Category The International Space Station

Canada became only the third nation to launch a satellite, in 1962. Despite this, Canada maintains no launch facilities of its own and uses NASA facilities within America’s national borders. The civilian Canadian Space Agency (CSA) (in French L’Agence Spatiale Canadienne or ASC) was not established until 1989. Canada co­operates regularly with NASA in America and is a “Co-operating State’’ with the

European Space Agency. By paying into the ESA budget, Canada is given a position on the main committees of the ESA. Canada also provides instruments to fly on European satellites and deep-space probes.

Canada has provided two elements that are vital to the construction of ISS, plus a third which is vital to Space Shuttle survivability in the final years of its service. All three were developed and built under NASA contracts:

• Remote Manipulator System (RMS): Development of the Shuttle’s RMS, popularly referred to as the “Canadarm”, began in 1974, when Canada agreed to develop and build a single RMS for the Shuttle orbiter Columbia. NASA subsequently ordered four more, for the other orbiters. The RMS was 15m long and had two rotating joints (pitch and yaw) at the shoulder, one joint (pitch) at the elbow, and three joints (pitch, yaw, and roll) at the wrist. The two booms were made of graphite epoxy. The upper boom was 5 m long, and the lower boom was 5.8 m long, both were 33 cm in diameter. A single end effector, on the free end, housed three wires that were used in conjunction to grasp special grapple fixtures on the items to be lifted. These wires pulled the payload snug against the end effector and allowed it to be moved around. Shuttle Mission Specialists operated the RMS from the orbiter’s aft flight deck, using either the Shuttle’s own computers to translate hand controller commands into smooth RMS move­ments, or manually, by commanding each rotation joint individually. The RMS was permanently fixed to the Shuttle’s payload bay door hinge-line and is returned to Earth with the orbiter at the end of each flight.

• Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), affectionately called “Canadarm-2”, was a more advanced tool than the Shuttle RMS. It was origin­ally designed to grasp the Shuttle and pull it in to dock with Space Station Freedom. The unique feature of the SSRMS was the Latching End Effector (LEE) at each end, which allowed either end to mate to a Power-Data Grapple Fixture (PDGF) on the exterior of ISS, while the free end performed the lifting tasks. This feature also allowed the SSRMS to be “walked” end over end across the exterior of the American sector of ISS, from one PDGF to another. The RMS on a docked Shuttle and the SSRMS were capable of working together, either lifting items out of the Shuttle payload bay, or handing items from one to the other.

The SSRMS was also designed to be mounted on the Mobile Base System, a small cart that could translate along rails mounted on the ram face of the ITS. This additional mobility allowed the SSRMS to support the construction of the ends of the ITS, while being mounted on and travelling along the face of those ITS elements already in place. The reach of the SSRMS was dictated by the necessity to move the Port-6 ITS from its temporary position on the Z-1 Truss and install it on the exposed end of the Port-5 ITS. The SRMS was designed for on-orbit replacement of its major parts and was not expected to return to Earth.

An extension tool, to be used with the SSRMS was the “Dextre” manipulator system. This consisted of two smaller Remote Manipulator Systems that could be used to complete more delicate work on the exterior of ISS without the requirement for crew members to perform EVAs.

• Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS): As a result of the STS-107 tragedy in February 2003, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board recommended that NASA develop a method of inspecting areas of the orbiter that had previously been inaccessible to the crew in flight. The OBSS provided an extension to the Shuttle’s RMS and the cameras and laser sensors on the OBSS allowed the crew to inspect those areas of their spacecraft that were not readily visible from the flight deck windows, or with the cameras on the un-extended RMS. On early flights the OBSS was mounted on the opposite payload bay door hinge-line to the RMS, making it easy for the latter to pick up. It was then returned to that location and carried back to Earth at the end of each flight. In 2007, STS-118 astronauts installed a mounting to allow the OBSS to be stored on the exterior of ISS when the Shuttle is retired in 2010. This would mean that the OBSS was still available to examine the exterior of the ISS for meteorite strikes, or other damage, even when the Shuttle is no longer flying. The Shuttle RMS, SSRMS, and OBSS were all developed and built by Macdonald, Dettwiler & Associates, Limited, Brampton, Ontario.

The first Canadian astronaut flew on the Shuttle in 1984 and was followed by a further 7 Canadian nationals who have taken part in a total of 13 Shuttle flights through the end of 2007. Two further Canadian astronauts have retired without flying in space.

Canada maintains a number of space centres:

• John H. Chapman Space Centre, Saint-Hubert, Quebec was the CSA’s Head­quarters and oversees the management of the national space programme.

• David Florida Laboratory, Ottawa, Ontario, an engineering facility.

• Mobile Servicing System Operations Complex (MOC), Longueluil, Quebec, prepared the Canadian systems and provided astronaut training on Shuttle RMS and SSRMS systems. It also provided full support for all RMS and SSRMS engineering and operations.

NASA suspended all Shuttle flights on June 25, 2002 as a result of small cracks, between 2.5 mm and 7.62 mm in length, being found in the metal liners used to direct liquid hydrogen flow inside the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) propellant lines on Atlantis, on July 11. Three cracks were subsequently found on Columbia’s No. 2 SSME and Atlantis’ and Discovery’s No. 1 SSMEs. One crack was found in the No. 1 and No. 2 SSMEs on Endeavour. Investigation showed that the cracks were most likely caused by bad welding, rather than age, or wear and tear. The entire Shuttle fleet was grounded as a safety measure while an investigation and replacement work was undertaken. The principal concern was that small pieces of metal might be ingested into an engine during a launch. Inspection of the five orbiters was expected to take the remainder of July. With no spare pipe liners in stock, repair would take at least 7 weeks. Replacement would require new liners to be manufactured, a task requiring several months.

In this same period, a mechanical fault was discovered in the bearings inside the hydraulic jacks that maintained the Mobile Launch Platform in the horizontal position during the Shuttle’s rollout to the launch pad. Fifteen cracks were discovered in Crawler-1 and a further 13 in Crawler-2. All 16 jacks on the two Crawler Transporters were replaced.

When the Expedition-5 crew were informed that their occupation of ISS had been extended for one month, Bursch wrote,

“We just got news that our Shuttle flight home has been delayed… That should send us over the six-month mark and we should break Shannon Lucid’s U. S. record of 188 continuous days in space. That feels nice to be able to share in a record… but I sure do miss my family.’’

Meanwhile, NASA’s own inspectors criticised the Administration for not thoroughly checking on United Space Alliance, the private contractor that serviced the Shuttles and prepared them for launch. NASA had announced that the estimated risk of a catastrophic failure of a Shuttle had risen from 1: 78 in 1986, the year STS-51L was lost, to 1: 55 in July 2002.

With all of this going on, STS-107, the “Freestar’’ solo science flight planned for launch on July 19,2002 was grounded indefinitely, but was expected to be launched at the end of the year. This 16-day flight, with a crew of 7, would carry the new SpaceHab Research Double Module, loaded with more than 80 experiments. The mission was designed to answer the criticism that ISS was not performing sufficient science. However, on the resumption of flights it was decided that STS-107 would not now be launched until after STS-112 and STS-113 had flown to ISS, delivering the Starboard-1 (S-1) and Port-1 (P-1) ITS segments, respectively, which would slip STS-107 to January 2003.

Progress M-48 lifted off at 21:48, August 28, 2003, and docked to Zvezda’s wake two days later, at 23: 40, August 30. The new Progress carried food, water, and propellants as well as replacement parts for ISS, tools, and a new laptop computer. There was also a cellphone and global positioning equipment, for use by the Soyuz TMA-2 crew in the event they land off-target, as the Soyuz TMA-1 crew had. There were a number of experiments for the Expedition-8 crew and others for ESA astronaut Pedro Duque to perform during his 8-day stay on ISS.

The launch was made amidst continuing concerns over funding for the Russian Soyuz and Progress vehicles needed to continue support of ISS occupation in the absence of Shuttle flights. The Russians felt that the details of their legal contract did not cover the unique situation that they now found themselves in and Energia managers were having difficulties making their political leaders and their budget controllers in Russia and America understand their difficulties. The subsequent allocation of 3 billion roubles to Rosaviakosmos would be used to launch 11 Soyuz TMA spacecraft on crew rotation flights and sufficient Progress vehicles to carry 80 tonnes of supplies to the station. None of the money would be used to develop and construct new Russian station modules. Rosaviakosmos managers pointed out that if the Russian government did not fund new station modules separately then Russian participation in ISS would remain limited to cosmonauts serving on Expedition crews, Soyuz TMA taxi crews, and robotic Progress cargo flights.

Meanwhile, Donald Thomas, the Mission Specialist who had been removed from the Expedition-5 crew due to concerns over his total radiation exposure, was named as ISS Programme Scientist, the head of America’s science programme on the station. In the same period, in Washington DC, NASA’s FY2004 budget had been settled at $15.3 billion, with politicians removing $20 million from the proposed ISS funding for that financial year.

Having delivered its oxygen supply and been loaded with rubbish, Progress M1- 10 undocked from Pirs at 15 : 42, September 4. The undocking cleared Pirs’ nadir for the arrival of Soyuz TMA-3 occupied by the Expedition-8 crew. Progress M1-10 would stay in orbit for the next month performing independent Russian scientific experiments involving using the spacecraft’s cameras to view sites of ecological interest, before it was commanded to re-enter and burn up on October 3, 2003.

Malenchenko and Lu spent the following week unloading Progress M-48 and using its supply of nitrogen to increase the pressure inside ISS. Repressurisation using the Progress’ oxygen would occur at a later date. The Progress’ thrusters were also tested in advance of a burn to raise the station’s altitude.

On September 10, Lu experienced trouble adjusting the resistance on one of the canisters on the RED exercise apparatus. He removed the canister and repaired it during the following week. Two new canisters for the RED were delivered on Progress M-48, but Lu hoped to leave them untouched so that the Expedition-8 crew could hold them in reserve in case of further failures.

Two days later the crew informed the ground that they could barely hear their transmissions. The fault was traced to equipment at Houston that relayed the audio uplink to ISS from the three control rooms at Houston, Huntsville, and Korolev. The problem was resolved by bypassing the equipment in question while it was repaired. In orbit, Lu continued his PFMI experiment programme. He also performed the first operations of the Hand Posture Analyser, an experiment that required him to wear an instrumented glove while performing a range of tasks. The experiment allowed its investigators to study how astronauts use their hands in microgravity. Lu also performed two educational tasks, making films in Destiny for use in American schools. Malenchenko replaced the failed battery in Zvezda and a computer hard drive. As the week ended, cameras on the exterior of ISS were used to image Hurricane Isobel as it crossed the Atlantic Ocean en route to its landfall in North Carolina.

The two astronauts powered up the SSRMS on September 23, for training and mechanical tests. The manoeuvres they performed placed part of the arm in sunlight so that any performance differences of the moment sensor in sunlight and shadow might be recorded. They also performed maintenance on two Russian Orlan EVA suits, ensuring they remained in good condition. Lu completed the Expedition-7 work with the PFMI experiment, while Malenchenko performed Russian medical experi­ments. He also made the first use of the station’s ultrasound equipment, using it to monitor Lu whilst he was exercising on the station’s stationary bicycle.

On October 1, the rocket motors on Progress M-48 were used to raise the station’s orbit and two days later Progress M1-10, which had spent a month perform­ing Russian experiments in orbit, was de-orbited and burned up in the atmosphere. The first week of October saw Lu install a Protein Crystal Growth experiment in the MSG, for Duque to use later in the month. He also set up a soldering experiment and an automated Earth observation camera. Malenchenko continued to perform Russian biomedical experiments, as well as observing thunderstorms, ocean biology, and studies of human-made disaster prediction. Weekly maintenance included Malenchenko inspecting fire sensors and checking systems in Pirs, prior to the arrival of Soyuz TMA-3. Lu configured the American laptops for the Expedi­tion-8 crew and both men worked together to perform maintenance on the treadmill and the RED.

During the following week, the crew began spending more time preparing for their return to Earth, at the end of the month. They donned their Sokol launch and re-entry suits and measured how well they fitted within their Soyuz couch liners. On

October 10, the two men in orbit had the opportunity to talk with the Expedition-8 crew in Korolev. Lu spent much of his time in Destiny, where he worked with the SAMS and made electrical connections as part of the In Space Soldering Investiga­tion (ISSI) experiment. Later in the week one of the station’s RPCMs, which routed electrical data throughout the station, failed. The failure disabled one camera and some onboard redundancy, but caused no problems to the arrival of Soyuz TMA-3. Work to identify the problem began immediately on the ground.

During their final week alone on ISS, Malenchenko and Lu concentrated on their preparation for returning to Earth. They carried out systems checks in Soyuz TMA-2 and began transferring items from ISS to their spacecraft. Lu continued to perform experiments and maintenance. On October 15, he replaced the malfunctioning RPCM in Destiny. Two days later, he spent several hours collecting water samples from the cooling system in Quest, which was used to cool the suits of astronauts making EVAs from the airlock. The samples would be returned to Earth for analysis.

As his occupation of ISS drew to a close, Lu told of earlier plans to abandon ISS during a press conference:

“The critical things the ground cannot do, of course, is repair and change out things up here… Luckily, nothing has happened that could cripple the Space Station, while we were up here… I’m much more comfortable with a crew on board knowing they could take care of something you had not planned for.’’

Indeed, this was a lesson learned the hard way by the Russians with their Salyut and Mir stations.

On August 9, Krikalev and Phillips began preparation of the Pirs airlock and the tools that they would use in their next Stage EVA, planned for after the STS-114 flight, the work continued throughout the week. In Zvezda, the Russian Vozdukh carbon dioxide removal system stopped working on August 11. While Russian engin­eers began troubleshooting, controllers at Houston activated the American Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly to scrub the station’s atmosphere. At 01: 44, August 12, Krikalev surpassed the 747 days 14 hours 14 minutes 11 seconds human spaceflight endurance record held by Sergei Avdeyev. He discussed the moment in his pre-launch interview:

“I probably never paid enough attention to this record-setting subject because [the] job itself is very interesting for me. Being there and being able to look back to Earth, to do something challenging; that was really important. How many days was not as important.’’

The 62nd EVA in the ISS programme began at 03: 02, August 18, 2005, when Krikalev and Phillips exited Pirs wearing Orlan suits. After preparing their tools, their first task was to recover three canisters from the Biorisk experiment that had been installed on the exterior of Pirs, in January 2005, during the Expedition-10 flight. Next they moved to the exterior of Zvezda and prepared the MPAC/SEEDs exposure samples for removal. Leaving the samples in position for the time being, they moved to Zvezda’s wake, to install a back-up television camera to assist in the docking of ESA’s ATV during its first flight, planned for 2006. They also photo­graphed the condition of the Kroma experiment, which measured the residue from Zvezda’s thrusters as well as replacing the sample containers in the Russian material exposure experiment. When they returned to Pirs with their tools and the MPAC and SEED experiments, they were running 45 minutes behind schedule. As the next task, the relocation of the grapple fixture that had originally held a Strela crane from the exterior of Zarya to PMA-3 on the exterior of Unity, was estimated to take 2 hours, Russian controllers decided to delay the task to a later EVA. Krikalev and Phillips closed the hatch on Pirs at 20: 00, ending the EVA after 4 hours 58 minutes.

Following the loss of the Russian Vozdukh system, the American Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly also failed, on August 18, due to a stuck valve.

Following the landing of STS-114, Administrator Griffin let it be known that he still hoped to solve the foam-shedding problem on the ET and launch STS-121 on

schedule, in September 2005. That changed on August 18, when the launch was moved back to March 2006. At the same time the decision was made to swap orbiters and free Atlantis for STS-115. STS-121 was scheduled as the second test-flight, following the flight of STS-114. It would carry an MPLM full of equipment and stores to ISS before STS-115 launched the next element of the ITS and resumed the construction of ISS. Meanwhile, those ETs that had been previously delivered to KSC were returned to the Michoud Assembly Facility, Louisiana for testing and any modifications identified as a result of the post-STS-114 investigation.

With their EVA behind them, Krikalev and Phillips completed unpacking the supplies delivered by STS-114. They also commenced filling Progress M-53 with rubbish, in preparation for its undocking, on September 7. On August 23, Krikalev replaced a faulty valve in the Vozdukh carbon dioxide removal system, returning the unit to full operation. The following day, Phillips replaced a laptop computer used as part of the station’s inventory system. On the same day the crew exercised a depressurisation emergency on the station.

The following week the two men prepared the station’s laptop computers for a software update that would be up-linked later in the month. They also rehearsed an emergency evacuation on Soyuz TMA-6 and completed new medical experiments, delivered by STS-114. Progress M-53 was fully packed by the end of the first week in September, by which time the crew had also upgraded their treadmill, during two days of work using parts delivered by the Shuttle.

Post-World War II European space efforts were originally split between two orga­nisations. The European Launch Development Organisation (ELDO), to develop a space launch vehicle, and the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO), to develop and exploit payloads for those launchers. The European Space Agency (ESA) was established in 1974 by merging these two organisations. ESA’s Head­quarters building was in Paris, and oversaw the activities of 16 member states, 11 of which are participating in the ISS programme. Most member states also have national space agencies and some have thriving national space programmes. In the intervening years ESA has developed a reputation for reliable satellites and deep – space probes. The French/ESA Ariane launch vehicle programme has developed through 14 different configurations, of which the latest, the Ariane-V ES-ATV, is the only one involved in the ISS programme. Ariane has established a reliable series of launch vehicles, placing ESA at the forefront of the worldwide commercial launch vehicle market. In 2007, two out of every three commercial payloads then in Earth orbit had been launched by Ariane launch vehicles.

ESA originally co-operated widely with NASA, but information-sharing restric­tions in America in the 1990s led to a change. In 2007, ESA considered Russia to be its principal partner in space exploration. For ISS Russia had an agreement with ESA whereby if the third couch on a Soyuz spacecraft launched to ISS was not taken by a commercial Space Flight Participant, it would be offered to ESA on a commercial basis, before Russia put one of their own cosmonauts in it. ESA has also co-operated with China.

Human spaceflight has never been a major part of ESA’s mission. As a result, although ESA maintains an astronaut cadre, it has developed no crewed spacecraft of its own. A French national project, the Hermes spaceplane, was designed to service the original concept of a free-flying Columbus module, but was not developed. Instead, European astronauts are launched on American Shuttles and Russian spacecraft on a commercial basis. The first ESA astronaut flew on the Shuttle in 1983 and, as of 2007, ESA has between 10 to 15 astronauts in training, several of whom have flown solo Shuttle flights and both Shuttle and Soyuz flights to ISS. So far, only one ESA astronaut has served on an ISS Expedition crew.

ESA’s main participation areas in the ISS programme were

• Multi-Purpose Logistic Modules Leonardo, Raffaello, and Donnatello were Europe’s major input to ISS during the early years of its construction. The three pressurised cargo modules were carried into orbit in the Shuttle’s payload bay. Following docking they were lifted out of the bay by the Shuttle’s Remote Manipulator System and docked to Unity, from where they were accessed internally and unloaded. After re-filling with items to be returned to Earth they were undocked and returned to the Shuttle’s payload bay, allowing them to be returned to Earth and re-used. This was the principal method of returning major items to Earth as all three alternative ISS cargo delivery systems were designed to be destroyed during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.

• Columbus was the principal ESA ISS element. The pressurised laboratory module would be launched by STS-120 and docked to Harmony. The laboratory would house ten standard experiment racks housing the following experiments:

1. Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL)

2. European Physiology Modules (EPMs)

3. Biolab

4. European Drawer Rack (EDR)

5. European Stowage Rack (ESR)

The ten racks would be split 51%/49% between European and American experi­ments. The Columbus module would also have an external facility to allow for the fixture of experiments that required exposure to the space environment. The

first two external experiments were

a. European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF)

b. Solar Monitoring Observatory (SOLAR)

Two additional external experiments were also planned:

c. Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space (ACES)

d. MISSE-6 (NASA)

• Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is a delivery vehicle for dry cargo, propel­lant, water, and air. It will be launched by Ariane-V ES-ATV and then perform an automated rendezvous and docking at the rear of Zvezda. The ATV’s Kurs rendezvous equipment and Soyuz docking probe were supplied by RSC Energia, in return for the European Command and control computers in Zvezda, which were the same as those in the ATV. After unloading it would be filled with rubbish before being detached from the station, manoeuvred clear, and com­manded to re-enter the atmosphere, where it would be heated to destruction.

• Ariane-V ES-ATV is a heavy-lift launch vehicle, is a mixture of the Ariane-V ECS first stage and the Ariane-V G second stage, and would be used to launch the ESA Automated Transfer Vehicle to ISS at 12-month to 15-month intervals. It is launched from the Guiana Space Centre, in South America.

• Node-2 (Harmony), Node-3 ( ), and the Cupola have all been described

previously. They were constructed by ESA under a NASA contract that provided for the launch of Columbus on an American Shuttle in return for their construction.

ESA maintains six major centres related to their space programmes. In addition, member states maintain national centres to support their own activities related to ESA programmes:

• European Space Agency Headquarters, Paris, France, oversees and manages all ESA programmes.

• European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk, Holland, is ESA Headquarters and is where most ESA programmes are developed and managed.

• European Astronaut Centre, Cologne, Germany, is where the European astronaut group is trained.

• Columbus Control Centre (COL-CC), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, is the control centre for the Columbus Laboratory Module and the operation centre for European experiments on ISS.

• Guiana Space Centre (GSC), was originally established by the French Space Agency as the launch site for their Ariane series of launch vehicles. Today it is operated jointly by France and ESA. For the ISS programme the GSC will be used to launch the Ariane-V, carrying ATVs to the station.

• Automated Transfer Vehicle Control Centre (ATV-CC), Toulouse, France, would operate the ATV in flight.

In 1997, Brazil had signed a $200 million contract with NASA to provide an EXPRESS Pallet for launch on a Shuttle flight now planned for 2005. Brazil’s contract had included the selection of a Brazilian astronaut who would fly on a Shuttle flight to ISS. In mid-2002 Brazil informed NASA that it would be unable to produce the Pallet, citing budget difficulties as the reason for their failure to deliver.

Shortly after Brazil’s decision, Japan announced that the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Kibo would not now be delivered to NASA’s Space Station Proces­sing Facility at KSC until 2006, one year later than scheduled, due to budget difficulties. The JEM Centrifuge Accommodation Module (JEM CAM) would be delivered to NASA in 2006. The delay meant that the ESA Columbus Laboratory Module might be launched earlier than planned, as might the Canadian Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, Dextere.

At the same time the speculation over who would fill the third couch on the October Soyuz TMA-1 taxi flight came to an end. Lance Bass’ training came to an abrupt end when he failed to make the relevant $20 million payments to the Russians. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov would now be the third crew member.

China launched its first crewed spacecraft on October 15, 2003. The Soyuz-based ShenZhou-5 was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu Province, on a Long March II-F launch vehicle. The single taikonaut (astronaut), Yang Liwei, made 14 orbits before returning to Earth and landing in Inner Mongolia on October 16, after a flight lasting 21 hours 23 minutes. China had become only the third nation to develop the ability to launch a crewed spacecraft into orbit.

Following the Chinese launch, Houston had told the Expedition-7 crew, “We have a news item to pass on. The world’s spacefaring nations have been joined by a new member tonight. For the next few hours, Russia and the United States will share the heavens with China.’’

Lu replied, “That is very good news. From one spacefaring nation to another, we wish them congratulations.’’ When discussing the Chinese flight, both of the Expedi­tion-7 crew members were positive. Lu stated, “Personally, I think it’s a great thing. The more people in space, the better off we all are.’’

Malenchenko added, “I’m glad to have somebody else in space (besides) Ed and me. It was great work by thousands and thousands of people from China. I congratulate all of them.’’

NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe was equally positive, “They are developing a capability—this can’t be understated—to accomplish something that only two other nations on the planet have ever done. That’s a rather historic, hallmark achieve­ment.” Despite these positive words, in the coming years NASA would reject China’s attempts to become part of ISS.

Krikalev and Phillips watched Progress M-53 undock at 06: 26, September 7. The fully laden Progress was commanded to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, where it was heated to destruction. Progress M-54 was launched at 09: 08, September 8, 2005. The heavily loaded spacecraft docked to Zvezda’s wake at 10: 42, September 10. Among its 2,414 kg of cargo, it carried a new liquids unit for the Russian Elektron oxygen generator, oxygen, water, propellants, clothing, food, and experiments for the Expedition-12 crew, William McArthur and Valeri Tokarev, scheduled to launch in Soyuz TMA-7 on October 1. The following week began with a day of unloading Progress, followed by a day of entering everything on the station’s computerised inventory using the barcodes on each item. The third day was spent dismantling the ESA Martoshka experiment retrieved from the station’s exterior during the EVA. On September 22, the crew replaced the liquids unit in the Elektron, thereby returning the unit to full use.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Katrina had flooded New Orleans, including the plant where the Shuttle’s ETs were made. As the month ended, Hurricane Rita threatened JSC, in Houston, which was evacuated and Korolev assumed primary control of the station. JSC resumed normal operations on September 26. The following day, Krikalev celebrated his birthday. He spoke to his family in Korolev and opened private packages that had been delivered on Progress M-54. The Expedition-11 crew spent the week ending September 30 unloading Progress M-54, and the following
week preparing for the arrival of Soyuz TMA-7 with the Expedition-12 crew, as well as preparing for their own departure from ISS. Throughout everything they con­tinued their daily exercise regime, regular maintenance of the ISS systems and the station’s experiment programme.

Japan’s National Aeronautical Laboratory was established in 1955, gaining a new Aerospace Division and changing its name to the National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL) in 1963. The Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science (ISAS) was also established in 1955, within the University of Tokyo. This led to co-operation between a number of Japanese universities on aerospace projects, including Japan’s infant space programme. In 1984 the ISAS name was changed to the Institute of Space Aeronautical Science. Also, the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) was formed in 1969 and assumed overall responsibility for the national space programme, including development of launch vehicles, payloads, and a launch, tracking, and support infrastructure. Finally, on October 1, 2003, these three organisations were merged to form the Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency (JAXA). Japan has maintained an autonomous space programme, developing a series of sounding rockets and space launch vehicles since the mid-1960s. In the intervening decades it has developed a series of launch vehicles, initially of American designs under licence, but then of its own design, the latest of which is the general-purpose H-IIB, and it has also built a wide variety of satellites and deep-space probes. Despite plans for development of the HOPE mini-Shuttle, which was the victim of budgetary constraints, the Japanese have never developed their own crewed spacecraft, prefer­ring to co-operate with the Americans from the earliest years of Space Station Freedom. From the outset Japan announced that it would develop a laboratory module for ISS, which would be launched and installed on the station by American Shuttle crews. In 2007, Japan maintains an astronaut group of six men and two women. The first Japanese astronaut flew on the Shuttle in September 1992. Since then four other Japanese astronauts have made Shuttle flights. Two more have been assigned to Shuttle flights relating to the launch and installation of the various sections of the Kibo laboratory module to ISS, and the first Japanese Expedition crew member has been named. Koichi Wakata would fly as part of the Expedition-18 crew.

Kibo would require three separate Shuttle launches before all of its separate parts were installed in ISS. STS-123 would launch the Experiment Module and place it in a temporary location on the exterior of ISS; STS-124 would deliver the Kibo labora­tory module and install it on Harmony. After the Shuttle’s departure the experiment module would be positioned on Kibo’s zenith. Finally, STS-127 would deliver the Exposed Facility. All of the Kibo elements were at Cape Canaveral, Florida, awaiting launch when this was written in mid-2007. Kibo arrived at the Space Station Proces­sing Facility in May 2003 and was joined by the Exposed Facility in March 2007. Despite being the smallest module in the Original Space Station Freedom design, the dimensions of Kibo have not changed, while the size of the American and European modules has been decreased. Kibo is now the largest of the three laboratory modules in the American sector of ISS.

In the first instance Kibo would house three major experiments:

• Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI)

• Superconducting Sub-Millimeter-wave-limb Emission Sounder (SMILES)

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.