. SOYUZ TM24

Flight Crew

KORZUN, Valery Grigoryevich, 46, Russian Air Force, commander KALERI, Alexandr Yuriyevich, 40, civilian, flight engineer, 2nd mission Previous mission: Soyuz TM14 (1992)

ANDRE-DESHAYS, Claudie, 39, civilian, cosmonaut researcher

Flight Log

The original crew for this mission were supposed to have been Expedition 22 crew members Gennady Manakov (commander) and Pavel Vinogradov (flight engineer), along with French cosmonaut Claudie Andre-Deshays. However, just one week before launch, Manakov failed a regular medical check and the back-up crew of Korzun and Kaleri took the place of the Russian prime crew. Since she was not part of the main crew, Andre-Deshays was able to remain on the mission. The change did not have much effect on Shannon Lucid, who was nearing the end of her stay on Mir, but the next US resident astronaut, John Blaha, had not trained with either Korzun or Kaleri. This would prove a challenging hurdle for the American to overcome after he replaced Lucid on Mir in September.

The French Cassiopee programme included cardiovascular and neurosensory investigations. There was also a technology experiment that recorded vibrations aboard the station while there were more than the normal resident crew aboard, as well as a materials-processing experiment. After two weeks aboard Mir, Andre – Deshays returned with the EO-21 crew, leaving Lucid to complete her residency with the new cosmonauts prior to the arrival of Blaha on STS-79. Andre-Deshays com­mented that two weeks was nowhere near sufficient time to adjust to life on Mir and to complete all her experiment programme, but with two more French long-duration visits already booked, this was not expected to be a problem for future French cosmonauts.

On 7 September, Lucid surpassed Kondakova’s record for the longest female space flight. Ten days later, with her return Shuttle flight already in space, she surpassed Reiter’s 179-day record for a visiting cosmonaut. When Blaha took over, he continued the programme of experiments started by Lucid, but also brought some new ones. During his stay on Mir, it appeared he was enjoying his residency, and it was only after he came home that he revealed it had been a difficult mission. He was replaced on Mir in January 1997 by Jerry Linenger, who would remain with the EO-22 crew for a month before the next resident crew took over.

The EO-22 cosmonauts completed two EVAs during their stay on Mir; the first on 2 December lasted 5 hours 58 minutes, and the second, a week later, lasted 6 hours 38 minutes. Their work outside included the completion of MCSA cable installation. They also relocated the Rapana girder to the top of the new Stombus girder on the underside of Kvant and on their second EVA, they had to reinstall antennae they had dislodged during their first excursion. Back inside the station, in addition to the regular maintenance and housekeeping chores, the cosmonauts continued the research programme and assisted their various visitors with their research objectives.

One of the more challenging events at the end of their residency was the fire on 24 February 1997, which was the result of a split chemical burner in the Vika unit in Kvant 1. The use of “candles” to supplement the oxygen output of the Elektron regeneration system was typical when more than three cosmonauts were aboard Mir. But this time, the unit had split and released oxygen into the electronics, causing a jet of flame to shoot across the area. For an hour or so, the crew (by this point including Linenger) wore oxygen masks until the station’s filtration system finally began dissipating the thick black smoke. The crew reported some eye irritation, but no lingering damage was found from smoke inhalation, although filtration masks were still worn for a few days afterwards as a precaution. The faulty canister was stored in the Soyuz TM24 Descent Module for return to Earth and post-flight examination. Both EO-22 cosmonauts made the return journey with German cosmonaut Ewald.

Milestones

191st manned space flight

83rd Russian manned space flight

76th manned Soyuz mission

23rd manned Soyuz TM mission

29th Russian and 63rd flight with EVA operations

4th French long-duration mission (16 days)

Flight Crew

READDY, William Francis, 44, civilian, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-42 (1992); STS-51 (1993)

WILCUTT, Terrence Wade, 46, USMC, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-68 (1994)

APT, Jerome “Jay”, 47, civilian, mission specialist 1, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-37 (1991); STS-47 (1992); STS-59 (1994)

AKERS, Thomas Dale, 45, USAF, mission specialist 2, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-41 (1990); STS-49 (1992); STS-61 (1993)

WALZ, Carl Erwin, 41, USAF, mission specialist 3, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-51 (1993); STS-65 (1994)

NASA-3 Mir crew member up only:

BLAHA, John Elmer, 54, USAF, mission specialist 4, EO-22 cosmonaut researcher, NASA board engineer 3, 5th mission

Previous missions: STS-29 (1989); STS-33 (1989); STS-43 (1991); STS-58 (1993) NASA-2 Mir crew member down only:

LUCID, Shannon Wells, 53, civilian PhD, mission specialist 4, EO-21 cosmonaut researcher, NASA board engineer 2, 5th mission Previous missions: STS 51-G (1985); STS-34 (1989); STS-43 (1991); STS-58 (1993)

Flight Log

During her six-month stay on Mir, Shannon Lucid had conducted research in advanced technology, Earth sciences, fundamental biology, human life sciences,

microgravity research and space sciences. She also won admiration for keeping cheerful despite delays in getting her home, firstly for the technical problems with the SRBs, and then for weather problems with two hurricanes. She kept track of the time on Mir by wearing pink socks each Sunday, and relieved any boredom by reading several books. Her daughter had given her one novel, but she had not included the sequel, which was a little frustrating to the orbiting astronaut.

The original 31 July launch of STS-79 was delayed when the two SRBs were swapped as the adhesives used on them were the same as that on STS-78, where a hot – gas path into the J-joints on the motor field joints was discovered. The SRB set intended for STS-80, which used the older type of adhesive, was fitted to STS-79 while Atlantis was back in the VAB due to the weather threat from Hurricane Bertha. The new launch, set for 12 September, was further delayed to 16 September when Atlantis was rolled back to the VAB a second time due to the threat of Hurricane

Fran. The third launch attempt occurred on time, and though APU 2 powered down prematurely 13 minutes into the flight, mission management deemed it safe to continue with a nominal full-term mission.

The docking of STS-79 with Mir occurred on FD 3 (18 September) and a few hours after opening the hatches, Lucid and Blaha exchanged places, with Blaha becoming a member of the Mir resident crew (EO-22) and Lucid replacing him as MS4 on the Shuttle crew. During the five days of joint operations, over 1,600 kg of supplies were transferred to the space station, including food, water and three new experiments. About 900 kg of material was transferred back to the Shuttle, including experiment samples and unwanted equipment.

The crew also operated three experiments that remained in the Shuttle during their stay at Mir. One was an extreme translation furnace that allowed space-based processing up to 1,600°C. The second was a commercial protein crystal growth experiment, and the third was the Mechanics of Granular Materials experiment designed to study the behaviour of cohesionless granular material, which was par­ticularly applicable to understanding how the surface of the Earth responds during earthquakes and landslides. The vernier jets of Atlantis were used near the end of the mission to lower the Shuttle’s orbit slightly. This was another test of operations planned for the upcoming Hubble service mission planned for 1997, in which the jets could refine and raise the orbit of the telescope while it was still in the payload bay.

When Lucid was approached by the team assigned to carry her off the Shuttle after her six-month mission, she dismissed them, determining to walk of the vehicle herself. This she managed to do, walking (with some assistance) to the Crew Transfer Vehicle.

Milestones

192nd manned space flight

109th US manned space flight

79th Shuttle mission

17th flight of Atlantis

4th Shuttle-Mir docking

6th SpaceHab mission (1st double module)

1st US resident crew exchange

New female world space flight endurance record (Lucid) 1st double rollback to VAB

Flight Crew

COCKRELL, Kenneth Dale, 46, civilian, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-56 (1993); STS-69 (1995)

ROMINGER, Kent Vernon, 40, USN, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-73 (1995)

JERNIGAN, Tamara Elizabeth, 37, civilian, mission specialist 1, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-40 (1991); STS-52 (1992); STS-67 (1995)

JONES, Thomas David, 41, civilian, mission specialist 2, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-59 (1994); STS-68 (1994)

MUSGRAVE, Story Franklin, 61, civilian, mission specialist 3, 6th mission Previous missions: STS-6 (1983); STS 51-F (1985); STS-33 (1989); STS-44 (1991); STS-61 (1993)

Flight Log

The original launch date for this mission of 31 October was slipped to 8 November due both to the removal of its SRBs to the STS-79 mission, and as a precaution due to concerns over Hurricane Fran. Engineers wanted more time to analyse the booster nozzles from STS-79 and with a 13 November Atlas launch planned, STS-80 was rescheduled for 15 November. Although the Atlas launch was scrubbed, STS-80 actually slipped further, to 19 November, in order to clear the bad weather that was predicted to lie around the Cape for several days. A three-minute delay to the launch was caused by concerns over hydrogen conditions in the aft engine compart­ment and when the SRBs were examined post-retrieval, they indicated some erosion – although far less than on STS-79.

The mission was a successful demonstration of the deployment and retrieval of two separate free-flying research spacecraft. The ORFEUS-SPAS II was deployed on FD 1 and became a two-week independent mission before retrieval on FD 15. The mission of the satellite was devoted to astronomical observations at very short

MS Tom Jones uses the controls at the aft flight deck of Columbia to conduct tests with the captured WSF, seen though the window on the end of the RMS at frame centre wavelengths, using three primary scientific instruments and a secondary payload. The primary instruments were the ORFEUS 2.4 m focal length telescope, the Far UV spectrograph and the Extreme UV Spectrograph. The secondary payload was the Interstellar Medium Absorption Profile Spectrograph. The objective was to investi­gate the nature of hot stellar atmospheres and the cooling mechanisms of white dwarf stars, to determine the nature of accretion disks around collapsed stars, to investigate supernova remnants and interstellar media, and to examine potential star-forming regions. During the two-week mission, no significant problems were reported and all mission goals were achieved. Some 422 observations of about 150 astronomical objects were conducted, including the Moon, nearby stars, distant stars in the Milky Way, stars in other galaxies, active galaxies and quasar 3C273. With more sensitive instruments giving better quality data, almost twice as much information and data was obtained than on the first ORFEUS flight.

On FD 4 the WSF-3 was deployed. This time it was highly successful and achieved the maximum seven growths of thin film semi-conductor material, with the satellite performing almost flawlessly. It was retrieved during FD 7 for return to Earth. As with most Shuttle missions, the flight also carried a range of mid-deck and payload bay experiments that formed part of the secondary payloads and objectives.

Two planned six-hour EVAs by Jernigan (EV1) and Jones (EV2), designed to gather further knowledge and experience in preparation for the ISS programme, had to be abandoned when a stuck EVA hatch thwarted attempts to leave the airlock during EVA 1. Despite crew attempts during the mission to discover the cause, it was not until Columbia was back on the ground that engineers discovered that a small screw had become loose in the internal assembly and had lodged in an actuator, the gearbox-type device that operated the linkage to secure the hatch. When a new actuator was installed, the hatch worked perfectly. Though unable to complete the EVAs, the crew did still manage to evaluate a new pistol grip tool – resembling a hand-held drill – in the mid-deck during the mission.

The two-day waive-off for landing due to weather conditions in Florida resulted in this mission becoming the longest in Shuttle history and gave the crew an extra opportunity to look at the view out of the window. For Musgrave, this was particu­larly poignant, as this would be his last flight. He was fully appreciative of the chance to take a leisurely view of the Earth from orbit, knowing he would not be returning for a seventh mission. A condition of his being able to fly this mission was that he would retire from the active flight list when it was over. Musgrave set a record of six space Shuttle flights (equalling John Young’s career space flight record of Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle flights) and became the oldest person in space at the age of 61. He also became the only astronaut to fly on each of the five Shuttles capable of orbital flight, including twice on Challenger.

Milestones

193rd manned space flight

110th US manned space flight

80th Shuttle mission

21st flight of Columbia

New Shuttle mission duration record

3rd flight of Wake Shield Facility

Musgrave becomes the oldest person in space, aged 61