ISS EO-6

Int. Designation	N/A (launched on STS-113)
Launched	23 November 2002
Launch Site	Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Landed	3 May 2003 (in TMA1)
Landing Site	South of Aral Sea near Turgai in Kazakhstan, 460 km short of its planned landing site
Launch Vehicle	STS-113
Duration	161 days 1 hr 14min 38 sec
Call sign	Persey (Persey) – Soyuz TMA
Objective	ISS-6 expedition programme

Flight Crew

BOWERSOX, Kenneth Duane, 45, USN, ISS-6 commander, 5th mission Previous missions: STS-50 (1990); STS-61 (1993); STS-73 (1995); STS-82 (1997) BUDARIN, Nikolai Mikhailovich, 49, civilian, Russian ISS-6 flight engineer and Soyuz commander, 3rd mission

Previous missions: Mir EO-19/STS-71 (1995); Soyuz TM27 (1998)

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

Flight Log

The sixth resident crew for ISS had arrived aboard STS-113 and had expected a Shuttle landing at the end of their mission. However, the loss of Columbia and her crew on 1 February 2003 resulted in the Shuttle fleet being grounded and the crew having to use the TMA1 spacecraft for the landing. They were replaced by the ISS-7 “caretaker crew”, who arrived in TMA2. Shortly before launch on STS-113, the original NASA science officer, Don Thomas, was medically disqualified from the mission after reports stated that he had been subjected to sufficient radiation on his previous space flights that a long-duration flight could exceed his maximum allowable life time dose. Thomas was replaced by his back-up, Don Pettit who, due to the late change in the crew, had to wear the clothing already aboard the station and eat the menu already selected for Thomas. However, this was a minor issue to overcome as the crew settled down to a planned four-month tour. There were no planned visiting missions scheduled until the arrival of STS-114 to bring them home.

The science programme for this sixth residency included more than 20 new or existing investigations, for which the crew would devote over 240 hours to research time. The research fields included medicine, materials, plant science, commercial biotechnology and manufacturing. In addition, Don Pettit took time to include a series of science demonstrations that were supplemented by postings on the internet

Wearing Russian Sokol suits in preparation for the unexpected return to Earth on the TMA1 spacecraft, the ISS-6 crew are in the Russian Zvezda module on ISS. L to r ISS NASA science officer Don Pettit, ISS flight engineer and Soyuz commander Nikolai Budarin, and ISS commander Ken Bowersox

and dubbed “Saturday Morning Science” (similar to those activities conducted during the Skylab 3 mission in 1973).

There were two EVAs accomplished during the mission, though only one was originally planned. The first should have included Budarin, who would have been the first Russian to perform an EVA in an American suit from Quest. However, the EVA was delayed from 12 December to 15 January when US medical specialists ruled that Budarin did not meet the criteria for US EVAs (although he was not disqualified by Russian doctors from conducting any Russian-based EVA!). He was replaced on the EVA by Pettit. The 15 January EVA (6 hours 51 minutes) saw the two Americans release the remaining launch restraint from the P1 Truss radiator system that had been delivered by STS-113. They then witnessed its deployment, controlled from MCC Houston. Inspection and cleaning occupied the next part of their EVA, which closed with the retrieval of tools for a storage box on the Z1 Truss, and a health check on the ammonia reserves delivered in 2001 and stored on the P6 Truss. EVA 2 was added after the loss of the Columbia and conducted on 8 April (6 hours 26 minutes) to ensure that the next crew would only need to perform an EVA to deal with an emergency. The two astronauts reconfigured cables and continued external outfitting of the station pending the resumption of assembly flights. In addition to connecting electrical conduits, the crew inspected faulty heater cables, replaced a failed power control module on the MT and rerouted two of the four CMG cables on the Z1 Truss, as well as completing several smaller chores and get-ahead tasks.

Progress M1-9 was undocked from the station on 1 February, the same day that the crew were told of the loss of Columbia and the day before their new Progress re­supply craft was launched. Progress M47 arrived on 4 February to deliver 2,568 kg of various cargos to restock the station. There was 870 kg of propellant, 70 kg of water, 50 kg of oxygen and 1,328 kg of dry cargo. Significantly more limited than the payload capability of the Shuttle, it would nonetheless be these unmanned re-supply missions that would be crucial to maintaining operations at ISS over the next two to three years. The engines of Progress M47 were also used to reboost the station’s orbit slightly.

TMA2 docked with the station on 28 April, carrying a two-man crew to take over the residency. The ISS-6 crew departed on 3 May in TMA1, with a severely restricted return payload capability. A computer failure led to a highly ballistic descent and resulted in the spacecraft landing far off target. The crew experienced almost 8 G during the entry. It took over two hours for rescue teams to reach the crew, who had exited the Descent Module. They had been unable to communicate due to a broken antenna on the DM, so in future, all crews would be issued with mobile satellite phones. Pettit was much the worst for wear of the three crew members after the landing, being photographed sitting on the ground looking clearly distressed and taking longer to recover than his colleagues. The problem was traced to the yaw gyroscope experiencing a gimbal lock when its angular rate exceeded 54 degrees. The crew were praised for their professionalism, and changes would be incorporated from TMA3 to prevent the problem re-occurring. Of course, TMA2 was already in orbit.

Milestones

6th ISS resident crew

5th ISS EO crew to be launched by Shuttle

1st return to Earth in Soyuz (TMA) by NASA astronauts (Bowersox/Pettit) 1st NASA astronauts to return to Earth in a non-US spacecraft

Flight Crew

HUSBAND, Rick Douglas, 45, USAF, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-96 (2000)

McCOOL, William Cameron, 41, USN, pilot BROWN, David McDowell, 46, USN, mission specialist 1 CHAWLA, Kalpana, 41, civilian, mission specialist 2, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-87 (1997)

ANDERSON, Michael, 43, USAF, mission specialist 3, payload commander, 2nd mission

Previous mission: STS-89 (1998)

CLARK, Laurel Blair Salton, 41, USN, mission specialist 4 RAMON, Ilan, 48, Israeli Air Force, payload specialist 1

Flight Log

The STS-107 research mission had been delayed several times due to changes in the manifest. In June 1997, a research module flight was scheduled for the third quarter of 2000. This was a dedicated mission to train scientists to take full advantage of the ISS research capabilities and to reduce the gap between the last planned Shuttle Spacelab science mission (STS-90) and the start of in-depth science research aboard ISS (around 2001). In 1998, STS-107, a multi-discipline flight, was scheduled for launch in 2000 with a follow-on mission authorised in 2001. In October 2002, the second mission was cancelled and the funds reallocated to support STS-107. The original schedule proposed the mission’s launch on 11 January 2001, but it would be two years and 13 delays before the flight finally lifted off on 16 January 2003. Though there were many delays, only a few were orbiter-related, specifically the removal of the Triana

Recovered from a roll of unprocessed film discovered by searchers from the debris, this image shows the crew striking a flying pose for the camera. From left bottom: Chawla, Husband, Clark and Ramon (the Red Team). From left top row: Brown, McCool and Anderson (Blue Team)

Earth observation satellite and its replacement with the Fast Reaction Experiments Enabling Science, Technology, Applications and Research (FREESTAR) payload and an extension of Columbia’s Orbiter Maintenance Down Period (OMDP) by six months to correct problems with wiring. This saw the STS-109 Hubble service mission given higher priority. After Columbia had returned from STS-109 in March 2002, preparations began for the STS-107 mission, which was planned for 11 July. However, when cracks were found in a propellant duct liner aboard Atlantis, checks were made on the rest of the fleet and similar cracks were found on Columbia. The necessary repair work was accomplished during the summer, but this pushed the STS-107 mission into the new year.

STS-107 marked the first flight of the Research DM SpaceHab configuration. This was a modification to the basic single or double module used for research and logistics. The RDM, outfitted as a laboratory, could carry 61 Space Shuttle lockers (27.2 kg of experiments) and six double racks (635 kg of experiments). It had two viewing ports and facilities to carry experiments on its flat external top surface. The STS-107 RDM included nine commercial payloads, four ESA payloads linked to ISS risk mitigation experiments, and 18 NASA Office of Biological and Physical Research payloads. On top of the module were three technology experiments and in the payload bay were six further experiments, including the FREESTAR that carried space physics and space sciences experiments and 11 student experiments from schools across the US. This was an international payload, with experiments sponsored by NASA, the US commercial sector, ESA, the Canadian Space Agency, the German Space Agency, the USAF, and schools in Australia, China, Israel, Japan, Liechten­stein and the USA. The crew were kept very busy conducting all these experiments, operating double twelve-hour shift pattern, with Husband, Chawla, Clark and Ramon forming the Red Shift and McCool, Brown and Anderson the Blue Shift. The return from the experiments and research onboard the RDM and the comments from the astronauts themselves all indicated a highly successful flight, and there was a strong possibility that a re-flight may have been authorised, based on the quality and quantity of the experiments conducted on this flight.

When Columbia started the return home on 1 February, it appeared to have been another highly successful mission and there were high hopes for the future US space programme and continued research on ISS. However, 16 minutes from the planned landing at the Cape, all contact with the crew was lost. The vehicle had broken up in mid-air high above east Texas, claiming the lives of all seven astronauts. What followed was a seven-month enquiry, including a four-month search across Texas and neighbouring states to recover debris from the tragedy. Almost 85,000 items of orbiter debris were shipped to KSC for reconstruction to assist in determining what had caused the loss of the vehicle and her crew. Approximately 38 per cent of the dry weight of OV-102 was eventually recovered.

Post-flight investigations indicated that a piece of foam insulation had become detached from the ET at launch and had struck the orbiter’s left wing as it ascended, creating either damage or a hole that seriously compromised the structural and thermal integrity of the vehicle at that point. Analysis of post-launch footage of the incident, as well as internal emails concerning the integrity of the vehicle, seemed to have underestimated the severity of the collision. STS-107 carried no RMS and there was no provision for EVA. Nor was the mission due to visit ISS, so there was no easy way of conducting an external inspection of the vehicle. When telemetry indi­cated to ground controllers that there was an off-nominal situation during the return to Earth, it was too late to do anything about it as the fiery plasma of re-entry breached the damaged wing and ripped Columbia apart. The tragedy, the second fatal Shuttle mission of the programme, came just days after the still-painful anni­versaries of the loss of the Apollo 1 crew (27 January 1967) and the Challenger crew (28 January 1986). It also signalled the end of the Shuttle programme, with the fleet scheduled to be decommissioned in 2010. In the meantime, it would be a long and difficult job to maintain the ISS and a hard, painful two-and-a-half-year effort to restore the Shuttle to flight. Even then, the uncertainties remained.

Milestones

237th manned space flight

143rd US manned space flight

113th Shuttle mission

28th and last flight of Columbia

15th SpaceHab mission (9th double module)

1st flight of the Research DM (RDM) SpaceHab configuration 1st Israeli citizen in space (Ramon)

2nd Shuttle mission to end in fatalities