Category Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006

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

Flight Crew

ZALETIN, Sergei Viktorovich, 40, Russian Air Force, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: Soyuz TM30 (2000)

De WINNE, Frank, 41, Belgian Air Force, flight engineer 1 LONCHAKOV, Yuri Valentinovich, 37, Russian Air Force, flight engineer 2, 2nd mission

Previous mission: STS-100 (2001)

Flight Log

The crew for TMA1 seemed to be finalised in July 2002, with Mir veteran Sergei Zaletin and ESA Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne being joined by N Sync pop singer Lance Bass as the third space flight participant. This was the latest in a long line of suggested “millionaire” fare-paying cosmonauts for the flight. However, by 20 August, no payment from sponsors was forthcoming and Bass was removed from the crew.

To fill the seat and return the crew to a full complement of three, back-up commander Yuri Lonchakov was reassigned at short notice to fly the mission, the inaugural flight of the new Soyuz TMA1 spacecraft. TMA (Transport, Modification, Anthropometric) featured changes to allow taller and smaller crew members to fly in it, which meant that many of the American astronauts that had previously been unsuitable for Soyuz or ISS missions could now be considered for TMA training, a timely factor that became very fortunate in the next few months. Internal systems and provisions for comfort would allow crew members between 1.5 and 1.9m tall, instead of the previous 1.64 and 1.82 m in the TM craft.

Soyuz TMA1 was the first new variant of Soyuz to fly without a prior unmanned flight, and it docked with ISS on 1 November. During the week aboard the station, the two Russian cosmonauts briefed the Russian ISS-5 crew members on the features of

the new spacecraft, assisted them with their work in the Russian segment, and participated in a small Russian science programme. They also assisted their Belgian colleague with his work. De Winne, the Belgian astronaut, conducted an ESA programme under the codename of Odessa that comprised 23 experiments. The programme featured research in the fields of biology, human physiology, physical sciences and education. He also talked with six students from universities in Scotland, Italy and The Netherlands who were at the ESA Taxi Flight Operations Coordination Centre (TOCC) at ESTEC in The Netherlands.

The crew landed in the TM34 spacecraft, the final descent of that variant of vehicle. According to Zaletin, the landing itself was “a little hard” as the vehicle hit the ground and tumbled a few times before coming to a halt. It was the first Russian night landing in ten years. The new TMA1 spacecraft, now docked to the ISS, would provide a return capability for the ISS-5 crew in the event of an emergency. This

capability was passed over to the ISS-6 crew in December, though they had not expected to use it.

Milestones

235th manned space flight 94th Russian manned space flight 87th manned Soyuz mission 1st manned Soyuz TMA mission 5th ISS Soyuz mission (5S)

4th ISS Taxi flight 4th ISS visiting mission

1st manned flight of (R7) Soyuz FG launch vehicle

Flight Crew

WETHERBEE, James Donald, 49, USN, commander, 6th mission Previous missions: STS-32 (1990); STS-52 (1992); STS-63 (1995); STS-86 (1997); STS-102 (2001)

LOCKHART, Paul Scott, 46, USAF, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-111 (2002)

LOPEZ-ALEGRIA, Michael Eladio, 44, USN, mission specialist 1, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-73 (1995); STS-92 (2000)

HERRINGTON, John Bennett, 44, USN, mission specialist 2

ISS-6 crew up only:

BOWERSOX, Kenneth Duane, 45, USN, mission specialist 3, ISS-6 commander, 5th mission

Previous missions: STS-50 (1990); STS-61 (1993); STS-73 (1995); STS-82 (1997) BUDARIN, Nikolai Mikhailovich, 49, civilian, Russian mission specialist 4, ISS-6 flight engineer and Soyuz commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: Mir EO-19/STS-71 (1995); Soyuz TM27 (1998)

PETTIT, Donald Roy, 47, civilian, mission specialist 5, US ISS-6 science officer

ISS-5 crew down only:

TRESCHEV, Sergei Vladimiriovich, 43, civilian, Russian ISS-5 flight engineer, mission specialist 3

KORZUN, Valery Nikolayevich, 49, Russian Air Force, ISS-5 and Soyuz commander, mission specialist 4, 2nd mission Previous mission: Soyuz TM24 (1996)

WHITSON, Peggy Annette, 42, civilian, ISS-5 science officer, mission specialist 5

Flight Log

Higher than allowed oxygen levels detected in the orbiter’s mid-body postponed the 11 November launch attempt, which was reset for 18 November. Technicians found a fatigued flexible hose to be the cause and this was replaced, but during the repair a platform impacted the RMS in the payload bay. The necessary inspections delayed the launch to 22 November. Bad weather at the TAL sites forced a further 24-hour delay in launch before the mission finally got off the ground. Docking with the station was achieved during FD 3 (25 November) and the following day, the P1 Truss was relocated to the port end of the SO Truss and automatically bolted in place. Unbeknown at the time, this would be the last time a Shuttle docked to the station for over 3O months.

The three EVAs on this mission were conducted in support of the truss installa­tion, as well as for a number of other tasks. EVA 1 (26 Nov for 6 hours 45 minutes) saw Lopez-Alegria (EV1) and Herrington (EV2) complete the electrical, power and fluid connections to the P1 Truss and install the SPD, ensuring that the quick disconnection mechanisms were functioning correctly. They also released launch locks on the CETA-B cart and installed the Node Wireless video system External Transceiver Assembly (WETA) antenna. This would give reception for the EVA helmet cameras without the presence of a Shuttle. The second EVA (on Thanksgiving Day, 28 Nov, for 6 hours 10 minutes) saw the crew continue the electrical and plumbing connections and the installation of a second WETA on P1. The CETA-B (or 2) cart was also installed on the S1 Truss and secured to the CETA-A (or 1) cart. The third EVA (30 Nov for 7 hours) saw the completion of the SPD installation and troubleshooting of the stalled MT. The astronauts also freed and deployed a UHF antenna that had become snagged during relocation work.

During the flight, the ISS-5 crew handed over the command of the station to the ISS-6 crew and together, both resident crews worked to repair faulty hardware and install new equipment in the station. STS-113 had delivered over 1,969 kg of hardware and supplies to ISS, including new science experiments. The Shuttle’s engines were used in a series of burns to raise the orbit of the station. The formal hand-over of resident crews occurred shortly after the docking and the completion of safety brief­ings. Though no one knew it at the time, this would be the last Shuttle-based resident crew exchange for some time. Following undocking on 2 December, the Shuttle encountered four days of landing attempts being waived off due to bad weather, before finally making it on 7 December. This was the first time a mission had received three consecutive days of landing cancellations. This was also the last successfully completed Shuttle mission (launch to landing) for over two-and-a-half years.

Milestones

236th manned space flight

142nd US manned space flight

112th Shuttle mission

19th flight of Endeavour

56th US and 89th flight with EVA operations

16th Shuttle ISS mission

6th Endeavour ISS mission

5th Shuttle ISS resident crew exchange mission

1st native American (Chickasaw nation) to fly and walk in space (Herrington)