their training in that vital area of crew performance. On the same day, Whitson worked with engineers on the ground to work out a repair procedure for a spacesuit battery that had failed to discharge prior to being recharged. During the week the crew continued with their science programme, working with the Micro-encapsulation Electrostatic Processing Experiment (MEPE), the ADVASC, and the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG). Whitson described the importance of the glove box as follows:

“Well, I think science advances a lot slower than any of us would like it to; but specifically during Expedition 5 we’re getting the Microgravity Sciences Glovebox up… this is a facility payload that is going to allow various different investigators to do materials science inside of a confined environment. In the environment of the Space Station, if we do things that involve toxic materials, we need to have several layers of containment, because obviously we can’t just open the window if we have a little toxic fluid escape. So, the Microgravity Sciences Glovebox provides us a level of containment. It allows us to work inside with the rubber gloves up on our arms, and we can manipulate and set up experiments inside a contained environment. And it would be experiments that we couldn’t possibly do without that additional level of containment… We’ve had other smaller glove – boxes flying, which have flown before either on the Shuttle, in Spacelab, and even one on Mir. So there have been previous ones; this is a kind of a facility-class payload, very large, and I think it’s going to really enhance our capabilities in the materials science world.’’

They also participated in an educational broadcast called “Toys in Space’’, whereby they used a number of simple toys to explain the basic principles of physics involved in spaceflight and present on ISS. The scientific work continued throughout the following week, with the crew working on the Solidification Using A Baffle in Sealed Ampules (UABSA) experiment, which was designed to grow semiconductor crystals in microgravity. Whitson activated the MSG and televised the heating and cooling processes involved in heating a semiconductor to melting point and then allowing it to cool. Whitson also monitored the ADVASC, where soybean plants had started growing. All three astronauts performed PuFF experiments in advance of the EVAs planned for mid-August. There was also the Renal Stone Experiment. Whitson said:

“Our experiment is based on some previous data that we’ve collected on the Shuttle and on the NASA/Mir science program, and there we found that crew­members are at a greater risk of forming renal or kidney stones… And that’s a big deal in spaceflight because, if you’ve ever known anybody who’s formed a kidney stone, it is excruciatingly painful if that stone begins to move, and in essence it will incapacitate a crewmember, and you would probably have to abort the entire mission. So we are interested in trying to reduce that risk of stone formation. We’ve had crewmembers form stones after flight, and there’s one case where they aborted a Russian mission because of a crewmember who formed a stone during flight… that moved. And so… we’re looking at a countermeasure to try and alleviate some of those effects. We’re using a drug that’s commonly used on the ground to inhibit calcium-containing stones, and based on the results of our previous research we’re going to be using potassium citrate in the crewmembers on a daily basis to see if that actually reduces the risk of forming renal stones, and collecting the same data that we collected… before and see if the risk is actually decreased… Our research shows that there really is a higher risk, and it has to do with the fact that the crewmembers tend to be somewhat more dehydrated, as well as the fact that their bones are demineralizing, so there’s a greater level of calcium and phosphate in the urine, which can form crystals and form the nucleus of the stone that could occur.’’

Meanwhile, they continued their repair and maintenance work, replacing remote power converter modules in the Quest Airlock after they had shown the initial signs of malfunction. On July 22, the crew’s treadmill began making “clanking noises’’ when they ran on it. Investigation revealed that the problem lay in one of the rollers that the belt ran over, where a ball bearing had seized. The crew also worked on the Elektron oxygen-generating system, but failed to improve its performance.

Following a review of the ISS programme, the director of the US government’s Office of Management and Budget described ISS as one of the Bush government’s “most inefficient and wasteful programmes.” The programme was further described as one of the “biggest [budget] over-runs ever in the federal government.”

The NASA Advisory Council, which had also been tasked to review the ISS programme agreed with the conclusions of the Young Committee. Its report stated that the huge budget over-runs in the ISS programme “cannot be excused and must not be ignored.’’ The Council also agreed that NASA must complete the ISS pro­gramme without further budget over-runs for at least two years, during which NASA could not hope to expand the Expedition crew beyond three people. Beyond the criticism, the Advisory Council suggested that NASA begin assigning a modest budget to revive the American Habitation Module and an American CRV.

In March Sean O’Keefe had established a task force to review the station’s ability to support science of merit. On July 10, the force recommended that 15 of the 35 areas of research reviewed be pursued as “first priority’’. The task force also recommended that NASA stop referring to ISS as a “science-driven programme’’, until the size of the Expedition crew was raised to six people. Meanwhile, a Rosaviakosmos spokes­man stated that the international agreements on which the ISS programme were based were “deteriorating seriously’’. He suggested that Russia should demand those agreements be renegotiated, and suggested that, if it wished, Russia could build and launch a “European’’ space station as an alternative to ISS.

Following the publication of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board’s (CAIB) Final Report, NASA began preparing for the Shuttle’s Return to Flight. One idea that was developed was the idea of a safe haven on ISS for the crew of any future Shuttle that was damaged during ascent into orbit.

In keeping with the CAIB report’s recommendations, all future Shuttle flights would use cameras mounted on a new Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) to inspect the previously inaccessible areas of the orbiter’s Thermal Protection System (TPS). Additional photographs would be taken by the ISS Expedition crew as the Shuttle performed a nose-over-tail pitch manoeuvre prior to docking. The photo­graphs and videos would then be downloaded to MCC-Houston, where engineers would study them and declare the TPS fit, or unfit, for re-entry. If the TPS was damaged and declared unfit for re-entry, the Shuttle crew would dock with ISS, which would then serve as a safe haven until a new means of recovery could be launched to recover them. This might be a second Shuttle, or in extreme cases, additional Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

With a two-person Expedition crew and a seven-person Shuttle crew onboard, supplies available on ISS would be limited. Under existing conditions a Shuttle crew would be able to utilise the safe haven for up to 86 days, at which point NASA would have to be able to launch the rescue vehicle, a second Shuttle. Excess water and food from the crippled Shuttle would be transferred to the station to support the additional astronauts. In addition, the launch schedule for Progress cargo vehicles would have to be sustained.

Prior to the loss of STS-107, the Expedition-8 crew consisting of Michael Foale, William McArthur, and Valeri Tokarev was due to be launched to ISS on STS-116, with a Shuttle crew consisting of:

COMMANDER: Terrence Wilcutt

PILOT: William Oefelein

MISSION SPECIALISTS: Robert Curbeam, Christer Fuglesang

STS-116 was to have returned the original (three-man) Expedition-7 crew to Earth at the end of their mission.

When the two-person caretaker crews were named on February 24, 2003, Foale and Alexander Kaleri (the third member of the original Expedition-7 crew) were named as the new Expedition-8 crew, with McArthur and Tokarev serving as their back-up crew. Spaniard Pedro Duque was flying under the Roscosmos contract that offered the third couch on a Soyuz flight to ESA if it was not filled by a commercial spaceflight participant. Duque would return to Earth in Soyuz TMA-2 with the Expedition-7 crew. Foale was on his sixth spaceflight, Kaleri his fourth, and Duque his second.

Discussing his training for flying the Soyuz spacecraft during his various crew allocations, Foale has said:

“Well, I’ve had a lot of experience, compared to other U. S. astronauts training for Soyuz flight. First of all, on Mir we had to train for Soyuz emergency descent, and that was basically as a passenger cosmonaut-astronaut in the right seat. On this last training flow before Columbia I was training for the left seat emergency descent with a cosmonaut in the center seat. After Columbia, Sasha and I were named to be the backups to Ed Lu and Yuri Malenchenko that are on orbit right now, and there I had to train both for launch in the left seat, rendezvous, and then descent. And then at the same time I had to take the same classes that Sasha, the Commander, was taking and do those in the centre seat. So I have seen the whole smorgasbord of crew roles and responsibilities on board the Soyuz.’’

Asked about the possibility that he might also have to return to Earth in a Soyuz spacecraft at the end of the Expedition-8 crew’s occupation, Foale remarked:

“I think, to be quite honest, I’d like to come home in the Soyuz. And that’s mostly because it’s well understood right now. Its ballistic entry was demonstrated by Ken Bowersox and Don Pettit and Nikolai Budarin on the last entry. People called that off-nominal—it certainly was not an expected entry—but it demon­strated yet another aspect of the Soyuz, which is its robustness… [H]owever, I do want the Shuttle to succeed… But I don’t believe… that the Shuttle’s architecture will allow it to be significantly safer without adding crew escape to it.’’

Soyuz TMA-3 was launched at 01: 38, October 18, 2003. Kaleri served as Soyuz Commander, with Foale assuming command only after entering the station. Docking to Pirs nadir occurred at 03 : 16, October 20, as ISS passed over Central Asia. Mean­while, in orbit, pressure and leak checks were followed by the opening of the hatches between the two spacecraft at 05: 19, and the new crew entered the station, where the

Expedition-7 crew, who were on their 177th day in space, greeted them. The flags of Spain and ESA were displayed on the station alongside those of America and Russia. After eating lunch, the three newcomers received the standard safety brief before Duque’s couch liner was transferred to Soyuz TMA-2. Meanwhile, NASA announced details of two minor problems with the flight. The potentially more serious of the two was a small helium leak between the helium pressurisation tank and the propellant tanks of Manifold 2 in the Soyuz propulsion system. Manifold 1 would be used for the remainder of the Soyuz TMA-3 flight.

After Soyuz TMA-3 had safely docked to Pirs, the Washington Post released details of how two “mid-level scientists and physicians” had refused to sign the initial approval for the launch due to their concerns over the deterioration of environmental monitors and the medical and exercise equipment on ISS. The report also claimed that ISS was running low of medicines and intravenous fluids, and the noise levels in the Russian sector of the station were greater than desired, and required a noise – deadening programme. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe stated publicly that the he did not believe the crew to be in any danger. Both the Expedition-7 and Expedi­tion-8 crews acknowledged the difficulties, but stated that they believed they were in no immediate danger. These reports led to a number of politicians jumping on the bandwagon and using the incident as an excuse to attack NASA and its Adminis­trator. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (Democrat-Houston) stated, “Safety, above all, has to be the highest priority. After the Columbia Accident Investigation Board’s report came out, I asked specifically about the safety of the Space Station and the response coming back was not as strong as I wanted. Now it seems there is not only a problem, there is a crisis.’’ NASA also had its supporters, Dana Rohrabacher, head of the House Space and Aeronautics subcommittee, told the press, “I have faith Mr. O’Keefe is doing his best and shouldn’t be second-guessed by politicians.’’ Meanwhile, the two individuals concerned told the media that they had not identified any immediate threats to crew safety, but were concerned over the deteri­oration and long-term failure of equipment measuring the environment on the station since the loss of STS-107, and the grounding of the Shuttle fleet. They stated that they had spoken to NASA officials from JSC and were content that NASA was taking their concerns seriously and had begun to address the issues that they had raised.

When the issues were first raised and became public, in the second week of October, O’Keefe had been blunt. He told the media that if the situation reached a point where the crew was at risk then.. the answer is, get aboard the Soyuz, turn down the lights and leave.’’

Docking was followed by 8 days of joint operations, with Malenchenko and Lu handing over to Foale and Kaleri, while Duque performed his “Cervantes” experiment programme. This consisted of 24 experiments to be completed, in both the Russian and American sectors of the station, over 40 hours. Foale described his feelings on what would happen during the hand-over in the following terms:

“[Tjhere are a number of goals to be achieved during the joint operations… of the oncoming crew and the off-going crew. First and foremost … Spain, through ESA… are paying the lion’s share of this Soyuz flight, and they have serious

science objectives to accomplish during the five days that Pedro is planned to be on board the Station with us. And so, to be honest… I feel obliged, just as Sasha does, to help Pedro get kicked off to a running start as soon as we arrive. There is nothing more important than getting Pedro running. The remaining four days I will spend my time with Ed Lu, and I hope to learn everything he has learned about the Destiny module, about the Airlock, the Node, and all of our stowage there and all of our equipment there, and its operations with the control center here in Houston. However, I must not ignore what’s going on in the Russian segment, where Sasha Kaleri will be spending a lot of time with Malenchenko and learning about Russian operations, work in the Service Module and in the FGB, and in their docking module… By the time four days have gone by, I will know just the bare minimum to be able to find my clothes, wash my body, do my exercise, and work the radio… but the practical knowledge will be there after four days. And at that point, we will be ready to say, Pedro, you’re going to that spacecraft; your seat liner’s in that spacecraft—the old one, the returning one— with Ed Lu and Yuri Malenchenko, and then we’ll close the hatch and breathe a sigh of relief, because joint ops is a very hard time because everybody has a lot to do in a short time.’’

The ceremonial change of command ceremony took place on October 24. Three days later Malenchenko and Lu and Duque sealed themselves in Soyuz TMA-2. They

were preparing to undock when the complex rolled unexpectedly. This caused the thrusters on Zvezda to fire, to correct the station’s attitude. NASA described the incident:

“At 2.57 pm, while ISS was in the XPOP momentum management mode, the station experienced a large unexpected roll manoeuvre event, with momentum increasing from 16 percent to 90 percent in four minutes. As 90 percent triggers a de-saturation of the CMGs, with Service Module thrusters, several de-saturation burns followed, using several kilograms of propellant. Proper attitude control was re-established for the undocking… Troubleshooting by Moscow determined that the cause of the torque was a crewmember, during ingress, contacting the Soyuz hand controllers, which are not supposed to be active at that time. TsUP further determined that the override commands to activate the hand controllers were inadvertently initiated by a Soyuz control panel pushbutton, while the crew was loading return items.’’

As usual TsUP had managed to put the blame on the crew, despite the fact that no one in the Russian control room had noticed that the Soyuz hand controllers had been inadvertently activated.

Soyuz TMA-2 undocked at 18: 17, October 27. The de-orbit burn took place at 20: 47, and the re-entry module touched down on target in Kazakhstan at 21: 41. The

Expedition-7 crew had spent 184 days 22 hours 46 minutes and 9 seconds in flight. Duque had been away from Earth for 9 days 21 hours 1 minute 58 seconds. Initial medical examinations at the landing site showed all three men to be in good health, but the Expedition-7 crew underwent the usual 45-day rehabilitation programme at Korolev, where Malenchenko’s new wife was waiting to welcome him back to Earth.

Japan’s second major input into the ISS programme would be the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV). The automated logistics carried would be launched on a Japanese H-IIB launch vehicle and would carry logistics to ISS. Following launch, the HTV would carry out an automated rendezvous and station-keeping with ISS, before being grasped by the Space Station Remote Manipulator system and being docked to Unity for unloading. Following unloading, the HTV would be filled with rubbish and unwanted materials before being undocked from Unity and performing a separation manoeuvre. Once clear of ISS the HTV would perform a retrofire manoeuvre and re­enter Earth’s atmosphere, where it would be heated to destruction.

JAXA maintains three principal centres for their operations relating to ISS.

• JAXA Headquarters is in Tokyo and oversees the management of the Japanese space programme.

• Tsukuba Space Centre (TKSC), where Kibo was developed, constructed, and tested. It is also the location of the Kibo Control Centre.

• Tanegashima Space Centre contains the Osaki Range where the H-II launch vehicles for the HTV will be launched from.

The suggestion that NASA might reconsider developing ISS beyond Core Complete, including the CRV, came as no surprise to many inside the Administration. In 2002, an internal JSC report suggested that NASA could not expect to increase the Expedi­tion crew beyond three people before 2008. The report included a statement that a seven-person CRV (X-38?) should be included in the plans for increased operations. The report stated, “Succeeding with the CRV is key to our long term vision for NASA… Maintaining our ability to design, build, test, and fly a spacecraft like the CRV is key. This is recognised by every senior manager at JSC, and elsewhere in NASA.” The X-38 CRV had been officially subject to cancellation since the Bush Senior Administration’s attempt to bring the ISS budget under control.

Despite the X-38 programme’s alleged cancellation in mid-2001, Congress had instructed that funding for the programme should be reinstated in November of the same year. In 2002, Aerojet delivered the De-orbit Propulsion Stage (DPS) for the X-38, for use on CRV-201, which had been built for the “ironbird” flight, the return from orbit after delivery into space in the payload bay of the Shuttle Columbia. The eight-thruster DPS would fire to slow the X-38 down, allowing gravitational attraction to pull it back into the atmosphere.

In June 2002, NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe cancelled the rejuvenated X-38 programme, in advance of a new change in direction: the Integrated Space Trans­portation Plan (ISTP) and the Orbital Space Plane (OSP) Crew Transfer Vehicle (CTV). The term Crew Return Vehicle was slowly being dropped from NASA’s vocabulary, just as the X-38 was being dropped from ISS. Even as the X-38 was finally cancelled, NASA was criticised for not including the budgetary effects of that cancellation in their reports. Rather, some politicians felt that the cancellation announcement had been made in such a way as to suggest that the only reason for the cancellation was so that NASA could present their plans for the new OSP in a better light, in that OSP could perform both the CTV and CRV roles, while X-38 was more narrowly focused on the CRV role.

Foale and Kaleri spent their first week in space completing experiments and familiarising themselves with ISS. Their experiment programme included 42 Russian experiments, 38 of which had been used on previous Expedition occupations. They quickly established a daily routine of briefings, exercise, experiments, and maintenance. October 28 was a light work day for the new crew, offering them a chance to rest after the intensity of their Soyuz flight and the hand-over week. Kaleri donned a compression cuff on his upper thigh as part of the Russian Braslet-M/ Anketa microgravity adaptation experiment. He also donated blood for the Hematokrit experiment. At the start of the new week they performed well in an emergency evacuation drill, before performing maintenance and station configura­tion tasks. The day after that was a full workday, with both men performing their own countries’ medical experiments, and an inspection of the station’s exercise devices, and maintenance.

After a quiet weekend the crew began work with the Body Mass Measurements experiments before stowing the EarthKam. Foale spoke to former Skylab astronauts who were meeting at MSFC, in Huntsville, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the launch of Skylab-4, the final crewed flight in that programme. During the week a series of solar flares erupted from the Sun, sending radiation towards Earth, where the planet’s magnetic field directed some of it into the upper atmosphere, causing aurorae. At various times the two astronauts sheltered in Zvezda and the third sleep station in Destiny as the station passed close to areas of high activity within Earth’s ionosphere. Korolev made it clear to the public that ISS orbited between 1,000 km and 2,000 km below the areas of highest activity in Earth’s atmosphere, and that the station’s radiation shielding was sufficient to protect the crew. Despite this and the fact that broken radiation-monitoring equipment had been part of the general deterioration of ISS complained about before the Soyuz TMA-3 launch, radiation levels outside and inside the station were carefully monitored.

Throughout all of this the crew continued to perform their experiments, with Kaleri performing Russian medical and physiological experiments in Zvezda, while Foale worked on American experiments in Destiny. On October 31, the Russian veloergometer, a vital exercise machine mounted in Zvezda, failed. Engineers in Korolev began an investigation into what had happened and how to repair it. The veloergometer was part of the crew’s daily exercise routine to ward off the effects of prolonged microgravity, so its speedy repair was important to them. On November 2, ISS passed its third year of permanent occupation.

Both men continued with their national experiment programmes, while also spending time trying to find suitable storage for all of the items on the station. This even included pressurising PMA-2, which was normally kept in a vacuum state, opening the hatch between Destiny and the PMA, and mounting items around its internal walls, before closing the hatch once more. Foale installed the EarthKam in Destiny’s nadir window and activated the Protein Crystal Growth experiment. He also used a special glove to measure hand muscle action in microgravity. The Hand Posture Analyser was an Italian experiment flown by ESA in an attempt to “quantify muscle fatigue associated with long-duration spaceflight.”

Foale had discussed some of the experiments during his pre-launch interview:

“we have… one experiment that looks at the melting and then the re-solidifica­tion of metal analogues in the glovebox facility in the Destiny Laboratory Module. We have a very interesting experiment that looks like it’s straight out of Star Wars called SPHERES… And this experiment is, the set of spheres— actually polyhedrons—that manoeuvre themselves in relation to each other and fly in formation to each other. We do this inside… the Node [Unity], and I’ll be doing that at different times during the mission. And then we have experiments that are life science-oriented. There’s an experiment that measures how I move in space… for a number of days I’ll be wearing some pretty fancy, expensive tights that are fully instrumented with instrumentation that measure how my muscles are moving, how the nerves that are triggering my muscles are firing, and indeed, the actual resulting position of my leg. It’s called FOOT. Although, actually it’s not only the foot that it’s studying, it’s studying the whole leg. And so that will then bring data back on basically how a human being adjusts, or just naturally assumes a neutral position in space during a normal workday.’’

In mid-November Kaleri reconfigured the TORU cabling inside Zvezda. Meanwhile, spikes in the current vibration lasting approximately 30 minutes were noted in CMG-3, on November 8. Three gyroscopes, mounted in the Z-1 Truss, were used to control the Station’s attitude, but were taken off-line when large manoeuvres were required. The fourth gyroscope had been taken off-line in 2002, following a malfunction, and a replacement gyroscope was waiting in Florida for the Shuttle to resume flying, because it was too big to fit in Progress.

November 11 saw the crew completing periodic hearing tests, while inspecting the Thermal Vibration Isolation System (TVIS) and checking the batteries for the station’s defibrillator. The following day they worked on reorganising equipment on ISS. November 12 was spent changing ten smoke detectors in the station and inspecting equipment at the request of mission control. The crew ended the week by commencing a course of potassium citrate pills, or placebos, in advance of a study of renal (kidney) stone development, an ongoing problem in long-duration spaceflight. Foale prepared the CBOSS experiment and its Fluid Dynamics Investigation experi­ment for later operations when it would be used to grow three-dimensional cell cultures. At the same time Kaleri worked with the Russian Profilakita experiment to study the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body. The week ended

with the crew making preparations for the following week’s rehearsal for the Stage EVA that was planned for February 2004.

Both men spent the beginning of the week evaluating emergency procedures to be used if Pirs failed to pressurise at the end of the planned EVA. In that event they would have to move directly from Pirs to Soyuz TMA-3 while still wearing their Russian Orlan suits. On November 18, Kaleri donned an Orlan EVA suit and attempted to make the transfer through the hatch from Pirs to the orbital module of Soyuz TMA-3. Clearances between the suit’s Life Support System and the hatch rim were minimal and, even with the unsuited Foale pushing him from behind, the attempt took much longer than expected and was abandoned with Kaleri only partway through the hatch.

November 20 was the fifth anniversary of Zarya’s launch. Representatives from all 16 countries participating in the ISS programme celebrated the launch of the first element. Foale completed a computer-guided refresher course on the use of the SSRMS on November 21. He also completed alterations to the instrumented suit that was part of the FOOT experiment.

At one point the crew heard an unusual noise from the treadmill’s Vibration Isolation System (VIS). They were told to stop using the treadmill while the noise was investigated. The cause was later established as a possible gyroscope failure within the treadmill. They began running the treadmill with the VIS powered off a few days later, as part of a Russian experiment to see exactly what vibrations were present and how they affected the station’s other experiments. Following this, the crew were given permission to use the treadmill, with the VIS powered off, for their daily exercises over the weekend.

At 02: 59, November 26, both Foale and Kaleri heard what they initially believed to be an external impact on the aft end of Zvezda. Foale later explained how he had been immediately sure that ISS had not been ruptured because his ears had not popped, due to a drop in internal air pressure, as they had when he was onboard the Russian Mir station and a Progress vehicle had collided with one of its modules. The SSRMS was used to scan the area, but no signs of an impact were found. Internal pressure readings and the coolant system were monitored both on the ground and in space, but no leaks were discovered. The crew ultimately went back to work, while Houston and Korolev continued to investigate the noise. In the wake of the STS-107 investigation and the criticism that they had received on that occasion, NASA asked the Pentagon to turn a reconnaissance satellite’s cameras on ISS, to image the area where the impact was thought to have taken place.

Foale set up video cameras in Destiny to document the Fluid Dynamics Investigation, as part of the CBOSS experiment. He also installed equipment in the MSG for the PFMI experiment. Finally, he completed the alterations to the FOOT experiment’s instrumented suit. November 27 was American Thanksgiving Day. The crew enjoyed a light workload and some free time to listen to music and watch films. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe spoke to both men by telephone.

Foale spent much of December 2 participating in the FOOT experiment. He had to wear the Lower Extremities Monitoring Suit which was fitted with 20 sensors to measure the wearer’s daily activities. During the same day Kaleri worked on the veloergometer, stripping it down and reassembling it. Although the device worked normally after reassembly, Kaleri found no cause for the earlier malfunction. The exercise machine malfunctioned again six days later. On December 4, Kaleri completed the first run on the Russian Plasma Crystal-3 experiment, after spending the earlier part of the week setting it up. The automated experiment studied crystallisation of plasma dust subjected to high-frequency radio waves in a vacuum chamber. Both men also inspected the TVIS on the treadmill in Zvezda, before they both ran on the treadmill with its Vibration Isolation Stabilisation turned off. Instruments in Zvezda and Unity measured the resulting vibrations.

On that day NASA announced that, due to the malfunction of one CMG in the Z-1 Truss and the recent vibration experienced by a second, “ISS attitude hold and all attitude manoeuvres will be performed on Russian thrusters only, between now and mid-January.’’ During the week the crew also discharged and re-charged the batteries in the various pressure suits on the station, reloaded the station laptop computers, and participated in the ongoing Renal Stone Experiment.

December 8 saw Michael Foale set a new record for an individual American astronaut’s cumulative time in space, passing the previous record of 230 days 13 hours 3 minutes 38 seconds set by Carl Walz. Thirty Russian cosmonauts had spent longer cumulative times in space than Foale, including Kaleri, who had spent 415 days in space, even before commencing his Expedition-8 flight to ISS. The Russian record was held by Sergei Avdeyev’s cumulative time of 748 days. Carl Walz, the previous holder of the American record telephoned Foale to pass on his congratula­tions. The following two days were spent stripping down the treadmill and confirmed that a bearing in one of its gyroscopes was the cause of the problem. A replacement would be carried up to ISS on Progress M1-11, due for launch in January 2004. The following day the Elektron oxygen generator’s prime and back-up pumps failed, causing the machine to shut down. Engineers suggested that an air bubble had caused the problem, and Elektron was later powered on for 10 hours to clear it. Foale used the SSRSM on December 9 to continue the inspection of the station’s exterior following the crew’s report of an external sound earlier in the flight. Its cameras were also used to inspect the exterior of the station to search for any changes, a task usually carried out by Shuttle crews during their post-undocking fly-around of the station.

NASA announced four new ISS Expedition crews on December 17, 2003. The details released at the time were

The Shuttle launch dates were subject to the Shuttle returning to flight following the loss of STS-107.

When McArthur was temporarily medically disqualified, Chiao was teamed with Tokarov on Expedition-9. In time McArthur returned to flight status and the original pairings were reinstated with Padalka, Fincke, and Kuipers being teamed up on Expedition-9, Chiao and Sharipov on Expedition-10 and McArthur and Tokarev slipped to Expedition-11, giving McArthur time to catch up on lost training.

Prior to the STS-107 tragedy, the Expedition-9 and Expedition-10 crews had

December 17 was the 100th anniversary of powered flight. Foale and Kaleri were given the day off, although they did talk to schoolchildren at the Wright Brothers’ Memorial at Kitty Hawk. Some aerospace journalists had expected President Bush to make an announcement regarding the future of the American human spaceflight programme during the day, but he did not do so. The ISS crew ended the week by sending down the results from some of their experiments. Their weekend of light duties was interrupted by the Elektron shutting down a further three times. The unit was turned down to the lowest power setting, reducing atmospheric pressure on the station. The atmosphere was supplemented with oxygen from tanks in Progress M-48. NASA announced:

“The Elektron has been operating only intermittently, shutting down when air gets into pumps that help separate liquid and gas. The problem is believed to be one that is sometimes experienced as membranes in that unit age. A replacement is onboard, but flight controllers plan to continue operations as they are for as long as possible before using the new equipment. Oxygen also is being provided to the cabin air from tanks aboard the Progress craft that is docked to the complex. The oxygen in those tanks must be used in the next few weeks to prepare for the undocking of that supply craft in January. With the Progress oxygen being used, continuous use of the Elektron is not necessary.’’

Two days later Foale and Kaleri completed their ninth week in space. Foale began the week by performing a leak check on the seal between Quest and Unity. The connecting hatch was sealed and the airlock’s internal pressure reduced and left overnight. No leaks were detected. At the same time Kaleri worked to replace a faulty heat exchanger in Zvezda’s back-up air-conditioning system. He successfully removed the old unit, but then experienced difficulty aligning the new one. The work was left while controllers in Korolev diagnosed the problem. The primary system
continued to function flawlessly. Troubleshooting also took place on Zvezda’s Elektron system.

The two days before the Christmas holidays were spent repairing various experiments and taking sound level measurements in Zvezda. On December 24, Christmas Eve, Kaleri worked on the Elektron system in Zvezda, replacing filters, but the system failed to restart at the end of his efforts. The sensors in the tanks that were supposed to fill with water indicated that they were full when they were in fact empty. Meanwhile, Foale stowed clothing in Unity, including many items that had been used by previous crews and would not be used again. Both men had the holiday period off, although they had to perform their daily exercises, and routine house­keeping and maintenance on the station. They had a smoked turkey dinner, received a call from Sean O’Keefe, and Foale spoke to his family. On December 26, it was back to work, carrying out routine maintenance on the station.

Kaleri spent three hours on December 29, removing no longer needed attitude control equipment from Zarya; the equipment would be discarded in Progress M-48 in late January. He also worked with the Russian Harmful Impurities Removal System, which helped to purify the station’s atmosphere. Foale spent the day working with the CBOSS experiment. The following day, Foale completed some soldering and repacked the ISS medical kit with fresh supplies from Progress M-48. On December 31, both men completed 1 hour of emergency medical training. They also turned off the Elektron and activated their first SFOG candle, in an attempt to use up those candles that were approaching their use-by date. NASA explained:

“Each candle releases 600 litres of O2, enough for one person per day. There are

142 SFOGs on board, and the certified lifetime of all of them expires today.

Russian formalities required for extending their lifetimes are being expedited as

much as possible.’’

The pair exchanged New Year greetings with each of their many control rooms as they passed around the planet. They celebrated New Year at midnight gmt.

As 2003 ended Sean O’Keefe made it clear that STS-114, the Shuttle Return to Flight mission, would not fly in 2004. He stated that the requirement to develop the OBSS, required to inspect the Shuttle’s TPS on each flight, and the requirement to develop a TPS repair kit, as demanded by the CAIB, were the principal causes of the delay. O’Keefe said that the cost of returning the Shuttle to flight had risen from the $280 million estimated in November 2003, to the present figure of $400 million.

January 1, 2004 was a day off for the crew. Both men spoke to their families and completed only vital technical maintenance and personal exercise. During the day, controllers noticed that ISS was suffering a slow pressure leak. Systems on the station were able to compensate for the leak, but the two men still began checking all valves that gave access to open space to ensure they were properly closed. They found nothing untoward. Both men had first-hand experience of leaks in space. Foale had been onboard Mir when it was struck by a Progress spacecraft in 1997, and Kaleri had been sent to Mir in 2000 to look for an unidentified slow leak on the station at that time.

The following day Foale returned to work on the CBOSS and Kaleri followed instructions that were radioed up from Korolev to adjust the Elektron oxygen generator in Zvezda. Kaleri also activated two SFOGs to enrich the station’s atmosphere. A further two SFOGs were burned the next day. Meanwhile, oxygen was also introduced to the station’s atmosphere from tanks in Progress M-48 on January 1 and again on January 3.

Two days later the crew were informed of a drop in internal air pressure registered in Houston. The leak had first been registered on January 1, and had grown steadily worse since then. They were told, “There’s no action for you at this time and no immediate concerns… We’ll continue to investigate this on the next shift and we may have some actions for you tomorrow.’’ Even so, the crew carried out some basic checks onboard ISS but they found nothing amiss. On January 6, they returned to the search for the cause of a pressure leak on the station. NASA’s Mike Suffredini explained, “We’re going to take a very measured and methodical approach to sort through this problem… If this was in fact a leak, which we’re not certain that it is, we have, oh, about a little over half a year’s worth of gas on board to feed it and so we’re in no particular hurry to overreact.’’

Foale finally identified the location of the leak on January 11. It was caused by a flexible cable called a vacuum jumper that was used to equalise pressure between the individual panes in Destiny’s main window, where it entered a steel harness at the edge of the window. The vacuum jumper would be capped off and replaced later, after relevant equipment had been lifted up to ISS on a future Progress. Both men had checked the window before, but their efforts to listen for the leak had been frustrated by the noise coming from a science experiment being run in the laboratory. NASA told journalists, “Foale reported that as soon as the flex hose was disconnected, the noise stopped. While additional evaluation is needed for confirmation, the pressure in the station appears to have stabilised since the removal of the hose.’’ Having identified the leak, the crew requested, and were given the remainder of the day off. At Houston’s request the crew ended the week by closing the internal hatches and spending the weekend in Zvezda. Controllers then monitored the internal press­ure in the various isolated modules of the station throughout the weekend. In Korolev, engineers were considering a total replacement of Zvezda’s Elektron unit, which continued to function intermittently.

The Brazilian space programme began in 1961, under the command of the national military authorities. It has developed a national launch vehicle programme, begin­ning in the 1970s. In 1994, the programme was civilianised, under the charge of the Ministry of Technology and Science and the Brazilian Space Agency (in Portuguese the Agenda Espacial Brasiliera or AEB) was formed, with its launch site in Alcantara. Early co-operation with the Americans was hindered by American laws relating to technology transfer, and Brazil now co-operates with a number of other nations.

AEB originally signed a contract to provide an experiment rack, to be launched on the Shuttle and mounted on the exterior of ISS. In return a Brazilian astronaut would fly to ISS on a Shuttle mission, as part of NASA’s allocation of ISS utilisation time. Budgetary constraints prevented the Brazilians manufacturing the experiment rack, but the flight of their astronaut has taken place.

Brazil operates several AEB centres:

• National Institute for Space Research is responsible for the oversight of all of Brazil’s space programmes and the development of relevant hardware.

• Institute of Aeronautics and Space (IAE) oversees the development of Brazil’s launch vehicles.

• Alcantara Launch Centre.

On August 1, Korzun and Whitson moved the SSRMS so that the camera on its end- effector could view the MBS and the attached POA grapple fixture that was mounted there. The POA was commanded to go through the motions of grasping a payload while being filmed. The controlling computer placed the POA in “Safe Mode’’ when data suggested that the motors were running too fast. The equipment was powered off and then powered on once more before re-running the test with the POA’s motor running more slowly. The test was completed without further problems. During the day Progress M-46’s rocket motors were used to boost the station’s orbit and place ISS in the best orbit to support the arrival of the next Progress and the Soyuz TMA-1 exchange flight. Whitson also repositioned the SSRMS to a location where its cameras could be used to view the EVA planned for August 16.

All three astronauts spent the following week preparing for their first Stage EVA. They also found the time to follow a set of instructions read up from the ground that allowed them to complete a temporary repair on their malfunctioning treadmill. The repair allowed them to use the treadmill in an un-powered mode until the part for a repair could be delivered on the next Progress, to be launched on September 20. During the week, the Russians announced that Soyuz TMA-1 would be launched on October 28.

The first of two Expedition-5 Stage EVAs began when Korzun and Whitson left Pirs at 05:23, August 16. Their exit was delayed for 1 hour 43 minutes due to a valve controlling the flow of gas to the oxygen tank in their Russian Orlan EVA suits being set in the wrong position. Korzun had made the EVA sound simple:

“The first EVA… we will conduct with Peggy, we will take MMOD shield from PMA-1, transfer it with Russian Strela equipment to the Service Module, install this MMOD shield on the corner of the Service Module, and then we will install two antennas which they will use for ham radio; we will install them on the Service Module. And then, we will take old Kromka and install new Kromka. And, we will come back. Approximate time of the EVA will be six hours.”

Once outside, they collected their tools together and prepared the Strela crane attached to the Pirs docking module. The Strela was used to move six micrometeoroid shields from their temporary position on PMA-1 to various positions around the exterior of Zvezda where Korzun and Whitson secured them in place. An additional 17 shields would be carried up to ISS on future Shuttle flights and would be installed on Zvezda on future EVAs. Korzun and Whitson were told not to refurbish the Kromka experiment, which was designed to capture residue from Zvezda’s thrusters. Plans to collect thruster residue by swabbing the exterior of Zvezda were also abandoned as a result of the late start to the EVA. The EVA ended with the astronauts storing their tools and stowing the Strela crane in its parked position. Pirs’ hatch was closed at 09: 48, after an EVA lasting 4 hours 25 minutes.

Preparations for their second EVA occupied most of the next week and Korzun and Treschev left Pirs at 01: 27, August 26. This time the hatch opening was delayed by the search for a pressure leak in one of the airlock hatches. Once again, Korzun described the activities for the NASA website:

“Second EVA. We will use… Docking Compartment—Russian airlock—and we will use Russian spacesuit Orlan. And second EVA we will conduct with Sergei Treschev… We will install, we will replace flow regulator of the thermal control system of the FGB. And we will remove one of the panel of Japanese experiments, and then we will install special equipment for cable outside of the station. EVA time, it’s about six hours.’’

The crew began work by installing a frame on Zarya to act as a temporary stowage area for equipment on future EVAs. They also installed holders on the exterior of Zvezda, to guide EVA astronauts’ umbilicals around the exterior of the

Russian modules. Their next task was to exchange the trays of samples in the Japan­ese materials exposure experiment on the exterior of Zvezda. Having completed their own tasks the two cosmonauts picked up the tasks left from the shortened first EVA. They replaced the Kromka experiment and confirmed that the deflectors installed to reduce the thruster residue build-up on the exterior of the module were performing their task properly. Finally, they installed two ham radio antennae on the exterior of Zvezda. The EVA ended at 06:48, after 5 hours 21 minutes.

Inside ISS work continued on the experiment programme. Whitson repaired and cleaned the Microgravity Science Glovebox before preparing it for the sixth experi­ment run. She also down-linked a video tour of Destiny, pointing out a number of the principal experiments. On August 30, she serviced the American EMUs in the Quest Airlock Module. She also partially removed the EXPRESS-2 rack in Destiny to replace a smoke detector. The crew had three days off over the American Labor Day weekend.

On the first day after the holiday, the crew began their planning for the arrival of STS-112. In preparation for the three EVAs associated with that flight they processed the batteries in the EMUs held in the Quest airlock. During the remainder of the week they participated in an emergency procedures exercise and continued the experiments in the Microgravity Science Glovebox. On September 5, Whitson and Korzun took turns to control the SSRMS, including allowing the cameras on the end-effector and the POA to view the snare wires on each other as they were operated. They also grappled and un-grappled the fourth and final PDGF on the MBS, ensuring that it was working correctly. The following day much of the equipment in Destiny was powered down to allow the crew to replace an RPCM. Huntsville began applying power to the module’s equipment as the crew began their sleep period.

Whitson removed the final sample from the SUBSA experiment on September 11, thereby completing the first experiment in the Microgravity Science glovebox. The following day Korzun and Whitson used the SSRMS to view the nadir CBM on Unity. The move was prompted by the discovery of debris on Leonardo’s CBM following the flight of STS-111. Unity’s CBM was inspected with its protective petals open and closed, and the images down-linked to Houston for further investigation of the problem.

On September 13 the crew reached their 100th day in orbit. During the day Whitson set up and activated the ultrasound equipment in the HRF rack in Destiny. She then spent the next four hours using the equipment to capture videos of herself. The ultrasound equipment was designed for use in experiments, but it also had the future capability to be used in diagnosing an illness among the crew. That night Korolev commanded the rockets on Progress M-46 to fire, raising the station’s orbit in preparation for the launch of Progress M1-9.

Sean O’Keefe spoke to the Expedition-5 crew on September 15. He named Peggy Whitson as NASA’s first ISS Science Officer and told the three astronauts that it was time to increase the station’s main mission: science. Whitson and Korzun repaired the CDRA in Destiny the following day, and it was subsequently able to function as planned for the first time since its launch in February 2002. Whitson also prepared the Microgravity Science Glovebox for the first in a run of new experiments called Pore

Formation and Mobility Investigation (PFMI), whereby a transparent material was melted in the glovebox to see how bubbles formed and moved in molten materials. Throughout the week, Korzun and Treschev continued to load rubbish into Progress M-46, in preparation for its undocking. The also began packing items for their own return to Earth on STS-113, scheduled for launch on October 2. Progress M-46 was undocked at 09:58, September 24. The Russians kept the spacecraft in orbit for two weeks, employing its cameras to film smog over northeastern Russia, before de-orbiting it on October 14.

After much anticipation, President George W. Bush finally addressed the nation from NASA HQ, Washington DC, on January 14, 2003. The speech that he made was the culmination of months of work by the White House staff and numerous other agencies to give NASA new goals for the future. This speech was thought by many to be the equivalent of President Kennedy’s speech made on May 25, 1961. That speech sent Project Apollo to the Moon, but George Bush’s presentation was much less dynamic. The highlights, as they related to ISS, were as follows.

The President was introduced by NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe. The President talked from the auditorium, and Michael Foale via a video link from ISS:

“America is proud of our space programme. The risk-takers and visionaries of this agency [NASA] have expanded human knowledge, have revolutionised our understanding of the Universe and produced technological advances that have benefited all of humanity. Inspired by all that has come before, and guided by clear objectives, today we set a new course for America’s space programme. We will give NASA a new focus and vision for future exploration. We will build new ships to carry Man forward into the universe, to gain a new foothold on the Moon and to prepare for new journeys to the worlds beyond our own…

Our programmes and vehicles for exploring space have brought us far, and they have served us well. The Space Shuttle has flown more than 100 missions. It has been used to conduct important research and to increase the sum of human knowledge. Shuttle crews and the scientists and engineers who support them have helped build the International Space Station… Yet, for all these successes, much remains for us to explore and learn.

In the past 30 years, no human being has set foot on another world, or ventured farther up into space than 386 miles [621.1 km], roughly the distance from Washington DC to Boston, Massachusetts. America has not developed a new vehicle to advance human exploration in space in nearly a quarter century. It is time for America to take the next steps…

Today I announce a new plan to explore space and extend a human presence across our Solar System. We will begin the effort quickly, using existing pro­grammes and personnel. We’ll make steady progress, one mission, one voyage, one landing at a time…

Our first goal is to complete the International Space Station by 2010. We will finish what we have started. We will meet our obligations to our 15 international partners on this project. We will focus our future research aboard this station on the long-term effects of space travel on human biology. The environment of space is hostile to human beings. Radiation and weightlessness [microgravity] pose dangers to human health. And we have much to learn about their long-term effects before human crews can venture through the vast voids of space for months at a time. Research onboard the station and here on Earth will help us better understand and overcome the obstacles that limit exploration. Through these efforts, we will develop the skills and techniques necessary to sustain further space exploration. To meet this goal, we will return the Space Shuttle to flight as soon as possible, consistent with safety concerns and the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The Shuttle’s chief purpose over the next several years will be to help finish assembly of the International Space Station. In 2010, the Space Shuttle, after nearly 30 years of duty, will be retired from service…

Our second goal is to develop and test a new spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, by 2008, and to conduct the first manned mission no later than 2014. The Crew Exploration Vehicle will be capable of ferrying astronauts and scientists to the Space Station after the Shuttle is retired. But the main purpose of this spacecraft will be to carry astronauts beyond our orbit to other worlds. This will be the first spacecraft of its kind since the Apollo Command Module…

Our third goal is to return to the Moon by 2020, as the launching point for missions beyond… Using the Crew Exploration Vehicle, we will undertake extended human missions to the Moon as early as 2015, with the goal of living and working there for increasingly extended periods of time… With the experi­ence and knowledge gained on the Moon, we will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration: human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond…

We do not know where this journey will end. Yet we know this: human beings are headed into the cosmos… The vision I outline today is a journey, not a race. And I call on other nations to join this journey, in the spirit of co-operation and friendship…

Achieving these goals requires a long-term commitment. NASA’s current five – year budget is $86 billion. Most of the funding we need for new endeavours will come from re-allocating $11 billion from within that budget. We need some new resources, however. I will call upon Congress to increase NASA’s budget by roughly a billion dollars spread over the next five years. This increase, along with the re-focusing of our space agency, is a solid beginning to meet the challenges and the goals that we set today. This is only the beginning. Future funding decisions will be guided by the progress that we make in achieving these goals. We begin this journey knowing that space travel brings great risks. The loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia was less than one year ago…

Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reasons we were once drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives and lifts our national spirit.

So let us continue the journey.’’

The President’s new plan left NASA with a dilemma. In the wake of the STS-107 tragedy the remaining three Shuttle orbiters had begun a rolling programme of 2.5-year refits to update their flight systems. Endeavour had begun her refit in July 2003. Discovery would be next, and Atlantis last. However, with the new plan to retire the Shuttle in 2010, there was no longer sufficient time for Atlantis to complete its 2.5-year refit. Therefore, NASA decided to only refit Endeavour and Discovery. Atlantis would now be retired in 2008, and held in the Orbiter Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Centre, where she would be cannibalised and her systems would be used to keep the other two orbiters flying. The decision would leave only two orbiters to complete the construction of ISS.

Within a matter of days the true cost of the President’s “Vision for Space Exploration’’ and the new Crew Exploration Vehicle, which quickly assumed the name “Constellation’’, became clear. NASA cancelled a Shuttle service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, although this was later re-instated, and a plan to build a new science centre to support ISS was “postponed”, by at least one year.

Meanwhile, it was estimated that meeting all of the CAIB’s recommendations and returning the Shuttle to flight would cost a further $280 million through 2004, but

that figure was expected to rise as details of the true amount of work required to do so was identified. NASA’s figures were

Launch system modifications External Tank modifications Additional launch camera coverage Thermal Protection System repair kit New Engineering Safety Centre

Consideration was also being given to using an uncrewed Shuttle derivate to carry large amounts of cargo to ISS, alongside the proposed new Orbital Space Plane (OSP), which would have been launched on one of the new Extended Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs): Delta-IV or Atlas-V. The Orbital Space Plane would now be replaced by the Crew Exploration Vehicle.

While the press and media sunk their teeth into the contents of the President’s speech and produced articles depending on their political points of view, the station’s Expedition-8 crew continued with the routine of keeping ISS functioning. Much of the next week was spent loading rubbish into Progress M-48. Kaleri also replaced an electronics box on the Elektron oxygen generator. When the crew reported a noisy air filter on the Elektron system a replacement was added to the Progress M1-11 manifest, along with a replacement vent hose for Destiny’s window. Progress M-48 was undocked from Zvezda’s wake at 03:36, January 28, and was subsequently commanded to enter the atmosphere, where it burned up.

As the first anniversary of the loss of STS-107 approached, Wayne Hale, Deputy Shuttle Program Manager, sent an e-mail to staff at JSC. It read, in part:

“Last year we dropped the torch through our complacency, our arrogance, self-assurance, sheer stupidity, and through our continuing attempt to please everyone. Seven of our friends and colleagues paid the ultimate price for our failure. Yet the nation is giving us another chance… We must not fail… The penalty is heavy; you can never completely repay it… Do good work. Pay attention. Question everything. Be thorough. Don’t end up with regrets.’’

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.

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 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

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

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.’’

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 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

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.

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

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.’’

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.

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.

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.