CONTINUED OPERATIONS

The third week in February saw the crew sample their potable water and disinfect parts of the water supply system in the Russian sector of ISS in order to ensure its continued functioning to the highest standard. Pettit replaced the remote power control module in Destiny due to a bad power switch in the unit causing a video recorder to power off unexpectedly. The crew also completed regular maintenance of some of their fitness equipment in Destiny. They conducted an inventory of all articles in Quest. At the same time, new software was loaded into the Command and Control (C&C) computers, and the Guidance, Navigation, and Computers (GNC) on the station.

Figure 37. Expedition-6: Donald Pettit works with the PuFF experiment inside Destiny.

On February 24, Bowersox and Pettit donned American EMUs without assis­tance from Budarin. This was a test in advance of launching two-man Expedition crews to continue station occupation while the Shuttle remained grounded. The two men went as far as setting up the equipment for pre-breathing oxygen before dis­continuing the experiment and removing the suits. In Houston, Carl Walz told them “Bravo, great job.” He joked with Pettit, “We think you are losing too much weight. You make it look altogether too easy.” Three days later, O’Keefe told Congress that if at any time the crew of ISS were at serious risk then they would “dim the lights, get into the Soyuz and head for home.’’

As March began the Expedition-6 crew celebrated their 100th day in space. All three men were continuing to perform human life sciences experiments, Earth obser­vations, and other onboard scientific experiments. Pettit continued to work on repairing the MSG, working with engineers on the ground. This work appeared to be complete by the end of the month when Pettit applied electrical power to the unit and ran a test run of the Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation (PFMI), which had been in the glovebox since it failed in November 2002. Following the test, the PFMI was replaced by another experiment: Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions (InSPACE). The crew also continued to prepare for a Stage EVA that was planned for April.

Pettit had put the human life science experiments in their historic context during his pre-launch interview:

“When you do research associated with exploration, you’re in a unique environ­ment and you learn new things about people and new things about nature. And these in themselves enrich the knowledge for everybody that doesn’t go on the exploration trip. One example I like about human physiology in exploration is transoceanic exploration in the 14th and 15th century and the role of diet and vitamin deficiencies. And, it was this kind of exploration that helped open the can of worms leading to things like vitamin C and its role in scurvy, and this information was prised, so to speak, from the souls of the early explorers. And once you learn this information, then it helps and benefits everybody back on the continent that didn’t get a chance to go on these trips. And I see this as the goal of the life science research on Space Station.’’

In his own interview, Budarin had discussed the experiments in the Russian segment of ISS:

“[The] Russian segment will have its own share of science and medical experi­ments. We will be performing Earth monitoring and observation for [the] Russian scientific program. One of the experiments is called Diatomeya. It involves observation of ocean surface in order to determine… regions that are best suitable for fishing; fertile regions of the ocean. Currently, these particular regions of the ocean are well-studied and their location is known, but in nature, every­thing changes, everything morphs, and these regions are changing as well. So we’ll be determining the new characteristics of the regions. Also, we will be monitoring the glaciers. Everybody’s talking about global warming, so we will be watching out for glacier dynamics. Medical, well, the goals and objectives are similar across all programs. The equipment may be different, but we will be working towards the same end pretty much.’’

The third week of March began with Pettit installing a new Pump Package Assembly (PPA) in the Moderate Temperature Cooling Loop (MTCL) of Destiny’s Thermal Control System. The original pump had failed the previous day. Due to seating problems in one of the valves the system was not returned to operation until March 20. Meanwhile, Budarin upgraded the Russian computer software.

When the Russian computer system was re-booted on March 19, a Russian Terminal Computer in Zvezda was unable to communicate with the American GNC Computer 2, which was controlling the station at the time. This caused a failure of the routine hand-over of control to the Russian computer. As a result, the American computer began an automatic shutdown of non-critical systems. But attitude control was not lost and, after the communication problem between the two computers had been overcome, all systems were brought back on-line within a few hours.

The last week of March was filled with three primary activities. Work to return the MSG to operational status was finally completed and preparations were made for the first run of InSPACE experiments, which were completed during the first week of April. The crew also began reviewing plans and preparing equipment for their second Stage EVA. Success would reduce the likelihood of the two-man Expedition-7 crew having to make a Stage EVA during their occupation of ISS. Finally, the Expedition-6 crew began computer-based training for their return to Earth in Soyuz TMA-1.

On March 29, representatives from America, Russia, and Europe met to discuss the financing of the two additional Progress vehicles requested for flight in 2004. Russia had hoped that America or Europe might find emergency funds to pay for the two vehicles, but it was not to be. The Americans reminded the Russians that the contract which they had signed when they became an ISS partner committed them to building and launching two Soyuz and five Progress vehicles each year, a target that they had only met in 2001. In 2002, the Russians had quoted financial difficulties as the reason for cutting the number of Progress vehicles to two each year. In March 2003, NASA now demanded that the Russians meet the terms of their original contract and supply the five Progress vehicles required in 2004. In the aftermath of STS-107 no one asked why America continually held the Russians to the letter of their contract and yet they had unilaterally ignored their own legal requirements under the same contract. In related negotiations, Russia offered an Expedition crew position to an ESA astronaut if the Europeans would finance the two additional Progress vehicles. Having failed to extract additional money from their ISS partners, Russian officials were quoted in the press as saying that Russia could not afford to finance the continued crewing of ISS on their own. Once again they suggested that the station may have to be abandoned and mothballed until the Shuttle was flying once more.

On April 4, 2003, Progress M-47 was used to raise the station’s orbit for the second time. The new orbit optimised the conditions for the docking for Soyuz TMA-2. Two days later, the SSRMS was positioned so that its lights could provide support for the up-coming Stage EVA.

At 08: 40, April 8, Bowersox and Pettit commenced their second EVA, exiting the station through the Quest airlock. After preparing their tools, the two men began work on separate lists of tasks. Bowersox reconfigured electrical connectors between the S-0 and P-1 ITS. The work put in place additional protection to prevent the unintentional separation of the entire truss structure from the S-0 through the Bolt Bus Controller System: they didn’t want a malfunctioning circuit to withdraw the bolts that held the segments together. Bowersox also inspected a faulty heater cable on the P-1 ITS Nitrogen Tank Assembly, but found nothing obviously wrong. Meanwhile, Pettit replaced a power relay box in one of the CETA carts. The cart had suffered from electrical problems since it had been installed.

Both men then moved to the Z-1 Truss and re-routed power cables to CMG-2 and CMG-3 at that location. The changes would prevent the two CMGs being disabled if they suffered a power failure. Next, they installed two SPDs on the fluid quick-disconnect lines for Destiny’s heat exchanger. Moving on to the S-1 ITS, they worked together to secure a thermal cover on the Radiator Beam Valve Module, which controlled the flow of ammonia to the S-1 radiators. Returning to the CETA carts, Pettit used a hammer to free a stanchion from its stored position and deployed it on the cart, before deploying a light on the stanchion. The two men then stowed

their equipment and returned to Quest, bringing the EVA to a close at 15:06, after 6 hours 26 minutes.

On April 11, Progress M-47 was used to complete the third of three re-boost manoeuvres in preparation for the arrival of Soyuz TMA-2. Three days later the three men donned their Sokol pressure suits and climbed into Soyuz TMA-1. The short exercise was part of their preparations for return to Earth. As the week advanced the crew began packing personal items and answering questions from controllers about onboard maintenance.

Soyuz TMA-2 was rolled out and erected on the launch pad at Baikonur on April 24. Everyone was at pains to point out to the media exactly what the flight represented. Sergei Gorbunov said, “Obviously, this mission is very important in terms of the survival of the International Space Station.”

Meanwhile, a NASA spokesman insisted, “I think everybody that has been sceptical about the strength of the Russian space program and in a broad sense about the viability and status of the Russian space program—those sceptics have been proven wrong.”

SOYUZ TMA-2 DELIVERS EXPEDITION-7, THE FIRST “CARETAKER CREW”

Prior to the loss of STS-107, Soyuz TMA-2 was just another “taxi” flight to replace Soyuz TMA-1, due for launch in April 2003. That changed when the decision was taken to keep ISS occupied by having two-man Expedition crews fly to and from the station in the available Soyuz TMA spacecraft. The crew for this flight were originally members of a three-man Expedition-7 crew with Sergei Moschenko as the third member. They should have been launched on STS-114 with the following Shuttle crew:

COMMANDER: Eileen Collins

PILOT: James Kelly

MISSION SPECIALIST: Soichi Noguchi (Japan), Stephen Robinson

Soyuz TMA-2 was launched at 23: 54, April 25, 2003. In Washington, Sean O’Keefe told journalists, “The real testimonial to how strong that partnership is, is tonight’s launch of the Soyuz.’’ At the same time O’Keefe announced the names of the Shuttle crew that would fly the “Return to Flight’’ mission, possibly in December 2003. That launch date would be pushed back to March 2004, and even then it would not be met. The Shuttle crew would deliver a fully loaded MPLM to ISS as well as the

Figure 38. The Expedition-6 and 7 crews pose together during hand-over operations. They were (L to R) Edward Lu, Kenneth Bowersox, Donald Pettit, Nikolai Budarin, and Yuri Malenchenko. Malenchenko and Lu were the first 2-man “caretaker” crew after the loss of STS – 107 grounded the American Shuttle fleet.

first three-person Expedition crew since the Expedition-6 crew. The Shuttle would be flown by Eileen Collins’ crew (named above).

Following a two-day rendezvous Soyuz TMA-2 docked Zarya’s nadir at 01:56, April 28. As the Soyuz approached the station Budarin performed a pitch-up manoeuvre to allow the ISS crew to photograph his spacecraft. The photographs would be studied in America, where plans were under consideration to have all future Shuttle orbiters perform a similar manoeuvre before docking to the station. The photographs taken on those occasions would be sent down to the ground, where experts would review the Shuttle before declaring it safe for re-entry.

The hatches between the two vehicles were opened at 02: 27 and the Expedition-7 crew made their way into ISS where the Expedition-6 crew greeted them. Following their official welcome and the standard safety brief the two crews began a five-day hand-over period.

In a press conference held on April 28, Bowersox joked, “I feel a little bit like I’m being kicked out of my apartment for not paying my rent. But when I get back to Earth, the best part is going to be, to be able to hug my wife and hug my kids.’’ At one point Bowersox was wistful about returning to Earth in Soyuz TMA-1, “I’ve been looking down quite a bit from orbit, looking down on Kazakhstan. It’s a beautiful country… I think it’s going to be a very, very interesting life experience.” The fickle

American media made much of the fact that Bowersox and Pettit would be the first American astronauts to return from ISS in a Soyuz spacecraft, but Pettit put their minds at rest, “We’ve had a heap of training for both Soyuz and Shuttle entries and either one is fine with us. I don’t think there’s any extraordinary angst about the particular entry we’re planning to do here.’’ More important to Pettit was the fact that he would soon see his wife and twin 2-year-old sons. On the subject of the loss of STS-107, Bowersox noted, “I think it’s going to be hard for Don and I, after being away from it all, to suddenly be confronted with all that emotion… But at the same time, I think it’s going to be very good for us to be back there with our friends and help them work through it and let them help us work through the changes that we’ll be going through.’’

Asked about the fact that there were only two people on the new Expedition crew, Lu said, “I think we’ll be able to do just fine.’’ On May 1, the station’s computer server went down. Malenchenko and Lu worked with controllers to solve the problem and the server was back on-line the following day. May 2 also saw the Expedition-7 crew carry out familiarisation training on the SSRMS.

The change of command ceremony took place at 13: 15, May 3, before Bowersox led his crew into Soyuz TMA-1 and handed over to Budarin, who assumed his role as Soyuz Commander. Bowersox told the new Expedition crew, “You guys have to be the two luckiest guys who come from planet Earth today. Over the next six months you get to live aboard this beautiful ship.’’ Then he turned to Malechenko and told him calmly, “Yuri, I’m ready to be relieved.’’ Of his own crew’s occupation of ISS Bowersox said, “We carried out everything we intended to, but most important is that we worked well together as an international crew.’’ Listening in Korolev, O’Keefe joked with the outgoing crew, “Put in your order for how you want your steaks done so we can have them ready for when you arrive.’’

The hatches between the two spacecraft were closed at 15: 38, and Budarin undocked Soyuz TMA-1 from the station at 18: 40. Three hours later, at 21: 07, the re-entry module landed inside Kazakhstan, some 400 km short of its predicted landing site. The offset centre of mass in the re-entry module enabled the Soyuz to generate lift, and thereby control its passage through the atmosphere, generally extending it by several hundred kilometres and aiming for the assigned target spot. Soyuz TMA-1 had defaulted to a ballistic trajectory and therefore fallen “short’’ of its target. During their unplanned ballistic re-entry, the crew, who had spent 5.5 months in microgravity, were subjected to more g forces than they had expected. When the main parachute deployed, some of its lines snapped, including one that carried the main communications antenna. As a result, the Soyuz TMA-1 re­entry module completed its final descent and landing in radio silence. Touchdown was also harder than expected and Pettit’s shoulder was injured. The wind caught the parachute and dragged the module 13 m across the steppe, before leaving it on its side. Recovery helicopters had to re-fuel before they could reach the off-target site. Contact was made with the crew at 23 : 30, and aircrew reported that all three men were out of the spacecraft and waving to them as they landed. It would take 2.5 hours for the recovery team to reach them, so the crew lay on the ground to avoid the cardiovascular stress of gravity.

In reply to their questions about returning to Earth, Bowersox told journalists, “We could smell the dirt. We could smell the grass. It was fantastic.”

Petitt added:

“When the hatch was just cracked open, there were real Earth smells because we stirred up a fair amount of dirt when we landed. You had this fresh dirt smell, which was just a beautiful smell. It had a little bit of crushed grass in it because there was all that fresh spring grass coming up in little clumps… The next thing that hit me were all the birds chirping. It was just music to our ears.”

He continued:

“I was actually relieved to ooze out of the spacecraft and lay on Mother Earth and have a solitude moment in which to get reacquainted.”

On the subject on what had caused the switch to a ballistic re-entry trajectory Budarin was non-committal, “It’s for the specialists to figure out what was the cause. Let’s wait and see, but for now I can say that it was not our own doing.’’

The crew were recovered by helicopter, with Pettit being placed on a stretcher. The following day they were flown to Baikonur. Both the Russians and the Americans played down the difficulties at the end of the Expedition-6 flight.

Having watched the recovery from TsUP in Korolev, O’Keefe was damning when he returned to America. He told journalists that just 8 hours before the landing he had used new cellphone technology to talk to the crew on ISS, but following their off-target landing there was no communication for 2.5 hours. “First we’re talking on a cellphone, and eight hours later we couldn’t reach them… Two tin cans and a string would have been an improvement. It was an absolutely phenomenal contrast.’’ The Russians began an investigation into the cause of the spacecraft leaving its controlled trajectory and commencing a ballistic re-entry. On June 28, it was announced that the fault had been identified as having been caused by the spacecraft’s “yaw gyroscope experiencing gimbal-lock when its angular excursion exceeded its permissible range of 54 degrees.’’ RSC Energia said that corrections would be made to the control systems of all later Soyuz TMA spacecraft.

Prior to flying to ISS, Bowersox had been asked how he viewed the end of the flight, and what, in his mind, would make the Expedition-6 occupation a successful one. Answering, before the loss of STS-107, he replied:

“I guess the most important thing will have been the unity of the crew at the end of the flight. To be successful we have to come back as a crew that was able to support each other, able to forgive each other when we made mistakes or when we accidentally offended someone, when we didn’t mean to, that we were able to get past all those human frailties, and stay united as a supportive crew. And that’s not just the three of us on board but also with our team on the ground, because there will be tons of frustrations that will come down upon us as we’re going through our mission. We’ll be in a high-stress environment, and typically when people are stressed and they have more stress being dumped on them, their teams can break down. And what we want to do instead is to support each other so that we become stronger with that stress. And if we can do that, we’ll be successful; everything else will work out and take care of itself.’’

Judged against that description, Expedition-6 had been very successful indeed.