Category Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006

EXPRESS Logistics Carrier 5 (ELC 5); EXPRESS Logistics Carrier 6 (ELC 6); two Shuttle-equivalent flights for contingency

ISS Assembly complete – Shuttle fleet retired Sep Soyuz TMA16 ? ISS-22 Russia No crew assigned

2011

Mar Soyuz TMA17 ? ISS-23 Russia No crew assigned

Apr

The following information was compiled with the help of Collect Space 7 Oct 2006, Robert Pearlman

Soyuz TMA-crewing 2007-2008

1961

Apr Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person fly into space and completes one orbit May Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space on a sub-orbital flight Aug Gherman Titov is launched on the first 24-hour mission, of 17 orbits

1962

Feb John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, with 3 orbits Jul First X-15 flight to exceed 50 miles (Robert White)

Aug Andrian Nikolayev sets new endurance record (3 days 22 hours)

1963

Jun Valeri Bykovsky sets new endurance record (4 days 23 hours)

Valentina Tereshkova becomes first woman in space (2 days 22 hours)

Aug Highest X-15 flight (66.75 miles) – Pilot Joseph Walker

1964

Oct First multi-person space crew (3) – Voskhod 1; First civilians in space

1965

Mar Alexei Leonov becomes first person to walk in space

Mar First US multi-person crew (2) on Gemini 3

Jun Ed White becomes first American to walk in space

Aug Gemini 5 sets new endurance record (7 days 22 hours)

Cooper becomes first person to orbit Earth a second time Dec Gemini 7 set new endurance record (13 days 18 hours)

First space rendezvous – Gemini 6 with Gemini 7

1966

Mar First space docking – Gemini 8 with Agena target

Sep Gemini 11 attains highest altitude of Earth orbital manned flight (850 miles)

1967

Jan 27 Three Apollo 1 astronauts killed in pad fire

Apr Soyuz 1 pilot Vladimir Komarov killed during landing phase

Oct X-15 fastest flight (4520 mph – Mach 6.7) (Pete Knight)

Nov X-15 pilot Michael Adams is killed in crash of #3 aircraft after attaining

50.4 miles

1968

Aug Thirteenth and final X-15 “astro-flight”

Oct First three-man Apollo flight (Apollo 7)

Schirra becomes first person to make three orbital spaceflights Dec Apollo 8 becomes first lunar orbital mission

1969

Jan Soyuz 5/4 first manned docking and crew transfer (by EVA)

Mar Manned test of LM in Earth orbit (Apollo 9)

May Manned test of LM in lunar orbit (Apollo 10)

Jul First manned lunar landing – Apollo 11

Oct First triple manned spacecraft mission (Soyuz 6, 7, 8)

Nov Second manned lunar landing Apollo 12

1970

Apr Apollo 13 aborted lunar landing mission

Lovell becomes first to fly in space four times Jun Soyuz 9 cosmonauts set new endurance record (17 days 16 hrs)

1971

Feb Third manned lunar landing (Apollo 14)

Apr Launch of world’s first Space Station – Salyut (de-orbits Oct 1971)

Jun First space station (Salyut) crew. Killed during entry phase (Soyuz 11) Jul Fourth manned lunar landing (Apollo 15)

1972

Apr Fifth manned lunar landing (Apollo 16)

Dec Sixth and final (Apollo) manned lunar landing (Apollo 17)

1973

Apr Salyut 2 (Almaz) fails in orbit (de-orbits in 26 days)

May Launch of unmanned Skylab (re-enters Jul 1979)

First Skylab crew sets new endurance record of 28 days Jul Second Skylab crew increases endurance record to 59 day 11 hrs

Nov 3rd and final Skylab crew increases endurance record to 84 days 1 hr

1974

Jun Launch of Salyut (Almaz) 3 (de-orbits Jan 1975)

Jul First successful Soviet space station mission (Soyuz 14)

Dec Launch of Salyut 4 (de-orbits Feb 1977)

1975

Apr Soyuz 18 crew survive launch abort

Jul Soyuz 19 and Apollo dock in space – first international mission

1977

Sep Salyut 6 launched (de-orbits Jul 1982)

Dec First Salyut 6 resident crew set new endurance record of 96 days 10 hrs

1978

Jan First Soyuz exchange mission (Soyuz 27 for Soyuz 26)

Mar First Soviet Interkosmos mission (Czechoslovakian)

First non-Soviet, non-American person in space (Remek)

Jun Second Salyut 6 crew sets new endurance record of 139 days 14 hrs

1979

Feb Third Salyut 6 resident crew increases endurance record to 175 days

1980

Apr Fourth Salyut 6 resident crew increases endurance record to 184 days 20 hrs Jun First manned flight of Soyuz T variant

1981

Apr First Shuttle launch (Columbia STS-1) on 20th anniversary of Gagarin’s flight

John Young becomes first to make five space flights
Nov First return to space by manned spacecraft (Columbia STS-2)

1982

Apr Salyut 7 launched (de-orbits Feb 1991)

May First Salyut 7 resident crew sets new endurance record of 211 days 9 hrs

Nov First “operational” Shuttle mission, STS-5, is also the first four-person

launch

1983

Apr First flight of Challenger

Jun Sally Ride becomes first US woman in space during STS-7, the first five – person launch

Sep Soyuz T10-1 launch pad abort

Nov First Spacelab mission – STS-9; first six-person launch John Young flies record sixth mission

1984

Feb First use of MMU (STS 41-B) on untethered spacewalks Feb Third Salyut 7 resident crew sets new endurance record of 236 days 22 hrs

Jul Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to walk in space (Soyuz T12/

Salyut 7)

Aug First flight of Discovery on STS 41-D Oct First seven-person launch (STS 41-G)

Kathy Sullivan becomes first American woman to walk in space

1985

Jan First classified DoD Shuttle mission (STS 51-C)

Jul First Shuttle Abort-to-Orbit profile (STS 51-F)

Oct First flight of Atlantis (STS 51-J)

Oct First eight-person launch (STS 61-A)

1986

Jan Challenger and its crew of seven lost 73 seconds after launch (STS 51-L) Feb Mir core module launched unmanned

Mar First resident crew to Mir (Soyuz T15)

1987

Feb Second Mir resident crew sets new endurance record of 326 days 11 hrs First manned Soyuz TM variant

Dec First flight of over a year as third Mir resident crew sets endurance record of 365 days 22 hrs

1988

Sep Shuttle Return-to-Flight mission (STS-26)

1990

Apr Hubble Space Telescope deployment (STS-31)

1992

May First flight of Endeavour (STS-49)

1993

Dec First Hubble Service Mission (STS-61)

1994

Jan Valery Polyakov sets new endurance record (437 days 17 hrs) for one mission (lands Mar 1995)

Feb First Russian cosmonaut to fly on Shuttle (Krikalev STS-60)

1995

Feb First Shuttle-Mir rendezvous STS-63/Mir

Eileen Collins becomes first female Shuttle pilot Mar First American launched on Soyuz (Thagard – TM21)

Jul First Shuttle docking with Mir (STS-71 – Thagard down)

Nov Second Shuttle-Mir docking (STS-74)

1996

Mar Third Shuttle-Mir docking (STS-76 – Lucid up)

Sep Fourth Shuttle-Mir docking (STS-79 – Lucid down, Blaha up)

Nov Longest Shuttle mission (17 days 15 hrs – STS-80)

Musgrave becomes only astronaut to fly all five orbiters

1997

Jan Fifth Shuttle-Mir docking (STS-81 – Blaha down, Linenger up)

Feb Second Hubble service mission (STS-82)

May Sixth Shuttle-Mir docking (STS-84 – Linenger down, Foale up)

Jun Collision between unmanned Progress vessel and Mir space station damages Spektr module

Sep Seventh Shuttle-Mir docking (STS-86 – Foale down, Wolf up)

1998

Jan Eighth Shuttle-Mir docking (STS-89 – Wolf down, Thomas up)

Jun Ninth and final Shuttle-Mir docking (STS-91 – Thomas down)

Oct John Glenn returns to space aged 77, 36 years after his first space flight Nov First ISS element launched – Zarya FGB Dec First ISS Shuttle mission (STS-88)

1999

Jul Eileen Collins becomes first female US mission commander (STS-93)

Aug Mir vacated for first time in ten years Dec Third Hubble service mission (STS-103)

2000

Apr Last (28th) Mir resident crew (72 days)

Oct First ISS resident crew launched

2001

Mar Mir space station de-orbits after 15 years service

Apr Dennis Tito becomes first space flight participant, or “tourist”

2002

Mar Fourth Hubble service mission (STS-109)

Apr Jerry Ross becomes first person to fly seven missions in space Oct First manned flight of Soyuz TMA

2003

Feb Columbia and crew of seven lost during entry phase of mission STS-107

Apr ISS assumes two-person caretaker crews

Oct First Chinese manned spaceflight (Shenzhou 5)

Yang Liwei becomes first Chinese national in space

2004

Sep Spaceship One flies to 337,500 ft (102.87 km)

Oct Spaceship One flies to 367,442 ft (111.99 km) claiming $10 million X-Prize

2005

Jul Shuttle Return-to-Flight mission 1 – STS-114 Oct First Chinese two-man space flight – Shenzhou 6

2006

Jul Second Shuttle Return-to-Flight mission – STS-121 Aug ISS returns to three-person capability

Resumption of ISS construction – STS-115

The authors have referred to their own extensive archives in the compilation of this book. In addition, the following publications and resources were of great help in assembling the data:

The Press Kits, News releases and mission information from NASA, ESA, CSA, RKK-Energiya, JAXA (NASDA), CNES, and Novosti have been invaluable resources for many years

Magazines:

Flight International 1961-2006

Aviation Week and Space Technology 1961-2006

BIS Spaceflight 1961-2006

Soviet Weekly/Soviet News 1961-1990

Orbiter, Astro Info Service 1984-1992

Zenit, Astro Info Service, 1985-1991

ESA Bulletin 1975-2006

British Interplanetary Society Books:

History of Mir 1986-2000; Mir: The Final Year Supplement, Editor Rex Hall 2000/ 2001

The ISS Imagination to Reality Volume 1 Ed Rex Hall 2002 The ISS Imagination to Reality Volume 2, Ed Rex Hall 2005

NASA Reports:

NASA Astronautics and Aeronautics, various volumes, 1961-1995

Mir Hardware Heritage, David S. F. Portree NASA RP-1357, March 1995. Walking to Olympus: An EVA Chronology, David S. F. Portree and Robert C. Trevino, NASA Monograph in Aerospace history, #7 October 1997

NASA Histories:

1966 This New Ocean, a History of Project Mercury, SP-4201

1977 On the Shoulders of Titans: A history of Project Gemini, NASA SP-4203

1978 The Partnership: A history of Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, NASA SP-4209

1979 Chariots for Apollo: A history of manned lunar spacecraft, NASA SP-4205 1983 Living and working in space: A history of Skylab NASA SP 4208

1977 Where No Man Has Gone Before: a history of Apollo lunar exploration missions, NASA SP-4214

2000 Challenge to Apollo: the Soviet Union and the Space Race 1945-1974, Asif Siddiqi, NASA SP-2000-4408

Other Books:

1980 Handbook of Soviet Manned Space Flight, Nicholas L. Johnson, AAS Vol 48, Science and Technology Series

1981 The History of Manned Spaceflight, David Baker

1987 Heroes in Space: From Gagarin to Challenger, Peter Bond

1988 Space Shuttle Log: The First 25 Flights, Gene Gurney and Jeff Forte

1988 The Soviet Manned Space Programme, Phillip Clark

1989 The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Space Technology, Chief Author Ken Gatland

1990 Almanac of Soviet Manned Space Flight, Dennis Newkirk

1992 At the Edge of Space: The X-15 Flight Program, Milton O. Thompson 1999 Who’s Who in space: The ISS Edition, Michael Cassutt 2001 Space Shuttle, History and Development of the National STS Program, Dennis Jenkins

Springer-Praxis Space Science Series (which include extensive references and bibliographies for further reading)

1999 Exploring the Moon: The Apollo Expeditions, David M. Harland

2000 Disasters and Accidents in Manned Spaceflight, David J. Shayler

2000 The Challenges of Human Space Exploration, Marsha Freeman

2001 Russia in Space: The Failed Frontier, Brian Harvey

2001 The Rocket Men, Vostok & Voskhod, the First Soviet Manned Spaceflights, Rex Hall and David J. Shayler 2001 Skylab:; America’s Space Station, David J. Shayler 2001 Gemini: Steps to the Moon, David J. Shayler

2001 Project Mercury: NASA’s First Manned Space Programme, John Catchpole

2002 The Continuing Story of the International Space Station, Peter Bond

Creating the International Space Station, David M. Harland and John E. Catchpole

Apollo: Lost and Forgotten Missions, David J. Shayler

Soyuz, a Universal Spacecraft, Rex Hall and David J. Shayler

China’s Space Programme: From Concept to Manned Spaceflight, Brian

Harvey

Walking in Space, David J. Shayler

The Story of the Space Shuttle, David M Harland

The Story of Space Station Mir, David M. Harland

Women in Space: Following Valentina, David J Shayler and Ian Moule

Space Shuttle Columbia: Her Missions and Crews, Ben Evans.

Russia’s Cosmonauts: Inside the Yuri Gagarin Training Center, Rex Hall, David J. Shayler and Bert Vis

Apollo: The Definitive Source Book, Richard W. Orloff and David M. Harland

NASA Scientist Astronauts, Colin Burgess and David J. Shayler

The first US astronauts, Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom, flew sub-orbital Mercury test flights in 1961 aboard Redstone rockets, reaching over 160 km (99 miles) altitude. They were recognised as astronauts. When a Soviet Soyuz R7 booster failed in 1975,

causing the abort that led to Soyuz 18-1 making a sub-orbital flight to about 145 km (90 miles) altitude, the flight was credited as a “space flight” to the two cosmonauts.

The Redstone was the USA’s first intermediate-range ballistic missile and was pow­ered by one Rocketdyne A-7 engine, with a thrust of 35,380 kg (78,013 lb) burning liquid oxygen, ethyl alcohol and water. The Mercury-Redstone was 25.29 m (82.97 ft) high. Two such vehicles were used in the Mercury programme for manned flights, while a third was cancelled with the desire to press on to the first orbital manned flight using Atlas.

Vostok 1 weighed 4,726 kg (10,419 lb) and comprised a spherical flight module and an instrument section, shaped like a double cone, containing batteries and a retro-rocket. The total length of the spacecraft was 4.4m (14.4ft), with a maximum diameter of 2.43 m (7.97 ft). The habitable module was 2.3 m (7.55 ft) in diameter and weighed 2,240 kg (4,938 lb). Vostok was designed to support life for ten days in an orbit low enough to guarantee a re-entry due to natural decay in that period, in case of retro- rocket failure. The instrument section, weighing 2,270 kg (5,004 lb) and measuring

2.25 m (7.38 ft) long, utilised the TDU 1 retro-engine, powered by nitrous oxide and an amine-based fuel, with a thrust of 1.6 tonnes and a burn time of 45 seconds. The flight module landed at 10m/sec (32.8 ft/sec) – enough to injure the passenger seriously – so the pilot ejected at a height of 7 km (4 miles) and parachuted separately to the ground, landing at a speed of 5m/sec (16.4 ft/sec). The Vostok capsule had been tested three times successfully in six attempts on Korabl-Sputnik 1-5 (known in the West as Sputnik 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10), four of which carried canine passengers. Another canine­carrying mission failed to reach orbit. Other missions were planned but were cancelled in favour of upgrading the spacecraft into what became Voskhod as an interim measure to compete with the US Gemini series of missions.

Voskhod was essentially a Vostok spacecraft without crew ejector seats and with a back-up retro-rocket pack on top. It also had a landing retro-rocket system. The spacecraft weighed 5,320kg (11,730lb), comprising the 2,900kg (1,802lb) flight Descent Module, a 2,280 kg (5,027 lb) Instrument Module and a 145 kg (320 lb) back-up retro-pack. It was 5 m (16 ft) high, with a maximum diameter of 2.43 m (8 ft). The back-up retro-rocket – needed because Voskhod’s orbit, higher than Vostok on the more powerful SL-4 booster, would not naturally decay in ten days in the event of retro-fire failure – had a thrust of 12 tonnes and comprised 87 kg (192 lb) of solid propellant. It resembled an inverted cup on top of the Descent Module. To enable a 0.2 m/sec (0.65 ft/sec) landing, compared with the Vostok landing speed of 8 to 10m/sec (26-32 ft/sec), a landing retro-rocket was added, deployed with the parachute so that it fired downwards in front of the Descent Module. Voskhod flew one unmanned test flight, Cosmos 47, six days before the first manned flight. Voskhod 2 weighed 5,683 kg (12,531 lb). The main difference compared with Voskhod 1 was the flexible airlock, which was approximately 2.13 m (7 ft) long and 0.91 m (3 ft) in diam­eter. This was jettisoned after the EVA. The payload fairing of the SL-4 launch vehicle was modified to include a blister-like covering for the stowed airlock which protruded slightly from the flight capsule. Again, an unmanned craft (Cosmos 57) flew three weeks before Voskhod 2. There was also a 22-day canine flight flown as Cosmos 110 in early 1966, and a series of other manned Voskhod flights were planned, but they were cancelled in a desire to move on to the more advanced Soyuz programme.

Mercury

The US Mercury capsule was even smaller, with the pilot “putting it on”, rather than getting into it, as some astronauts described the entry. It would splashdown at sea under a single parachute.

The Mercury capsule was a bell-shaped spacecraft, 2.87 m (9.41ft) high, with a maximum diameter across the heat shield base of 1.85m (6.07 ft). At lift-off, with a launch escape system tower on its top, Mercury weighed about 1,905 kg (4,200 lb). The attitude of the heavily instrumented but severely cramped capsule would be changed by the release of short bursts of hydrogen peroxide gas from 18 thrusters located on the

craft. These movements could be controlled by the Automatic Stability and Control System (ASCS, which acted as the craft’s “autopilot” from the ground), through the Rate Stabilisation Control System (RSCS), or manually by the astronaut using a hand controller connected to a fly-by-wire system. At the back of the capsule, over an ablative heat shield, was a retro-pack containing three solid propellant rockets. These were held to the heat shield by three metal “straps” which were deployed along with the heat shield during re-entry. Mercury descended to a sea landing, or “splashdown” under one main parachute. Just before splashdown, the heat shield was dropped 1.21 m (4 ft), pulling out a rubberised fibreglass landing bag to reduce shock. Mercury had been tested unmanned 17 times previously on various rockets, only seven times successfully. Freedom 7 was Mercury capsule 7, the only first-production run, man­rated capsule and the only one to fly manned with one circular porthole, rather than a larger rectangular window, one of several new features requested by the astronauts but not included in time for MR3. Mercury capsule No. 11 (for MR4 the second sub­orbital mission) was in fact the first operational capsule designed for orbital flights, and included a rectangular window and an explosive side hatch, recommended by the astronauts for safety purposes.

Both Vostok and Mercury made six single-person flights between 1961 and 1963. Mercury was succeeded by a larger two-person craft called Gemini, while Vostok basically became Voskhod, into which a three-man crew was crammed for the maiden flight in 1964. A second flight included the first spacewalk, performed in 1965. These two flights in a sense diverted the Soviet Union from its lunar goal, because they were flown for short-term prestige.

1962 beta delta 1 3 October 1962

Pad 14, Cape Canaveral, Florida 3 October 1962

756.35 km northeast of Midway Island, Pacific Ocean Atlas 113D; spacecraft serial number SC-16 9 hrs 13 min 11 sec Sigma 7

Six-orbit mission

Flight Crew

SCHIRRA, Walter Marty Jr., 39, USN, pilot

Flight Log

Carpenter’s science-packed flight plan was being changed until almost launch day, so it was not surprising that he had trouble in orbit. One of his main critics was MA8 pilot Wally Schirra, who was extremely pleased with the smooth running of his own six-orbit mission, which he had made a modest engineering test flight with the minimum of experiments and manoeuvring. Indeed, his flight plan had been cast in stone on 8 August. What was surprising was the conservatism of mission planners, who decided to increase orbital flight experience by just 50 per cent, with a first-time landing in the Pacific Ocean, just short of a full six orbits.

MA8 could have been the first aborted launch, for just ten seconds after leaving the pad at 07: 15 hrs local time, Atlas 113D developed an alarming clockwise roll rate just 20 per cent short of an abort. The launch was the first to be shown on British television on the same day, three hours later, thanks to the Telstar communications satellite. It was also watched from the Cape by nine new NASA astronauts, who had been selected the previous month. Schirra had been in his capsule, with the engineering name Sigma 7, since 04: 14 hrs, and reached the highest Mercury orbit of 282 km (175 miles) and a speed of 28,256 kph (17,558 mph).

There had been concern that Schirra would be affected by the radiation belt created the previous July by the horrendous US upper-atmosphere nuclear test, Project Dominic. An overheating spacesuit almost forced an early return after just one orbit, but fortunately spacesuits were Schirra’s speciality. He deployed the MA7- type tethered multicoloured balloon, this time with success, and spent at least one orbit letting the spacecraft drift as it pleased. The retros were fired at T + 8 hours 56 minutes 22 seconds and Sigma 7 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean 756.35 km (470 miles) northeast of Midway Island, and just 7.2 km (4 miles) from its target, close to the recovery ship, USS Kearsage. Schirra’s mission lasted 9 hours 13 minutes

11 seconds. He stayed with the ship until winched aboard the Kearsage. Media interest in the flight was minimal.

Milestones

9th manned space flight 5th US manned space flight 5th Mercury manned flight

Flight Crew

YOUNG, John Watts, 50, USN, commander, 5th mission

Previous missions: Gemini 3 (1965); Gemini 10 (1966); Apollo 10 (1969);

Apollo 16 (1972)

CRIPPEN, Robert Laurel, 43, USN, pilot

Flight Log

The build up to this momentous space mission for the US programme was painfully slow. A budget lower than that afforded to Apollo for a space system five times more technically demanding resulted in inevitable glitches at almost every turn. The first space flight by the Space Shuttle was originally scheduled for 1978, but in fact all that happened was that the first four space crews were rather optimistically named for missions that would start the following year. Thus, veteran John Young and rookie Bob “Crip” Crippen began what was to become one of the longest periods of training ever, ending with a lift-off in 1981. Coincidentally, for such a major space milestone, the launch would be on the twentieth anniversary of the first manned space flight by Yuri Gagarin.

That the launch had been scrubbed at T — 36 min, by a computer synchronisation glitch two days before, which had been dubbed by the media assembled at the Kennedy Space Center as a “fiasco”, is indicative of the reputation of the Shuttle. The USA had been through a period of several major technical disasters, including Three Mile Island, and there were many cynics expecting to be reporting another from the Kennedy Space Center on a maiden flight being manned for the first time. There is no doubting the heroism of the crew, who had only the dubious opportunity of ejection seats available to them for an early bail-out.

The cataclysmic blast-off occurred at 07: 00 hrs local time, causing unpredicted over pressurisation of the orbiter and a potential collision with the launch tower, followed almost immediately by the roll programme which alarmed already nervous

The Third Decade: 1981-1990

spectators with its brute force. Thrust was five per cent higher than anticipated, leading to a steeper, “heads down” climb to orbit. The solid rocket boosters were ejected at T + 2 minutes 11 seconds and the three main engines cut off at T + 8 minutes. The Space Shuttle Columbia was in initial orbit and was then boosted by four burns of the orbiter’s own propulsion system. Inclination was 40.3° and maximum altitude 232 km (144 miles).

With Columbia flying “upside-down” with its back facing the Earth, the payload bay doors were opened, exposing a vast interior which was empty for this test flight. TV cameras also showed that some heatshield tiles were missing from the rear of the orbiter and much was made of this in the popular press. They were not critical tiles, but all the same if they were missing, could other more critical tiles on the orbiter’s underside be loose or lost? The crew would find out after their thirty-sixth orbit, when after an almost flawless orbital workout by the jubilant Young and Crippen, the OMS engines initiated the 2 minute 27 second long retro-fire burn.

The Mach 25 re-entry, during which some tiles were exposed to 1,260°C, was accompanied by the usual radio blackout. Then, at Mach 10 and 57.3 km (36 miles), the happy Young reported that all was well. He proceeded to bring Columbia in like an airliner, landing on the dry lake bed runway 23, at Edwards Air Force Base, with main gear touchdown at T + 2 days 6 hours 20 minutes 32 seconds. Routine space flight with airliner-like landings seemed to have begun. Fifty Shuttle flights a year were being predicted.

Milestones

80th manned space flight 32nd US manned space flight 1st Shuttle mission 1st flight of Columbia

1st manned space flight in a reusable spacecraft

1st manned space flight on previously untested spacecraft

1st manned space flight to be boosted by solid propellants

1st flight by crewman on fifth space mission

1st flight to end with conventional runway landing

Flight Crew

POPOV, Leonid Ivanovich, 35, Soviet Air Force, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: Soyuz 35 (1980)

PRUNARIU, Dumitru Dorin, 28, Romanian Army Air Force, cosmonaut researcher

Flight Log

The final Interkosmos mission involving a cosmonaut researcher from a Soviet bloc country, Soyuz 40, was also the last of this Soyuz model. Crewed by Leonid Popov and Dumitru Prunariu, the mission got under way at 23: 17hrs from Baikonur, followed by the docking with Salyut 6 a day later and greetings from residents Kovalenok and Savinykh. Experiments on board included those to study the Earth’s upper atmosphere and changes in its magnetic field. The mission ended at T + 7 days 20 hours 41 minutes 52 seconds, 224 km (139 miles) southeast of Dzhezkazgan. Maximum altitude during the 51.6° mission was 374 km (232 miles).

When Soyuz T4 returned later, Salyut 6 had received 16 cosmonaut crews and 15 unmanned spacecraft in three-and-a-half years. No fewer than 35 dockings had been made with it and Salyut 6 was occupied for 676 days. Some 13,000 photographs of the Earth had been taken and 1,310 experiments operated a remarkable record.

Milestones

81st manned space flight

49th Soviet manned space flight

42nd Soyuz manned space flight

39th (original) Soyuz manned space flight

Final flight of original Soyuz variant

1st manned space flight by a Romanian

9th and final Interkosmos mission

Prunariu (right) wears the Chibis lower body negative pressure garment aboard Salyut 6, assisted by Popov

Flight Crew

OVERMYER, Robert Franklyn, 48, USMC, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-5 (1982)

GREGORY, Frederick Drew, 44, USAF, pilot LIND, Don Leslie, 54, civilian, mission specialist 1 THAGARD, Norman Earl, 41, civilian, mission specialist 2 THORNTON, William Edgar, 56, civilian, mission specialist 3 WANG, Taylor G., 44, civilian, payload specialist 1 VAN DEN BERG, Lodewijk, 53, civilian, payload specialist 2

Flight Log

Space Shuttle activities were building up to a frenetic pace by April 1985. Discovery was dispatched on mission 51-D, Challenger rolled out to the now vacant Pad 39A for 51-B, and the new orbiter Atlantis arrived at the KSC in preparation for its first mission later that year. It was all looking rather routine stuff, especially when 51-B finally got off the ground – 17 days after 51-D – with a seven-man crew that included three people over 50, as if to emphasise the apparent routine nature of manned space flight. NASA was pushing the system and time was running out. Spacelab 2 featured the Instrument Pointing System and a pallet-only development flight. It was delayed so much due to preparing the IPS that Spacelab 3 flew before it, adding to the confusing Shuttle identification sequence. Research on Spacelab 3, considered to be the first operational mission of the long series, focused on five disciplines: materials science, life sciences, fluid mechanics, atmospheric physics and astronomy. The flight featured 15 primary experiments, of which 14 were considered successful. The crew worked in two shifts: Gold (Gregory, Thagard, Van Den Berg) and Silver (Overmyer, Lind, Thornton, Wang).

Challenger lifted off just 2 minutes 18 seconds later than anticipated, after a liquid oxygen drain back had to be manually commanded, at 12: 02hrs local time.

Apart from an overheating APU which had to be shut down, the launch was smooth and Challenger, in its 57° orbit which would reach a maximum altitude of 308 km (191 miles), was placed into a tail down, nose up gravity gradient attitude, vital for the array of mainly microgravity processing experiments to be operated inside the Space – lab 3 laboratory. The two payload specialists. Lodewijk van den Berg and Taylor Wang, both naturalised American citizens, operated their own crystal growth and fluid physics experiments, the latter only after spending days getting it to work following an electrical fault that almost spoiled years of hard work.

Also on board Challenger – another Shuttle first – were two monkeys and 24 rats, to help with the study of space adaptation syndrome, SAS, under the guidance of doctors Norman Thagard and William Thornton. The performance of the Animal Holding Facility left much to be desired and the astronauts spent a lot of time clearing up floating droppings. Two small research satellites were to be deployed from GAS canisters in the payload bay, but one failed to get away. Science astronaut Don Lind, having waited a record 19 years to get into space, marvelled at the sight of the aurora borealis from space.

The highly esoteric science mission, which went over most people’s heads, was extremely successful and ended with a long rollout on the Edwards Air Force Base desert runway 17, and with the heaviest cargo to return from space – 14,198 kg (31,307 lb) – at T + 7 days 0 hours 8 minutes 46 seconds. Further landings at the KSC had been banned after the 51-D landing incident.

Milestones

105th manned space flight 48th US manned space flight 17th Shuttle flight 7th flight of Challenger

Thornton retains oldest person in space record (56) 2nd Spacelab Long Module mission

Flight Crew

BRANDENSTEIN, Daniel Charles, 46, USN, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-8 (1983); STS 51-G (1985)

WETHERBEE, James Donald, 37, USN, pilot

DUNBAR, Bonnie Jean, 40, civilian, mission specialist 1, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS 61-A (1985)

IVINS, Marsha Sue, 38, civilian, mission specialist 2 LOW, George David, 33, civilian, mission specialist 3

Flight Log

When the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) was deployed in 1984, the plan was that it would be retrieved the following year. The NASA Space Shuttle manifest got itself into a real pickle under pressure from all directions and had to push the LDEF retrieval mission into September 1986. That would have been flight STS 61-L, commanded by Don Williams, piloted by Mike Smith-who was also assigned to 51-L Challenger – and with mission specialists Bonnie Dunbar, James Bagian and Manley Carter. After the Shuttle programme had recovered from the Challenger accident, the LDEF retrieval mission was assigned to STS-32 with the lone survivor from 61-L, Bonnie Dunbar. The commander of what was going to be one of the more high-profile Shuttle missions was the new chief of the astronauts, Dan Brandenstein.

STS-32 was subject to several delays, partly due to the longer time in getting the orbiter Columbia spaceworthy. Eventually, Columbia was rolled out to Pad 39A just after the launch of STS-33 and would be the first Shuttle to take off from this refurbished pad since STS 61-C in January 1986. It was set for a mammoth ten-day mission, starting on 18 December and taking in a Christmas in space, but problems bringing the new pad on line for launches meant a delay first to 21 December, then for three weeks to 8 January. NASA felt it prudent to give the launch and support teams a full holiday.

As the crew left their quarters on 8 January, they knew they would be coming back the same day because the weather gave them less than a ten per cent chance of taking off. Going through a full countdown to T — 5 minutes, however, provided a good opportunity to give Pad 39A a full workout. The following day, Columbia took off at 07: 35 hrs local time, featuring in one of the most beautiful lift-offs of a Shuttle, making a direct insertion burn to 28.5° orbit. On day two, the Shuttle’s major payload on the upward journey, Syncom IV, or Leasat 5, was deployed, and Columbia sailed on towards its dramatic meeting with the LDEF. There was a serious water leak on the third day, involving the collection of two gallons of water globules.

The complicated LDEF rendezvous was completed on the fourth day, 12 January, when Columbia flew towards, over and down to the facility, with its payload bay

doors opening towards the Earth, waiting to receive. While Brandenstein deftly manoeuvred the Shuttle as it had never been manoeuvred before, Dunbar got ready with the RMS robot arm, which she was operating using a monitor showing scenes from the TV camera at its end. Brandenstein stopped all motion and, as rehearsed hundreds of times, Dunbar made the great space catch. As pilot Jim Wetherbee flew Columbia belly first, the LDEF was manoeuvred into several positions while the other mission specialists, David Low and Marsha Ivins, took close up photographs of every part, just in case the LDEF could not be safely secured in the payload bay and had to be left in space. Following the style of the mission, LDEF was berthed in the payload bay later, after 2,093 days autonomous flying in space, pitted, torn and worn. Columbia continued on its winning way, with the crew busying themselves with an array of science experiments, a range of medical experiments under the Extended-Duration Orbiter Medical Programme (EDOMP) and Dunbar getting the news that her husband (Ronald Sega) had been selected for astronaut training.

The landing on the ninth mission day was called off by a failure of one of the suite of five computers on board, and as a result, Columbia returned to Edwards Air Force Base on runway 22 at night, and after a Shuttle-record mission lasting 10 days 21 hours 0 minutes 36 seconds – the longest five-crew space flight, and with the heaviest landing weight of 103,572 kg (228,376 lb). STS-32 was probably the most complicated space flying mission and certainly the most successful and rewarding, as scientists pored over the LDEF to see how its time in space had affected its array of different materials.

Milestones

130th manned space flight 63rd US manned space flight 33rd Shuttle mission 9th flight of Columbia

Brandenstein celebrates his 47th birthday in space (17 Jan)

Flight Crew

SOLOVYOV, Anatoly Yakovlovich, 42, Soviet Air Force, commander, 2nd mission

Previous mission: Soyuz TM5 (1988)

BALANDIN, Aleksandr Nikolayevich, 36, civilian, flight engineer

Flight Log

What was planned as a now-standard five month residency aboard the Mir complex began at 07: 16 hrs local time at Baikonur on 11 February, when Soyuz TM9 lifted off, watched by US astronaut guests Dan Brandenstein, Paul Weitz, Ron Grabe and Jerry Ross. Docking was completed two days later and, yet again, was a manual affair, with the automatic approach malfunctioning at the last moment. The TM9 cosmo­nauts, Anatoly Solovyov and Aleksandr Balandin, joined Aleksandrs Viktorenko and Serebrov for the traditional handover period. The TM9 residency began officially on 19 February and was due to last until 30 July, following the 22 July launch of Soyuz TM10.

The TM9 crew were expected to receive the second large add-on module, Kristall, in April and begin an intensive programme of materials processing, so that they could return to Earth with 100 kg (221 lb) of space products to make a profit of 25 million roubles from the 80 million rouble space flight. Thus, the space flight could be seen as actually contributing to the economy and not as wasteful and extravagant as it was regarded by much of the Soviet public.

As Soyuz TM9 approached Mir, TV pictures, seen on the national news, revealed that the thermal insulation blankets around the flight cabin had become unclipped. The Soviets routinely announced that at some time during the mission the crew would have to make an unscheduled spacewalk to clip them back on. No fuss was made of the event. After settling into the routine of life aboard Mir, TM8 cosmonauts Viktorenko and Serebrov left them to it, and the routine continued with the docking of the Progress M3 supply ship on 3 March.

The mission proceeded very quietly, but the scheduled launch date for Kristall passed before the Soviets announced that the new module had been delayed yet again, this time until June. The crew which had trained especially to operate Kristall would only have about two months to do so, rather than the planned four months. Progress 42, the last of the original spacecraft first launched in 1978, docked to Mir on 8 May and later in the month, the most bizarre case of inaccurate and distorted media hype of the space age occurred when Aviation Week magazine “discovered” the already three – month-old story of the unclipped insulation, leading the western press to print stories of the cosmonauts being stranded in space. If there had been any danger, the Soviets would have launched an unmanned replacement ferry immediately, rather like they did with Soyuz 34 which replaced Soyuz 32 during the Salyut 6 mission of 1979. The delayed Kristall was at last launched on 31 May but at first failed to dock when a computer fouled up during the final approach. It finally moored at Mir on 10 June.

Because of the delay to the launch of Kristall, the Soviets decided to extend the TM9 mission from 29 July to 9 August and to delay the launch of the replacement TM10 from 22 July to 1 August. On 1 July, Solovyov and Balandin made a 7 hour EVA to clip back the loose insulation on their TM9 ferry. They used the Kvant 2 airlock and while exiting, opened the outer hatch before the airlock had fully de­pressurised. It flew open with such a force that it almost came off its hinges. Not surprisingly, after their tortuous record-breaking EVA, scrambling over the Soyuz and successfully re-clipping only two of the three insulation panels, the cosmonauts couldn’t close the hatch properly and were forced to depressurise the rest of Kvant to gain entry to Mir. Another spacewalk, lasting three hours on 26 July, closed the hatch but did not completely seal it.

It would be left for the TM10 crew to do the necessary repairs. Its cosmonauts, the “two Gennadys”, Manakov and Strekalov, arrived on Mir on 3 August, and on 9 August as advertised, Solovyov and Balandin routinely ended their mission, making a mockery of the media hype the previous June. The mission lasted 179 days 2 hours 19 minutes.

Milestones

131st manned space flight

68th Soviet manned space flight

61st Soyuz manned mission

8th Soyuz TM manned mission

16th Soviet and 39th flight with EVA operations

Baladin celebrates his 37th birthday in space (30 Jul)