Category Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006

Flight Crew

NAGEL, Steven Ray, 44, USAF, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS 51-G (1985); STS 61-A (1985) CAMERON, Kenneth Donald, 41, USMC, pilot GODWIN, Linda Maxine, 38, civilian, mission specialist 1 ROSS, Jerry Lynn, 43, USAF, mission specialist 2, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS 61-B (1985); STS-27 (1988)

APT, Jerome “Jay”, 41, civilian, mission specialist 3

Flight Log

Atlantis left the pad almost on time with low-level clouds causing the only delay, of four minutes. Atlantis now carried newly upgraded general purpose computers. The primary payload, the Gamma Ray Observatory, was deployed during FD 3 (7 April), but its high-gain antenna failed to deploy on command. Ross (EV1) and Apt (EV2) performed an unscheduled EVA, the first since April 1985 (STS 51-D) to manually deploy the antenna, permitting the observatory to be successfully released into orbit. The two EVA astronauts had been preparing to exit the Shuttle in the event of something going wrong with the deployment, and as the GRO was lifted out of the payload bay by the RMS, they were checking out their suits. The solar panels of the GRO were opened to their full span of 21 m, although the high-gain antenna it unlatched did not deploy its 5-metre boom. As the procedures for the contingency EVA were faxed up to the crew, Ross and Apt donned their suits and prepared to exit the vehicle. Meanwhile, the crew fired the thrusters on the Shuttle to try to shake the boom loose, but without success. During the 4 hour 26 minute EVA, Ross tried to push the boom free. When that did not work, they set up a work platform to proceed with the manual deployment sequence they had practised four times in the Weightless

Environment Training Facility, or WETF, during training. Finding adequate hand holds was a problem, especially during the night time pass of the orbit. While Apt checked to ensure they were not damaging the boom, Ross removed a locking pin and pulled the antenna boom to its deployment position, then used a wrench to lock it into position. While they were outside, they also took the opportunity to perform some of the planned EVA Development Flight Experiment activities by evaluating hand rails, measuring the forces imparted on the foot restraints during the performance of simple tasks, and performing translation exercises. When the GRO was ready for deployment they returned to the airlock, but did not re-pressurise it in case they were needed again. They watched the deployment from the vantage point of the airlock hatch.

The following day (8 April), both men were back outside for the scheduled EVA (5 hours 47 minutes). This time, the two astronauts assembled a 14.6-metre track down the port side of the payload bay and fixed the Crew and Equipment Translation Aid (CETA) cart to it. This was an evaluation of the type of cart that would be installed on the space station to aid movement over long distances, saving the astronauts’ energy. They also evaluated using the RMS out over the aft of the payload bay at varying speeds, using strain gauges to measure the slippage of the arm’s brakes. They found that RMS-based tasks took longer to perform than expected and also they found themselves suffering from the cold due to excessive EMU cooling, giving rise to concerns that the same might occur during space station construction EVAs, especially on the night-side passes. New EVA gloves that were tested proved disappointing, despite excellent results obtained on Earth. The crew also recom­mended that back-to-back EVAs should be avoided due to crew fatigue. During the post-flight debriefing, Apt reported that the right-hand index finger of his EVA glove had sustained an abrasion and inspections revealed that the palm bar had penetrated the glove bladder by about 1 cm. Had the palm bar come out of the glove again during EVA, it was estimated that the leakage rate would not have been sufficient to activate the secondary oxygen pack, but it was clear that more work was needed on the glove design before the more arduous EVAs planned for the space station.

With the GRO deployed and two EVAs accomplished, the crew worked on their mid-deck experiments, including testing components of the Space Station Heat Pipe Advanced Radiator Element, to better understand the fluid transfer process at work in microgravity. They also processed chemicals with the BioServa apparatus, operated the Protein Crystal Growth apparatus, and made contact with several hundred amateur radio operators across the world. Due to unacceptable winds at the primary site at Edwards in California, and bad weather at the Cape, the homecoming of Atlantis was delayed by a day from 10 April, with the crew taking the opportunity to photograph the Earth.

The Gamma Ray Observatory included four instruments that observed the electromagnetic spectrum from 30keV to 30GeV. Subsequently renamed after Dr. Arthur Folly Compton, who won the Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the scattering of high-energy photons by electrons, the observatory initially worked well, but after six months problems developed in the onboard tape recorders, with high error rates in the data. This forced NASA to use the TDRS to relay data to Earth in real time instead of storing it and downloading it later. Despite the reduction in the amount of data returned, this problem did not prevent the completion of a planned all-sky survey by November 1992. The Compton Observatory’s results have been important, but are less well known than the high-profile images from Hubble. Its studies of solar flares, pulsars, X-ray binary systems, and numerous high-energy emissions have all contributed to a better understanding of gamma ray sources in deep space. The observatory was safely de-orbited and re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 4 June 2000, nine years after its deployment from Atlantis.

Milestones

139th manned space flight 69th US manned space flight 39th Shuttle mission 8th flight of Atlantis (OV-104)

24th US and 42nd flight with EVA operations Mission completed first decade of STS flight operations 1st US EVA since December 1985

Flight Crew

COATS, Michael Lloyd, 45, USN, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS 41-D (1984), STS-29 (1989)

HAMMOND Jr., Blaine Lloyd, 38, USAF, pilot HARBAUGH, Gregory Jordan, 34, civilian, mission specialist 1 McMONAGLE, Donald Ray, 38, USAF, mission specialist 2 BLUFORD, Guion, 48, USAF, mission specialist 3, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-8 (1983); STS 61-A (1985)

VEACH, Charles Lacy, 46, civilian, mission specialist 4 HIEB, Richard James, 35, civilian, mission specialist 5

Flight Log

The launch of this unclassified DoD mission was originally scheduled for 9 March, but significant cracks were discovered on all four hinges on the two ET umbilical door mechanisms during processing at Pad 39A. The stack was rolled back to the VAB on 7 March and the tank sent to the OPF for repairs. After the stack was returned to the pad on 1 April, the launch attempt scheduled for 23 April was postponed due to problems with a high-pressure oxidiser turbo-pump for SSME # 3 during pre-launch loading. After replacement and testing, launch was rescheduled again, this time to 28 April.

STS-39 was one of the most complicated Shuttle missions to date. The purpose of the mission was to fly an unclassified DoD programme to enhance US national security by gathering scientific data that was essential to the development of advanced missile detection systems. The crew, working a two-shift system (Red Team: Ham­mond, Veach, Heib; Blue Team: Harbaugh, McMongagle, Bluford – Coats working

with either as required), also completed a variety of sophisticated experiments, including the deployment of five separate spacecraft. The Shuttle Pallet Satellite II (SPAS-II) supported both an infrared and an imaging telescope that studied the Earth’s limb, the aurora, the orbiter’s environment, and the stars both during free-flight and while attached to the RMS. Also aboard SPAS-II was the Infrared Background Signature Survey (IBSS), which was used to image and measure the spectral nature of rocket exhaust plumes by observing both firings of Discovery’s RCS from different attitudes, and the ejection of three sub-satellites deployed from can­isters in the payload bay which released chemical gases. Simultaneous observations of these gas releases were made by Earth-based instruments at Vandenberg AFB in California. The other classified deployable payload was designated the Multi-Purpose Release Canister.

Space Test Payload 1 (AFP-675) comprised five instruments designed to observe the atmosphere, aurora and stars in the infrared, far ultraviolet and X-ray wave­lengths. The Cryogenic Infrared Radiance Instrument for Shuttle (CIRRIS) used an infrared detector chilled by super-cold (cryogenic) liquid helium to study airglow and auroral emissions form Earth’s upper atmosphere. The coolant was used faster than anticipated, which made this experiment a priority over SPAS II/IBSS and delayed the latter by 24 hours. Mike Coats reported that passing through the auroral displays was “just like flying through a curtain of light’’. The rescheduled experiment returned

50 per cent more data than planned. STP-1 also included the FAR UV Cameras, the Uniformly Redundant Array, the Horizon UV Program and the Quadruple Ion – Neutral Mass Spectrometer. When two tape recorders failed these instruments were adversely affected, but the crew demonstrated the value of humans in space by performing a complicated bypass repair, rerouting data via an orbiter antenna and via TDRS to the ground, fulfilling the objectives for these experiments.

The crew also took advantage of their orbital inclination to take colour and infrared pictures of important surface features and phenomena on Earth, including Lake Baikal in Russia, oil field fires in Kuwait, and the results of a devastating typhoon in the Indian Ocean and fires in Central America, whose smoke palls had drifted over Texas and as far east as Florida. The crew landed at the SLF in Florida due to unacceptably high winds at Edwards AFB.

Milestones

140th manned space flight

70th US manned space flight

40th Shuttle mission

12th mission of OV-103 Discovery

8th DoD Shuttle mission

1st unclassified DoD Shuttle mission

1st flight crew to comprise 7 NASA astronauts

Flight Crew

WALKER, David Mathiesan, USN, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS 51-A (1984); STS-30 (1989)

CABANA, Robert Donald, USMC, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-41 (1990)

BLUFORD Jr., Guion Stewart, USAF, mission specialist 1, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-8 (1983); STS 61-A (1985); STS-39 (1991)

VOSS, James Shelton, US Army, mission specialist 2, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-44 (1991)

CLIFFORD, Michael Richard Uram, US Army, mission specialist 3

Flight Log

STS-53 was Discovery’s 15th mission, its first since STS-42 the previous year. During the intervening 23 months, 78 major modifications had been made to the orbiter while still at KSC. These included the addition of a drag parachute for landing and the capability of redundant nose wheel steering. The launch was delayed by one hour 25 minutes to allow the sunlight to melt ice on the ET that had accumulated thanks to overnight temperatures of —4°C.

The initial activity after reaching orbit was the deployment of a military satellite on FD 1. The satellite remains classified, although the payload was later identified as the third Advanced Satellite Data Systems Intelligence Relay Satellite. Once that deployment had been completed, the remainder of the mission became declassified. The crew continued with their experiment programme of two cargo bay and nine mid­deck experiments, most of which were instigated by the Defense Department Space Test Program Office, headquartered at Los Angeles AFB in California.

The experiment payload on Discovery included the Shuttle Glow Experiment/ Cryogenic Heat Pipe Experiment, which measured and recorded electrically charged

particles as they struck the tail of the orbiter. The second part of this experiment provided research into the use of super-cold LO pipelines for spacecraft cooling. Also in the payload bay was the NASA Orbital Debris Radar Calibration Spheres (ODERACS) experiment, designed to improve the accuracy of ground-based radars in detection, identification and tracking of orbital space debris. In the mid-deck, the Microcapsule in Space and Space Tissue Loss experiments were devoted to medical research, while the Vision Function Test measured the changes in astronauts’ vision that might occur in the microgravity environment. The Cosmic Radiation Effects and Activation Monitor (CREAM) recorded levels of radiation inside the mid-deck, as did the Radiation Monitoring Experiment. There was a joint USN, US Army and NASA experiment for the crew to locate 25 preselected ground sites with a one nautical mile accuracy. This was an evaluation of detecting laser beams from space and the use of such beams in ground-to-spacecraft communications. Other experiments included a photographic assessment of cloud fields for DoD systems, while the Fluid Acquisition and Resupply Experiment studied the motion of liquids in microgravity during simulated refuelling of propellant tanks with distilled water. There were also seven medical tests, including a re-flight of the rowing machine rather than the treadmill for physical exercise.

This crew dubbed themselves “the Dogs of War Crew’’, as they represented all four branches of the US armed forces. Their training team had been called “Bad Dog’’

and these combined to have the STS-53 crew become known as the “Dog Crew” (and they often quipped that they were “working like dogs” throughout their mission). Walker was known as “Red Dog”, Cabana was known as “Mighty Dog” and Clifford, being the rookie, was known as “Puppy Dog”. Bluford became “Dog Gone” and Voss became “Dog Face”. The crew mascot was known as “Duty Dog” and a stowaway that looked over the crew during the mission (a rubber dog mask hung over an orange launch and entry suit) was known as “Dog Breath”.

The landing was originally scheduled for KSC but was diverted to Edwards due to clouds in the vicinity of the SLF. Following the landing, a small leak was detected in the forward thrusters, delaying the egress of the crew until fans and winds dissipated the leaking gas.

Milestones

156th manned space flight

82nd US manned space flight

52nd Shuttle mission

15th flight of Discovery

10th and final dedicated DoD Shuttle mission

Flight Crew

VIKTORENKO, Alexandr Stepanovich, 47, Russian Air Force, commander, 4th mission

Previous missions: Soyuz TM3 (1987); Soyuz TM8 (1989); Soyuz TM14 (1992) KONDAKOVA, Yelena Vladimirovna, 37, civilian, flight engineer MERBOLD, Ulf Dietrich, 53, civilian, ESA research engineer, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-9 (1983); STS-42 (1992)

Flight Log

As Soyuz TM20 approached Mir’s docking port on automatic, it yawed to the side, forcing Viktorenko to take manual control to complete the docking without further incident. Aboard the Soyuz was Shuttle veteran and ESA astronaut Ulf Merbold, who would be staying aboard the station for a month to operate the EuroMir94 experiment programme. Hastily assembled (and underfunded by ESA), the experi­ment programme was heavily dependent upon equipment left aboard Mir during earlier international visits by Austrian, French and German cosmonauts, and on the facilities of the station itself. The experiment programme featured 30 experiments: 23 in life sciences, 4 in materials sciences and 3 in technology. Merbold’s mission was a precursor to the planned 135-day EuroMir95 mission scheduled for the following year, and for operations on the ESA Columbus module that was planned for ISS. A fault on the Kristallisator furnace prevented Merbold from performing his materials experiments. The replacement would not arrive at the station until after Merbold had returned to Earth.

With six cosmonauts on Mir for a month, the drain on resources was beginning to tell. On 1 October, during the recharging of Soyuz TM20’s batteries, TV equipment could not be recharged at the same time. A short circuit on the computer that oriented

the solar arrays to face the Sun meant that the station was unable to replenish its power and the batteries had drained. This necessitated the use of reaction control propellant on the Soyuz TM in order to realign the station, point the arrays at the Sun and restore power via a back-up computer. These interruptions affected Merbold’s science programme, which had to be adjusted around the periods of lost power. On 3 November, the EO-16 crew and Merbold boarded Soyuz TM19 to test the Kurs docking system. TM19 undocked and backed away from the station to 190 metres, then successfully re-docked automatically and the crew re-entered the station for 24 hours. Had the docking failed then the crew would have completed an emergency return to Earth. In the event, a nominal landing was achieved the following day. Merbold returned with 16 kg of life science samples he had collected during his month on the station. The collection included 125 saliva, 85 urine and 34 blood samples.

When Progress M25 arrived on 13 November, it delivered spares for the furnace, which allowed the experiments planned for Merbold’s visit to be completed.

By 18 November, the Mir base block had completed 50,000 orbits of Earth since its launch in February 1986. For a while, it looked as though Viktorenko and Polyakov would have to perform EVAs in late November, to move the Kristall arrays in preparation for the arrival of the Spektr module in December. However, that launch soon slipped (in part due to the Americans’ late shipping of equipment and Russian customs bureaucracy) and the EVAs were cancelled.

On 9 January 1995, Polyakov set a new single-mission endurance record of one year and one day, and with over 600 days to his credit from two missions, he was already by far the most experienced space traveller with another three months to go in the flight. Given the uncertainties over the safety of flying such a long mission, and his potential exposure to ambient radiation, Polyakov slept in the Kristall module shielded by the batteries, in order to avoid putting his colleagues at any undue risk. Viktorenko and Kondakova occupied the two individual cabins in the base block. On 11 January, in order to review repairs to the Kurs system, the cosmonauts conducted another test, undocking TM20 and pulling back 160 meters before completing a successful automatic re-docking. A month later, a new spacecraft arrived at Mir, but this one would not be docking. One of the objectives of US Shuttle Discovery’s STS-63 mission was to test launch and rendezvous windows for the later docking missions. For a few hours on 6 February, Discovery flew in close proximity to Mir, approaching to approximately 10 meters in a simulated docking approach. This was the closest that a manned Russian and American spacecraft had been to each other in space since ASTP in July 1975. After a photographic fly-around exercise, Discovery departed to continue its own mission, leaving Mir’s cosmonauts to resume prepara­tions for their return to Earth.

After Norman Thagard arrived with the next resident crew on Soyuz TM21 on 16 March 1995 and the period of hand-over operations were completed, the EO-17 crew of Viktorenko and Kondakova returned to Earth on 22 March, along with Polyakov. The latter had set a single-mission record of 438 days, which is unlikely to be surpassed for decades. Indeed, there are no plans to try to surpass it for the foreseeable future. Despite such a long flight, the doctor-cosmonaut insisted in walking unaided to the medical tent once he was helped from the Descent Module. Polyakov had performed over 1,000 tests in a programme of 50 medical experiments, losing 15 per cent of his bone density. This took a few months to regain, and even then the recovery was not total. This was despite a strict regime of two hours exercise per day which he observed strictly every day in space. The loss of oxygen-bearing red blood cells in the early weeks of his flight was countered by adjusting Mir’s environ­mental control system, but the soles of his feet had softened as he had not “walked” for several months. He had proved that a flight of 14 months was possible (a duration which could support a manned round trip mission to Mars), but at a cost. Polyakov’s bravery and determination to complete both the exercise programme and the flight stand out as one of the milestones in manned space flight history, one whose legacy will only really be seen when the first crews are dispatched towards Mars.

Milestones

174th manned space flight 79th Russian manned space flight 20th Manned Mir mission 17th Mir resident crew 72nd manned Soyuz flight 19th manned Soyuz TM flight

1st female cosmonaut assigned to a long-duration mission Longest single space flight by a female (Kondakova)

Polyakov sets a new world record for one flight of 437 days 17hrs and a career record in two space flights of 678 days 16hrs

Flight Crew

McMONAGLE, Donald Ray, 42, USAF, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-39 (1991); STS-54 (1993)

BROWN Jr., Curtis Lee, 38, USAF, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-47 (1992)

OCHOA, Ellen Lauri, 36, civilian, mission specialist 1, payload commander, 2nd mission

Previous mission: MS STS-56 (1993)

TANNER, Joseph Richard, 44, civilian, mission specialist 2 CLERVOY, Jean-Francois Andre, 35, civilian, ESA mission specialist 3 PARAZYNSKI, Scott Edward, 33, civilian, mission specialist 4

Flight Log

This was the third flight of the same seven-instrument ATLAS payload that had previously flown on STS-45 in 1992 and STS-56 in 1993, making this one of the most comprehensive efforts to gather data about the energy output of our Sun and the chemical make-up of Earth’s atmosphere. The six astronauts would operate a two – shift system. McMonagle would lead the Red Shift, with Ochoa and Tanner, while Brown, Clervoy and Parazynski worked the Blue Shift.

The only slight delay to the launch of STS-66 was caused by weather conditions at the transoceanic abort sites. Atlantis was on its first mission since returning from the Rockwell Palmdale facility, where it had received new nose wheel steering capability, improved internal plumbing and electrical connections that would allow the EDO pallet kit to be fitted when required. Additional electrical wiring was also installed in preparation for fitting the Orbiter Docking System for the first Shuttle-Mir docking missions, which Atlantis was manifested to fly in the summer of 1995.

ATLAS-3’s Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectrometer (ATMOS) collected more data on trace gases in our atmosphere on this flight than on its previous flights

combined. The Shuttle Backscatter UV Spectrometer recorded ozone measurements which were used to calibrate the ozone monitor on the ageing NOAA-9 satellite. The Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (ACRIM) that obtained precise measurements of the Sun’s total radiation for 30 orbits (about 1,350 minutes) was also used to calibrate another spacecraft, the UARS satellite. Other instruments recorded measurements of the Sun in the various radiation categories. Before a malfunction shut down the Millimeter Wave Atmospheric Sounder (MAS), it collected nine hours of data on water vapour, chlorine, carbon monoxide and ozone in Earth’s atmosphere at altitudes of 20-100 km.

The Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere – Shuttle Pallet Satellite (CRISTA-SPAS) was a second primary payload and was classed as a joined mission with ATLAS-3 with a single set of scientific objectives. Released by RMS on FD 2, it flew behind Atlantis at a distance of about 40-70 km, collecting data for over eight days on the medium – and small-scale distribution of trace gases in the middle atmosphere. The instruments on CRISTA-SPAS also re­corded the amounts of hydroxyl and nitric acid that destroy the ozone in the middle atmosphere and lower thermosphere from 40 to 120 km. This represented the first complete global mapping of hydroxyl in our atmosphere, and helped to define a more detailed model and understanding of how energy is balanced throughout the layers.

When the satellite was retrieved and stowed in the payload bay prior to entry, the astronauts adopted the R-Bar rendezvous approach, which was the same as the one that would be used in the upcoming Shuttle-Mir missions, saving propellant and reducing the risk of contamination from thrusters’ jets. For this approach, the active spacecraft (in this case, Atlantis) approaches its passive target (CRISTA-SPAS) by flying along an imaginary line (bar) aligned with the radius (R) of the Earth. Approaching from “above” is called a “negative R-Bar’’ but the approach from below (used on STS-66 and for Shuttle-Mir), known as “positive R-Bar’’, depends upon the differential gravity from vertical separation to act as a brake and slow down the rate of closure. At the end of the STS-66 mission, Atlantis was diverted to a landing at Edwards because of high winds, rain and cloud cover at the Cape caused by tropical storm Gordon.

Milestones

175th manned space flight

96th US manned space flight

66th Shuttle mission

13th flight of OV-1094 Atlantis

3rd and final flight of ATLAS payload

Flight Crew

PRECOURT, Charles Joseph, 41, USAF, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-55 (1993); STS-71 (1995)

COLLINS, Eileen Marie, 40, USAF, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-63 (1995)

CLERVOY, Jean-Francois Andre, 38, civilian, mission specialist 1, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-66 (1994)

NORIEGA, Carlos Ismael, 37, USMC, mission specialist 2 LU, Edward Tsang, 33, civilian, mission specialist 3

KONDAKOVA, Yelena Vladimirovna, 40, civilian, Russian mission specialist 4, 2nd mission

Previous mission: Soyuz TM20 (1994)

NASA 5 Mir resident crewmember up only:

FOALE, Colin Michael, 40, civilian, mission specialist 5, Mir EO-24 cosmonaut researcher, NASA board engineer 5, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-45 (1992); STS-56 (1993); STS-63 (1995)

NASA 4 Mir resident crewmember down only:

LINENGER, Jerry Michael, 41, USN, mission specialist 5, Mir EO-23 cosmonaut researcher, NASA board engineer 4, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-64 (1994)

Flight Log

Atlantis docked with Mir on 16 May, bringing the next American Mir resident crew member (Mike Foale) to begin his residency. The formal hand-over between Foale

and Linenger occurred the following day. Linenger had spent 123 days on board the station and by the end of his mission, he had become the second most experienced American astronaut, behind Shannon Lucid. During his stay on board the station, Linenger sent regular emails to his family that were posted on the NASA website and later became the focus of the book Letters from Mir. He also wrote of his experiences in the book Off the Planet.

During the docked phase of the STS-84 mission, the crew transferred approxi­mately 3,400 kg of logistics and supplies to the station, of which about 450 kg was water. During his stay on Mir, Foale had a research programme of 36 investigations (33 on Mir, two on STS-84 and another which included pre- and post-flight par­ticipation). These were shared among six disciplines: advanced technology, Earth observations and remote sensing, fundamental biology, human life sciences, space station risk mitigation, and microgravity sciences. Of these experiments, 28 had been performed during earlier missions, and would be continued, repeated or completed by Foale. Seven new experiments were concerned with materials processing, biology, and crystal growth studies. While Atlantis was still docked to Mir, the crew utilised the Biorack facility located in the SpaceHab double module. In addition, they took environmental air samples, continued to monitor radiation levels and photo – documented the exterior of the station through the windows.

On 21 May, Atlantis undocked from Mir with Jerry Linenger on board. There was no fly-around of Mir on this flight, but the orbiter was halted three times as it backed away from the station, allowing a European sensing device to be evaluated. The data would help in the design of rendezvous systems for the proposed Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), the unmanned re-supply craft being developed by ESA for the ISS programme. The first landing opportunity for STS-84 on 24 May was waived off due to low clouds around the SLF, but the weather cleared sufficiently to allow a landing on the second opportunity.

Milestones

198th manned space flight

114th US manned space flight

84th Shuttle mission

19th flight of Atlantis

6th Shuttle-Mir docking

8th SpaceHab mission (3rd double module)

Flight Crew

GIDZENKO, Yuri Pavlovich, 38, Russian Air Force, Soyuz commander,

2nd mission

Previous mission: Soyuz TM22 (1995)

KRIKALEV, Sergei Konstaninovich, 42, civilian, flight engineer, 5th mission Previous missions: Soyuz TM7 (1988); Soyuz TM12 (1991); STS-60 (1994); STS-88 (1998)

SHEPHERD, William McMichael, 51, Captain USN, NASA ISS commander, 4th mission

Previous missions: STS-27 (1988); STS-41 (1990); STS-52 (1993)

Flight Log

This was the pioneering mission that began the permanent occupation of the International Space Station, the first of a rotational system of crews planned to work aboard ISS in shifts of three to four months initially, increasing to six months. The inclusion of the Russians in the ISS project brought experience and hardware to the programme, enabling the station to be launched and manned earlier than by using the original elements envisaged under the Space Station Freedom programme. By using the Zarya and Zvezda modules and support from Progress re-supply vehicles, a crew could now remain on board what was essentially Mir-2 before its expansion with US and other international elements. The other advantage was the decision to use the Soyuz transport craft as a crew ferry and on-orbit rescue vehicle.

The best place to train for space flight is in space itself, and by that definition, the most logical place to make sure space equipment works as designed is in orbit. Therefore, the objectives of the first crew were to make the small ISS habitable and to discover what worked and what did not. Once the safety and security of their residency was confirmed, the first crew arrived aboard Soyuz TM31 on 2 November 2000 after a two-day flight from Baikonur. Bill Shepherd, the first ISS commander,

was only the second American astronaut to ride into space on an R7 and though the Soyuz remained docked to ISS for the majority of their stay, the crew would even­tually come home aboard the Shuttle. The Soyuz would only be used for an emergency return, if necessary.

Most of their work involved setting up the station and evaluating procedures and systems before the real science work commenced with the addition of the US Destiny lab and several logistics flights in 2001. This crew hosted two Shuttle visiting missions before receiving the crew that would bring them home. The first, STS-97, began the assembly of the station’s solar array systems while the second, STS-98, brought the US Destiny lab. Though engineering and systems activation was a priority of this residency, science was not totally neglected. A joint US/Russian science programme included Earth observations, technology and protein crystal growth experiments, and radiation studies. Due to the extended duration of this mission, medical studies were also included. There were also educational experiments and a joint Russian/German materials science experiment programme. A full complement of science would have to await the delivery of dedicated research facilities and modules and more power from the solar arrays.

The day before the crew docked, Progress M1-3 had been undocked auto­matically from the rear port of Zvezda, allowing the Soyuz to take its place. On

18 November, Progress Ml-4 docked with the station. This was later undocked and re-docked using the TORU system, a test of the cosmonaut-controlled docking system that had given so much trouble during Mir in 1997. A third Progress was sent to the crew (Progress M44) towards the end of their residency. In between, the crew temporarily vacated the station to move Soyuz TM31 from Zvezda’s rear port (where the Progress-compatible refuelling system was located) to the vacant nadir port of Zarya, an operation that took about 30 minutes and freed up the rear port for the Progress M44 re-supply flight.

During the residency, Shepherd kept a log of events, which was later posted (in a censored form) on the NASA website and provided a fascinating insight into life aboard the station. As the crew worked with both US and Russian ground stations, they used GMT as time on board, with the official language as English. Weekends were observed where possible and rest days and Earth “holidays” (Christmas and Easter) were also observed.

Limited communications with ground stations in Russia, locating equipment and the noise levels were early problems identified, problems which, according to the Russians, were normal in the development of a new station. Prior to the installa­tion of the solar arrays during STS-97 in December 2000, the Unity module was off limits to allow power that would heat the module to be diverted to keep the four CMG gyroscopes heated. After the installation of the P6 structure, access to Unity was allowed, offering more room to place equipment and the chance to finally retrieve the logistics stowed by earlier crews. With the arrival of Destiny, more volume was available, but with only a month of the first residency remaining, the real work in the new module and the expanded science programme would have to await the next resident crew. They duly arrived aboard STS-102 in March 2001. After years of training and delays, the ISS-1 crew had successfully configured the station to a position where a new crew could take over and science could begin in earnest. Though they were reluctant to hand over the helm with so much still to do, it was time to leave those details to a fresh crew and come home. Mission successful.

Milestones

220th manned space flight 90th Russian manned space flight 83rd manned Soyuz mission 30th manned Soyuz TM mission 1st Soyuz ferry ISS mission 1st ISS resident crew

Flight Crew

JETT Jr., Brent Ward, 42, USN, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-72 (1996); STS-81 (1997)

BLOOMFIELD, Michael John, 41, USAF, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-86 (1997)

TANNER, Joseph Richard, 50, civilian, mission specialist 1, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-66 (1994); STS-82 (1997)

GARNEAU, Marc Joseph Jean-Pierre, 51, civilian, Canadian mission specialist 2, 3rd mission

Previous missions: STS 41-G (1984); STS-77 (1996)

NORIEGA, Carlos Ismael, 41, USMC, mission specialist 3, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-84 (1997)

Flight Log

The first set of US-provided solar arrays were delivered to the ISS on this mission. Docking with ISS occurred during FD 3 at the newly installed (STS-92) PMA-3 located on the nadir port of Unity. This new port would allow the temporary relocation of the forward PMA-2 to the Z1 Truss during the next Shuttle mission (STS-98) until after the attachment of the Destiny laboratory. Endeavour remained docked to the station for 167 hours, but only had the internal hatches open for a total of 24 hours, leaving little time to visit with their neighbours. The ISS-1 crew essentially followed their own timetable and programme during docked operations, supporting the activities of the STS-97 crew when required.

The P6 array was lifted from the payload bay of Endeavour by the RMS and parked in an “overnight” position to warm its components in the Sun. Inside the Shuttle, the crew opened the hatch into Unity to leave supplies and computer hard­ware for later relocation inside the station. Checks of EVA equipment and support hardware were also completed and verified during the day. The three EVAs (with rest

days in between) would cover the installation and connection of solar arrays, prep­aration of the docking port for the attachment of Destiny on the next mission, installation of the Floating Potential Probe (FPP) to measure the electrical potential surrounding the station, and the installation of a camera cable outside the Unity.

During the first EVA (3 Dec for 7 hours 23 minutes), the EVA crew of Tanner (EV1) and Noriega (EV2) mated the P6 array to the station’s Z1 Truss. Despite some delay in unfurling the arrays (a problem solved by recycling the deployment and retraction process), the starboard and port sides of the array were successfully unfurled over two days to their full length of 111.9m long x 34 m wide. These were two of the eight arrays that would power ISS. Photovoltaic radiators to dissipate surplus heat from onboard electronics were also deployed. The second EVA (5 Dec for 6 hours 37 minutes) saw the two astronauts reconfigure electrical connections from the P6 arrays to the US segment, and prepare PMA-2 for its relocation during STS-98. After Destiny had been docked to the station, PMA-2 would be relocated to the rear of the laboratory to allow further Shuttle dockings at that location. For STS-97, the EVA programme continued (7 Dec for 5 hours 10 minutes) by moving an S-band antenna and releasing radiator launch restraints. They also increased the tension on the solar arrays during their third EVA. Following an Earth-based tradition con­ducted when a building reaches its final height, the EVA crew attached an image of an evergreen tree on a transfer bag to the FPP, a symbolic “topping out” of the ISS. Several get-ahead tasks were also completed before the men came back inside.

During the day inside ISS, the two crews completed a welcome ceremony and briefings, followed by structural tests of the array. A series of logistics transfer operations were completed, as was the removal of refuse back into Endeavour to make room on board the station. The undocking of Endeavour from ISS occurred without incident, and after the fly-around manoeuvre, the Shuttle departed, leaving the ISS-1 crew to continue their programme, enjoy the first festive holiday aboard the station and mark the change of year. The new year would bring a change of resident crews and further expansion of the station.

Milestones

221st manned space flight

131st US manned space flight

101st Shuttle flight

15th flight of Endeavour

45th US and 78th flight with EVA operations

6th Shuttle ISS mission

2nd Endeavour ISS mission

Flight Crew

FOALE, Colin Michael, 46, civilian, US ISS-8 commander and science officer, 6th mission

Previous missions: STS-45 (1992); STS-56 (1993); STS-63 (1995); STS 84/86 (1997); STS-103 (1999)

KALERI, Aleksandr Yuriyevich, 47, civilian, Russian ISS-8 Soyuz commander, 4th mission

Previous missions: Soyuz 14 (1992); Soyuz TM24 (1996); Soyuz TM30 (2000) DUQUE, Pedro Francisco, 40, civilian, EAS Soyuz TM3 flight engineer 1,

2nd mission

Previous mission: STS-95 (1998)

Flight Log

Despite being termed a “caretaker crew”, this residence would conduct a significant amount of science research with available hardware, routine maintenance and house­keeping, and an EVA. One of the reasons Foale did not continue the trend of regular email postings from ISS was that he was just too busy. It was planned to launch no fewer than three Progress re-supply vehicles during this residence to “stock up the station” in the absence of the Shuttle. However, funding difficulties (reminiscent of the latter days on Mir) meant that only one re-supply craft (M1-11) was actually launched. Careful management of onboard resources meant that the experienced crew, each with long-duration flights on Mir behind them, did not need to break into the new Progress supplies, although other equipment delivered was urgently needed. Significant maintenance was a priority with this crew, and with only two crewmembers they had a lot more work to do than would a crew of three.

Their flight to ISS was accompanied by Spanish ESA astronaut Pedro Duque. His Cervantes programme comprised 24 experiments requiring 40 hours of his 8 days aboard ISS. The experiments, conducted mainly in the Russian segment of the station,

ISS-8 crew Kaleri Foale and ESA astronaut Duque climb the steps to their Soyuz TMA3 spacecraft and a two-day flight to ISS. Duque would return with the ISS-7 crew a few days later but Kaleri and Foale were embarking on a six-month mission consisted of 12 investigations in life sciences, three in physical sciences and Earth observations, five under education, two under technology and two ground-based experiments. Most were sponsored by the Spanish government, although some were re-flights from the October 2002 Belgian Odessa mission. At the end of his week on ISS, Duque returned to Earth in the TMA2 spacecraft with the ISS-7 crew on 28 October.

In November, Foale and Kaleri practised emergency ingress procedures, with Kaleri wearing an Orlan EVA suit to determine if a suited crewman could enter the Soyuz using internal hatches. Kaleri was guided (and pushed) by Foale. The test took longer than planned and was deemed unsuccessful, so a second test, this time with both astronauts wearing suits, was attempted and successfully accomplished on 19 February. The two crew members completed their only EVA on 26 February (3 hours 56 minutes) using Orlan suits and exiting via the Pirs airlock. With both men outside, the ISS complex was left unattended for the first time since November 2000. The pair installed a protective ring around the Pirs entry hatch which was meant to prevent snagging on the way out of or back into the airlock. The ring was removed after the EVA. The two men also installed European and Japanese scientific packages on the Zvezda before the EVA was terminated early due to problems with Kaleri’s liquid cooling garment.

On 8 December, Mike Foale, who holds dual US and UK nationality, became the most experienced American astronaut, surpassing Carl Walz’s career total of 230 days 13 hours 3 minutes and 38 seconds in four missions. Foale was now on his sixth mission but Kaleri, on his fourth mission, was still 238 days ahead of his colleague in career experience! The crew returned to Earth on Soyuz TMA3 with Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers, who had arrived with the ISS-9 crew aboard Soyuz TMA4 at the end of April. Foale had by then logged over 374 days 11 hours in space, well ahead of all other American astronauts, but still far behind several cosmonauts, including Kaleri.

Milestones

240th manned space flight

96th Russian manned space flight

89th manned Soyuz mission

3rd manned Soyuz TMA mission

36th Russian and 90th flight with EVA operations

7th ISS Soyuz mission (6S)

2nd resident caretaker ISS crew (two-person)

Foale celebrates his 47th birthday in space (6 Jan)

Foale sets new career space flight record for an American astronaut at over 374 days

Space – the so-called “final frontier” or the “new ocean” – has been beckoning humans since ancient times. Our ancestors looked to the heavens and saw their Gods as bright sparking pin-picks of light in the night sky. By day, the position of the Sun was often used for ceremonies and worship rituals as it moved across the sky. The changing face of the Moon, the occasional blocking of the sunlight and the move­ments of some of those small speckles of light all frightened and intrigued our forebears for thousands of years.

In the first four hundred years or so of the second millennium ad, our under­standing of the heavens, planets, stars, moons and “space” began to grow, and while our interpretations were often wrong, or were subjugated to the religious beliefs of the day, developments in scientific instrumentation, medical advances, engineering cap­abilities, industrial processes and human curiosity began to focus on what lay beyond the confines of our own world. Fanciful stories were conceived and published, weird and wonderful machines proposed, and myths and monsters imagined.

In the twentieth century, the development of flight and research into rocketry gradually opened up the possibility of exploring the void of space. Advances in miniaturisation, computation, medicine, pressurised chambers and life support sys­tems to explore the upper atmosphere and deepest oceans were the stepping stones to get there. But the driving force behind the final stage would be the military, at least at first. The desire for supremacy over a rival superpower was the catalyst behind our first tentative steps into the “new ocean”. Eventually, what had started as a race became a team event, a combination of what both sides had learned – sometimes at painful and tragic cost – into a new era of understanding and exploration.

The “stepping stones to space” process of developing the Space Shuttle from the rocket planes and lifting bodies had its precedent in the ballistic capsule programmes. Unmanned variants were tried out in pad aborts, sub-orbital and orbital missions, before committing them to manned missions. In Russia, dogs were used in the Vostok (and Voskhod) programme as test subjects prior to sending cosmonauts into space, while in the United States, primates performed a similar function for the Mercury programme. These “animal space explorers” paved the way for humans to venture into space by qualifying launch, orbital and entry systems and flight profiles. Though several biological payloads and research subjects have been flown on other missions, never again have animal tests preceded human flights in order to qualify new space­craft variants.

One way to qualify human flight systems prior to committing to a more challeng­ing orbital mission was by means of a “sub-orbital” flight – essentially a simple boosted ascent and almost immediate re-entry and landing. This profile was first proposed in both the Russian and American programmes, but the Russians abandoned the idea in favour of securing orbital flight prior to the Americans. The Americans went through with their sub-orbital test, but reduced the number of flights from seven to three, and finally two when they proved so successful. Though the two astronauts (Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom) surpassed 185 km (well over the FAI or USAF criteria), they did not enter orbit, both making only 15-minute “space flights” with about 5 minutes in weightlessness. All the record books accredit these two flights as “official space flights” as do we, but we have categorised them in this chapter as part of the “quest for space”.

MERCURY REDSTONE 3

None – sub-orbital flight 5 May 1961

Pad 5, Cape Canaveral, Florida 5 May 1961 Atlantic Ocean

Redstone No. 7; capsule no. 7 15 min 28 sec Freedom 7

First sub-orbital test of Mercury spacecraft with a human occupant; first US manned ballistic space flight

Flight Crew

SHEPARD, Alan Bartlett Jr., 38, USN, pilot