Category Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006

Ask most people “How do you get into space?” and they would reply “by rocket”, not realising the fact that they are already “in space” on planet Earth, travelling in orbit

around the Sun. We are all “astronauts”, it’s just that most of us haven’t left the planet yet. For a lucky few though, leaving the planet has afforded them some of the most spectacular sights and experiences yet known to mankind. But there is more to it than simply “flying into space’’. There are various ways of doing this, depending on your mission and the type of spacecraft you have.

The atmosphere

Exactly where the atmosphere ends and space begins is a subject that has long been debated. Our atmosphere consists of roughly seventy-eight per cent nitrogen, twenty per cent oxygen, one per cent argon and trace amounts of other gases. It is not, however, uniform all the way up and has significant variations in temperature and pressure with increasing altitude. This defines the layers of the atmosphere. Our atmosphere can be divided into five regions of increasing altitude: the troposphere (0-16 km), the stratosphere (16-50 km), the mesosphere (50-80 km), the thermosphere (80-640 km) and the exosphere (640-10,000 km). Humans can survive with varying degrees of ease without assistance in the lower-most region, but require pressurised aircraft compartments or balloons up in the stratosphere. Above that is the realm of “almost space’’. The air here is much too thin to support an air-breathing engine, yet is sufficient to cause atmospheric drag on vehicles travelling through it. Above this, in the thermosphere, is where most of the spacecraft and satellites orbit the Earth, and the method used by most vehicles to travel in this region is by rocket thrust in the vacuum conditions.

The first of what were originally to be seven manned sub-orbital Mercury flights, then reduced to three, could have taken place in March 1961, before Gagarin, had the programme not hit technical problems. Al Shepard decided to name his spacecraft Freedom. Adding the number seven to the name became too irresistible, as the capsule and rocket were both serial number seven and there were seven astronauts. This established a precedent for later manned flights. Shepard simulated the flight inside Freedom on Cape Canaveral’s Pad 5 three times before the first launch attempt on 2 May was thwarted by bad weather.

On 5 May, the astronaut was up at 01: 10 hours and inside Freedom 7 at 05: 20 hours. Compelled to urinate in his spacesuit because of the unforeseen 2 hr 34 min launch holds, the laconic Shepard finally got airborne at 09: 34 hours, uttering the first of 78 statements, practised so many times in the simulator, announcing lift-off. His heartbeat was monitored at 126 beats per min. The period of maximum dynamic pressure reached at T + 58 sec buffeted the vehicle and caused some concern. The launch escape system tower separated at T + 2 min 32 sec, as Shepard was experiencing a maximum 6.3 G force. The Redstone shut down at T + 142 sec and Shepard arced even higher over the Atlantic Ocean, at a maximum speed of 8,262 kph (5,134 mph), reaching a maximum altitude of 185.6 km (115.3 miles).

During his 4 min 45 sec period of weightlessness, Shepard fired his thrusters to orientate the spacecraft in yaw, pitch and roll movements for a period of 40 sec. He only saw the Earth as black and white out of his periscope and not the porthole, and then he moved the craft to a nose down angle of 34° before firing the retros, although they were not needed during this sub-orbital flight. The descent was uneventful, the 0.5 G light coming on at 60,960 m (200,000 ft) and with Shepard enduring 11 G deceleration. The

drogue chute deployed at 6,400m (21,000 ft) and the main chute at 3,048 m (10,000 ft). Freedom hit the sea at a speed of 10.7m/sec (35.1 ft/sec), 475.2 km (295miles) down – range from the Cape at T + 15 min 28 sec, the shortest manned space flight in history. Shepard removed the hatch and was hauled aboard a helicopter from the recovery ship Lake Champlain.

Milestones

2nd manned space flight

1st US manned space flight

1st to make orientation manoeuvres

1st flight to splashdown in the sea

1st flight to end with the crew aboard

MERCURY REDSTONE 4

None – sub-orbital flight 21 July 1961

Pad 5, Cape Canaveral, Florida 21 July 1961 Atlantic Ocean

Redstone No. 8; capsule no. 11 15 min 37 sec Liberty Bell 7

Second sub-orbital test of Mercury spacecraft with a human occupant, further system qualification towards manned orbital missions

Flight Crew

GRISSOM, Virgil Ivan “Gus”, 35, USAF, pilot

The Space Shuttle was to have been the workhorse of the US space programme, flying over fifty times a year, with 26 launches from two pads at KSC and 26 launches from Complex 6 at Vandenberg AFB in California. It would provide a platform for astronomical research, Earth observation, materials processing, medicine and other applications, leading to a US space station. But it soon became obvious that the Shuttle was not going to be able to meet this objective and its actual launch rates were much less. Additional volume was made available for the crew by flying the Spacelab science laboratory (introduced in 1983), and a mid-deck augmentation module called SpaceHab (from 1993), initially offering commercial locker space and, for space station missions, additional logistics storage facilities. The Shuttle programme has been a great success, especially in terms of space repair and the assembly of the International Space Station, but many missions were under-utilised. Two missions ended with the loss of the vehicle and the deaths of 14 crew. The Shuttle will be retired in 2010, or earlier if there is another accident. Conversely, its career may have to be extended if the final assembly of the International Space Station falls behind schedule.

Military manned space flight

The USA planned the military DynaSoar space plane in the early 1960s and the Manned Orbital Laboratory later in the decade. Neither materialised. However, there have been ten classified military Shuttle missions, including the deployment of reconnaissance satellites. The Soviet Union flew two military Almaz space station missions, aboard Salyut 2 and 3 in 1973-74. The Russian Buran space shuttle was slated to conduct a series of military missions, but the programme collapsed after just one unmanned launch.

1969-004A (Soyuz 4)/1969-005A (Soyuz 5)

14 (Soyuz 4) and 15 (Soyuz 5) January 1969

Pad 31, Site 6 (Soyuz 4), Pad 1, Site 5 (Soyuz 5), Baikonur

Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

17 (Soyuz 4) and 18 (Soyuz 5) January 1969

Soyuz 4-40 km (25 miles) northwest of Karaganda;

Soyuz 5 – 200 km (124 miles) southwest of Kustanai R7 (11A511); spacecraft serial numbers (7K-0K)

#12 (Soyuz 4) and #13 (Soyuz 5)

2 days 23 hrs 20 min 47 sec (Soyuz 4); 3 days 54 min 15 sec (Soyuz 5)

Amur (Amur – Soyuz 4); Baikal (Baikal – Soyuz 5) Docking of two manned Soyuz spacecraft and the EVA transfer of two crew members from Soyuz 5 to Soyuz 4

Flight Crew

SHATALOV, Vladimir Aleksandrovich, 42, Soviet Air Force, pilot Soyuz 4 VOLYNOV, Boris Valentinovich, 34, Soviet Air Force, commander Soyuz 5 YELISEYEV, Aleksey Stanislovich, 34, civilian, flight engineer Soyuz 5 KHRUNOV, Yevgeny Vasilyevich, 35, civilian, research engineer Soyuz 5

Flight Log

Cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov was launched alone aboard Soyuz 4 at about 12: 29 hrs local time. Within ten minutes he was in his initial 51.7° inclination orbit, from which he would eventually manoeuvre to a new orbit with a maximum altitude of 222 km (138 miles). The next day, Soyuz 5 entered its initial 51.6° orbit after a launch from the freezing Baikonur at about 12: 05 hrs local time. It carried Boris Volynov and the two cosmonauts who should have flown Soyuz 2 in 1967, Aleksey Yeliseyev and Yevgeny Khrunov. On 16 January, the two craft docked. Soyuz 4 was the active spacecraft both during the automatic approach to a distance of 100 m (328 ft) and for the manual, Shatalov-controlled soft dock, followed by a hard dock minutes later.

The whole event had been seen on television via a camera on Soyuz 4, and was accompanied by ribald comments from the crew, much to the chagrin of ground control. The Soviets claimed that they had achieved an “experimental space station”, but at 12,926 kg (28,502 lb), the combined weight of the two spacecraft was lighter than a single Apollo. The first docking between two manned spacecraft was followed by an even more eventful space transfer, which was made externally because the docking mechanism prevented an internal transfer and there were no internal hatches.

First, Yeliseyev and Khrunov floated into the Soyuz 5 Orbital Module, donned spacesuits and depressurised the module, leaving Volynov alone in the flight cabin. Wearing upgraded spacesuits to that worn by Leonov with a lifeline tether and a small breathing air pack strapped to the legs, Khrunov opened the Orbital Module hatch and floated towards the depressurised Orbital Module of Soyuz 4, followed closely by Yeliseyev and both watched by a television camera (which unfortunately returned very poor pictures of the historic event).

The first EVA to involve two spacewalkers ended after 37 minutes. After sealing the outer hatch and re-pressurising the OM, the hatch to the Descent Module was opened and Shatalov welcomed his new crew, receiving some post and reports on the launch of Soyuz 4. The event that should have occurred between Soyuz 1 and 2 two years earlier had been achieved, ahead of the USA which was, coincidentally, planning a similar EVA exercise for Apollo 9 in March 1969.

The combined spacecraft undocked on 16 January after 4 hours 33 minutes 49 seconds together. The crews conducted separate experiments in geography, geology, navigation, medicine and radio communications before Soyuz 4 came home on 17 January, carrying two crewmen who had been launched in another craft. They came down 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Karaganda, in bitter temperatures of —35°, with a flight time of 2 days 23 hours 20 minutes 47 seconds. Yeliseyev and Khrunov, the hitchhikers, had clocked up a space time of just 1 day 23 hours 45 minutes. The deserted Volynov, who reached a maximum altitude of 237 km (147 miles) in Soyuz 5, came home on 18 January, 200 km (124 miles) southwest of Kustanai, with a flight time of 3 days 0 hours 54 minutes 15 seconds.

The re-entry of Soyuz 5 almost ended in disaster as the Propulsion Module failed to separate cleanly from the Descent Module. This caused the spacecraft to begin its entry the wrong way round, with the sealed inner hatch facing forward instead of the heat shield. Volynov, who was not wearing a pressure suit, heard the separation charges fire but also saw the PM still attached out of the side window. Smelling the burning rubber of the hatch gasket, Volynov thought he would not survive re-entry. As the G forces increased, the PM suddenly separated by atmospheric friction, causing the DM to swing around to the correct orientation for re-entry. Volynov realised he would indeed survive re-entry after all but then found, like Komarov on Soyuz 1, that his main parachute had tangled. This time it untangled, but the landing was so hard, despite the soft-landing rockets working, that he broke several teeth in his upper jaw. He had landed 600 km from the intended landing site due to the difficulties in separating the components. He got out of the capsule shaken, but able to walk to a nearby peasant hut to await the rescue team. It took some time for him to fully recover from the ordeal.

Milestones

29th and 30th manned space flights 11th and 12th Soviet manned space flights 3rd and 4th Soyuz manned space flight 1st docking between two manned spacecraft 1st crew transfer

1st landing by crew launched in another spacecraft

1st “spacecraft” with four crew

2nd Soviet and 7th flight with EVA operations

Flight Crew

MCDIVITT, James Alton, 39, USAF, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: Gemini 4 (1965)

SCOTT, David Randolph, 36, USAF, command module pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: Gemini 8 (1966)

SCHWEICKART, Russell Louis “Rusty”, 33, lunar module pilot

Flight Log

If Apollo 11 was going to make the first manned landing on the Moon, Apollo 9 would have to be a spectacular success. And so it was. The main objective of the mission was to test-fly the Lunar Module in Earth orbit. Bad colds delayed the launch of the all-up Apollo stack from 28 February to 3 March, at 11: 00 hrs local time. Once in orbit, command module pilot Dave Scott separated from the S-IVB stage and performed the first transposition and docking manoeuvre to extract the LM, which had been nick­named Spider because of its arachnid-like appearance. The Command Module was called Gumdrop after the appearance of the CM when it was covered in blue wrappings as it was transported across the US. The individual names were chosen because of the need to identify the communications sources during the joint flight, a procedure that continued to the end of the Apollo lunar programme in 1972.

Interestingly, the S-IVB stage was restarted twice for the injection into solar orbit, but with slightly less speed than planned. Had the burn been for a manned trans-lunar injection, a Moon-landing mission could have been aborted. Meanwhile, in Earth orbit, Jim McDivitt commanded the SPS engine to fire four times, changing the altitude parameters of the 32.6° inclination orbit and testing the structural dynamics of the joint spacecraft. The maximum altitude achieved during the mission was 200 km (124 miles). On the third day, dressed in full space gear, McDivitt and Rusty

Schweickart entered Spider for the first checkout, while it was still attached to Gumdrop. This included a 367-second firing of the descent engine, which for the final 59 seconds was manually throttled by McDivitt, the first such manoeuvre in space history.

The SPS engine was fired again to fine-tune the orbit for the joint Spider – Gumdrop rendezvous and docking mission, but space sickness hit Schweickart, cancelling his EVA wearing the fully independent Apollo Portable Life Support System (PLSS) spacesuit, during which he planned an external transfer from the porch of the LM to the Command Module. However, he did recover enough to perform a 37-minute EVA standing on the porch on 7 March. The EVA resulted in some classic photographs. On 8 March came the big test. Spider was separated from

Gumdrop and fired its descent engine twice, ending up 19.2km (12 miles) higher. Then, for the first time, the LM ascent engine was fired, after separation of the descent stage, placing it 120 km (75 miles) behind and 16 km (10 miles) below Gumdrop, to simulate lunar ascent and the rendezvous and docking manoeuvre.

Six hours later, Spider and Gumdrop were together, but not before McDivitt’s eye-straining final docking, which resulted in the recommendation that on future flights this should be performed by the CMP. The ascent stage of Spider was separated as its engine fired again, to place it in a high-Earth orbit as the crew in Gumdrop wound down the mission with detailed Earth observations and photography. Re-entry was delayed one orbit because of fears of high seas in the splashdown area, giving Apollo 9 another first – the first extended US manned space flight. After a 3.6m/sec (12 ft/sec) burn of the SPS, reducing the speed by 353 kph (219 mph), enough to induce re-entry, Apollo 9 splashed down safely at 23.25° north 68° west at T + 10 days 1 hour 0 minutes 54 seconds, some 5 km (3 miles) from USS Guadalcanal. Only one more test remained before the Moon landing.

Milestones

31st manned space flight 19th US manned space flight 3rd manned Apollo CSM flight 1st manned Apollo LM flight

1st manned flight in spacecraft unable to return to Earth

1st manual engine throttling

6th US and 8th flight with EVA operations

Flight Crew

STAFFORD, Thomas Patten Jr., 38, USAF, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: Gemini 6 (1965); Gemini 9 (1966)

YOUNG, John Watts Jr., 38, USN, command module pilot, 3rd mission Previous missions: Gemini 3 (1965); Gemini 10 (1966)

CERNAN, Eugene Andrew, 34, USN, lunar module pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: Gemini 9 (1966)

Flight Log

The riskiest space flight yet, Apollo 10 was to simulate a Moon landing in the final test before Apollo 11. Had development of the Lunar Module not been delayed, it is quite possible that Apollo 10 would have made the first real landing, making its commander Tom Stafford and LMP Eugene Cernan the first men on the Moon. Apollo 10 left new launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center at 12: 49 hrs local time on 18 May 1969 and placed the S-IVB and Apollo stack in a 32.5°, 184 km (114 miles) apogee Earth­parking orbit. Then the orbital speed was increased from 7,800 m/sec to 11,171 m/sec (25,593 ft/sec to 36,651 ft/sec) by the S-IVB’s engine.

Soon after, Apollo 10 became Charlie Brown and Snoopy (named after the popular Peanuts cartoon characters created by Charles L. Schultz). For the mission, Charlie Brown exchanged his WWI flying ace goggles and scarf for a space helmet, while Snoopy the beagle was a symbol of quality performance. As the LM was extracted from the spent stage, it was seen live on the first colour television show from space. Happy TV shows were beamed from the light-hearted crew en route to the Moon, which needed only one SPS mid-course manoeuvre, rather than the planned

four, such was the accuracy of the flight profile. At about T + 76 hours, Apollo 10 reached lunar orbit, which was circularised at 110 km (68 miles). Some 14 hours later, the risky, untried part of the mission began.

Snoopy undocked and flew in station-keeping mode for a while before firing its descent engine for a brief 27.4 seconds, simulating a lunar landing and taking Stafford and Cernan to within 15.52 km (10 miles) of the lunar surface. Amid high excitement, the crew described the scene of boulders bigger than houses and a magnificent Earthrise, as Snoopy flew over the Sea of Tranquillity – Apollo 11’s target – testing the all-important LM radar. The descent engine was fired again, twice, before staging. Because a switch had been left in the wrong position in Snoopy’s cockpit, the staging, achieved at the second attempt, placed the ascent stage in an uncontrollable gyration, which at least led the LMP Cernan volubly to consider his fate.

Control regained, Stafford fired the ascent engine for 15 seconds, to simulate the rise from the lunar surface to rendezvous with Charlie Brown – and the lonely John Young. Careful RCS thruster firings gently nudged the LM towards the CM and at T + 106 hours, docking was achieved. After 31 lunar orbits, in 61 hours 31 minutes, Apollo 10 leapt from the Moon, and three days later flew into Earth’s atmosphere at a record manned speed of 39,897 kph (24,792 mph), landing at T + 8 days 0 hours 3 minutes 23 seconds, at 165° west 5°south, some 6.4 km (4 miles) from the USS Princetown.

Milestones

32nd manned space flight

20th US manned space flight

4th Apollo manned flight

4th Apollo CSM manned flight

2nd Apollo LM manned flight

1st flight by experienced multi-crew

1st flight by two manned craft in lunar orbit

1st crewman to fly solo in lunar orbit (Young)

2nd manned flight to and orbit of the Moon

Fastest Apollo re-entry speed from lunar distance – 39,897 kph

Flight Crew

ARMSTRONG, Neil Alden, 38, civilian, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: Gemini 8 (1966)

COLLINS, Michael, 38, USAF, command module pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: Gemini 10 (1966)

ALDRIN, Edwin Eugene “Buzz”, 39, USAF, lunar module pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: Gemini 12 (1966)

Flight Log

Commander Neil Armstrong reckoned that the chances of total success for the first attempt to land on the Moon on Apollo 11 were 50: 50. Six hundred million people all over the world watched on television as Apollo 11 began its journey at 09: 32 hrs local time from the Kennedy Space Center. Eleven minutes 46 seconds later, Armstrong and his crew of Mike Collins and Buzz Aldrin were over the first hurdle – 184 km (114 miles) above the Earth in a 32.7° inclination orbit. The mission was starting quietly and it continued this way, with the rather sombre crew keeping comments to a minimum. The trans-lunar injection burn, lasting 5 minutes 47 seconds, was a success, as was the transposition and docking manoeuvre by Collins.

Some TV broadcasts were made and the avidly-followed mission continued with Armstrong and Aldrin, in their spacesuits, checking out the LM, which had been named Eagle. Apollo 11 achieved lunar orbit with a 347-second SPS burn at T + 75 hours 50 minutes. The orbit was circularised by a second SPS “tweak” at 110 km (68 miles). The climax approached as Eagle separated from the Command Module Columbia at T + 100 hours 12 minutes. One hour 20 minutes later, with Eagle on the far side of the Moon, the descent engine fired for 30 seconds to begin descent orbit insertion (DOI). Fifty-seven minutes later, both Eagle and Columbia emerged from

the far side, with Eagle now approaching its 14.56 km (9 miles) low point or perilune, when the powered descent initiation burn (PDI) was to begin.

The 756.3-second long burn seemed interminable to the waiting world, but to the crew it went so fast that neither could recall very much about it, other than the computer alarms that nearly aborted the landing. An overloaded computer was protesting, but ground controller Stephen Bales reported that all was well. The mission was given a go to land, but with seconds left Armstrong could see that the autopilot was taking Eagle into a boulder-strewn crater. He took partial control and amid clouds of dust, landed with between 15 and 20 seconds of fuel left, at T + 102 hours 45 minutes. The time in the UK was 21: 18 hrs on 20 July.

The landing site, named Tranquillity Base by Armstrong, was about 6.4 km (4 miles) downrange of the planned touchdown point, at 0°41’15" north 23°0’26" east. Having reached the Moon, Armstrong could start to think about what his first words would be when he stepped upon it. Although in the Gemini programme the pilot went for the walks, on Apollo, because of the design of the Lunar Module hatch which opened towards the LMP thus trapping him, the commander would go out first, which was regarded as a logical thing to do anyway given the prestigious nature of the event. Armstrong’s right boot touched the lunar dust at T + 109 hours 42 minutes, 03: 56 hrs British time on 21 July. As he stepped onto the lunar surface, Armstrong said: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.’’ Armstrong was

joined by Aldrin, who took the TV camera and placed it on a tripod some distance away so that both astronauts could be seen, looking like ghosts on the black and white TV.

The flag was raised and the short moonwalk was interrupted by a gushing President Nixon. The astronauts rushed to finish the deployment of EASEP experi­ments but Armstrong did find time to take some classic photographs of Aldrin, the first person to make two spacewalks. Although he had the camera briefly, to take pictures of his boot print and a panorama of the surface, Aldrin did not take a formal still of the first man on the Moon, although he did happen to feature in one of the panoramas with his back to camera and standing in the shadow of the Lunar Module. The moonwalk lasted 2 hours 31 minutes 40 seconds, during which Armstrong was on the surface for 2 hours 14 minutes and Aldrin for 1 hour 33 minutes.

After 21 hours 36 minutes on the Moon, the critical ascent engine burn began, firing for 435 seconds to place Eagle’s ascent stage in orbit for its rendezvous with Collins. The SPS engine fired for 2 minutes 29 seconds and after 59 hours 30 minutes in lunar orbit, Columbia was en route for its landing at 169°west 13°north, coming down near the USS Hornet at T + 8 days 3 hours 18 minutes 35 seconds. The epic mission was over, rather ironically overshadowed by the antics of the late President Kennedy’s younger brother Edward, who was involved in a fatal traffic accident at Chappaquidick.

Milestones

33rd manned space flight 21st US manned space flight 5th Apollo manned space flight 5th Apollo CSM manned flight 3rd Apollo LM manned flight 1st manned landing on the Moon 1st walk on the Moon

3rd manned flight to and orbit of the Moon 7th US and 9th flight with EVA operations

Flight Crew

BRAND, Vance DeVoe, 52, civilian, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: Apollo 18 ASTP (1975); STS-5 (1982) GIBSON, Robert Lee “Hoot”, 37, USN, pilot McNAIR, Ronald Erwin, 33, civilian, mission specialist 1 STEWART, Robert Lee, 41, US Army, mission specialist 2 McCANDLESS, Bruce II, 46, USN, mission specialist 3

Flight Log

The first flight of the manned manoeuvring unit apart, this mission offered one rather infamous distinction. Was it STS-10, STS-11 or STS 41-B? It was originally planned as STS-11 but when a military flight, STS-10, was delayed for what would turn out to be a year, STS-11 moved up one slot, becoming what would logically be called STS-10. Instead, it confusingly retained the STS-11 designation, and then NASA confused the numbering system even further by introducing an extraordinary system of nomenclature that would soon have most non-specialist space followers in a real pickle.

The “4” in STS 41-B represented the US fiscal year 1984. The “1” represented the Kennedy Space Center launch site (and a “2” would have referred to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where Shuttle missions were expected to launch from beginning in 1986). The “B” stood for the second flight of the 1984 fiscal year. Adding to the confusion was the fact that the mission was the first of the actual 1984 year and that STS-9 was sometimes termed as STS 41-A. Despite these diversions, most attention was focused on the fact that it was to perform one of the last “firsts” in manned space flight – an independent EVA. NASA’s Manned Manoeuvring Unit (MMU) was to be operated by Bruce McCandless, who had helped to develop it and who had waited eighteen years for a space flight.

Lift-off – delayed from 29 January by APU problems – took place on time at 08:00 hrs local time, the only anomaly being the failure of one of the parachutes on each SRB. Orbit was 28.45° inclination and would reach a maximum altitude of 281 km (175 miles). Six-and-a-half orbits later came the first of two deployments of similar Hughes-built satellites. Westar 6 spun out of Challenger’s cargo bay first. Later, its PAM-D perigee motor shut down early, stranding Westar. The failure was widely blamed on the Shuttle. The press had another field day when a small instrumented rendezvous balloon target burst on deployment and they went into anti-Shuttle overkill when the second main satellite, Palapa B2, was also inexplicably stranded in orbit by an identical upper stage failure. Because the wrist joint on the RMS failed, the SPAS free flier would not be deployed either.

Astronauts McCandless (EV1) and Robert Stewart (EV2) saved the flight from ignominy when they emerged on 7 February for the first EVA, which featured McCandless’s solo MMU flight. The jocular astronaut flew as far as 100 m (328 ft) from Challenger, as did Stewart when he tried the MMU later. McCandless likened flying the MMU to flying a helicopter at Mach 25. A second MMU unit inside the payload bay was tried out by McCandless on the second EVA the following day. The EVAs lasted 5 hours 55 minutes and 6 hours 17 minutes respectively, and McCandless and Stewart had operated the MMUs for 4 hours 42 minutes. (Unit 2 made two sorties lasting 1 hour 3 minutes, and Unit 3 three flights lasting 3 hours 39 minutes.)

The next highlight of the mission of mixed fortune was the first landing back at base, on the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle runway, just 6.4 km (4 miles) from its take-off point. Commander Vance Brand was surprised as he flew over the KSC that the autopilot had taken Challenger to 15,000 m (49,200 ft) and that he was far too high, even for a steep Shuttle descent. All went well, however, despite more than a hint of ground fog and the first bird strike for the Shuttle. Main gear touchdown on runway 15, designated for approaches from the north, came at T + 7 days 23 hours 15 minutes 55 seconds.

Milestones

95th manned space flight 41st US manned space flight 10th Shuttle mission 4th flight of Challenger

1st independent EVA using manned manoeuvring unit 1st manned space flight to land at launch site 17th US and 24th flight with EVA operations

Flight Crew

KIZIM, Leonid Denisovich, 42, Soviet Air Force, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: Soyuz T3 (1980)

SOLOVYOV, Vladimir Alekseyevich, 37, civilian, flight engineer ATKOV, Oleg Yuryevich, 34, civilian, cosmonaut researcher

Flight Log

There could not have been much wrong with Salyut 7 that couldn’t be righted, for the next Soviet space mission would be one of sheer endurance. In the cosmonaut researcher’s seat in Soyuz T10, too, was a cardiologist, Oleg Atkov, who had designed a portable ultrasound cardiograph which he would use to monitor crew health throughout the flight. Soyuz lifted off at 17: 07hrs local time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 8 February and docked with Salyut the following day. During the mission, the crew would reach a maximum altitude of 375 km (233 miles) in the 51.6° orbit and two of them would achieve new heights in EVA experience. The EVAs took place much later in the mission, after another Shuttle (STS 41-C) had conducted some unique EVA operations of its own during April.

Soon after boarding Salyut, Progress 19 arrived, providing all-important con­sumables for the long mission, the duration of which was not announced by the Soviets. On 4 April, Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov and Dr. Atkov were visited by two Soviet and one Indian cosmonaut, and with five Americans aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger also in orbit, eleven people were in space for the first time. The Indian international crew returned to Earth aboard Soyuz T10, leaving the fresh Soyuz T11 attached to Salyut. Progress 20 arrived on 20 April, with a cargo of tools and equipment to enable Kizim and Solovyov to perform EVAs to repair the errant main propulsion unit on the space station.

The first of the record six EVAs started on 23 April (after STS 41-C had been launched) and lasted 4 hours 15 minutes. The cosmonauts prepared the exterior for

their series of sorties, including the erection of a work base with the necessary equipment. Three days later, they were at the propulsion end of Salyut starting the repair work during an EVA that would last 4 hours 56 minutes. EVAs on 29 April and 3 May, both lasting 2 hours 45 minutes, completed the repair work at that end of Salyut. In quick succession came the undocking of Progress 20 and the arrival of Progress 21, carrying new solar arrays for the cosmonauts to erect on the outside of Salyut during the first fifth expedition EVA in history, lasting 3 hours 5 minutes. Over 24 m2 (78 ft2) of solar arrays had been added to Salyut. The repaired propulsion system was replenished with propellant from the newly docked Progress 21, which also carried additional equipment, including more for Atkov’s space surgery. When the next Progress, No.22, undocked, it left the rear port free to receive the unique crew of Soyuz T12, who arrived on 18 July and left on 29 July.

To the surprise of observers, Kizim and Solovyov made a record sixth EVA on 8 August, lasting 5 hours, to conduct further and unrehearsed repairs to the propul­sion unit, having been given detailed instructions from the ground. Another Progress, No.23, arrived later in August and in early September, the three cosmonauts became the space endurance record holders, beating Soyuz T5’s 211 days. Another month in space was still to follow, however, and the return came at T + 236 days 22 hours 49 minutes aboard Soyuz T11, which is the longest three-crew manned space flight. Atkov estimated that he had spent 87 days on medical work while the others had spent 22 hours on EVAs on what was a very productive mission. The crew looked frail and pale lying in reclining chairs close to the capsule after landing, but were nonetheless in good health.

Milestones

96th manned space flight

55th Soviet manned space flight

48th Soyuz manned space flight

9th Soyuz T manned space flight

New duration record – 236 days 22 hours

1st manned space flight to feature five and six EVAs

8th Soviet and 25th flight with EVA operation

Atkov celebrates his 35th birthday in space (9 May)

Kizim celebrates his 43rd birthday in space (5 Aug)

Flight Crew

MALYSHEV, Yuri Vasilyevich, 42, Soviet Air Force, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: Soyuz T2 (1980)

STREKALOV, Gennady Mikhailovich, 42, civilian, flight engineer, 4th mission Previous missions: Soyuz T3 (1980); Soyuz T8 (1983); Soyuz T10-1 (1983) SHARMA, Rakesh, 35, Indian Air Force, cosmonaut researcher

Flight Log

The next and eleventh Interkosmos spaceman, Rakesh Sharma, came from India, a country which, like France, had already had close ties with the Soviet Union in the field of unmanned space flight. The Soyuz T11 mission began at 18: 09 hrs local time at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 3 April and docking with Salyut, which was to house a record six crew, came 25 hours 20 minutes later. India’s science programme included detailed Earth resources photography, weightlessness adaptation studies – with Sharma floating in yoga positions – and the possibility of making amorphous metals in space. Sharma and his colleagues, Yuri Malyshev and Gennady Strekalov, came home in Soyuz T10,46 km (29 miles) from Arkalyk at T + 7 days 21 hours 40 minutes. Maximum altitude during the 51.6° flight was 298 km (185 miles). The original FE for this mission had been Rukavishnikov, but he failed his medicals and was replaced by Strekalov. This was a bitter disappointment for Rukavishnikov who had trained for years to work aboard a Salyut space station only to be thwarted several times. In 1971 he was on the Soyuz 10 crew which failed to enter Salyut 1. Then he was assigned to ASTP, flying the dress-rehearsal mission Soyuz 16 in 1974 instead of receiving an assignment to Salyut 4. Finally, in 1979, he failed to dock with Salyut 6 in Soyuz 33. Sadly, he would never make it inside a space station, and did not return to space.

Milestones

97th manned space flight

56th Soviet manned space flight

49th Soyuz manned space flight

10th Soyuz T manned space flight

1st flight by an Indian

2nd Soyuz international mission

Flight Crew

HAUCK, Frederick Hamilton “Rick”, 47, USN, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-7 (1983); STS 51-A (1984)

COVEY, Richard Oswalt, 42, USAF, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS 51-1 (1985)

LOUNGE, John Michael, 38, civilian, mission specialist 1, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS 51-1 (1985)

HILMERS, David Carl, 38, USMC, mission specialist 2, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS 51-J (1985)

NELSON, George Driver, 38, civilian, mission specialist 3, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS 41-C (1984); STS 51-C (1985)

Flight Log

Following the release of the findings of the Rogers Commission into the Challenger disaster in June 1986, NASA was directed to follow nine major recommendations to improve the safety and management of the Space Shuttle programme. The path to recovery was a tortuous one. At first, a re-launch in late 1987 seemed a possibility, or early 1988, or June 1988. Discovery finally and patriotically made it to the pad on 4 July. A successful launch and flight of the Space Shuttle was considered crucial. It was to be the most important manned mission of the US space programme. A failure of any kind could have spelled the death knell of the programme and NASA knew it. No. chances were being taken; so much so that many experienced space watchers reckoned that a few abortive countdowns were going to be unavoidable and once Discovery did take off, it would be an anticlimax, perhaps what NASA wanted.

True to form, as the all-veteran crew of STS-26 – a Shuttle first – left the crew quarters on 29 September, looking like astronauts again wearing high-altitude press­ure suits, the chances of launching that day were put at 50-50, mainly because the winds at high altitude were not strong enough. The flight computer was programmed

to expect stronger seasonal winds. It was re-programmed during holds caused by other niggling problems and the count stood at T — 9 minutes for 1 hour 38 minutes. The go for launch was suddenly given and people realised that perhaps Discovery was going to get off first time after all. Things went well until it was announced that the count would hold at T — 31 seconds because a problem had been experienced. This proved to be an erroneous switch and at 11: 37 hrs local time, on Challenger’s Pad 39B, America returned to space with a smooth lift-off and ascent.

Concern was caused by the sight of flames around the SRBs just before burn out but these were caused by the SSME exhaust being sucked into an aerodynamically low pressure area of the Shuttle stack as it rose at Mach 4. It was all so smooth that observers did indeed feel the anticlimax, a tribute to the launch team under former astronaut Bob Crippen. The STS-26 mission continued on its winning way, perform­ing an OMS burn to circularise the 29.45° orbit at 284 km (176 miles), and deploying the TDRS-C satellite on its IUS upper stage.

The crew conducted several science experiments, practiced donning and doffing the ascent/descent suit to see how quickly it could be done in an emergency, and experienced, for a short while, uncomfortably high cabin temperatures of 29°C due to ice blocking a cooling duct. On day four, the crew made a moving tribute to the Challenger Seven, covered live on TV. The flight was also a re-qualification of Discovery within the Return-to-Flight programme.

Only the landing remained. The de-orbit and re-entry were routine and Discovery came home in triumph, to a rapturous welcome from observers at Edwards Air Force Base, including Vice President George Bush, landing on runway 17 at T + 4 days 1 hour 0 minutes 11 seconds. The Shuttle was poised for routine operations again but the difference was that even NASA admitted that things could go wrong again, something that before Challenger would have seemed a sacrilege, such was the apparent ease and safety of the system.

Milestones

121st manned space flight 56th US manned space flight 26th Shuttle flight 7th flight of Discovery 3rd TDRS deployment mission

Flight Crew

VOLKOV, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich, 40, Soviet Air Force, commander, 2nd mission

Previous mission: Soyuz T14 (1985)

KRIKALEV, Sergei Konstantinovich, 30, civilian, flight engineer CHRETIEN, Jean-Loup, 50, French Air Force, cosmonaut researcher, 2nd mission

Previous mission: Soyuz T6 (1982)

Flight Log

France’s close ties with the Soviet space programme produced beneficial results, none more so than the Soyuz TM7 mission in which the highest ranking spaceperson, Brigadier General Jean-Loup Chretien would make his second flight on a Soviet space­craft and be the first non-US and non-Soviet spaceman to walk in space. His 30-day mission would also be considerably longer than the usual seven-day jaunts by foreigners. The longer flight was provided in return for the supply of much French scientific equipment for use by the Soviet crews on Mir, but it was the last to be provided free by the Soviets; the next Frenchman had to pay $12 million.

France’s President Mitterand scored a spectacular own goal before the mission by insisting on going to Baikonur to watch the launch, which would therefore have to be delayed four days to 26 November, reducing Chretien’s time in space. Mitterand winged his way in and out of Baikonur on a Concorde with an entourage of such high number and rank that Baikonur’s modest hospitality facilities and traditional pre­launch pomp and circumstance became unmanageable. The result was a chaotic crew walk out in which Mitterand and other officials were bundled about by hordes

of eager bystanders and press, as crew commander Aleksandr Volkov tried to make his traditional speech of dedication of the mission to General Kerim Kerimimov, the president of the state commission.

The launch, the 301st from Pad 1 at Baikonur, was spectacularly routine, with the Soyuz booster that had only been rolled out to the fog-bound pad two days previously lighting up the sky at 20:49hrs local time. Once aboard Mir, after the two-day rendezvous flight, Chretien, Volkov and the impassive young flight engineer Sergei Krikalev, got to work with Titov, Manarov and Polyakov, the high point of which was Chretien’s EVA with Volkov on 9 December, three days earlier than planned origin­ally. During the 5 hour 57 minute EVA, Chretien and Volkov deployed an experiment called ERA, provided by France, which comprised folded carbon fibre tubes that could be unfurled to form a cube structure in a test of erectable space structures. The $8 million experiment seemed doomed to failure when it could not be commanded to unfurl and engineers considered jettisoning it. Volkov saved the day – he admitted later – by giving it a hefty kick with his space boot. Both spacemen were utterly exhausted by their efforts.

The fruitful French mission ended with Chretien returning to Earth with the record-breakers Titov and Manarov on 21 December, leaving Volkov, Krikalev and the doctor Polyakov to remain until 27 April, to be replaced by the TM8 crew. The fresh Soyuz TM7 craft was moved to the front and Progress 39 linked up on 27 December with New Year supplies.

Delays in launching new modules to Mir meant that this crew, like previous ones on Mir, were rather limited in what experiments they could conduct, most of which seemed to focus on the astrophysics telescopes on the Kvant module and Polyakov’s surgery. The crew also spent much of their time repairing balky equipment, particu­larly environmental control systems which were misbehaving so badly that some electrical equipment was covered in condensation. The module delays and these niggling equipment problems raised concerns over whether Mir, three years old on 20 February 1989, would ever see out its operational life before being declared operational with all four modules.

But life went on. Progress 40 replaced No.39 on 12 February, delivering pickled cucumbers by request. A planned EVA by Volkov and Krikalev was cancelled and there were suggestions that Polyakov might remain on Mir with the next crew. When Progress 40 departed on 3 March it remained close to Mir for the cosmonauts to observe a unique experiment in which the unmanned tanker deployed two folding structures, which were unfurled from it by heating electrical wires in its body in a space structures test. Progress 40 was destroyed during a controlled re-entry two days later and was replaced by Progress 41 on 18 March.

Meanwhile, on the ground, cosmonauts Aleksandr Viktorenko and Aleksandr Balandin, the latter having replaced Aleksandr Serebrov because of the delays in the launches of the new modules which Serebrov had been trained specifically to operate, were ready to launch on 19 April onboard Soyuz TM8, to replace the crew of TM7 which was to come home with Polyakov on 27 April. Then, on 12 April, the Soviets sprang a surprise, saying that the Soyuz TM7 crew would leave Mir empty for several months. Flying another crew when the new modules were not ready for launch seemed wasteful and leaving Mir empty would save money. So Volkov and Krikalev clocked up a TM7 flight time of 151 days 11 hours 10 minutes, landing on 27 April northeast of Dzhezkazgan, the prime recovery zone, as planned. Polyakov had clocked up 240 days 22 hours 36 minutes flight time, the fourth longest individual space mission.

Milestones

122nd manned space flight 66th Soviet manned space flight 59th Soyuz manned space flight 6th Soyuz TM manned space flight 6th Soyuz international mission

1st non-Soviet, non-US crewman to make two space flights 1st non-Soviet, non-US crewman to perform EVA 14th Soviet and 37th flight with EVA operations

Volkov celebrates his 41st and Polyakov his 47th birthday (27 Apr) on the day both returned to Earth on TM7

Flight Crew

O’CONNOR, Bryan Daniel, 44, USMC, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS 61-B (1985)

GUTIERREZ, Sidney McNeill, 39, USAF, pilot

BAGIAN, James Phillip, 39, civilian, mission specialist 1, 2nd mission

Previous mission: STS-29 (1989)

JERNIGAN, Tamara Elizabeth, 32, civilian, mission specialist 2 SEDDON, Margaret Rhea, 43, civilian, mission specialist 3, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS 51-D (1985)

GAFFNEY, Francis Andrew “Drew”, 44, civilian, payload specialist 1 HUGHES-FULFORD, Millie Elizabeth, 46, civilian, payload specialist 2

Flight Log

The launch, originally set for 22 May, was postponed less than 48 hours beforehand due to the discovery of a leaking LH transducer in the orbiter MPS. This was removed and replaced during a leak test in 1990. Then, one of the five General Purpose Computers (GPC) failed, along with one of the multiplexer-demultiplexers that control orbiter hydraulics ordnance and OMS/RCS functions in the aft compartment. One LH and two LO transducers were replaced in the propellant flow system and three LO transducers were replaced in the manifold area, while three further LH transducers were removed and the opening plugged. The rescheduled launch for 1 June was again postponed, despite several attempts to calibrate IMU 2. After it was replaced and tested, the launch was rescheduled again, this time for 5 June. This launch proceeded without incident.

The crew worked a single-shift system to complete the research programme. The primary objectives of the mission’s 18 investigations required a larger crew than normal. In addition to the seven astronauts (and one mannequin), there were also

2,478 jellyfish and 29 lab rats. The humans were involved in ten investigations, with a further seven involving the rodents and one with the jellyfish. In the most detailed and interrelated physiological measurements made on US astronauts since Skylab in 1973/74, the investigations on the crew focused on seven human body systems: the cardiovascular/cardiopulmonary, haematological, muscular, skeletal, vestibular, immune and renal-endocrine systems. The research also included pre- and post-flight medical studies on the crew. In one of these pre-flight investigations, a catheter was inserted into a vein of PS Gaffney before the flight and advanced to a point near his heart. This was designed to monitor blood pressure changes upon his arrival on orbit.

The rats were contained in two groups, one located in the Animal Enclosure Modules (AEM) on the mid-deck of Columbia and the other in a Research Animal Holding Facility (RAHF) in the Spacelab module. The rodents were used for research into muscle, bone and inner-ear functions and for certification of the holding facilities for future use. The jellyfish were encased in flasks and bags filled with artificial seawater. They were filmed to observe their swimming motions for later comparison with a control group on Earth. The crew also evaluated the workstations, the glove box, the medical restraint system and the intravenous pump for future Spacelab and space station use.

Thanks to careful use of their available electrical power, the crew were able to gain an extra flight day in order to continue to collect data. They also continued the programme of photography of the Earth’s features, including taking video of the 19 km high yellowish ash plume erupting from Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines during the mission. The twelve Getaway Special (GAS) experiments in the payload bay included research into forming ball bearings, crystal growth and ultra light metals in space; soldering in space; and studying the effects of cosmic particles on computer disks to determine their impact on data storage. Early in the mission, it was thought that a piece of material on the port side payload bay door (used to protect the payload bay from dust contamination on the ground) might interfere with nominal door closing. Bagian and Jernigan would have performed the EVA if required, but ground-based studies concluded there was no hazard and the doors closed properly. After the mission, the astronauts continued to participate in a variety of medical tests. Seddon, Bagian, Gaffney and Hughes-Fulford remained at Edwards for an additional week of medical tests after the rest of the crew returned to Houston.

Milestones

142nd manned space flight

71st US manned space flight

41st flight of Space Shuttle

11th flight of Columbia

1st Spacelab Life Science mission

5th dedicated Spacelab mission

4th flight of Spacelab Long Module configuration

1st flight of payload specialists since STS-51L

Gaffney celebrates his 45th birthday in space (6 Jun)