Category Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006

The abandoned Soyuz manned lunar programme would have featured circumlunar missions under the L1 programme on the Proton launch vehicle (later flown unmanned by Zond spacecraft), and manned lunar landing (L3) missions launched on the massive N1. Though the N1 was launched unmanned four times between 1969 and 1972, each failed just seconds into flight, effectively putting the final nail in the coffin of the Soviet manned lunar programme that had been beaten by the success of Apollo.

Chinese orbital launch vehicle

The Long March 2F booster will be the workhorse of the Chinese manned spacecraft programme, carrying further Shenzhou craft into orbit. Unmanned launches com­menced in November 1999, with the first manned flight made in 2003 and the second in 2005.

This vehicle is an adaptation of the Long March 2E, which was upgraded for manned flight. In 2002, it received the official name of Shenjian (Magic Arrow). The height of the vehicle (with shroud and launch tower) is 58.34 m and it features a central core first stage of four YF-20B engines (300-ton thrust) and four strap-on boosters each with the YF-20 engine (300-ton thrust). The second stage features a single YF-22 engine with 93.5-ton thrust.

With the loss of the race to the Moon, the Soviets reported that they had actually never intended to go there anyway. Their plan was to develop a long-duration orbital station. It was years before the truth came out and the details of their abandoned lunar programme became known. However, their statement was partially correct, as a military-based space platform called Almaz had been in development for years, supported by other Soyuz-type military variants. Almaz would not be the first station launched, however. To hasten the launch of the first Soviet space station, elements of Soyuz were added to a civilian variant called DOS and amalgamated into the world’s first space station – Salyut. This was launched two years before the Americans launched Skylab, which was itself fabricated from left over Apollo lunar hardware.

Soyuz

Critical to sustaining long-duration space flight is the supply of sufficient logistics and the rotation of the crews. For this, the Soviets called upon their orbital lunar space­craft Soyuz, adapting it to fly as a space station ferry craft (in manned and unmanned versions) and to serve as a crew rescue craft while docked to the station. The Soyuz vehicle was one of the most successful programmes in space history. Although the first manned mission in 1967 was a failure and resulted in the first casualty of space flight, a series of variants – Soyuz, Soyuz T, TM and TMA – have carried many crews to the Salyut and Mir national space stations and continue to do so to the current Inter­national Space Station. The programme will soon be entering its 40th year. After recovering from the loss of Soyuz 1 and the death of its cosmonaut, the Soviets evolved a series of missions to develop the rendezvous and docking technique they had intended to use on the way to the Moon, now amended for the space station programme. In addition, a short series of solo Soyuz flights flew space station equipment, conducting a series of test and supplementary flights to the often troubled Salyut series of stations.

The “original” Soyuz spacecraft was designed as a Vostok successor in about 1962. It weighed 6,450 kg (14,222 lb) and was 8.85m (29 ft) long from the base of its instrument section to the tip of its docking probe. The 2.3 m (7.5 ft) long, 2.3 m (7.5 ft) diameter instrument section, called the Equipment Module (EM), included a UDMH-nitric oxide prime and back-up propulsion system, for orbital manoeuvres and retro-fire. The prime engine had a burn time of 500 seconds and a thrust of 417 kg (919lb). The instrument section included two 3.6m (12ft) by 1.9m (6ft) solar panels.

The flight and Descent Module (DM) was shaped like an inverted cup and measured 2.2 m (7 ft) long and 2.3 m (7.5 ft) in diameter. It included up to three seats and systems such as hydrogen peroxide ACS thrusters, a beacon, sun and infra-red sensors, and rendezvous radar beacons. It was equipped with one drogue and one main parachute (plus a reserve), which opened at about 8,500m (28,000 ft) altitude, and, beneath a jettisonable heat shield, a soft-landing retro-rocket to reduce speed to 0.3m/sec (1 ft/ sec) at 1 m (3 ft) altitude. Attached to the flight module was an Orbital Module (OM), a spherical capsule containing extra housekeeping and science equipment and which acted as an airlock for EVAs. This was 2.65 m (8.69 ft) long and 2.25m (7.3 ft) in diameter. The OM was discarded after retro-fire. It also included a 1.2 m (4 ft) long docking probe at its tip. The Soyuz 12 spacecraft was basically the same as the earlier Soyuz craft, except the crew wore spacesuits (following the loss of the Soyuz 11 crew who hadn’t). The craft was equipped with only batteries for power, and no solar panels, as it was intended as a space station ferry with only a two-day independent flight capability.

Soyuz T – for Transport – was introduced in 1979 and weighed about 6,850 kg (15,104 lb). It was a redesigned Soyuz ferry vehicle, reconfigured to take a crew of three and with two solar panels which allowed independent flight for four rather than two days. Also included were new computers, controls and telemetry systems. The major change to the Soyuz was its fully integrated fuel system, with attitude control thrusters using the same fuel source as the main propulsion unit. The thrust of the main engine was reduced to 315 kg (695 lb) but there were now 26 ACS thrusters aboard. The main reason for this was that some previous docking failures could have been overcome had the cosmonauts been able to transfer fuel from the ACS system to the main spacecraft engine. Soyuz T2 was preceded by three unmanned tests under the Cosmos label (869, 1001 and 1074) and one Soyuz (Tl) in 1979.

Soyuz TM – Transport Modification – was introduced in 1986 and weighed about 7,100 kg (15,653 lb). This was an uprated and heavier Soyuz T spacecraft, incorporat­ing new primary and back-up parachutes, improved power systems and retro-rockets, and the capability to carry 200 kg (441 lb) more payload and return to Earth with 50 kg (110 lb). Soyuz TM was also equipped with a rendezvous and docking system com­patible with the Mir Kurs system. Soyuz TM1 was an unmanned test flight to Mir in 1986.

Soyuz TMA – Transport Modification Anthropometric – was introduced in 2002 and was more of a systems and internal upgrade than a structural one, measuring and weighing about the same as the TM. The requirement for a new version of Soyuz was in part due to larger (American) crew members being assigned to Soyuz missions. New seating support structures and modifications to the descent landing engines meant a slightly greater landing mass was possible, allowing regular three-person crews to be flown. In addition, the controls and displays now featured more computer displays and smaller electronics systems. There were no unmanned TMA precursor flights.

An unmanned variant called Progress was introduced in 1978 and has also been upgraded (Progress M, M1). This has been used to re-supply Soviet space stations with fuel, logistics and orbital re-boost capability and is still an integral element in the ISS programme.

Flight Crew

BORMAN, Frank, 37, USAF, command pilot Gemini 7

LOVELL, James Arthur Jr., 37, USN, pilot Gemini 7

SCHIRRA, Walter Marty Jr., 42, USN, command pilot Gemini 6A, 2nd

mission

Previous mission: Mercury-Atlas 8 (1962)

STAFFORD, Thomas Patten Jr., 35, USAF, pilot Gemini 6A

Flight Log

NASA continued its pre-Apollo rehearsals with plans for Gemini 6 to perform the first docking in space and then for Gemini 7 to keep two men “in the can” for 14 days. The first objective was to be met on 25 October 1965 when an Atlas Agena was to place the Agena second stage (housing a docking port and a rendezvous radar antenna) in orbit as a target for Gemini 6, which would be launched 90 minutes later. With astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford already in Gemini 6 at Pad 19, the Atlas thundered away from Pad 14, but the Agena exploded and the frustrated astronauts were grounded. NASA hatched a plan to overcome the setback. They would launch Gemini 7 first, on Gemini 6’s original Titan, then launch Gemini 6 to rendezvous with Gemini 7. The plan was announced by President Johnson himself, the space supporter who had persuaded President Kennedy to shoot for the Moon.

So first Gemini 7 – with crewmen Frank Borman and James Lovell looking like aliens in their lightweight, 8 kg (18 lb) spacesuits, with strange hoods rather than helmets – took off at 14: 30 hrs on Saturday 4 December, sharing US television screens with a football match. The astronauts entered a 28.9° inclination orbit with a maximum altitude of 327 km (203 miles) and sat it out in the tight confines, waiting

for Gemini 6 to be launched on 12 December. Lovell was allowed to take off his spacesuit, while Borman had to endure the flight with electrodes fixed to his head and suffer the indignity of bursting his urine bag after filling it, rather than before. Contrary to the media coverage, pioneering space flight was an endurance, not a picnic.

The Gemini 6 astronauts had a new experience to endure on 12 December, when at 09:54 hrs local time their Titan II ignited, only to shut down 1.2 seconds later when a dust cap left in a gas generator caused imperfect combustion. This was spotted by the malfunction detection system. Although the spacecraft clock had started, Schirra knew instinctively that he had not lifted off. He elected not to pull the ejection lever, which would have subjected him and Stafford to a 20-G ride, killing the rendezvous mission and probably crippling them. Stafford had been to the launch pad twice and had not lifted off. However, at 08:37 hrs on 15 December, he finally did so, and the space chase was on. Gemini 6 entered an 8.9° orbit which would reach a maximum apogee of 311 km (193 miles).

Seven very carefully planned and controlled manoeuvres brought Gemini 6 to within 15 cm (6 in) of Gemini 7. Officially, the rendezvous had been achieved at 14:33hrs Cape time. It was the greatest feat in manned space flight so far, and the media coverage epitomised the excitement of the 1960s space race. Five hours 18 minutes and a lot of good natured bantering (and a seasonal “Jingle Bells” from Schirra and Stafford) later, Gemini 6 backed away and made a landing at T + 1 day 1 hour 51 minutes 54 seconds, just 11.2km (7 miles) from USS Wasp. Borman and Lovell continued their endurance flight and the operation of 18 science experiments, finally landing 10.4 km (6 miles) from the USS Wasp at T + 13 days 18 hours 35 minutes 1 second. This is the longest US two-crew space flight. They were light-headed and stooping as they walked across the carrier deck, but had proved beyond a doubt that man had a place in space.

Milestones

18th and 19th manned space flights 10th and 11th US manned space flights 4th and 5th Gemini manned flights 1st space rendezvous 1st flight cancellation (Gemini 6)

1st launch pad abort (Gemini 6A)

1st four-man joint mission

Flight Crew

ARMSTRONG, Neil Alden, 35, civilian, command pilot SCOTT, David Randolph, 34, USAF, pilot

Flight Log

The first space docking was on the agenda for Gemini 8, and Scott was to make a two-hour spacewalk “around the world” at the end of a 28 m (92 ft) tether and attached to a 42 kg (93 lb) Extravehicular Support Package. The crew had been inside Gemini 8 for 14 minutes when the Agena target thundered away from Pad 14. Their own launch came at 10: 41 hrs local time, although the Titan II seemed a bit sluggish to start with. Perfect orbit was achieved, with a 28.9° inclination and an apogee-perigee of 292-160 km (181-99 miles). The Agena was 1,963 km (1,220 miles) away and the space chase began. It ended with a “real smoothie” of a docking, as Armstrong described it, at T + 6 hours 32 minutes and at a speed of about 8 cm (3 in) per second.

The matter-of-fact docking complete, the first US space emergency then began in a rather insidious manner. First, the two spacecraft rolled 30° out of position and the crew thought that the Agena, which was causing some concern on the ground anyway, was at fault. They disengaged its control system and brought the two craft under control using Gemini’s thrusters. Suddenly, a faster roll developed and the crew decided to separate from the Agena barely 27 minutes after docking, backing away as they did with a short burst of the thrusters. Then things got pretty violent. Gemini went into a 70 rpm roll and yaw combined, and the crew came close to their physio­logical limits. Thruster 8 had short-circuited and was firing intermittently, the crew discovered later. There was only one thing to do, which was to cut off the OAMS thrusters and fire the re-entry control system.

Mission rules dictated an emergency return to Earth and Gemini 8 splashed down about 800 km (497 miles) east of Okinawa at T + 10 hours 41 minutes 26 seconds, glad to have made water and not a remote jungle. After an uncomfortable three-hour wait, the crew was met by the USS Leonard F. Mason and they climbed aboard from the

rolling sea up a Jacob’s ladder. Both astronauts would have another ladder later in their careers, this time to step down, as Gemini 8 was the only flight whose crew members both subsequently walked on the Moon.

Milestones

20th manned space flight 12th US manned space flight 6th Gemini manned flight 1st space docking 1st emergency return to Earth

Flight Crew

BRAND, Vance DeVoe, 51, civilian, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: Apollo 18 ASTP (1975)

OVERMYER, Robert Franklyn, 46, USMC, pilot ALLEN, Joseph Percival, 45, civilian, mission specialist 1 LENOIR, William Benjamin, 43, civilian, mission specialist 2

Flight Log

The news of the death of Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev, events in Poland, and a British spy scandal served to overshadow this unique space flight, which began at 07: 19hrs local time at the Kennedy Space Center. Commander Vance Brand, pilot Bob Overmyer and mission specialist Bill Lenoir (evaluating the MS2/Flight Engineer role for ascent), were seated in the flight deck, while the other mission specialist, Joe Allen, was seated below in the mid-deck, which also served as the kitchen and toilet. Columbia was still fitted with ejection seats for the commander and pilot but they were not armed. The crew was the first from America not to have any means of escape in the event of a launch accident and were also the first to fly in flight overalls, and oxygen – fed helmets, in case of cabin depressurisation.

After MECO and two OMS burns, Columbia was in its 256 km (159 miles) maximum altitude 28.4° inclination orbit. At T + 7 hours 58 minutes 35 seconds into the mission, the crew dispatched the communications satellite SBS from its spin table in the payload bay, on the first commercial manned trucking mission, earning for NASA a cool $12 million. The satellite’s own Pam D upper stage fired later, to place it into a geostationary transfer orbit where it would normally have been placed by a conventional expendable launch vehicle. Another satellite, Canada’s Anik 3, was launched later and the crew proudly displayed an “Ace Trucking Company – We Deliver’’ sign to TV cameras.

There were disappointments, however. First Overmyer was space sick, vomiting at T + 6 hours and continuing to feel queasy. Lenoir felt less sick, describing his symptoms as a “wet belch”. The astronauts were prescribed drugs and were also angry that their illness was publicised, possibly to the detriment of their careers. In future, NASA decided, if an astronaut was sick it would remain a confidential matter. The first Shuttle spacewalk by Allen and Lenoir was delayed by a day, and then never took place at all because both astronauts experienced spacesuit problems on the brink of opening the airlock door. Lenoir’s primary oxygen pressure regulator failed and Allen’s fan assembly sounded like a motorboat. Allen, now seated in the flight deck (evaluating the FE role for entry), took pictures during re-entry, which was like being inside a blast furnace, he said.

Columbia was aiming for a lake bed landing at Edwards Air Force Base but was diverted to the concrete runway 22 because the “dry” lake was rather wet. Main gear touchdown came at T + 5 days 2 hours 14 minutes 26 seconds, the longest four-crew space flight.

Milestones

88th manned space flight

36th US manned space flight

5th Shuttle flight

5th flight of Columbia

1st flight with four crew members

1st flight of mission specialists

1st manned space flight to deploy commercial satellites

1st flight with cancelled EVA operations

1st launch and landing by crew member not seated in cockpit

1st US flight with no emergency crew escape

1st US flight by crew without spacesuits

1st US flight to carry engineers

Flight Crew

RICHARDS, Richard Noel, 44, USN, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-28 (1989)

CABANA, Robert Donald, 41, USMC, pilot MELNICK, Bruce Edward, 40, USCG, mission specialist 1 SHEPHERD, William McMichael, 41, USN, mission specialist 2, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-27 (1988)

AKERS, Thomas Dale, 39, USAF, mission specialist 3

Flight Log

Originally intended to be deployed from Challenger by the liquid-fuelled Centaur upper stage during the STS 61-F mission in May 1986, the joint NASA/ESA Ulysses solar polar probe mission was delayed by the loss of Challenger in the STS 51-L accident of January 1986. The decision not to fly Centaur stages on the Shuttle over safety concerns and to use the IUS/PAM upper stages instead meant that Ulysses would miss the 1986 launch window. It soon became clear that the Shuttle would not be ready for the June 1987 window and, to ease the 1989 launch schedule, NASA rescheduled the mission to October 1990. Difficulties with the leaking propulsion systems on Atlantis and Columbia during the summer of 1990 placed added pressure to launch STS-41 on time but, despite three short delays due to ground equipment and the weather problems, STS-41 finally left the ground just 12 minutes into the 2.5 hour window.

The crew successfully deployed the IUS combination carrying Ulysses just 6 hours 1 minute 42 seconds after leaving the launch pad. Following the deployment of their primary payload, the crew of STS-41 concentrated on the variety of mid-deck and

payload bay experiments for the remainder of their short mission. Though the flight of STS-41 lasted only just over 4 days and is one of the shortest missions in the programme, the primary payload mission has lasted much longer. After more than 16 years in space, the Ulysses probe continues to function, transmitting important solar and interplanetary data back to Earth. To a degree, therefore, the “mission” of STS-41 continues.

Just over an hour after the deployment, the first stage of the IUS burned for 110 seconds, boosting the spacecraft from 29,237 kph to 36,283 kph. The second stage burned for 106 seconds, further increasing the speed to 41,158 kph, before the PAM-S fired for 88 seconds, resulting in a speed of 54,915 kph. Ten minutes later, the space­craft was separated from the upper stage to begin its long flight towards the Sun via Jupiter. The probe made its 375 km closest approach to Jupiter on 8 February 1992. Its first southern polar zone pass between 26 June and 6 November reached 80°S (13 September). Its first northern polar pass occurred between 19 June and 30 Sep­tember 1995 and saw the official completion of its primary mission. Its closest approach at 1.34AU occurred on 12 March 1995. It took almost five years from launch to the second polar pass, though it took only 8 hours to journey the 382,942 km from Earth to the orbit of the Moon, a trip that took Apollo astronauts three days to complete. Ulysses completed its second pass of both poles in 2001. Its third southern polar pass is planned for 2006/2007 and its third northern polar pass for 2007/2008.

Milestones

135th manned space flight 66th US manned space flight 36th Shuttle flight 11th Discovery flight

3rd Shuttle solar system deployment mission 1st three stage IUS deployment mission 1st solar polar probe

1st US Coast Guard officer (Melnick) to fly in space

Flight Crew

SHRIVER, Loren James, 48, USAF, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS 51-C (1985); STS-31 (1990)

ALLEN, Andrew Michael, 36, USMC, pilot NICOLLIER, Claude, 47, civilian, ESA mission specialist 1 IVINS, Marsha Sue, 41, civilian, mission specialist 2, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-32 (1990)

HOFFMAN, Jeffrey Alan, 47, civilian, mission specialist 3, payload commander, 3rd mission

Previous missions: STS 51-D (1985); STS-35 (1990)

CHANG-DIAZ, Franklin Raymond de Los Angeles, 42, civilian, mission specialist 4, 3rd mission

Previous missions: STS 61-C (1986); STS-34 (1989)

MALERBA, Franco, 46, civilian, Italian Space Agency payload specialist

Flight Log

The launch of STS-46 was delayed just 45 seconds at T — 5 minutes, to verify that the APUs were ready to start. The deployment of the European Space Agency’s European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) was delayed by one day due to a problem with its data-handling system. Following deployment from Atlantis using the RMS, EUR – ECA’s thrusters were fired to boost the platform to its planned operating altitude of about 500 km. The firing was planned to last 24 minutes, but lasted only six minutes due to unexpected altitude data from EURECA. The problem was resolved and the engines were restarted to place the payload in its operational orbit during the sixth day of the mission. EURECA was subsequently retrieved and returned to Earth during the STS-57 mission in 1993.

The EURECA satellite is hoisted above Atlantis’s payload bay by the RMS prior to deploy­ment. The 16-mm lens gives this 35-mm frame a “fish eye’’ effect. The Tethered Satellite System in centre frame is stowed in the payload bay prior to its planned operations later in the mission

The delay to the EURECA deployment also delayed the Tethered Satellite System experiment for a day. The objective of TSS was to demonstrate the technology of long – tethered systems in space and to demonstrate that such systems were useful for research. The investigations planned for the system on this mission included a variety of space plasma physics and electrodynamics investigations. TSS could operate in the upper reaches of the atmosphere at an altitude higher than the operating range of balloons but below that of orbiting satellites, providing prolonged data gathering far beyond that of sounding rockets. The experiment, if successful, would probably lead to follow-on research into the use of tether systems for generating electrical power, spacecraft propulsion, broadcasting from space, studying the atmosphere, using the atmosphere as a wind tunnel and controlled microgravity experiments.

The 518 kg satellite featured a 1.6-meter sphere mounted on both a pallet in the cargo bay and on the Spacelab Mission Peculiar Equipment Support Structure (MPESS) that supports TSS orbiter-based science instruments. The sphere had an electrically conductive surface and carried its science instruments mounted on extend­able booms. The extended boom satellite support structure measured twelve metres when fully extended above the payload bay and the motorised reel used to deploy the satellite could hold up to 108 km of tether (on STS-46, this was limited to 20 km). A data acquisition system would acquire data from the satellite and control it when

deployed. The programme envisaged 30 hours of deployed activity, with twelve experiments gathering data on the satellite, the support structure and the environment in which it was flying.

During this mission, the system suffered several failures. The No. 2 umbilical failed to retract from the tethered satellite and the satellite itself failed to deploy on the first “flyaway” attempt. The deployment was also punctuated by an unplanned stop at 179 metres, a second at 256 metres, and the inability to either deploy or retrieve the satellite at 224 metres. During STS-46, the satellite reached a maximum distance of 256 metres, instead of the planned 20 kilometres on the initial deployment, due to a jammed tether line. Despite numerous attempts over several days to free the tether, TSS operations were curtailed and the satellite successfully stowed for return to Earth. Post-flight investigations revealed that a protruding 4-inch bolt had hampered deploy­ment operations. Slack tether during the deployment operations was also likely to have resulted in the cable snagging in the Upper Tether Control Mechanism.

Frustrated by their setbacks with TSS, the crew nevertheless completed a range of secondary experiments and payloads, working on a two-shift system. Allen, Nicollier and Malerba formed the Blue Team, while Ivins, Hoffman and Chang-Diaz were the Red Team. Mission commander Shriver worked with either team. There were six NASA experiments located in the payload bay. These were designed to study the effects of the space environment on materials and equipment that were planned for future use on Space Station Freedom. The 70 mm IMAX Cargo Bay Camera was also in the payload bay and was remotely controlled by the crew from the aft flight deck to film scenes from the mission for use in future IMAX films. There were also three secondary payloads located in the mid-deck area, which the crew worked on during their flight.

The mission was extended by one day in order to complete science activities. This would be the last flight of Atlantis prior to a scheduled inspection and modification period. This was later extended to include additional modifications that would allow Atlantis to dock with the Mir space station. Atlantis was shipped to Rockwell in October 1992. Its next mission would be STS-66 in 1994.

Milestones

153rd manned space flight

79th US manned space flight

49th Shuttle mission

12th flight of Atlantis

6th flight of Shuttle pallet mission

1st European mission specialist (Nicollier)

1st European RMS operator (Nicollier)

1st Italian in space (Malerba)

TSS-1 was the longest structure ever flown in space (256 metres) Allen celebrates his 37th birthday in space (4 Aug)

Flight Crew

MALENCHENKO, Yuri Ivanovich, 32, Russian Air Force, commander MUSABAYEV, Talgat Amangeldyevich, 43, Russian Air Force, flight engineer

Flight Log

The mission was delayed when the launch shroud designed to protect the spacecraft during its ascent through the atmosphere could not be delivered on time. By the end of June, the shroud had arrived and been installed on the vehicle in preparation for the launch. This was the first all-rookie crew since the Soyuz 25 mission in 1977, as mission planners finally began to have confidence both in the Kurs docking system and in the ability of the cosmonauts to take over manual control of the spacecraft if necessary to complete a docking approach. To align Russian operations with the proposed first American astronaut launch to Mir in March 1995, the EO-16 residency would be only for four months. Most of their first few weeks in space were spent in Earth observation photography, in particular of Kazakhstan around the Aral Sea region.

Confidence in the cosmonauts docking to Mir may have increased, but there were still problems in getting the Progress re-supply craft to link up successfully. On 27 August, the first automated docking of Progress M24 failed. Three days later, the craft bumped into Mir’s forward port before drifting away, hitting a solar array as it went by. With onboard supplies running low, the cosmonauts faced the prospect of abandoning Mir in late September and mothballing it for up to four months if they could not get a Progress to dock to the station. If this had been the case, it was hoped that another crew, and fresh supplies, would have been able to reach the station before its stabilisation propellant ran out. However, all this became academic when Malenchenko successfully used the TORU docking system aboard Mir to skilfully dock Progress M24 by remote control. The docking was critical to a number of events planned for the next Progress supply vehicle and if the station had had to be

abandoned, Polyakov’s record space flight would have been curtailed. It was also fortunate that Malenchenko had docked M24, because it contained over 275 kg of ESA hardware in preparation for the Euro Mir 94 programme that Ulf Merbold would be running alongside the next resident crew. Without this docking, Merbold’s entire mission would have been in doubt.

The EO-16 crew completed two EVAs during their short stay on Mir. The first (9 Sep, 5 hours 6 minutes) focused on an inspection of the docking port hit by Progress M24 and the tear in the thermal blanket caused by the Soyuz TM17 incident. During the EVA, Polyakov monitored his two colleagues from within the space station. After replacing cassettes exposed to space on the outside of Kvant 2, the cosmonauts found that the damage caused by TM17, near to where Kristall joined the base block, was very light. They repaired the 30 cm x 40 cm gap in the thermal insulation blanket and subsequently found that Progress M24 had caused no serious damage to the transfer compartment of Mir. The second EVA (14 Sep, 6 hours 1 minute) was another inspection, this time of the movable arrays on Kristall, which were designed to be relocated on Kvant over a series of EVAs. They also looked at the mounting brackets and solar array drives on Kvant, which would house the arrays. Space exposure cassettes were removed from Rapana and the Sofora was inspected before a new amateur radio antenna was erected. Dr. Polyakov once again monitored EVA opera­tions from inside the Mir, as he was not trained for EVA himself.

Milestones

170th manned space flight

78th Russian manned space flight

25th Russian and 54th flight with EVA operations

19th manned Mir mission

16th Mir resident crew

71st manned Soyuz mission

18th manned Soyuz TM mission

Flight Crew

BAKER, Michael Allen, 43, USN, commander, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-43 (1991); STS-52 (1992); STS-68 (1994)

JETT Jr., Brent Ward, 38, USN, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-72 (1996)

WISOFF, Peter Jeffrey Karl, 38, civilian, mission specialist 1, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-57 (1993); STS 68 (1994)

GRUNSFEFD, John Mace, 38, civilian, mission specialist 2, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-67 (1995)

IVINS, Marsha Sue, 45, civilian, mission specialist 3, 4th mission Previous mission: STS-32 (1990); STS-46 (1992); STS-62 (1994)

NASA 4 Mir crew member up only:

FINENGER, Jerry Michael, 40, USN, mission specialist 4, Mir EO-23 cosmonaut researcher, NASA board engineer 4, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-64 (1994)

NASA 3 Mir crew member down only:

BFAHA, John Elmer, 54, USAF, mission specialist 4, Mir EO-22 cosmonaut researcher, NASA board engineer 3, 5th mission

Previous missions: STS-29 (1989); STS-33 (1989); STS-43 (1991); STS-58 (1993)

Flight Log

John Blaha became the only pilot-astronaut to complete a long-duration residency mission aboard Mir. Before he left Earth, he knew his stay on the station would be

tough. The crew he had trained with (Manakov and Vinogradov) had been replaced by their back-ups (Korzun and Kaleri) shortly before launch, and this new pairing were strangers to the American. Blaha’s first month was a difficult one, with bouts of depression, but he overcame this by talking to NASA ground controllers in Moscow who read up NFL scores during the season. He was unable to vote in the US Presidential election, however, as legal complications in his Houston voting district prevented him from securing a computer electronic ballot in time. Blaha also became the first American to spend Christmas and New Year in orbit since the crew of Skylab 4 in 1973. During his stay on Mir, Blaha operated a range of experiments that had been used by Lucid, together with a new tissue growth experiment, a protein crystal growth experiment, a study of alloy crystallisation and a number of technology experiments, some of which were linked to body motion during his time aboard the station. Similar experiments were completed during the Skylab missions.

Atlantis docked with Mir on 14 January and shortly after transferring to the station, Linenger exchanged his Soyuz seat liner with that of Blaha, marking the point that Linenger took over as the Mir resident. During five days of docked operations, the joint crews transferred over 2,700 kg of logistics to Mir, including about 725 kg of water, 516 kg of US science equipment and 1,000 kg of Russian logistics and equipment. Over 1,088 kg of material was transferred to Atlantis for return to Earth, including the first plants to complete a lifecycle in space – a crop of wheat grown from seed to seed.

The crew also evaluated the Treadmill Vibration Isolation and Stabilisation System (TVIS), which was located on the Shuttle but was intended for use on the Russian segment of ISS. Other ISS-related investigations included the firing of the vernier jets of Atlantis to record the stability of docked spacecraft and gather further engineering data on the behaviour of large masses docked in space. Atlantis undocked, with Blaha on board, on 19 January and conducted what was becoming a traditional fly-around of the space complex before heading for landing. The orbiter touched down during the second landing opportunity three days later.

Milestones

194th manned space flight

111th US manned space flight

81st Shuttle mission

18th flight of Atlantis

5th Shuttle-Mir docking

7th SpaceHab flight (2nd double module)

Linenger celebrates his 41st birthday in space (16 Jan)

2000-010A 11 February 2000

Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida 22 February 2000

Runway 33, Shuttle Landing Facility, KSC, Florida OV-105 Endeavour/ET-92/SRB BI-100/SSME #1 2052; #2 2044; #3 2047 11 days 5hrs 39 min 41 sec Endeavour

Acquisition of high-resolution topographical map of Earth’s land masses (between 60°N and 56°S) by radar

Flight Crew

KREGEL, Kevin Richard, 43, civilian, commander, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-70 (1995); STS-78 (1996); STS-87 (1997)

GORIE, Dominic Lee Pudwell, 42, USN, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-91 (1998)

THIELE, Gerard Paul Julius, 46, civilian, ESA mission specialist 1 KAVANDI, Janet Lynn, 40, civilian, mission specialist 2, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-91 (1998)

VOSS, Janice Elaine, 43, civilian, mission specialist 3, payload commander,

5th mission

Previous missions: STS-57 (1993); STS-63 (1995); STS-83 (1997); STS-94 (1997) MOHRI, Mamoru Mark, 52, civilian, Japanese, mission specialist 4,

2nd mission

Previous mission: STS-47 (1992)

Flight Log

The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) used modified versions of the radar instruments that had flown on the two SRL Shuttle missions in 1994. In addition to providing the topographical radar images of Earth, the mission also tested new technologies for the deployment of large, ridged structures in space, and recorded measurements of their distortion to an extremely high precision. Space-borne imaging radar from the Shuttle had previously been flown on STS-2 (SIR-A) in 1981 and STS 41-G (SIR-B) in 1984, as well as a German experiment on STS-9 (Spacelab 1) in 1983 and the two SRL Shuttle missions (SIR-C) in 1994.

The launch date of STS-99 was originally set for 16 September 1999, but was postponed until October due to the Shuttle fleet wiring concerns and the subsequent remedial action. With so much work to do on the wiring issue, it was decided to launch

STS-99 no earlier than 19 November, and for a while, either the radar mission or the Hubble service mission (STS-103) could have flown first. In October, it was decided to fly the Hubble mission before STS-99. The SRTM launch therefore slipped to 13 January 2000 and then, after a review, to 31 January. That attempt was scrubbed at the T — 9 minute mark due to adverse weather. Then the launch moved from 9 to 11 February in order to work on some minor technical issues, three of which had to be addressed during the planned T — 9 minute hold on the day of launch delaying lift-off by about 14 minutes.

Once in orbit, the crew configured the vehicle for its orbital science mission. This included extending the SRTM to its full mast length of 61 metres from the payload bay over Endeavour’s left wing. After checking out the orbiter and payload, the mapping began some 12 hours into the mission. The crew worked in two 12-hour shifts, with Kregel, Thiele and Kavandi as Red Shift and Gorie, Voss and Mohri as Blue Shift, and the mission was flown using an attitude hold period for radar mapping and flying the orbiter in a tail-first configuration. One pair of radar antennas were in the payload bay, with the other pair at the end of the boom, providing stereo images of the ground the vehicle flew over in C-band and X-band wavelengths, recording data in two wavelengths from two locations simultaneously. This would also provide 3D maps after the mission that were thirty times more accurate than any previous attempts.

Tests were also made on gas jets located at the end of the boom to absorb the firing of the orbiter’s thrusters. Alignment of the radar sensors was vital for accurate data, but it was essential to reduce the strain on the mast when the vehicle was moved. By firing a brief RCS burn, the mast deflected slightly backwards and then rebounded forward. Once returned to vertical, a stronger RCS thrust was applied, arresting the mast’s motion but increasing the orbital speed of the vehicle. It was noted on FD 2 that orbiter propellant usage had been higher than expected due to the failure of a cold gas thruster system on the end of the mast to offset the gravity gradient torque. This meant that more propellant was being used to maintain the attitude of the vehicle for data sweeps. Measurements were taken to reduce fuel expenditure and it was deter­mined that enough propellant could be saved to complete the full mission as planned.

At the end of data gathering on FD 10, a total of 222 hours and 23 minutes of mapping had been achieved, covering 99.98 per cent of the planned mapping area once and 94.6 per cent of it twice. There remained only 207,000 km2 (80,000 miles2) in scattered areas uncovered, but most of this was in North America, which had previously been well-mapped. Over 123.2 million km2 (47.6 million miles2) had been mapped, with enough data on 32 high-density tapes aboard Endeavour to fill 20,000 CDs, or the entire book content of the US Library of Congress. It was estimated that it would take over two years to fully process the data.

Also aboard Endeavour was a student experiment called EarthKam, which took 2,715 digital photos during the mission through an overhead flight deck window. Students from 84 participating middle schools around the world could select photo targets and receive images via the Internet, supporting their class work in Earth science, geography, maths and space sciences. The landing was achieved on the second opportunity at KSC, with the first attempt having been waived off due to high crosswinds at the SLF.

Milestones

215th manned space flight

127th US manned space flight

97th Shuttle mission

14th flight of Endeavour

5th Shuttle mission featuring imaging radar