Category Manned Spaceflight Log II—2006-2012

No matter how many humans venture into space, on which vehicle, or for how long, they will always be following the trail of Yuri Gagarin. He was the first, the pioneer of a mode of transport untried before 1961. After centuries of dreams, decades of theory, and years of development, all the preparation had to lead to the point when the first mission could be launched with a man aboard. Unmanned missions had paved the way for over three years but on that spring day in 1961, a brave young man was about to put theory to the test. No one really knew if he would return alive, or with his faculties intact. Even with all the data collected from the unmanned flights of Vostok, Gagarin really was taking a leap of faith into the unknown.

For every mission since, though the risks and dangers can never be totally eliminated, none of them will ever have to face the uncertainty and risk of the first step off the planet that confronted Gagarin.

To make the Shuttle more commercially viable, and to address the lack of room in the lower deck of the orbiter when not flying Spacelab, a commercial augmenta­tion module called Spacehab had been designed. This would add over 50 new lockers to the capacity, partly in an attempt to promote the commercial potential for small experiments and payloads to the wider market. The reduced launch loads on the Shuttle (compared to the earlier ballistic capsule launches) allowed NASA to relax the selection criteria for passengers. Following politicians and a Saudi royal prince, a U. S. schoolteacher was to be launched on the 25th mission and a U. S. journalist was being selected to follow on a later mission. There were unofficial reports of potentially flying artists, singers, poets, and other celebrities; perhaps even actors to film scenes for a “space movie”. The Shuttle offered greater potential to fly in space than any other program before it, if it could be proved that it was a safe and reliable system for those who wanted to step aboard.

All these hopes for what Shuttle might have delivered tragically ended with the loss of Challenger and her crew of seven, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, on January 28, 1986 (19 years and one day after the loss of the Apollo 1 crew). The tragedy occurred in full view of the TV cameras and disbelieving

onlookers at the Cape. It was one of those horrible moments in history that those who witnessed the events, or watched the news, would never forget. On that day, the hopes of the American space program fell from the sky along with the wreckage of Challenger. As President Reagan observed during the nation’s mourning, the brave crew of Challenger had “slipped the surly bonds of Earth and touched the face of God.” In the quest for space, the reality of the dangers that each crew face was clearly revealed in the tragic events on that cold day in January.

As part of the inquiry into the tragedy, the Shuttle fleet was immediately grounded and all mission training halted. For the next two and a half years, while the accident was investigated and recommendations instigated, payloads were can­celed, delayed, or reassigned to expendable unmanned launch vehicles. NASA was closely scrutinized. The agency would never be the same again. Many employees had left after the end of the Apollo program, taking with them the skills and experience that took America to the Moon. Now, another serious blow to the program would lead to further changes to the agency, not only for the Shuttle program but for NASA itself. It was another dark time for American manned space flight.

Flight Crew

ZHAI, Zhigang, 42, PLA Air Force, commander

LIU, Boming, 42, PLA Air Force, orbital module monitor

JING, Haipeng, 42, PLA Air Force, descent module monitor

Flight log

On September 27, 2008, Zhai Zhigang became the first Chinese taikonaut to perform an EVA. This historic event, 43 years after the first EVAs had been per­formed, meant that China had become the third nation, after the Soviet Union (Russia) and the U. S.A., to achieve EVA capability. The buildup to China’s third manned space flight had for some time indicated that a short EVA was part of the program, and that it would be a further step towards the creation of a small space station.

The flight into Earth orbit lasted approximately 583 seconds. In the central couch flew mission commander Zhai Zhigang, with Liu Boming to his right and Jing Haipeng to his left. They would occupy the same positions for landing. Five hours into the mission, the onboard engines were used to refine the orbit, allowing for a flight time of up to five days. The duration of this mission had previously been announced at only three days, to prevent Western speculation of an unplanned early return.

This was the first Chinese mission to fly three crew members, with a further three as backup—Chen Quan (commander), Fei Junlong (OM monitor), and Nei Haisheng (DM monitor)—making a training group of six. The prime crew for the flight had been announced on September 17 and of the backup crew only Chen Quan had not flown in space. The other two were the crew of Shenzhou 6, lending experience to preparations for this technically challenging mission.

The space walk was planned to last no more than 30 minutes, although the crew’s EVA preparations took about 15 hours. This was mainly taken up with assembling the suit, putting it on, and then checking it out for use outside the orbital module. It was reported that there were 30 contingency plans developed for the EVA to ensure the safety of the crew and the integrity of both the suit and spacecraft during the operation. It was also revealed that a fire alarm at the Mission Control Center shortly before the start of the EVA was in fact a false alarm, presumably adding to the tension at the time.

The EVA actually lasted 22 minutes and was conducted by Zhai Zhigang, wearing the Chinese-developed Feitian space pressure suit which is similar to the Russian Orlan (“Bald Eagle”) EVA suit used since 1977 for Russian space station – based EVAs. Supporting his commander from inside the depressurized Orbital Module of Shenzhou 7, Liu Boming wore a Russian Orlan M suit (No. 42) for comparison with the national suit. The name Feitian comes from the Mandarin fei (flying) and tian (sky).

Zhai Zhigang’s exit from the module was hindered slightly by difficulties in opening the hatch. Once these were resolved and in full view of the exterior TV camera, Zhai Zhigang floated head first outside the module, and then used hand­rails mounted outside the module to perform a wandering excursion to retrieve experiment samples and wave a Chinese flag for the benefit of the camera. The experiment was a solid lubricant exposure device, about the size of a book. It was installed on the outer wall of the Orbital Module during launch preparation and retrieved during the EVA after about 40 h exposure to the space environment. The aim of the experiment was to study the characteristics of lubricants designed for future space-based “moving components in space facilities”.

Limited during the EVA by restraint cables, the taikonaut remained close to the EVA hatch, his movements captured by two cameras providing spectacular panoramic images of the historic event. Conducting a short (approximately 4 min) stand-up EVA, Liu Boming handed his commander a national flag. Though ready to assist if necessary, he did not fully exit the module. The third crew member, Jing Haipeng, remained inside the Descent Module monitoring the EVA and the general condition of the spacecraft.

Though EVAs of up to 7 hours are reportedly possible in the Feitian suit, this initial excursion was limited to just over 20 minutes to evaluate the design and procedures, providing baseline data in order to plan longer excursions on future missions. No serious difficulties were reported, although it was clear that at one point the spacewalker became entangled in his tether. At the end of the EVA period, both men returned to the Orbital Module of the spacecraft, sealed the hatch and repressurized the module before opening the internal hatch and rejoin­ing their colleague. Apart from the gloves, the suit units were not returned to Earth as there was not enough room inside the Descent Module to stow them. The success of the first Chinese space walk was feted across the world as a major milestone in the development of Chinese manned space flight. The total hatch open time was 22 minutes, with Zhai Zhigang actually outside for only 10 minutes, with about 4 minutes taken for exit and entry into the module.

Two hours after the end of the EVA, a small, 40 cm long, 40 kg monitoring satellite called “BanXing” was deployed from the nose of the Shenzhou 7 Orbital Module. It carried a liquid ammonia “boost device” maneuvering engine and a pair of 150-megapixel stereo cameras. Its objectives were to evaluate minisatellite technology, to observe and monitor the Shenzhou spacecraft and to test the track­ing and approach technology being developed for space rendezvous and docking. After taking video and still images of the spacecraft, the satellite was maneuvered to approximately 100-200 km away. Following the return of the crew to Earth, the small satellite re-rendezvoused with the abandoned Shenzhou 7 Service Module and then orbited around it, imaging the module. The operational lifetime of the minisatellite was reportedly three months. It finally reentered on October 29, 2009, about 13 months after its deployment from Shenzhou 7.

As a further development in support technologies for improved coverage of manned missions the Chinese had launched their first data relay satellite Tianlian 1 (“Skylink 1”) on a Long March 3C carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite

Launch Center on April 25, 2008. The relay satellite was used to improve orbital communications with Shenzhou to approximately 60%. Ground stations and ocean tracking ships can only cover about 12% of each orbit, so the data relay satellite improved this by covering 50% of the orbit. Two new tracking ships, Yuanewang 5 and 6, were also commissioned in time to support the Shenzhou 7 mission.

The Chinese reported that 220 technical modifications had been implemented to the Shenzhou 7 mission after the flight of Shenzhou 6. Most notable were the removal of the solar panels on the Orbital Module to allow for the EVA, the installation of EVA handrails, and an additional camera installed to support the space walk. The removal of the solar arrays meant that the OM would not remain in space as on earlier missions, but would reenter after its separation at the end of the mission. There were also more than 30 other upgrades and improvements to the carrier rocket since the last mission, notably to the pipes inside the second stage.

Life on board the spacecraft was also improved for the crew, with a custom – made compact and storable toilet to allow collected urine to be recycled for drinking water. There were 80 food varieties available to them, compared with the 50 available for Shenzhou 6. The choices included spicy kung-pao chicken, de-shelled shrimp, and a selection of dry fruits.

On September 27, Shenzhou 7 reportedly passed within 45 km of the International Space Station and, although no statements were released by Chinese authorities, the American media reported that China had deployed its companion satellite BX-1 only four hours earlier. They suggested that it was a dual military – civilian mission, speculating that it may have been a test of orbital antisatellite inception technology and space station observation.

On September 28, with the primary objective of the mission completed, the de-orbit and entry maneuvers were followed by a landing in Siziwang Banner in central Inner Mongolia, between Hohhot and Erenhot. The success of this mission led to some speculation that the next Shenzhou missions would include docking with a rudimentary space laboratory.

Milestones

261st manned space flight

3rd manned Chinese spaceflight

1 st Chinese three-person space flight

3rd manned Shenzhou flight

1 st three-person Shenzhou flight

1st Chinese EVA

1st Chinese stand-up EVA

In the early days of manned space flight both the Soviets and the Americans planned for a series of suborbital flights before committing their crew members to the more challenging orbital space flight trajectories. A suborbital flight path is similar to a ballistic trajectory to the upper reaches of the atmosphere and then falls back due to insufficient velocity to attain orbital flight. This type of space­flight was flown during the first American manned (Mercury) space shots in 1961. Launched from a carrier aircraft, the 13 X-15 rocket research aircraft flights which were similar but termed “astro-flights” rather than suborbital as they reached lower peak altitudes. It was this type of trajectory that was achieved by the three SpaceShipOne flights in 2004 to claim the “X-Prize”. The failed Soyuz launch in 1975 was also high enough to follow a suborbital trajectory.

The first half century of human space operations has, by any measure, been spectacular and rapid. It had taken hundreds of years to progress to this point, where human space exploration was more than just a dream. After mastering the techniques of balloon flight, gliders, and finally powered flight, it took another half a century to devise systems, procedures, and infrastructure to place man­made objects into space. In the half a century since then, we have created a huge space complex based on the experiences of at least nine earlier space stations, explored the Moon, and launched pathfinder probes to the farthest planets in the solar system, pioneering the way for humans to follow at some point in the future. Human endurance on space flight has increased from minutes to months and the number of crew rose from single-seat space flights to successive international

D. J. Shayler and M. D. Shayler, Manned Spaceflight LogII—2006—2012, Springer Praxis Books 158, DOl 10.1007/978-1-4614-4577-7_2, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

expeditions of up to six on the ISS. The station itself has operated with a crew continuously, 24/7 and 365 days a year, for over a decade.

Plans for large space complexes, bases on the Moon and colonies on Mars, the exploitation of asteroid minerals, and planetary journeys have been suggested for decades. They will surely occur, perhaps not in our lifetime, but not so far in the future to think that it is totally impossible from the standpoint of current technology. Interstellar travel may remain within the realms of science fiction for some considerable time to come, but who knows for sure?

It has taken humans thousands of years to expand across our planet and develop the knowledge, skills, and experience to “live” here, and we are still learning and exploring. It took over 300 years to explore the Pacific Ocean and its environs and we are still investigating the deep jungles, high mountains, and frozen polar caps. We have only touched upon the vast expanses of the ocean beds. All of this could be classed as planetary exploration, but of the planet we all live on. With all this covering such a passage of time in the history of human exploration of Earth, why should we expect so much, so quickly from our explorations in space after only half a century?

Launch systems

Active participation in a flight into space starts, logically, with the flight. This is a short, 8-10-minute, exciting, explosive, but always interesting, trip from the launchpad to low Earth orbit. Getting off the planet is always the first hurdle and, as the German rocket engineer Werner von Braun once explained, “Once you have left Earth, you are halfway to anywhere.”

For the first journeys into space, adapted ballistic missiles were used to carry a human crew, riding on Vostok, Voskhod, Mercury, and Gemini spacecraft. For Apollo, a new family of “space boosters” was developed—the Saturn rockets— which were powerful enough to take the first men to the Moon and to launch America’s only space station. Unfortunately, the rocket developed for the Soviet manned lunar program did not perform as planned and cosmonauts never rode the goliath off the pad. It was the smaller, ballistic missile, designated the R-7, which became the workhorse for the Soviet and subsequent Russian space program. More recently, it has also given international crew members access to space when the Shuttle was unavailable and following its retirement in 2011.

For over 50 years, the R-7 in its various guises has propelled cosmonauts from the national launch site in Baikonur to orbit on over 100 missions. The reliability and ruggedness of the design and the foresight of the decision to go with the launch vehicle in the 1950s are remarkable. Despite all the international technology, advanced designs, and countless proposals and plans, the most reliable

and long-lasting launch system to Earth orbit is one that has been around for as long as we have ventured into space. In 50 years, it has endured very few launch – pad aborts and only two launch incidents; the 1975 third-stage separation failure and 1983 pad abort both resulted in the safe recovery of the crew. It stands as a remarkable credit to Russian engineering that it is this R-7 which has outlasted all the other launch vehicles that have taken humans into space.

With the retirement of the Shuttle, there remain (2012) only two operational manned (orbital) space flight launch systems available in the global program, the Russian R-7 and the Chinese Long March 2F. There are plans and designs in development for carrying human crews on board, but these are still some years away from operational use.

The Mercury-Redstone, Mercury-Atlas, Gemini-Titan II, Apollo-Saturn IB and Saturn V were very successful, with no launch failures and very few “near misses” considering the pioneering nature of their use in the early years of manned space flight. Over the 135 launches of the Space Shuttle system, there was only one tragic launch accident (Challenger) resulting in the loss of life and one launch abort to orbit (STS-51F). Though termed operational from its fifth launch, the Shuttle system in hindsight could only be termed a research vehicle rather than totally “operational” in the true sense of the word, due to the changes in launch manifests and delays in ground processing. Indeed, it would be difficult to term any manned launch system, apart from perhaps the R-7, as operational, due to the length of time in service and the number of launches completed.

While America was reeling from the loss of Challenger and her crew, the Soviets were about to launch their next space station. Twenty-two days after the Challenger accident, it was not Salyut 8 that was placed in orbit but a new station called Mir (“Peace”). This new station, it was explained, was just the core module of a planned larger complex, incorporating six docking ports (five around a forward-located “node” and the sixth at the rear) to accommodate visiting Soyuz and Progress spacecraft and additional modules being launched over the next few years. There would also be provision to receive the yet-to-appear Buran space shuttle. With more than one docking facility, planned crew rotation and resupply could be completed without the need to vacate the station, thus maximizing the efficiency of the crew and eliminating the need to power down or reactivate station systems between expeditions.

In 1987, Kvant 1 became the first module attached to the Mir core. This was packed with astrophysics instruments and was originally intended for Salyut 7. It housed the initial set of gyrodynes, which enabled the complex to maintain its attitude without firing its thrusters and using up precious onboard propellants. The next module, Kvant 2, arrived in 1989. Kvant 2 became an extension facility

to the main core module and was used for scientific research and EVA operations using an integrated airlock section for the space walks. In 1990, the Kristall space processing facility (also known as the technological module) arrived at Mir, bring­ing experiment furnaces and other equipment to expand the scientific research program on the station. There was an additional docking facility on Kristall originally intended for Buran. Although this was never used by the Soviet shuttle, the American shuttle docked to this module via a Russian-built docking module added in 1995. Delays in delivering these modules stretched the Mir manifest and caused the station to be temporarily abandoned for a few months during 1989.

In 1988, the much anticipated Soviet Buran space shuttle completed its maiden, unmanned flight. Despite this impressive achievement Buran never flew again due to budget restrictions. After years of development, construction of facil­ities, and training of crew members, the program disappeared in the wake of changes to the former Soviet Union. The Buran cosmonaut team finally disbanded in the mid-1990s, with the residual hardware abandoned, and the program provid­ing a new chapter in space history of lost opportunities and wasted resources.

Following the loss of Challenger, the Americans reevaluated the Shuttle program and, as a result, the majority of commercial satellite deployments were shifted to expendable launch vehicles. The emphasis of the Shuttle manifest for the rest of the decade was on the recertification of both the Shuttle system and

each individual orbiter, following the recommendations of the Challenger inquiry and to catch up with several important and long-delayed payloads which had to be launched on the Shuttle. Discovery was the first to return to flight, in Septem­ber 1988, followed by Atlantis in December that year and finally Columbia in August 1989. The primary payloads launched in this period (1988-1990) were two Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, which would provide increased orbital com­munication coverage for future Shuttle missions. Other missions flown included the delayed deployment of the planetary probes Magellan (STS-30) to Venus, Galileo (STS-34) to Jupiter, and the solar polar observer Ulysses (STS-41). There were five fully classified DoD missions and the retrieval (STS-32) of the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), which had been deployed in 1984 and was originally planned for retrieval in 1985. The Hubble Space Telescope was also finally deployed (STS-30) and the first dedicated Shuttle pallet science mission, Astro-1 (STS-35), was flown to great success.

2008-050A October 12, 2008

Pad 1, Site 5, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of

Kazakhstan

April 8, 2009

151 km northeast of Dzhezkazgan, Republic of Kazakhstan

Soyuz-FG (serial number Щ15000-026),

Soyuz TMA (serial number 223)/17S 178 da 00 h 13 min 38 s (Lonchakov, Fincke)

11 da 20 h 35 min 37 s (Garriott)

Titan

ISS resident crew transport (17S), ISS-18 resident crew; visiting crew 15 (Generation II Astronaut, GTA) research program

Flight crew

LONCHAKOV, Yuri Valentinovich, 43, Russian Federation Air Force, RSA Soyuz TMA commander, ISS flight engineer 1, third mission Previous missions: STS-100 (2001), Soyuz TMA-1 (2002)

FINCKE, Edward Michael, 41, USAF, NASA Soyuz TMA flight engineer, NASA ISS commander, second mission Previous mission: Soyuz TMA-4/ISS-9 (2004)

GARRIOTT, Richard Allen, 46, civilian, American space flight participant ISS resident crew exchanges

CHAMITOFF, Gregory Errol, 45, NASA ISS flight engineer 2 (up STS-124, down STS-126)

MAGNUS, Sandra Hall, 44, NASA ISS flight engineer 2 (up STS-126, down STS-119), second mission Previous mission: STS-112 (2002)

WAKATA, Koichi, 45, JAXA (Japanese) ISS flight engineer 2 (up STS-119, down STS-127), third mission Previous missions: STS-72 (1996), STS-92 (2000)

Flight log

The 18th resident crew arrived at the docking port of Zarya on October 14, 2008, two days after leaving the Baikonur Cosmodrome. They assumed formal residency from the ISS-17 crew on October 22.

In command of the Soyuz, but serving as flight engineer on the station was veteran cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov. He had previously flown on two visiting missions to the station on Shuttle in (2001) and on the maiden flight of TMA (2002). The flight engineer on Soyuz and commander of the residency was veteran NASA astronaut Michael Fincke, who had previously logged 187 days aboard the station on ISS-8. Arriving with the ISS-18 crew was Richard Garriott, the latest

SFP and son of Skylab and Spacelab astronaut Owen Garriott. He would return with the outgoing ISS-17 cosmonauts in TMA-12 after a flight of 10 days on station.

The experiences of his father were mirrored in Garriott’s own program of research on the station 35 years later. The Generation II Astronaut (GTA) project featured nine experiments. There were two more under the ESA program and three under the U. S. medical program. The nine experiments featured research in life science, biotechnology, technical research, education, and humanities, as well as a range of public affairs and outreach programs. Six experiments were per­formed in the Russian segment, the other three in the U. S. segment. Garriott was assigned 33 hours of experiment time, supported by one of the Russian cosmo­nauts for photo-documentation. The memory of his father’s Skylab mission was also recalled with an updated Leonardo da Vinci figure used as the mission emblem as was the case with his father’s Skylab 3 emblem. Garriott’s return on TMA 12 completed a highly successful 12-day mission.

For the main crew, the Russian research program consisted of 46 experiments, only 5 of which were new investigations. The remainder were continuations of previous investigations. There were 6 experiments in human life research, 7 in geophysical research, and 3 in Earth research. A further 14 experiments were under the heading of space technology, with 6 technical research investigations, 2 contracted activities, and 2 on the study of cosmic rays. There were also 3 educa­tional experiments and 3 more in space technology and material sciences. A total of 161 hours were allocated for Russian science across the mission.

Over in the U. S. segment, the research to be completed during this residency included 40 NASA-managed experiments in human research, exploration technol­ogy testing, biological and physical sciences, and education. In addition, there were 33 experiments planned by the European and Japanese space agencies.

During this expedition, three other crew members worked with the Russians. When the main crew arrived, Chamitoff was already aboard. He was replaced by Sandra Magnus on STS-126 in November 2008 and she in turn was replaced in March 2009 by Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata on STS-119. The two Shuttle missions delivered further logistics to the station, with STS-126 being the second dedicated Utilization and Logistics Flight and STS-119 delivering the long-delayed final set of solar arrays and truss element S6. Both flights included several EVAs in support of the activities by Shuttle crew members.

ISS-18 crew members Fincke and Lonchakov conducted two EVAs totaling 10 hours 27 minutes from Pirs, wearing Orlan-M suits for the final time before the improved Orlan MK suits were introduced. The first EVA (December 23, 2008, 5 h 38 min) was designated Russian Segment EVA 21 and included the retrieval of experiment samples and deployment of a Langmuir probe to measure electrical and plasma fields close to the docked Soyuz spacecraft. Studies of electromagnetic energy were linked to the ongoing investigations into the problems with the pyrotechnical separation bolts on the Soyuz which had troubled TMA-10 and TMA-11. The EVA crew deployed two experiments on a special platform on the outside of the Zvezda module.

The second EVA (March 10, 2009: 4h 49 min), designated Russian Segment EVA 21A, was not part of the original mission planning, but when the pair had difficultly installing a ESA experiment on their first EVA, the second excursion was added instead of returning the hardware to Earth. This time, the EXPOSE-R biological exposure samples were installed and the two men took time to clear six straps from the docking area on Pirs to prevent hindrance with future docking operations. Other tasks included closing a loose insulation flap on Zvezda, removing an experiment cassette, and further photo-documentation.

This mission also featured the arrival at station of the latest variant of the venerable unmanned Progress resupply cargo craft, the M-01M (31P), on Novem­ber 30. Launched on November 26, the longer-than-usual approach allowed ground controllers to fully evaluate the new systems on the vehicle before commit­ting to ISS docking. Outwardly resembling the earlier versions, this upgraded variant included a state-of-the-art digital computer system and more compact avionics, saving 165.3751b (75 kg) dry mass over previous versions, with 15 fewer components. The upgraded equipment enabled automatic diagnostics between the telemetry and computer systems while also providing digital interfaces for the integration of all systems when docked with the ISS.

With the arrival of the TMA-14 crew (ISS-19) at the end of March, and completion of their science program, it was time once again to exchange the responsibility of command of the station; this was completed on April 2, formally ending the ISS-18 residency after 162 days. Arriving at the station with ISS-19 crew was Space Flight Participant Simonyi, on his historic second 10-day visit to the station. He returned with ISS-18 crew, who undocked in Soyuz TMA-13 on April 8, 2009 after 176 days on board the orbital complex. Their safe landing was achieved later that day near the town of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.

Milestones

262nd manned space flight 106th Russian manned space flight 99th manned Soyuz flight 13 th manned Soyuz TMA mission 17th ISS Soyuz mission (17S)

15th ISS Soyuz visiting mission 18th ISS resident crew

1 st flight of a son of a NASA astronaut (Richard Garriott/Owen Garriott) Chamitoff celebrates his 46th birthday (August 6)

Flight crew

FERGUSON, Christopher John, 47, USN, NASA commander, second mission Previous mission: STS-115 (2006)

BOE, Eric Allen, 44, USAF, NASA pilot

PETTIT, Donald Ray, 53, civilian, NASA mission specialist 1, second mission Previous mission: ISS E06/STS-113/TMA-1 (2002-2003)

BOWEN, Stephen George, 44, USN, NASA mission specialist 2 STEFANYSHYN-PIPER, Heidemarie Martha, 45 USN, NASA mission specialist 3, second mission Previous mission: STS-115 (2006)

KIMBROUGH, Robert Shane, 41, U. S. Army, NASA mission specialist 4 ISS resident expedition crew member transfers

MAGNUS, Sandra Hall, 44, civilian, NASA mission specialist 5 (up only)/ISS – 18 flight engineer, second mission Previous mission: STS-112 (2002)

CHAMITOFF, Gregory Errol, 45, civilian, NASA mission specialist 5 (down only)/ISS-18 flight engineer

Flight log

Dubbed a mission of home improvement and maintenance, this flight was packed with robotic arm operations, repairs, and servicing activities. Designed to deliver construction equipment intended to expand the living conditions in order to accommodate a permanent crew of six, the flight also featured another exchange

of NASA-ISS flight engineers via the Space Shuttle, as part of the resident crew of station prior to permanent six-person crewing.

In the original planning, Endeavour was intended to support the forthcoming Hubble Service Mission (STS-125) before flying on STS-126. Endeavour was rolled into the OPF on March 27, 2008 for processing. It was then relocated to the VAB on September 11, 2008, for stacking to the ET and SRB. On September 19 the STS-126 stack was relocated to Pad 39B to serve as an emergency rescue vehicle (if needed) for the STS-125 Hubble Service Mission 4, which was preparing to launch from Pad A. This was the first time since 2001 that a shuttle stack had sat on both launchpads at the Cape. When the Hubble mission was postponed into 2009 in late September due to problems with the telescope, all work on Endeavour to support the mission ended and focus shifted back to STS-126. When Discovery was rolled back to the VAB on October 20, Endeavour was moved across to the now vacant Pad 39A on October 23, 2008, the day after its Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) payload arrived.

The launch into a night sky was flawlessly performed on November 14, 2008. A 5 h inspection of the vehicle’s heat shield was conducted by the crew using the RMS and OBSS, prior to docking with station. Analysis of the imagery and data on the ground revealed that a small piece of thermal blanket was loose on the aft portion of Endeavour. As with previous flights, Endeavour was inverted for documentation and analysis of the underside. Following further analysis of the data, it was determined that there would be no need for a further inspection, as the heat shield looked in good condition for entry.

Endeavour docked with the ISS on November 16 and this was followed a few hours later by Magnus exchanging places with Chamitolf on the resident crew. He had spent 167 days as member ISS-18. The following day, MPLM Leonardo was relocated by the ISS robotic arm to the nadir port on Harmony. On board Leonardo were 6.5 tons of equipment, including two large water-recycling racks, a new “kitchen”, a second toilet, two further sleeping stations, extra exercise equipment, and other supphes.

Mission specialists Stefanyshyn-Piper, Bowen, and Kimbrough completed a series of four EVAs during the mission, totaling 26 hours 41 minutes. Bowen logged the most time at 19 hours 56 minutes in three space walks. Piper logged 18 hours 34 minutes in her three space walks, while Kimbrough’s two EYAs logged 12 hours 52 minutes.

During the first EVA (November 18; 6 h 52 min), Piper and Bowen spent the majority of their time outside working on the SARJ, removing two of the joint’s Trundle Bearing Assemblies (TBAs). They also removed a depleted nitrogen tank from a storage platform on the station, returning it to the payload bay of Endeavour. Other tasks included moving a flex hose rotating coupler from the Shuttle across to the Station Storage Platform and removing insulation blankets from the Cameras Berthing Mechanism (CBM) on the Kibo laboratory.

Approximately halfway into this EVA, one of the grease guns that Piper was preparing to use at the SARJ released some of the Braycote grease into her Crew Lock Bag. This is the bag used by spacewalkers during their activities to retain spare tools and equipment. As she was cleaning the inside of the bag, it drifted away from her towards the aft and starboard of the station. It was soon out of reach, preventing her from retrieving it. Inside this bag were two grease guns, scrapers, several wipes and tethers, as well as several tool caddies. Piper and Bowen spent the remainder of their EVA time sharing a duplicate set of tools from the other Cew Lock Bag (CLB) they had with them.

During the second EVA (November 20; 6h 45 min) Piper and Kimbrough moved two Crew and Equipment Translation Aid (CETA) carts. They also lubricated the station’s RMS latches and an end effector snare (the capture device), then cleaned and replaced four TBAs. The next EVA (November 22, 6h 57 min) saw Piper and Bowen replace five more TBAs and clean and lubricate race rings on the station’s starboard SARJ.

On the final EVA (November 24, 6 h 7 min), Kimbrough and Bowen replaced the final TBA on the station’s starboard SARJ, lubricated the race rings on the port SARJ, moved a video camera on the Part 1 Truss, and installed two Global Positioning Satellite Antennas on the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Logistics Module. They also retracted the latch on the JEM Exposed Facility Berthing Mechanism and reinstalled the mechanical cover.

In addition to the EVAs conducted outside the station, the crew occupied themselves by working with the resident station crew to convert the orbital facility to support a six-person crew and completed a wide variety of other tasks. Latches on the Exposed Facility Berthing Mechanism on the Japanese Kibo Laboratory were also tested. This mechanism would be used to install the External Science Platform on the Kibo, which would be delivered in 2009.

The astronauts installed a new Water Recovery System, which was designed to treat waste water and then provide recycled water that was clean and safe enough to drink. Supplying any crew with fresh drinking water has always been one of the challenges facing long-duration mission planners, spacecraft designers, and medical staff. Short missions are more easily accommodated, but supporting a crew of six or more 24/7 for 365 days a year is a logistical challenge. Lessons learned from previous space station programs, applied and improved on the ISS, will lay the groundwork for long-duration flights away from Earth, to the Moon, Mars, and the asteroids.

The Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) shut down during initial test operations. The station and Shuttle crews, as well as ground controllers and engin­eers, investigated possible causes and cures over the next several days. It was determined that the motion of the centrifuge had caused physical interference with the UPA, which resulted in increased power draw and temperatures. The UPA was hand-mounted onto the Water Recovery System (WRS) rack after grommets were removed. Following this remedy, the UPA ran normally. On the 10th day of the mission, the NASA Management Team extended the mission’s docked duration by an extra day. This would allow additional time for further WRS troubleshooting if required.

On November 25, the crew were informed that the starboard SARJ had completed a 3 h 20 min test, during which it automatically tracked the Sun for the first time in over a year. In addition, the UPA had completed its second run without shutting down. The combined crew celebrated Thanksgiving aboard station and sent a greeting to American personnel who were serving abroad, away from home and family. The crews thanked members of the armed services for their commitment and dedication and wished them well.

With joint operations nearing completion, MPLM Leonardo was relocated back into the payload bay of Endeavour on November 26 for the return home. Undocking occurred on November 28 after joint operations totaling 11 days 16 hours 46 minutes with Chamitoff logging 179 days on the station. Endeavour’s pilot, Eric Boe, completed a standard fly-around of the station for photo-docu­mentation. The next day, the crew conducted an inspection of the thermal

protection system with the RMS and OBSS. Following analysis of the images, the heat shield was cleared for entry and landing.

Towards the end of orbital operations on November 29, a small, 15.4351b (7 kg) USAF satellite was deployed. PICOSat was designed to test and evaluate space environment effects on new solar cell technology. Expected to remain in orbit for several months, it finally de-orbited on February 17, 2010.

Weather concerns at the Florida primary landing site forced two standoffs before finally diverting the landing to California. Endeavour landed on a tempor­ary runway adjacent to the concrete Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base. The concrete asphalt runway was 12,000 ft (3657.6 m) long by 20 ft (6.09 m) wide, with a 1,000 ft (348 m) underrun and overrun capability for Shuttle load-bearing support. As this runway was 1,940 ft (3,000 m) shorter than the nominal runways, new braking and rollout techniques had to be employed for this landing, providing new and additional information on landing a Shuttle orbiter.

Milestones

263rd manned space flight 154th U. S. manned space flight 124th Shuttle mission 26th flight of Endeavour 27th Shuttle ISS mission 9th Endeavour ISS mission First dual-pad Shuttle preparation since 2001

First landing on a temporary runway at Dryden due to maintenance on main runways

Bowen was first USN submarine officer selected for NASA astronaut training, and the second submariner to fly in space (after Mike McCulley on STS-34 in 1989)

Flight crew

ARCHAMBAULT, Lee Joseph, 48, USAF, NASA commander, second mission Previous mission-. STS-117 (2007)

ANTONELLI, Dominic Anthony, 41, USN, NASA pilot ACABA, Joseph Michael, 41, civilian, NASA mission specialist 1 SWANSON, Steven Roy, 48, civilian, NASA mission specialist 2, second mission

Previous mission-. STS-117 (2007)

ARNOLD II, Richard Robert, 45, NASA mission specialist 3

PHILLIPS, John Lynch, 57, USN Reserve (Retd.), NASA mission specialist 4,

third mission

Previous missions-. STS-100 (2001), ISS-ll/TMA-6 (2005)

ISS resident crew members

WAKATA, Koichi, 45, civilian (Japanese), JAXA mission speciahst 5 (up only)/ISS flight engineer, third mission Previous missions-. STS-72 (1996), STS-92 (2000)

MAGNUS, Sandra Hall, 44, civilian, NASA mission specialist 5 (down only)/ ISS flight engineer, second mission Previous mission: STS-112 (2002)

Flight log

One of the challenges that a researcher of Shuttle missions has to overcome is the mission numbering system and sequence. For most of the program, the missions

did not fly in sequence of allocated numbers. This was especially true for the delayed STS-119, which flew after STS-126 but before STS-125!

The inclusion of four crew members whose surnames began with “A” saw the crew being termed the “A” team. Two of these (Acaba and Arnold) were former teachers turned astronauts, who were selected in 2004 to assist NASA to inspire young people to study mathematics and science and hopefully to go on to pursue engineering and aerospace careers.

This mission dehvered the fourth and final set of solar array wings, as well as the S6 truss, completing the structural backbone of the station and the main electrical power supply to the facility. With the installation of the final set of arrays, full power capacity could reach 120kW of electricity, doubling the available power for scientific experiments from 15kW to 30 kW and allowing the station’s permanent resident crew complement to increase from three to six.

Final preparation for the mission began with Discovery being taken into the OPF on June 14, 2008. Rollover to the VAB occurred on January 7, 2009, with transfer to Pad 39A a week later on January 14. The original launch date had been set for February 12, but this was postponed following an issue with the gaseous hydrogen flow control valves. These valves are part of the system that channels gaseous hydrogen from the main engines to the External Tank. The valves had to be replaced and the launch was reset for March 11.

On that date, however, the launch had to be postponed again for at least 24 hours, due to a hydrogen leak in the left-hand vent line between the Shuttle and the ET. Managers and engineers looked at potential repair options and the launch was rescheduled for no earlier than March 15. This meant the flight’s docked time at the station would be reduced by two days so that the Shuttle could depart prior to the arrival of the next resident crew on Soyuz TMA – 14.

The March 15 launch occurred on time and with no problems during ascent. During FD2 (March 16), the crew completed a close inspection of the orbiter’s wing leading edge panels using the RMS and OBSS. The crew installed the orbiter docking system “centerline” camera, tested the rendezvous equipment, and extended the docking ring on the top of the docking assembly. Prior to docking with the station on March 17, the orbiter completed the now familiar backflip maneuver for heat shield damage assessment. Experts in the field and the Damage Assessment Team in Mission Control Houston determined that the heat shield was healthy for reentry.

Discovery docked with the ISS on March 17, with Magnus and Wakata swapping roles and Soyuz seat liners later the same day. Magnus had spent 121 days as a member of the ISS-18 crew by the end of the mission, logging 129 days on board the station and a total of 134 days in space. Her replacement, Koichi Wakata, became the first representative of Japan to join a resident crew. The following day (March 18), the ITS S6 truss structure was relocated across to the station from Discovery’s payload bay ready for the series of EVAs to attach it permanently to the station.

There were three EVAs completed during this mission, totaling 19 hours 4 minutes, with three astronauts conducting two EVAs each. Swanson logged 12 hours 37 minutes, Acaba 12 hours 57 minutes, and Arnold 12 hours 34 minutes. On the first EVA (March 19, 6h 7 min), Swanson and Arnold bolted the S6 truss into place. They then connected the power and data cables that allowed station flight controls to command the segment into operation remotely.

For the second EVA (March 21, 6h 30min), Swanson teamed with Acaba. They prepared a work site for new batteries that were scheduled for delivery on STS-127. In addition, they installed a Global Positioning System antenna on the Pressurized Logistics Module attached to the Japanese Kibo laboratory. This would allow the Japanese automatic H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) to rendezvous with the station later in 2009. It also set the stage for future assembly tasks by station and Shuttle crews. A misaligned bracket proved too difficult to reposition during the installation of a cargo carrier attach system, so the two astronauts moved to other tasks, including image documentation of the station’s radiators.

The third and final EVA (March 23, 6h 27 min) saw Acaba and Arnold relocate one of the two CETA carts from one side of the Mobile Transporter to the other. Again, difficulty was encountered when they had trouble freeing a stuck mechanism. This would have enabled them to deploy a spare equipment platform, but the task had to be deferred to a future space walk. A similar task on another Payload Attach System was also deleted from the EVA by Mission Control. The astronauts did lubricate the end effecter capture system on the station’s RMS. This task had proven effective during the STS-126 mission, preventing the snare from

snagging and allowing it to return snugly into its groove inside the latching mechanism.

Inside the station, the crew replaced a failed unit on a system that converted urine to potable water. By March 24, 701b (8.38 gallons or 30.09 liters) of urine had been processed in the system, from which 151b (1.79 gallons or 0.39 liters) of reclaimed drinking water had been collected. Samples from the Water Recovery System were collected for analysis on Earth to determine if the purified water was suitable for the crew to drink before any was consumed on the station. Two loadmasters (Arnold and Phillips) were assigned the task of keeping track of the transfer of supplies and logistics across to the station and the unwanted gear, experiment results, and samples back into the orbiter.

On March 24, both the Shuttle and station crews (10 astronauts and cosmonauts) gathered in the Harmony Node on station to speak with U. S. President Barack Obama, Members of Congress and schoolchildren from the Washington, D. C. area. Discovery undocked later that day (the 10th day of the mission) after 7 days 22 hours 33 minutes of joint operations. As usual, the mission pilot (in this case, Antonelli) performed the undocking and fly-around maneuver around the station while the rest of the crew photographed the completed truss assembly, now with the final set of solar array wings fully deployed.

On March 26, Antonelli used the Shuttle RMS to hold the OBSS, enabling the lasers and cameras to scan the surface of the orbiter for any signs of damage to the thermal protection system. No such damage was found. The first landing opportunity was waived off due to gusty winds and clouds at the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Cape, but conditions improved enough to allow a successful landing in Florida during the next orbit, 90 minutes later.

Milestones

264th manned spaceflight 155th U. S. manned spaceflight 125th Shuttle mission 36th flight of Discovery 28th Shuttle ISS mission 10th Discovery ISS mission 100th post-Challenger mission

Wakata became the first JAXA/Japanese resident ISS crew member