Category The International Space Station

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.