THEORY TESTED, AND CONFIRMED

By this time the favoured theory for the cause of the loss of STS-107 was that the left-hand bipod ramp, a piece of shaped insulation foam the size of a suitcase, had separated from the ET at T + 81.7 seconds after launch, it struck the left wing of Columbia 0.2 seconds later, striking the leading edge of the wing in the area of Carbon-Carbon Panels 8 and 9.

On July 7, CAIB representatives watched as a gas-powered cannon was used to fire a similar piece of insulation foam at a mock-up of the leading edge of the orbiter’s left wing, including all of the relevant carbon-carbon panels. The test was designed so that the foam would strike Panels 8 and 9 at an angle of 22° and travelling at 237 cm per second, as a true representation of the impact event seen in the STS-107 launch day film.

The test resulted in impact forces that were more than 50% above those the carbon-carbon panels were designed to survive and produced a hole 40.5 cm by 43 cm in the underside of Panel 8. The remainder of the panel was severely cracked. Damage to the T-seal lug (the T-seal linked Panel 8 to the neighbouring panel) was similar to that found on Columbia’s recovered T-seal lug. The foam test subject disintegrated on impact. Two pieces of the carbon-carbon panel were found inside the U-shaped panel and observers suggested that this was similar to the object picked up by radar drifting away from Columbia one day after launch. Investigators deduced that such a large hole would have led to an earlier break-up of Columbia during re-entry and therefore arrived at a hole approximately 25 cm square for the STS-107 damage. In August, the recovered Columbia debris was crated and stored on Level 16 of the VAB.

During their 11th week of Expedition-7’s occupation, Lu installed the EarthKam camera on the Earth-facing window in Destiny for use during the new school term. Malenchenko repaired the Satellite Navigation System in the Russian segment of the station. He also replaced pipe conduits in the condensate separation and pumping unit using items delivered by Progress M1-10. Working together, Malenchenko and Lu upgraded a relay unit in the Russian audio system, and inspected the life support system, smoke detectors, and microbe filters throughout the station. They also re­built laptop computer hard drives and carried out an audit to assist programme managers to decide what to launch on future Progress flights. Despite this workload they also managed to participate in Russian medical experiments on their own bodies and to talk to a number of amateur radio hams as they passed around the planet.

The week ending July 18 included Lu imaging Hurricane Claudette as it approached the Texas coast. Houston had made preparations in case the hurricane threatened their location, but it did not. Lu installed and checked out the Coarsening of Solid-Liquid Mixtures (CSLM) experiment in the MSG. He also swapped soft­ware from the six Station Support Computers (SSCs) to next-generation laptops. Together, the two men inspected the windows in Zvezda and Pirs and down-linked digital images of them to Korolev. Lu attempted to repair the cooling loop in his EMU, but was unsuccessful.

On July 21, both men participated in medical experiments before working on an

inventory of Russian items in the station. The following day saw more medical experiments and a test of a new Russian satellite navigation antenna. July 23 was occupied with descent procedures training in Soyuz TMA-2 and conditioning the batteries in their EMUs, a process that took all week. During the following day, Malenchenko continued with the Russian medical experiments while Lu prepared for a ground-based test of the SSRMS. The test, which took place on July 25, involved ground-based control of SSRMS activities. Lu was required to complete station – based activities that could not be controlled from the ground.

NASA officially announced the Expedition-8 crew on July 25. Michael Foale would be Commander, with Alexander Kaleri as Flight Engineer. Spanish ESA astronaut Pedro Duque would fly a short mission to the station, under contract to the Russians, performing experiments before returning to Earth in Soyuz TMA-2 with the Expedition-7 crew. Soyuz TMA-3 would be launched on October 18, 2003, with Foale and Kaleri spending almost 200 days on ISS.

The Expedition-7 crew marked the 1,000th day of continuous occupation of ISS on July 29. They down-linked a message and received calls from the heads of the 16 national space agencies involved in the programme. At a meeting held in Monterey, Canada, NASA representatives thanked the heads of all ISS International Partner agencies for their continued support of ISS. Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director of ESA, said that “The Columbia tragedy is not just NASA’s tragedy—it’s our tragedy.” Particular thanks went to the Russians, whose capabilities had allowed ISS to remain occupied and re-stocked throughout the period following the loss of STS-107 and the suspension of Shuttle flights. Yuri Koptev, director of the RSA, took the opportunity to talk about the additional financial burden placed on his cash-strapped Agency but admitted, “Sometimes a partner has to take more responsibility… When such big projects are involved, there is no other way to do it.’’

Partners were informed of the preliminary findings of the CAIB and agreed to continue following the ISS Programme Action Plan, adopted in 2002, as the basis of ISS operations. The Plan would be up-dated in October to include operations by the ESA-operated ATV.

On ISS, Malenchenko spent the week working on Russian medical experiments. He also operated the Russian/German Plasma Crystal-3 (PK-3), which examined particles in an evacuated chamber that have been excited by radio frequencies. Lu continued to work with the CSLM experiment in the MSG. He also performed a function test of the Biotechnology Specimen Temperature Controller, part of a fluid dynamics experiment to be used later in the flight. Regular maintenance also occupied a large portion of their time, as did their daily exercise regime.

On August 4 the crew reached their 100th day in space. The following day ISS shifted into “survival mode’’, when the onboard computers failed to recognise the thermal system loops in the Russian sector of the station. Non-essential items were automatically powered off before controllers on the ground began working with the crew to bring everything back on-line. The event had no major impact on operations, or the science programme.

On August 6, Fred Gregory, NASA’s Deputy Administrator, spoke to the media at KSC regarding the CAIB Final Report, which was due to be released later in the month. He told journalists, “My assumption is we will follow to the letter the recommendations. There will be no attempt, whatsoever, to argue or defend recommendations from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.”

During the week on ISS, Malenchenko continued to work on Russian medical and agricultural experiments, while Lu ran the second series of CSLM experiments (CSLM-2) in the MSG. The two astronauts worked together to re-size the spare EMU in Quest so that it fitted Lu. The cooling loop in the suit originally failed but then began working. Engineers in Houston added the second EMU to their workload in an attempt to establish what had happened. Troubleshooting the two malfunction­ing EMUs continued into the following week, when the two men inspected valves and filters in the coolant water loop.

Malenchenko married Eketrina Dimitriev, a US citizen of Russian birth, on August 10. For the ceremony he wore a tuxedo and bow tie sent up to him on Progress M1-10. The ceremony was carried out over a secure radio link between a room in MCC-Houston that had been decked out to look like a wedding chapel, where Dimitriev was located. Malenchenko and Lu were on ISS, but were shown on a large video screen in the room where the legal ceremony was taking place. Lu served as best man, he also played the Wedding March on a portable keyboard that he had with him on ISS, while Dimitriev walked down the aisle. Both individuals had to place their new wedding rings on their own fingers. Operations on the station were not interrupted as it was a Sunday and therefore a rest day for the crew. The couple had planned their wedding in August, before Malenchenko was assigned to the 6-month Expedition-7 crew on ISS. Texas law allowed the wedding to take place with the groom absent provided there was a sufficiently good reason. Malenchenko had written to his lawyer in Texas and explained the situation. The letter resulted in the marriage licence being granted. Russian officials then forbade the wedding taking place during Malenchenko’s time on ISS, stating that Russian government equipment was not available for such private use. Following the wedding, NASA made no comment, but Russian space officials were at pains to point out that, as a member of the Russian military, Malenchenko had to have written authority to marry a foreign national. They stated that he could face criminal charges for holding the wedding ceremony without official permission, but it was made clear that such charges would probably not be brought against the cosmonaut.

In Houston, Michael Foale and Alexander Kaleri, the ISS Expedition-8 crew, talked to the media when they arrived for continued training with equipment that they would use during their occupation of the station. Asked about comments that the station should be abandoned until the Shuttle was flying again Foale said, “For us to not step up and not continue in space on the International Space Station is, for me, not really an option. We need to show perseverance in our goals and dreams by maintaining a human presence in space.’’ Ignoring the fact that American politicians and journalist were suggesting that Russian equipment and the Russian infrastruc­ture were incapable of sustaining a human presence on ISS, Kaleri replied, “If we are able to maintain manned flight on board… we must do it. That is why the station is up there.’’

On ISS life went on. A continuation from the previous week was the use of oxygen in the Progress M-47, docked to Zvezda’s wake, and Progress M1-10, docked to Pirs, to repressurise the station. The oxygen was used in this manner to refresh the oxygen in the station before the two Progress vehicles were undocked, prior to their re-entry and destruction. Lu removed the CSLM from the MSG and replaced it with the Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation (PFMI) experiment. The PFMI experiment involved the melting of plastic samples to study the formation of bubbles that might weaken metals, crystals, and other materials at high temperatures. Plans to begin working with the experiment had to be delayed until the following week when Lu could not locate a cable. Ultimately, Lu spoke to Don Pettit, whose suggestions allowed him to locate the cable. Work with the new experiment’s first sample began on August 20, and was concluded two days later. Both men continued to perform medical experiments for their respective nations and both also worked on filling Progress M-47 with rubbish, as its oxygen supply approached depletion.

During the week ending August 29, Lu ran the PFMI experiment on a second sample. Two more samples would be processed in the following week and three more in the week after that. He also activated the Commercial Bio-processing Apparatus for use in future biology experiments. Lu also installed a new laptop computer to control the repaired SAMS vibration measurement equipment. Russian mission managers reported that the charge/discharge unit on Zvezda’s Battery 2 had been declared failed, and would need replacing. The module continued to function normally on seven batteries.

Progress M-47 undocked from Zvezda’s wake at 18: 48, August 27, as ISS was flying over China. It re-entered and burned up later the same day. The undocking cleared the way for the arrival of Progress M-48 later in the month.

Even in the wake of the loss of STS-107, the Russians announced that they intended to launch a Soyuz TMA flight to ISS with two spaceflight participants and a single Russian cosmonaut acting as Soyuz Commander. The Russians announced that they hoped to raise up to 50% of its annual spaceflight revenue from spaceflight participants flying for a fee of $20 million each. However, no Soyuz flight with two spaceflight participants had taken place up to the close of this manuscript (February 2008).