Completing the fifth decade: 2006-2010

 

D. J. Shayler and M. D. Shayler, Manned Spaceflight LogII—2006—2012, Springer Praxis Books 158, DOl 10.1007/978-1-4614-4577-7_3, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

 

SOYUZ TMA-9 (UPDATED)

2006-040A September 18, 2006

Pad 1, Site 5, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of

Kazakhstan

April 21, 2007

Northeast of the town of Jezkazgan, Republic of Kazakhstan

Soyuz-FG (R7 serial number Ц15000-23),

TMA-9 (serial number 219)

215 da 08 h 22 min 48 s (Lopez-Alegria, Tyurin)

10 da 21 h 05 min (Ansari)

Vostok (“East”)

ISS resident crew transport (13S), ISS-14 research program, visiting crew 11 research program

Flight crew

LOPEZ-ALEGRIA, Michael Eladio, 48, USN, NASA ISS-14 commander,

Soyuz TMA flight engineer, fourth mission

Previous missions: STS-73 (1995), STS-92 (2000), STS-113 (2002)

TYURIN, Mikhail Vladislavovich, 46, civilian, RSA ISS-14 flight engineer 1, Soyuz TMA commander, second mission Previous mission: ISS-3 (2001)

ANSARI, Anousheh, 40, civilian, U. S. space flight participant, visiting crew 11 (returned with ISS-13 crew on TMA-8)

Shuttle delivered ISS-14 crew members—STS-121 up (STS-116 down)

REITER, Thomas Arthur, 48, ESA (German) ISS-14 flight engineer 2, second mission

Previous missions: Soyuz TM-22 (1995)

STS-116 up (STS-117 down)

WILLIAMS, Sunita Lyn, 41, US Navy, NASA ISS-14 flight engineer 2

Flight log

The 14th resident crew boarded the International Space Station (ISS) two days after they had been launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. On board with Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin was U. S. space flight participant Anousheh Ansari, who would spend just over a week aboard the station conducting a small research program. The day after docking, the crew were able to witness the reentry of

Returning the ISS resident crew to three: Expedition 14 crew members Mikhail Tyurin (left), Thomas Reiter (center), and Michael Lopez-Alegria share a meal at the galley in the Zvezda Service Module.

Atlantis at the end of the STS-115 mission, four days after the Shuttle had undocked from the station.

The original intention was for Japanese businessmen Daisuke Emomato to fly to the ISS on TMA-9 with Ansari serving as his backup, but he failed his preflight medical on August 21. The following day, Ansari replaced him on the prime crew. Ansari is the Iranian-born naturalized U. S. citizen who cofounded Telecom Tech­nologies Inc. in 1993, supplying softswitch technology to the telecommunications industry. With her brother-in-law, she made a multimillion dollar contribution to the X-Prize suborbital space flight record attempt foundation, which was officially named the Ansari X-Prize in recognition of the contributions by her family. (The X-prize was won by SpaceShipOne in 2005.)

With the formal handover to the ISS-14 crew completed on September 27, Ansari returned to Earth on September 29 aboard TMA-8 with the ISS-13 crew members NASA astronaut Jeffery WilUams and Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov.

While Ansari’s fellow Soyuz TMA-9 crew mates were undergoing their induction in ISS systems prior to assuming formal residency from the outgoing ISS-13 team, the latest space tourist completed her own program. During her nine days on board the station, she conducted three TV broadcasts, amateur radio broadcasts, and a series of photographic and video surveys in the Russian segment of the station for educational purposes. She also participated in bio­medical experiments, including researching the mechanisms behind anemia, muscle changes that influence back pain, and the consequences of radiation on crew members.

With the departure of the ISS-13 crew, Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin began to work with ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, who had arrived on July 6 aboard Discovery during the STS-121 mission. The German astronaut was working on the ESA Astrolab program and would leave the station on December 20 aboard Discovery (STS-116) after handing over his ISS-14 FE2 role to NASA astronaut Sunita Williams who arrived on the station on December 11. Williams would con­tinue on board the station with the ISS-15 crew after the departure of Lopez – Alegria and Tyurin. During their first days on the station, the new resident crew was occupied with troubleshooting the Russian Elektron oxygen system, which had been switched off due to overheating just before they arrived on the station. This was followed by the shutdown of Control Moment Gyroscope #3 (this would be replaced during STS-118) and the repair of the American Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) system. Maintenance work takes up as much time as experimental work on most expeditions. Thomas Reiter’s arrival saw the resump­tion of delivering a third permanent crew member via Shuttle, an important step towards resuming normal operations after the loss of Columbia in February 2003. Other “normal” operations included the relocation of Soyuz TMA-9 from the aft port of Zvezda to the nadir port on Zarya on October 10. The crew relocated the Soyuz a second time on March 31, moving the spacecraft from Zarya back over to Zvezda to clear the hatches for other operations. During their expedition, the crew would also receive the Progress M-58 and M-59 resupply vessels and host the STS-116 crew.

Throughout their expedition, the resident crew continued to work on the expanding experiment program in both the Russian and American segments. These were now being supplemented by the ESA program conducted by Reiter. There were 114 hours of crew time planned for American science operations and 266 sessions on 41 experiments in the Russian segment. The crew also conducted extensive robotics work with the Canadarm2 unit on the exterior of the station.

A total of 33 hours 42 minutes of EVA time was accumulated by the ISS-14 crew. Lopez-Alegria conducted all five space walks, accompanied on the first and fifth by Tyurin from Pirs using Russian Orlan suits and by Sunita Williams for the other three, operating in U. S. EMUs from the Quest airlock.

The first EVA (November 23, 2006, 5h 38 min) involved the repositioning, deployment, and relocation of equipment on the exterior of Zvezda, as well as the commercially sponsored Canadian “golf experiment” in which a golf ball was placed in orbit using a gold-plated club. The next three EVAs (January 31, 2007, 7h 55 min; February 4, 7h 11 min; and February 8, 6h 40 min), from the U. S. segment, focused upon rerouting electrical and fluid quick disconnect lines from the soon-to-be-disconnected Early External Active Thermal Control System to a permanent cooling system in the Destiny Laboratory. The two astronauts also began work for the Station-to-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS), which would enable the Shuttle to draw electrical power from the station for extended visits to the facility. On their third EVA, the two astronauts jettisoned two large shrouds from solar array truss P3 Bays 18 and 20 and installed an attachment for cargo carriers. The final EVA of this expedition (February 22, 6h 18 min) was back on the Russian segment, where the two astronauts retracted a stuck antenna on Progress M-58 and performed a series of equipment photography and similar lesser tasks. In a total of 10 EVAs, Lopez-Alegria had accumulated an American astronaut record of 67 hours 40 minutes by the end of his residency.

On March 31 (March 30, gmt), the Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft was relocated from the Zarya port to the rear Zvezda port. Although this operation took only 24 minutes, the operation to shut down the ISS and then restart it again took several hours each side of the relocation flight, during which the station remained unmanned.

A combination of the delay to the launch of STS-117 (due to hail damage on the External Tank on February 26) and the rescheduling of TMA-10 from March to April ensured that Lopez-Alegria and Sunita Williams would both set new American astronaut endurance records for stays in space. The replacement resi­dent crew arrived at the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-10 on April 9, 2007. Traveling to the ISS with the ISS-15 cosmonauts was American businessman Charles Simonyi. Following the customary welcoming ceremonies, Simonyi exchanged his Soyuz seat liner with Williams, who officially joined the ISS-15 crew. The formal handover between ISS-14 and ISS-15 crews took place on April 17. After a joint program of 10 days, the ISS-14 crew loaded the Soyuz TMA-9 with items for their return, together with Simonyi, on April 21.

Milestones

250th manned space flight 102nd Russian manned space flight 95th manned Soyuz flight 9th manned Soyuz TMA mission 13 th ISS Soyuz mission 11th ISS Soyuz visiting mission (VC11)

Longest flight by a Soyuz spacecraft (215 days)

Set new endurance record for ISS Expedition (215 days)

Lopez-Alegria set career EVA record for an American at 67 h 40 min (10 EVAs) He also set record for longest U. S. space flight (215 da 8h 22 min 48 s)

Ansari was the 4th (1st female) space tourist and the 1st Iranian in space

Flight crew

POLANSKY, Mark Lewis, 50, civilian, NASA commander, second mission Previous mission: STS-98 (2001)

OEFELEIN, William Anthony, 41, USN, NASA pilot

PATRICK, Nicholas James MacDonald, 42, civilian, NASA mission specialist 1 CURBEAM Jr. Robert Lee, 44, USN, NASA mission specialist 2, third mission Previous missions: STS-85 (1997), STS-98 (2001)

FUGLESANG, Arne Christer, 49, ESA (Swedish) mission specialist 3 HIGGINBOTHAM, Joan Elizabeth, 42, civilian, NASA mission specialist 4

ISS-14 crew member up only

WILLIAMS, Sunita Lyn, 41, USN, NASA mission specialist 5, ISS-14 flight engineer 2

ISS-14 crew member down only

REITER, Thomas, 48, German Air Force, ESA (German) mission specialist 5, ISS-14 flight engineer 2, second mission Previous mission: Soyuz TM22/Mir 20 (1995)