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. SOYUZ TM10
Flight Crew
MANAKOV, Gennady Mikhailovich, 40, Soviet Air Force, commander STREKALOV, Gennady Mikhailovich, 49, civilian, flight engineer, 4th mission Previous missions: Soyuz T3 (1980), Soyuz T8 (1983), Soyuz T10-1 (1983); Soyuz T11 (1984)
Flight Log
The two Gennadys comprised the seventh Mir resident crew and were launched with four live Japanese quails for the Inkubator 2 experiment on board Mir. They would be used in “adaptation to weightlessness” experiments. During the two-day flight to Mir, one of the older quails “laid” an egg and this was returned to Earth with the TM9 crew. The TM10 spacecraft docked with the rear port of Kvant 1 on 3 August. Following the period of handover from the TM9 crew, which included a rather extensive review of where everything was stored, the new crew had a relatively quiet residency aboard the station. Their mission had been delayed ten days to allow the Mir-6 crew to complete their commissioning of systems aboard the Kristall module.
During their residency aboard Mir, Manakov and Strekalov had the primary engineering task of rewiring the base block’s power supply, as well as attempting to repair the Kvant 2 EVA hatch that had been damaged during the previous mission. They would also continue the wide programme of scientific work aboard the complex. After a long and frustrating wait, Strekalov finally achieved his goal of a long – duration mission, having previously flown to Salyut 6 and 7 on short visiting missions. He was also a hardened veteran space explorer, having been a crew member of the 1983 Soyuz T8 docking abort and the T10-1 launch pad abort. In boarding Mir, he became one of the first cosmonauts to visit three separate space stations. The only EVA of the mission had been planned for 19 October, but Strekalov developed a head cold, delaying it until 30 October. When the two cosmonauts inspected the damaged
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The crew of Soyuz TM10: Manakov (left) and Strekalov |
hinge plate they were scheduled to replace, it was found to be deformed beyond repair. Instead, they installed a special latch to ensure that the hatch could be closed and used until fully repaired. With the repair task not deemed to be urgent, it was deferred to the next resident crew, who would fit a replacement unit. The EVA lasted 3 hours 45 minutes.
During this mission, the station was supplied by two Progress cargo craft. Progress M4 docked on 17 August, delivering power cables and TV equipment for the upcoming Japanese commercial mission. Before it was undocked, the crew attached a small experiment to the docking assembly, which was activated on 17 September when the ferry undocked. During station keeping, about 100 metres from Mir, artificial plasma was created around the Progress and this was filmed by the cosmonauts. Progress M5, which arrived on 29 September, carried more TV equipment for the Japanese mission. It also featured the first Raduga recoverable capsule system that could return about 150 kg of experiment material, the trade-off being a reduction in the cargo capacity of the vehicle. The Raduga capsule featured a truncated cone that would eject from the descending Orbital Module at about 120 km, just prior to the module’s fiery destruction in the atmosphere. At 15,000 metres, air pressure sensors successfully triggered the parachute deployment and Raduga was successfully retrieved. It returned 115 kg of payload.
The 7th expedition completed their mission on 10 December, returning to Earth in the TM10 capsule along with the first Japanese cosmonaut, TV journalist Toyohiro Akiyama, who had arrived with the 8th expedition crew in Soyuz TM11 on 4 December.
Milestones
134th manned space flight
69th Soviet/Russian manned space flight
62nd Soyuz manned space flight
9th Soyuz TM manned space flight
17th Soviet and 40th flight with EVA operations
7th Mir resident crew
1st use of the Raduga return capsule
Strekalov celebrates his 50th birthday in orbit (28 October)
. SOYUZ TM15Flight Crew SOLOVYOV, Anatoly Yakovlevich, 44, Russian Air Force, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: Soyuz TM5 (1988); Soyuz TM9 (1990) AVDEYEV, Sergei Vasilyevich, 36, civilian, flight engineer TOGNINI, Michel Ange Charles, 42, French Air Force, cosmonaut researcher Flight Log The Kurs system failed once again during the automated docking approach of Soyuz TM15 to Mir, forcing commander Solovyov to conduct a manual docking. During Tognini’s twelve days on Mir, a programme of ten experiments were completed, encompassing medical and technological experiments under the French Antares programme. This was the third French flight to a space station, but the first commercial one. The earlier flights had proven so productive that CNES had arranged a series of missions every two years, building up a valuable database of orbital operations experience that could be applied to future programmes, such as the Freedom Space Station or dedicated French Shuttle/Spacelab missions that were under consideration (but which did not materialise). Tognini would return with the EO-11 crew in TM14. The two Russian cosmonauts continued the rotation of resident crew teams on Mir, operating the onboard instruments during their work shifts, and ensuring that some would continue to operate autonomously while they were busy doing other things or were sleeping. Progress M14 docked on 18 August and its cargo included a 700 kg Vynosnaya Dvigatyelnaya Ustanovka (Outer Engine Unit), which was located in place of the tanker unit on the supply vessel. After it was automatically unloaded by commands from the ground on 2 September, the cosmonauts’ task would be to install
it on top of the Sofora girder that was mounted on Kvant. This new unit would improve the attitude control capabilities of the complex. The cosmonauts’ first excursion (3 September, 3 hours 56 minutes) saw them relocate the VDU unit from Progress to the worksite and prepare the girder for accepting the device. Four days later, the crew were back at the worksite (7 September, 5 hours 8 minutes) and bent the Sofora girder at a hinge point, one-third of the way down its length, to make the area where the unit would be placed more accessible. They fitted a communications cable along the girder and also took the opportunity to remove the USSR flag (or what was left of it after orbital debris and UV deterioration had taken their toll) that had been deployed the previous year. Four days later, the crew went outside for their third EVA (11 September, 5 hours 44 minutes) to attach the VDU atop the Sofora girder, which they then straightened to its full length. The final EVA of this residency (15 September, 3 hours 33 minutes) saw the cosmonauts relocate the Kurs antenna to the Kristall module. This would enable the next crew to arrive (aboard Soyuz TM16) to dock there, as the Progress M15 spacecraft would still be attached at the aft port when the new crew arrived. Solovyov and Avdeyev also took the opportunity to remove solar cells and material samples from the exterior of the station for return to Earth. Towards the end of their residency, the crew used the base block airlock to eject a 16.5 kg satellite, called MAK-2, which would study the characteristics of the ionosphere. On 8 November, there was a “near miss” when the 55 kg Cosmos 1508 satellite (launched in 1983) passed within 300 metres of Mir. The end of the Progress M14 mission also saw the return of the fifth Raduga (Rainbow) payload recovery system, carrying approximately 150 kg of samples from Mir back to Earth. Milestones 152nd manned space flight 74th Russian manned space flight 22nd Russian and 47th flight with EVA operations 15th Soyuz flight to Mir 12th main Mir crew 10th visiting crew (Tognini) 67th Soyuz manned mission 14th Soyuz TM manned mission Avdeyev celebrates his 37th birthday in space (1 Jan) Solovyov celebrates his 45th birthday in space (16 Jan)
Flight Crew GUTIERREZ, Sidney McNeill, 42, USAF, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-40 (1990) CHILTON, Kevin Patrick, 39, USAF, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-49 (1992) APT, Jerome “Jay”, 44, civilian, mission specialist 1, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-37 (1991); STS-47 (1992) CLIFFORD, Michael Richard Uram, 41, USAF, mission specialist 2, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-53 (1992) GODWIN, Linda Maxine, 41, civilian, mission specialist 3, payload commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-37 (1991) JONES, Thomas David, 39, civilian, mission specialist 4 Flight Log In 1991, NASA expanded its many-faceted programme of Earth studies into a global examination of how Earth’s systems (air, water, land and life) interact with each other and affect or influence changes in the global climate. The new programme was designated Mission to Planet Earth and was divided into phases. The initial phase began in 1991, using satellites such as UARS (deployed from STS-48) and dedicated Shuttle missions (such as the ATLAS series) supported by airborne and ground-based studies. Part of this first phase was the Space Radar Laboratory series. Originally a programme of three missions, STS-59 was the first of the eventual two that actually flew. The primary advantage of radar imaging is the ability to gather data over virtually any region of the Earth regardless of weather conditions. A similar programme was undertaken by the Magellan probe at the shrouded planet Venus. Observational
imaging radar had been carried previously on STS-2 in 1981 (SIR-A) and STS 41-G in 1984 (SIR-B), and it was the latest variety (SIR-C) that was carried aboard STS-59. The system comprised C-Band (6 cm wavelength) and L-band (23 cm wavelength) radars – four in total – with separate horizontally (H) and vertically (V) polarised units for both bands, and steered electronically. In addition, the mission carried X-SAR, a mechanically-pointed single radar unit (X-band, 3 cm wavelength). There was also an experiment that analysed ocean radar data supplied by SIR-C, as well as MAOS, a carbon monoxide monitoring, sensing and Earth photography package that had flown previously on STS-2 and STS 41-G. The 7 April launch of STS-59 was postponed for a day at the T — 27 hour mark in order to facilitate an inspection of the metal vanes inside the SSME high-pressure oxidiser pre-burner pumps. The 8 April launch was scrubbed due to bad weather, with low clouds and high crosswinds at the SLF and cloud around the launch pad, but Endeavour launched without incident the following day. Once in orbit, the spacecraft was configured for orbital operations and the crew split into their two shifts, with the Red Shift (Gutierrez, Chilton and Godwin) starting their sleep period and the Blue Shift (Apt, Clifford and Jones) commencing the first series of data gathering. They worked from the aft flight deck as the mission carried no Spacelab or SpaceHab module. After some initial set-up problems, the information came streaming in and was stored on VCR data cassettes. There were 180 such cassettes aboard the Shuttle, enough to support the planned 50 hours of data collection while covering an estimated 50 million square km of the Earth. This was an international mission, with 49 science investigators and over 100 scientists from 13 nations making up the international science team. The mission focused on the “dry season”, with SRL-2 (STS-68) planned to cover the “wet season” later in the year. This allowed the scientists to compare data from the same sites under different global climate conditions. STS-59 obtained over 133 hours of data (32 terabits, or 32 trillion bits). With SIR-C/X-SAR eventually examining approximately 70 million km of the Earth – representing 12 per cent of the Earth’s total surface and 25 per cent of its land masses – there was enough data to fill 20,000 encyclopaedic volumes. The data-gathering operations were the equivalent of 45 TV stations operating at the same time. Even with advances in digital processing, it would still take five months to process a complete set of images and another nine months of detailed processing after that. At the close of the mission the crew had imaged over 400 sites, including 19 primary observation sites (called super-sites) in Brazil, Michigan, North Carolina and Central Europe. The crew also found time to work on a variety of secondary and mid-deck payloads and to use the SAREX equipment to talk with both the Russian cosmonauts on Mir and with US astronauts Norman Thagard and Bonnie Dunbar, who were training at TsPK in Moscow. STS-59 also carried three GAS candidate experiments, sponsored by researchers in France, Japan and New Mexico. Perhaps most importantly, the mission also carried the Toughened Uni-piece Fibrous Insulation (TUFI), an improved Thermal Protection System (TPS) tile. Scheduled for a six-flight evaluation on all four orbiters, if successful, it was hoped that this fibrous insulation would prove more resilient to impacts in specific areas of the orbiter, such as between the engines, near the landing gear doors and around the orbital manoeuvring thrusters. Several of these new tiles were placed on the base heat shield of Endeavour between the three main engines, for evaluation during the flight and primarily during entry. Post-flight examination revealed no damage on the six tiles installed for the test. The tests ultimately proved successful and TUFI was added to the TPS on the Shuttle from 1996. Two landing opportunities at Kennedy were cancelled on 19 April due to bad weather. A third chance of bringing Endeavour home to the Cape on 20 April was also waived off, in favour of landing at Edwards. Milestones 169th manned space flight 92nd US manned space flight 62nd Shuttle mission 6th flight of OV-105 1st flight of SRL payload configuration 1st flight of TUFI – improved thermal protection tile samples . SOYUZ TM24Flight Crew KORZUN, Valery Grigoryevich, 46, Russian Air Force, commander KALERI, Alexandr Yuriyevich, 40, civilian, flight engineer, 2nd mission Previous mission: Soyuz TM14 (1992) ANDRE-DESHAYS, Claudie, 39, civilian, cosmonaut researcher Flight Log The original crew for this mission were supposed to have been Expedition 22 crew members Gennady Manakov (commander) and Pavel Vinogradov (flight engineer), along with French cosmonaut Claudie Andre-Deshays. However, just one week before launch, Manakov failed a regular medical check and the back-up crew of Korzun and Kaleri took the place of the Russian prime crew. Since she was not part of the main crew, Andre-Deshays was able to remain on the mission. The change did not have much effect on Shannon Lucid, who was nearing the end of her stay on Mir, but the next US resident astronaut, John Blaha, had not trained with either Korzun or Kaleri. This would prove a challenging hurdle for the American to overcome after he replaced Lucid on Mir in September. The French Cassiopee programme included cardiovascular and neurosensory investigations. There was also a technology experiment that recorded vibrations aboard the station while there were more than the normal resident crew aboard, as well as a materials-processing experiment. After two weeks aboard Mir, Andre – Deshays returned with the EO-21 crew, leaving Lucid to complete her residency with the new cosmonauts prior to the arrival of Blaha on STS-79. Andre-Deshays commented that two weeks was nowhere near sufficient time to adjust to life on Mir and to complete all her experiment programme, but with two more French long-duration visits already booked, this was not expected to be a problem for future French cosmonauts.
On 7 September, Lucid surpassed Kondakova’s record for the longest female space flight. Ten days later, with her return Shuttle flight already in space, she surpassed Reiter’s 179-day record for a visiting cosmonaut. When Blaha took over, he continued the programme of experiments started by Lucid, but also brought some new ones. During his stay on Mir, it appeared he was enjoying his residency, and it was only after he came home that he revealed it had been a difficult mission. He was replaced on Mir in January 1997 by Jerry Linenger, who would remain with the EO-22 crew for a month before the next resident crew took over. The EO-22 cosmonauts completed two EVAs during their stay on Mir; the first on 2 December lasted 5 hours 58 minutes, and the second, a week later, lasted 6 hours 38 minutes. Their work outside included the completion of MCSA cable installation. They also relocated the Rapana girder to the top of the new Stombus girder on the underside of Kvant and on their second EVA, they had to reinstall antennae they had dislodged during their first excursion. Back inside the station, in addition to the regular maintenance and housekeeping chores, the cosmonauts continued the research programme and assisted their various visitors with their research objectives. One of the more challenging events at the end of their residency was the fire on 24 February 1997, which was the result of a split chemical burner in the Vika unit in Kvant 1. The use of “candles” to supplement the oxygen output of the Elektron regeneration system was typical when more than three cosmonauts were aboard Mir. But this time, the unit had split and released oxygen into the electronics, causing a jet of flame to shoot across the area. For an hour or so, the crew (by this point including Linenger) wore oxygen masks until the station’s filtration system finally began dissipating the thick black smoke. The crew reported some eye irritation, but no lingering damage was found from smoke inhalation, although filtration masks were still worn for a few days afterwards as a precaution. The faulty canister was stored in the Soyuz TM24 Descent Module for return to Earth and post-flight examination. Both EO-22 cosmonauts made the return journey with German cosmonaut Ewald. Milestones 191st manned space flight 83rd Russian manned space flight 76th manned Soyuz mission 23rd manned Soyuz TM mission 29th Russian and 63rd flight with EVA operations 4th French long-duration mission (16 days)
Flight Crew READDY, William Francis, 44, civilian, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-42 (1992); STS-51 (1993) WILCUTT, Terrence Wade, 46, USMC, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-68 (1994) APT, Jerome “Jay”, 47, civilian, mission specialist 1, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-37 (1991); STS-47 (1992); STS-59 (1994) AKERS, Thomas Dale, 45, USAF, mission specialist 2, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-41 (1990); STS-49 (1992); STS-61 (1993) WALZ, Carl Erwin, 41, USAF, mission specialist 3, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-51 (1993); STS-65 (1994) NASA-3 Mir crew member up only: BLAHA, John Elmer, 54, USAF, mission specialist 4, EO-22 cosmonaut researcher, NASA board engineer 3, 5th mission Previous missions: STS-29 (1989); STS-33 (1989); STS-43 (1991); STS-58 (1993) NASA-2 Mir crew member down only: LUCID, Shannon Wells, 53, civilian PhD, mission specialist 4, EO-21 cosmonaut researcher, NASA board engineer 2, 5th mission Previous missions: STS 51-G (1985); STS-34 (1989); STS-43 (1991); STS-58 (1993) Flight Log During her six-month stay on Mir, Shannon Lucid had conducted research in advanced technology, Earth sciences, fundamental biology, human life sciences,
microgravity research and space sciences. She also won admiration for keeping cheerful despite delays in getting her home, firstly for the technical problems with the SRBs, and then for weather problems with two hurricanes. She kept track of the time on Mir by wearing pink socks each Sunday, and relieved any boredom by reading several books. Her daughter had given her one novel, but she had not included the sequel, which was a little frustrating to the orbiting astronaut. The original 31 July launch of STS-79 was delayed when the two SRBs were swapped as the adhesives used on them were the same as that on STS-78, where a hot – gas path into the J-joints on the motor field joints was discovered. The SRB set intended for STS-80, which used the older type of adhesive, was fitted to STS-79 while Atlantis was back in the VAB due to the weather threat from Hurricane Bertha. The new launch, set for 12 September, was further delayed to 16 September when Atlantis was rolled back to the VAB a second time due to the threat of Hurricane Fran. The third launch attempt occurred on time, and though APU 2 powered down prematurely 13 minutes into the flight, mission management deemed it safe to continue with a nominal full-term mission. The docking of STS-79 with Mir occurred on FD 3 (18 September) and a few hours after opening the hatches, Lucid and Blaha exchanged places, with Blaha becoming a member of the Mir resident crew (EO-22) and Lucid replacing him as MS4 on the Shuttle crew. During the five days of joint operations, over 1,600 kg of supplies were transferred to the space station, including food, water and three new experiments. About 900 kg of material was transferred back to the Shuttle, including experiment samples and unwanted equipment. The crew also operated three experiments that remained in the Shuttle during their stay at Mir. One was an extreme translation furnace that allowed space-based processing up to 1,600°C. The second was a commercial protein crystal growth experiment, and the third was the Mechanics of Granular Materials experiment designed to study the behaviour of cohesionless granular material, which was particularly applicable to understanding how the surface of the Earth responds during earthquakes and landslides. The vernier jets of Atlantis were used near the end of the mission to lower the Shuttle’s orbit slightly. This was another test of operations planned for the upcoming Hubble service mission planned for 1997, in which the jets could refine and raise the orbit of the telescope while it was still in the payload bay. When Lucid was approached by the team assigned to carry her off the Shuttle after her six-month mission, she dismissed them, determining to walk of the vehicle herself. This she managed to do, walking (with some assistance) to the Crew Transfer Vehicle. Milestones 192nd manned space flight 109th US manned space flight 79th Shuttle mission 17th flight of Atlantis 4th Shuttle-Mir docking 6th SpaceHab mission (1st double module) 1st US resident crew exchange New female world space flight endurance record (Lucid) 1st double rollback to VAB
Flight Crew COCKRELL, Kenneth Dale, 46, civilian, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-56 (1993); STS-69 (1995) ROMINGER, Kent Vernon, 40, USN, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-73 (1995) JERNIGAN, Tamara Elizabeth, 37, civilian, mission specialist 1, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-40 (1991); STS-52 (1992); STS-67 (1995) JONES, Thomas David, 41, civilian, mission specialist 2, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-59 (1994); STS-68 (1994) MUSGRAVE, Story Franklin, 61, civilian, mission specialist 3, 6th mission Previous missions: STS-6 (1983); STS 51-F (1985); STS-33 (1989); STS-44 (1991); STS-61 (1993) Flight Log The original launch date for this mission of 31 October was slipped to 8 November due both to the removal of its SRBs to the STS-79 mission, and as a precaution due to concerns over Hurricane Fran. Engineers wanted more time to analyse the booster nozzles from STS-79 and with a 13 November Atlas launch planned, STS-80 was rescheduled for 15 November. Although the Atlas launch was scrubbed, STS-80 actually slipped further, to 19 November, in order to clear the bad weather that was predicted to lie around the Cape for several days. A three-minute delay to the launch was caused by concerns over hydrogen conditions in the aft engine compartment and when the SRBs were examined post-retrieval, they indicated some erosion – although far less than on STS-79. The mission was a successful demonstration of the deployment and retrieval of two separate free-flying research spacecraft. The ORFEUS-SPAS II was deployed on FD 1 and became a two-week independent mission before retrieval on FD 15. The mission of the satellite was devoted to astronomical observations at very short
MS Tom Jones uses the controls at the aft flight deck of Columbia to conduct tests with the captured WSF, seen though the window on the end of the RMS at frame centre wavelengths, using three primary scientific instruments and a secondary payload. The primary instruments were the ORFEUS 2.4 m focal length telescope, the Far UV spectrograph and the Extreme UV Spectrograph. The secondary payload was the Interstellar Medium Absorption Profile Spectrograph. The objective was to investigate the nature of hot stellar atmospheres and the cooling mechanisms of white dwarf stars, to determine the nature of accretion disks around collapsed stars, to investigate supernova remnants and interstellar media, and to examine potential star-forming regions. During the two-week mission, no significant problems were reported and all mission goals were achieved. Some 422 observations of about 150 astronomical objects were conducted, including the Moon, nearby stars, distant stars in the Milky Way, stars in other galaxies, active galaxies and quasar 3C273. With more sensitive instruments giving better quality data, almost twice as much information and data was obtained than on the first ORFEUS flight. On FD 4 the WSF-3 was deployed. This time it was highly successful and achieved the maximum seven growths of thin film semi-conductor material, with the satellite performing almost flawlessly. It was retrieved during FD 7 for return to Earth. As with most Shuttle missions, the flight also carried a range of mid-deck and payload bay experiments that formed part of the secondary payloads and objectives. Two planned six-hour EVAs by Jernigan (EV1) and Jones (EV2), designed to gather further knowledge and experience in preparation for the ISS programme, had to be abandoned when a stuck EVA hatch thwarted attempts to leave the airlock during EVA 1. Despite crew attempts during the mission to discover the cause, it was not until Columbia was back on the ground that engineers discovered that a small screw had become loose in the internal assembly and had lodged in an actuator, the gearbox-type device that operated the linkage to secure the hatch. When a new actuator was installed, the hatch worked perfectly. Though unable to complete the EVAs, the crew did still manage to evaluate a new pistol grip tool – resembling a hand-held drill – in the mid-deck during the mission. The two-day waive-off for landing due to weather conditions in Florida resulted in this mission becoming the longest in Shuttle history and gave the crew an extra opportunity to look at the view out of the window. For Musgrave, this was particularly poignant, as this would be his last flight. He was fully appreciative of the chance to take a leisurely view of the Earth from orbit, knowing he would not be returning for a seventh mission. A condition of his being able to fly this mission was that he would retire from the active flight list when it was over. Musgrave set a record of six space Shuttle flights (equalling John Young’s career space flight record of Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle flights) and became the oldest person in space at the age of 61. He also became the only astronaut to fly on each of the five Shuttles capable of orbital flight, including twice on Challenger. Milestones 193rd manned space flight 110th US manned space flight 80th Shuttle mission 21st flight of Columbia New Shuttle mission duration record 3rd flight of Wake Shield Facility Musgrave becomes the oldest person in space, aged 61
Flight Crew BROWN Jr., Curtis Lee, 43, USAF, commander, 6th mission Previous missions: STS-47 (1992); STS-66 (1994); STS-77 (1996); STS-85 (1997); STS-95 (1998) KELLY, Scott Joseph, 35, USN, pilot SMITH, Steven Lee, 40, civilian, mission specialist 1, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-68 (1994); STS-82 (1997) CLERVOY, Jean-Francois Andre, 41, civilian, ESA mission specialist 2, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-66 (1994); STS-84 (1997) GRUNSFELD, John Mace, 41, civilian, mission specialist 3, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-67 (1995); STS-81 (1997) FOALE, Colin Michael, 42, civilian, mission specialist 4, 5th mission Previous missions: STS-45 (1992); STS-56 (1993); STS-63 (1995); STS-84/86 (1997) NICOLLIER, Claude, 55, civilian, ESA mission specialist 5, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-46 (1992); STS-61 (1993); STS-75 (1996) Flight Log This mission faced nine scrubs or delays due to mechanical issues or the weather, before finally reaching orbit. The mission had been scheduled for June 2000, but when the third of six gyroscopes on Hubble had failed, the service mission was divided into two separate Shuttle missions and the first was advanced. STS-103 was now due to fly in October 1999 and the second mission would follow in 2001. In mid-August, Shuttle management decided to inspect the wiring of the Shuttle fleet after the incidents during the STS-93 launch in July. As a result, STS-103 had a new launch date of 23 October, but the amount of work required to complete the repairs saw the launch put back further to 19 November. This gave NASA the option of launching either STS-103 or
the Space Radar Topography Mission (STS-99) first. On 13 November, Hubble was placed in safe mode when a fourth gyroscope failed. It was left pointing its arrays constantly at the Sun to generate electrical power, pending the service mission. During the first weeks of December, seven new launch dates were set before the vehicle finally left the pad. The causes for the delays varied from the discovery of a 1.5-cm-long drill bit lodged in main engine #3 (the engine was replaced on the pad), to additional wiring damage in an umbilical between the Orbiter and ET, to the Thanksgiving holiday. There were also repairs to a dented LH main propulsion line, the inspection and verification of a number of welds in pressure lines, and problems with the weather. With the launch planned for 19 December, mission managers had decided to restrict the mission duration to eight days instead of the planned ten, to ensure that all flight and ground systems were secured for transition to year 2000. Shuttle computers are unable to operate over the change of year, and with the change to year 2000 expected to highlight additional glitches, NASA wanted to ensure it did not have a vehicle flying or linked to active ground systems at this time. The first few days in the orbiter consisted of adjustments to the orbit and preparations for the work ahead. It took 30 orbits to reach the Hubble, which was captured by RMS on 21 December. Three EVAs were completed by the crew. Steve Smith (EV1) and John Grunsfeld (EV2) completed the first and third excursions, while Mike Foale (EV3) and ESA Astronaut Claude Nicollier (EV4) performed the mission’s second EVA. During EVA 1 (22 Dec, 8 hours 16 minutes), the astronauts replaced the three Rate Sensor Units which each contained two of the gyroscopes, and installed six cell-phone-sized Voltage/Temperature Improvement Kits between the telescope’s six ten-year-old batteries and its solar arrays. These would prevent overheating and overcharging of the batteries. EVA 2 (23 Dec, 8 hours 10 minutes) saw the astronauts install a new computer in the telescope which was 20 times faster than its older unit. They also installed a new fine-guidance sensor. The final EVA (24 Dec, 8 hours 8 minutes) included the installation of a transmitter to send scientific information from the telescope to the ground, replacing the one that had failed the year before. This was a delicate operation, as the transmitter was not part of the telescope and was not designed to be replaced by the astronauts. However, using specially designed tools, they achieved the task, demonstrating the value of utilising humans to effect repairs and servicing on units that otherwise could not be replaced or repaired. The final EVA also saw the installation of a solid state digital recorder, to replace one of the older mechanical reel-to-reel recorders. Hubble was released back into orbit on Christmas Day 1999. This was only the third time that an American crew had been in space at Christmas aboard an American spacecraft. The first was the historic Apollo 8 mission around the Moon in 1968 and the second was during the third and final Skylab (SL-4) mission in 1973. In addition, astronauts John Blaha and Dave Wolf had spent Christmas and New Year aboard Mir with Russian colleagues in 1996 and 1997 respectively. Milestones 214th manned space flight 126th US manned space flight 6th Shuttle mission 27th flight of Discovery 42nd US and 74th flight with EVA operations 3rd HST service mission 1st ESA astronaut to perform EVA from Shuttle (Nicollier) STS-112 |
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Int. Designation |
2002-047A |
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Launched |
7 October 2002 |
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Launch Site |
Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida |
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Landed |
18 October 2002 |
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Landing Site |
Runway 33, Shuttle Landing Facility, KSC, Florida |
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Launch Vehicle |
OV-104 Atlantis/ET-115/SRB BI-115/SSME #1 2048; #2 2051; #3 2047 |
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Duration |
10 days 19 hrs 58 min 44 sec |
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Call sign |
Atlantis |
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Objective |
ISS assembly flight 9A; delivery and installation of S1 Truss and Crew Equipment Translation Aid (CETA) cart A |
Flight Crew
ASHBY, Jeffrey Shears, 48, USN, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-93 (1999); STS-100 (2001)
MELROY, Pamela Ann, 41, USAF, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-92 (2000)
WOLF, David Alan, civilian, mission specialist 1, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-58 (1993); STS-86/89 (1997)
MAGNUS, Sandra Hall, 37, civilian, mission specialist 2 SELLERS, Piers John, 47, civilian, mission specialist 3
YURCHIKIN, Fyodor Nikolayevich, 43, civilian, Russian mission specialist 4
Flight Log
Hurricane Lili, out in the Gulf of Mexico, had threatened mission control at JSC, and as the path of the storm could not be determined until late in its track, the decision was taken to power down the Houston centre. This meant that the original launch date for STS-112 of 2 October had to be rescheduled for 7 October. On launch, a back-up separation pyrotechnic system had to be used to release one of the SRBs from the launch platform when the primary charge failed to sever the hold-down bolts and release ground connections to the ET.
Docking of Atlantis to ISS was achieved on 9 October. The primary objective of this flight was the transfer and installation of the S1 Truss and the Crew Equipment Translation Aid (CETA) cart A. This was the first of two human-powered carts designed to traverse along the MBS rail, providing mobile work platforms for future EVA operations. The relocation of the truss was achieved the day after the docking, with MS Sandra Magnus and ISS SO Peggy Whitson using the Canadarm2 to relocate the truss at the starboard end of the S0 Truss by means of four remotely-controlled bolts.
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The International Space Station as of October 2002. The departing Atlantis crew photographed the station following the undocking, and the newly added Starboard 1 (S1) Truss is visible in upper centre frame |
During the first EVA (10 Oct for 7 hours 1 minute), Wolf (EV1) and Sellers (EV2) connected power, data and fluid lines and released launch bolts that allowed the S1 radiators to be orientated for optimum cooling. They also deployed a new S-band antenna near the end of the S1 Truss to increase voice communications capability with ground controllers. After releasing the launch restraints on the CETA-A, the two astronauts installed S1’s nadir external camera. EVA 2 (12 Oct for 6 hours 4 minutes) featured further work with CETA, the installation of 22 Spool Positioning Devices (SPD) on the ammonia cooling line connections and a second exterior camera, this time on the Destiny lab, and the preparation and checking of equipment to support the attachment of the next truss section. EVA 3 (14 Oct for 6 hours 36 minutes) focused on connecting ammonia lines, removing a structural support clamp and installing SPDs on a pump assembly, as well as removing a bolt that prevented the activation of a cable cutter on the Mobile Transporter.
In between the EVAs, the STS-112 crew worked with the ISS-5 crew to transfer 816 kg of logistics and supplies to the ISS. Approximately the same mass was brought back by the Shuttle at the end of the mission. The crews also repaired the exercise treadmill vibration dampening system in Zvezda, adjusted protective circuits which measured electrical current on the S1 radiator assembly to a greater tolerance for its use in space, and removed and replaced a humidity separator in the Quest airlock which had been leaking. The crews moved new scientific experiments across to the station and relocated completed ones in the mid-deck of Atlantis. Seven water containers and a new protein crystal growth experiment were moved over to ISS, while liver cell samples were stowed carefully in the Shuttle. In addition, 123 kg of gaseous nitrogen was transferred in two batches (7 kg then 116 kg) from Atlantis to the station’s storage tanks.
Milestones
234th manned space flight 141st US manned space flight 111th Shuttle mission 26th flight of Atlantis
55th US and 88th flight with EVA operations 15th Shuttle ISS mission 6th Atlantis ISS mission
