SOYUZ TMA-10

2007-008A April 7, 2007

Pad 1, Site 5, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of

Kazakhstan

October 21, 2007

10 km from the settlement of Tolybai, Republic of Kazakhstan

Soyuz-FG (serial number Ц15000-019),

Soyuz TMA (serial number 220)

196 da 17 h 04 min 35 s (Yurchikhin, Kotov)

13 da 18 h 59 min 50 s (Simonyi down on TMA-9) Pulsar

ISS resident crew transport (14S), ISS-15 resident crew program, visiting crew 12 program

Flight Crew

YURCHIKHIN, Fyodor Nikolayevich, 48, civilian, RSA ISS commander, Soyuz TMA flight engineer, second mission Previous mission: STS-112 (2002)

KOTOV, Oleg Valerievich, 41, Russian Federation Air Force, RSA ISS flight engineer 1, Soyuz TMA commander

SIMONYI, Charles, 58, U. S.A., space flight participant, visiting crew 12 ISS-15 Shuttle-delivered crew members

WILLIAMS, Sunita Lyn, 41, USN, NASA ISS flight engineer 2 (up on STS-116, down on STS-117)

ANDERSON, Clayton Conrad, 48, civihan, NASA ISS flight engineer 2 (up on STS-117, down on STS-120)

Flight log

The 15th ISS resident crew launched along with the 12th visiting crew member, Charles Simonyi, aboard the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft. Two days later the Soyuz, under the command of rookie cosmonaut and medical doctor Oleg Kotov, docked with the Zarya FGB module. The commander of the expedition, Fyodor Yurchikhin (call sign Olympus), had previously visited the station five years before as a member of the American STS-112 mission and fulfilled the role of flight engineer for the Soyuz flight to and from the station. Kotov served as flight engineer 1 for the duration of the expedition, resuming the command of the Soyuz for the return home. Formal handover to the ISS-15 crew took place on April 17.

Soyuz TMA-10 refresher docking training is completed by flight engineer Oleg Kotov as commander Fyodor Yurchikhin (to Kotov’s left) and space flight participant Charles Simonyi (at Kotov’s right) look on.

Two American (NASA) astronauts would complete the resident crew complement. Sunita Williams was already on board the station having arrived on STS-116 (12A.1) and having worked as part of the ISS-14 crew. She would continue with the ISS-15 crew before returning on STS-117 (13A) in the spring. Aboard that flight was her replacement, Clayton Anderson, who was to continue with the ISS-15 crew and then transfer over to the ISS-16 expedition before his own return to Earth on STS-120 later in 2007. This was the second in a series of resident crew exchanges via the Space Shuttle over the next three years. Both NASA astronauts were assigned to the MS5 position for ascent and descent on the Shuttle, transferring to the station’s resident crew in the ISS FE2 role.

The third TMA-10 crew member was space flight participant and naturalized U. S. citizen, Charles Simonyi, one of the founders of the Microsoft Corporation, who had developed Word and Excel computer software. Simonyi, who had been bom in Hungary, became the fifth space tourist and completed the longest stay on the ISS by a tourist up to that point. The duration of his visit had been decided upon by the requirement to land TMA-9 in Kazakhstan before sunset. During his time aboard the station, as the two main crews completed a series of handover activities, Simonyi completed a program of experiments that included a number of ESA life science experiments. He also wrote a log (which was not posted on his website until well after his return) and narrated video tours of the station. He landed with Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin in Kazakhstan aboard TMA-9 on April 21.

During the ISS-15 expedition, 272 sessions of 47 Russian experiments were planned, 43 of which were continuations of previous increments. The expedition also continued the program of experiments in the U. S. segment, totaling over 119 hours of planned operations. The ISS-15 increment received visits from three Shuttle crews: STS-117 (13A), STS-118 (13A.1), and STS-120 (10A). They also worked with the unmanned resupply vehicles Progress M-59, M-60, and M-61. In addition to their scientific activities and logistics transfers, the main crew com­pleted a wide range of maintenance, repair, and housekeeping duties throughout their stay on the station.

On April 16, during the handover activities, Sunita Williams became the first person to run a marathon while participating in a space flight. Using the TVIS treadmill she “ran” 26.2 miles (42.16 km) as competitor 14,000 of the Boston Marathon in 4 hours 24 minutes. Ten days later, Williams was told she would return on STS-117 instead of the original STS-118, which had slipped in its launch cycle due to the hail damage and З-month delay to STS-117. That mission arrived on June 10, carrying her replacement, Clayton Anderson. Sunita Williams returned on Atlantis after a mission of just under 195 days, surpassing the female space endurance record held by Shannon Lucid for the previous 11 years.

The ISS-15 residency would include three space walks totaling 18 hours 43 minutes: one from the U. S. segment and two from the Russian segment. Yurchikhin participated in all three excursions and was accompanied by Kotov on the first two space walks from the Pirs module at the Russian segment and by Anderson from the U. S. Quest module for the third.

The first EVA (May 30, 5h 25 min) involved attaching further debris shields around the Zvezda module and rerouting a high-frequency cable for a Russian GPS system. The second EVA (June 6, 5h 37 min) featured the installation of the Biorisk samples exposure experiment, which would be retrieved on a later EVA. More cables and debris panels were also installed. The third EVA (July 23, 7h 41 min) featured the removal and jettison by hand of two large structures: the VSSA Flight Support Equipment and the Early Ammonia Servicer.

On September 27, TMA-10 was relocated from the nadir port on Zarya to the aft port of Zvezda in an operation that took less than 28 minutes, clearing the Zarya port for other spacecraft operations.

Yurchikhin and Kotov handed over formal command of the station on October 19 to the recently arrived ISS-16 crew, before returning to Earth aboard the TMA-10 spacecraft on October 21 2007.

During the descent, the landing computer in the Descent Module of the Soyuz switched unexpectedly to a ballistic return trajectory, which would result in a landing short of the planned recovery zone. Though not in increased danger, the crew did have to endure g-loads about 2g higher than the nominal 5g (up to 7g max) and undershot the landing zone by about 340 km. This was similar to the reentry flown during TMA-1 on May 4, 2003.

Yurchikhin and Kotov landed with VC-13 Malaysian space flight participant Sheik Muszaphar Shukor A1 Masrie, who had arrived with the ISS-16 crew aboard Soyuz TMA-11. The landing of TMA-10 took place just 10 km from the settlement of Tolybai, Republic of Kazakhstan.

Milestones

252nd manned space flight 103 rd Russian manned space flight 96th manned Soyuz flight 10th manned Soyuz TMA mission 14th ISS Soyuz mission (14S)

12th ISS Soyuz visiting mission Kotov became Russia’s 100th cosmonaut Williams (April 16) “ran” the first marathon while in space

Flight crew

STURCKOW, Richard Frederick Wilford, 47, USMC, NASA commander, third mission

Previous missions-. STS-88 (1998), STS-105 (2001)

ARCHAMBAULT, Lee Joseph, 46, USAF, NASA pilot FORRESTER, Patrick Graham, 50, civilian, NASA mission specialist 1 SWANSON, Steven Roy, 46, civilian, NASA mission specialist 2 OLIVAS, John Daniel, 41, civilian, NASA mission specialist 3 REILLY II, James Francis, 53, civilian, NASA mission specialist 4, third mission

Previous missions: STS-89 (1998), STS-104 (2001)

ISS-15 crew member up only

ANDERSON, Clayton Conrad, 48, NASA mission specialist 5 and ISS-15 flight engineer 2

ISS-15 crew member down only

WILLIAMS, Sunita Lyn, 41, NASA mission specialist 5 and ISS-15 flight engineer 2

Flight log

This mission was manifested to deliver the S3/4 truss assembly and to exchange NASA resident station crew members Clayton Anderson and Sunita Williams.

Atlantis had arrived back at the Orbital Processing Facility on September 21, 2006 following the STS-115 mission. Processing for its next flight continued in the OPF until the orbiter was moved over to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)

Cutting the cake marks the end of formal crew training.

for mating with the rest of the stack. The rollout to launchpad 39A occurred on February 15. However, on February 26, the thermal protection on both the orbiter and the External Tank suffered damage from hail. This was so severe that repairs could not be conducted on the pad. Atlantis had to be rolled back to the YAB on March 4 to complete the repairs and was returned to pad 39A until May 15.

The remainder of the processing and countdown proceeded as planned, with an on-time launch on June 8, 2007 and the 8 min ascent to orbit going according to plan. Initial orbit inspection of the left Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) later that day revealed that part of the thermal protection system appeared to have pulled away from adjacent thermal tiles. The crew used the RMS for a closer inspection. The following day, Archambault (assisted by Forrester and Swanson) used the RMS with the boom-mounted extension system to inspect both the heat shield on the leading edge of the orbiter wing and the vehicle’s nose cap.

Atlantis docked with the ISS at the PMA-2 port of the Destiny Laboratory on June 10. Following the traditional greeting between the Shuttle and station crews after hatch opening, the exchange between Anderson and Williams took place. Anderson became the new flight engineer on the ISS-15 resident crew, while Williams became a member of the STS-117 crew. The formal exchange included swapping the form-fitting Soyuz seat liners, which marked the point at which the two astronauts changed crews.

During the docked phase, four EYAs were completed by the Shuttle EVA crew from the Quest airlock, working in alternate teams of two. The initial EVA (6h 15 min on June 11) by Reilly and Olivas focused upon completing the attach­ment of bolts, cables, and connectors to the S3/4 truss segment and preparing for the deployment of its solar arrays. The EVA had been delayed for an hour after the ISS had temporarily lost its altitude control. This was not entirely unexpected because the movement of the 17.8-ton mass of the S3/4 truss (equivalent to the size of a bus) skewed the symmetry of the station, causing the control moment gyro to go offline.

The second EVA (June 13) was conducted by Forrester and Swanson in 7 hours 16 minutes. The previous day, station controllers had unfurled the solar arrays on the recently attached truss to soak up the Sun’s energy. The main task of this second EVA was to remove all of the launch locks which held the 3.4m wide solar alpha rotary joint in place. During the EVA, the crew ran into difficulty when Forrester found that commands intended for a drive lock assembly they were installing were in fact being sent to a drive lock assembly installed during the first EVA. As a result, ground controllers checked and confirmed the safe config­uration of the earlier installed assembly. The two astronauts also assisted with the retraction of an older solar array, which cleared the way to deploy the new array. A total of 13 of the 315 solar array bays were folded.

On June 15, Olivas and Reilly completed the third EVA of the mission, totaling 7 hours 58 minutes. During this EVA, they assisted with the retraction of the P6 truss, which required 28 commands over 45 minutes to complete the opera­tion. The two astronauts also addressed separate tasks. Olivas spent 2 hours stapling and pinning down a thermal blanket on the orbiter’s OMS pod, after a 10 x 25.5 cm comer had peeled up during ascent. Meanwhile, Reilly installed the hydrogen vent valve of a new oxygen generation system on the U. S. laboratory, Destiny.

Two days later (June 17), Forrester and Swanson ventured outside for the fourth and final EVA of this mission. During this 6h 29 min EVA, the two men relocated a TV camera from a stowage platform on the Quest airlock to a new position on the S3 truss. They also verified the drive lock assembly #2 configura­tions, as well as removing the final six solar alpha rotary joint launch restraints. After clearing a path for the Mobile Base System (MBS) on the S3 truss, several get-ahead tasks were completed. The two astronauts installed a computer network cable on the Unity node, opened the hydrogen vent valve on Destiny, and tethered two orbital debris shield panels on the Zvezda Service Module. Activation of the rotary joint meant there were now four U. S. solar arrays tracking the Sun during each orbit, providing much needed additional power for station operations.

Over the four EVAs, the astronauts logged 27 hours 58 minutes in total. Reilly and Olivas logged 14 hours 13 minutes on the first and third EVAs, while Forrester and Swanson accumulated 13 hours 45 minutes during EVAs 2 and 4.

During the docked phase of the mission, the Shuttle’s propulsion system was used to back up the station’s control and orbital attitude adjustment after the Russian segment computers which normally handle this task experienced prob­lems. Both Russian and U. S. teams on the ground worked on the problem, trou­bleshooting and then restoring the capabilities of the computer. On June 15, cosmonauts Yurchikhin and Kotov managed to get two of the three lines to each computer running after they bypassed an apparent faulty power switch with external cabling. This modification was repeated on the final two channels. Three days later the Russians demonstrated the ability to maintain station control using the computers, thus allowing Atlantis to depart.

After transferring 19 tons of food, water, and equipment across to the station, and now with Sunita Williams aboard, Atlantis undocked on June 19. Joint activ­ities had logged 8 days 19 hours 6 minutes. Piloted by Archambault, Atlantis completed a fly-around of the station, offering a good inspection and photo­documentation opportunity of the reconfigured outpost. At a distance of74 km from the station, the Atlantis crew then used the RMS and boom sensor system to inspect the orbiter’s thermal protection system on both wing leading edges and the nose cap.

Three days later, after a 24 h delay due to adverse weather, Atlantis arrived safely on runway 21 at Edwards Air Force Base in California, after marginal weather had again prevented a landing at the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Cape in Florida. Setting a new record for female space flight endurance, Sunita Williams logged just short of 195 days in space during her residency.

The transfer of Atlantis back to the Cape did not begin immediately. After several days of preparation, the orbiter was bolted to the top of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (Boeing 747). Following several fuel stops and weather delays, the combination finally arrived back at the Cape on July 3.

Milestones

253rd manned space flight 148th U. S. manned space flight 118th Shuttle mission 28th flight of Atlantis 21st Shuttle TSS mission

Heaviest station payload carried by Shuttle to date (42,671 lb) (19,355.5 kg) First launch from Pad 39A since STS-107 Columbia in January 2003 Suni Williams set a new endurance record of 195 days for the longest single space flight by a female, surpassing the 188-day record of Shannon Lucid set in 1996

Flight Crew

KELLY, Scott Joseph, 43, USN, NASA commander, second mission Previous mission: STS-103 (1999)

HOBAUGH, Charles Owen, 45, USMC, NASA pilot, second mission Previous mission: STS-104 (2001)

CALDWELL, Tracy Ellen, 37, civilian, NASA mission speciahst 1 MASTRACCHIO, Richard Alan, civilian, NASA mission specialist 2, second mission

Previous mission: STS-106 (2000)

WILLIAMS, Daffyd (David) Rhys, 53, civilian (Canadian), CSA mission specialist 3, second mission Previous mission: STS-90 (1998)

MORGAN, Barbara Radding, 55, civihan, NASA mission specialist 4 DREW, Benjamin Alvin, 44, USAF, NASA mission speciahst 5

Flight log

This mission continued the installation of the solar array truss segment and also featured the flight of the first educator astronaut—a teacher turned astronaut.

As a result of a major modification program for Endeavour, and the recovery from the loss of Columbia, launch preparations took some time. The orbiter had arrived at the OPF on December 7, 2002 following the landing of STS-113. Endeavour remained at the Cape for the next four years, being moved between facilities as required for both mission processing and upgrades. During the modifi­cation period, Endeavour, the newest of the orbiter fleet, received a number of upgrades including the installation of a “glass cockpit”, a global positioning system to be used as an aid for landing and the Station-to-Shuttle Power Transfer

Education mission specialist Barbara Morgan floats on the middeck.

System (SSTPS). This would enable the orbiter to draw power from the station while docked with it, extending the time it could remain at the station.

On January 9, 2004 Endeavour was moved to the VAB for maintenance, returning to the OPF Bay 2 on January 21. On December 16 that year Endeavour was moved to High Bay 4 in the VAB for storage. Then, on January 12, 2005, the orbiter was relocated back to OPF Bay 2 once again. The move to the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) hangar on February 22 was to make room to conduct planned modifications to the OPF. Endeavour returned to the Processing Facility on March 18, where it remained for the next two years. Following mission proces­sing for STS-118, Endeavour was rolled over to the VAB on July 2, 2007 for mating to the External Tank (ET) and two SRBs. The STS-118 stack was rolled out to Pad 39A on July 11, 2007.

Despite some problems with a stubborn side hatch on the Endeavour, the mission launched on time, heading into the early evening sky just before sunset. On board was the crew of seven, the SS truss, the Spacehab module, and the External Storage Platform #3, which included a Control Moment Gyroscope (CMG) to replace a faulty one on the station. The following day, the crew used the Shuttle’s robotic arm and Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) to take a close look at the vehicle’s heat shielding over the leading edge of the wings.

Shortly before docking with the station on August 10, commander Scott Kelly maneuvered Endeavour in a backflip, allowing the resident ISS crew to take digital photos of the underside of the vehicle and its upper surfaces to check the thermal protection system for possible damage. Subsequent analysis of this imagery revealed a 3" (8 cm) round dent on the starboard underside. Further inspection and analysis of the images and data showed that the damage had penetrated a tile down to the internal framework. Over several days, while the crew continued work on the station, the Mission Management Team (MMT) evaluated the evidence and authorized a further engineering analysis and series of tests. It was determined that direct tile repair by the crew on a contingency EVA was not required and that the damage would not pose a risk to the crew during reentry. It was therefore decided to leave the damaged tile alone until after landing. This decision revealed growing confidence in the changes introduced since the loss of Columbia, better capability in interpreting inspection imagery, and more understanding of the effects of minor damage on the TPS.

Endeavour docked to the station on August 10 while orbiting 214 miles (344.32 km) above the southern Pacific Ocean, northeast of Sydney, Australia. The MMT initially extended the flight to 14 days following a successful transfer of power from the station by means of the SSPTS. This enabled a fourth space walk to be added to the flight plan. However, later in the mission, with growing concern over the movement of Hurricane Dean towards the coast of Texas, the MMT decided to shorten the flight and end the mission one day early.

The mission’s four space walks logged 23 hours 13 minutes in total. Rick Mastracchio and Canadian astronaut Dave Williams each completed three EVAs, with ISS-16 flight engineer Clayton Anderson joining Mastracchio for the third EVA and Williams for the fourth and final EVA.

During the first EVA (August 11, 6h 17min) installation of the 2-ton, lift long spacer, Starboard 5 (S5) segment of the truss structure was completed. The astronauts also retracted the forward heat-rejecting radiator from the P6 truss assembly. This was planned for relocation to the end of the port truss during the following STS-120 mission. The mission’s second EVA (August 13, 6h 28 min), focused upon installation of the 6001b (272.16 kg) CMG onto the Z1 segment of the station truss assembly. The failed unit was removed and stored outside the station pending its planned return to Earth on a later mission.

During the third excursion (August 15, 5h 28 min), Anderson and Mastracchio relocated the S-band antenna subassembly from P6 to PI. They then installed a new transponder on PI as well as retrieving the P6 transponder. Mean­while, inside the station Pilot Charles Hobaugh and resident station flight engineer Oleg Kotov moved two CETA (Crew and Equipment Translation Aid) carts. It was during this EVA that Mastracchio noticed a hole in the thumb of his left pressure glove. As it was only through to the second of five layers it did not create a leak or endanger the astronaut. As a precaution, however, he returned to the airlock while Anderson completed the final tasks.

The fourth and final EVA of the mission (August 18, 5 h 2 min), conducted by Williams and Anderson, featured a number of lesser tasks, including installation of the External Wireless Instrumentation System (EWIS) antenna, installation of a stand for the temporary relocation of the Shuttle RMS extension boom, and retrieval of the two material experiment containers which were to be returned on Endeavour. The two other tasks planned for this EVA were deferred to a future space walk. These were relocating a toolbox to a more central location and cleaning up and securing the debris shielding. During each of the EVAs fellow crew members Caldwell and Morgan used the Shuttle and station RMS devices to move and locate the 7,0001b (3175.2 kg) number 3 external storage platform that would be installed on the P3 truss.

On August 11, the primary command and control computer in the U. S. segment shut down unexpectedly. Fortunately this shutdown did not affect the EVA being conducted that day. The redundancy in the system worked as designed, with the secondary computer taking over and the third computer providing a backup role. Ground controllers brought up the third computer after determining that an errant software command was the cause of the shut­down.

Mission specialist Barbara Morgan was a professional teacher turned astronaut, who had originally been chosen as a backup payload specialist to fellow teacher Christa McAuliffe in 1985 under the Teacher in Space Program. Tragically, McAuliffe died in the January 1986 Challenger accident. Morgan continued her association with NASA and returned to teaching, but in 1998 she was chosen as an educator mission specialist in the 17th NASA astronaut group. During STS-118, Morgan conducted three educational events and on several occa­sions she and her colleagues answered questions from children at the Discovery Center in Boise, Idaho and the Challenger Centers for Space Science Education in Alexandria, Virginia and Saskatchewan, Canada.

Endeavour undocked from the Station on August 19 after 8 days 17 hours 54 minutes of joint operations. Ironically, the expected threat from Hurricane Dean never materialized but by then the orbiter was committed to an early return— weather permitting. There was indeed fine weather as the landing took place on Runway 15 at the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC on the first opportunity.

Milestones

254th manned space flight 149th U. S. manned space flight 119th Shuttle mission 20th flight of Endeavour 22nd Shuttle ISS mission

Morgan became the first educator mission specialist to fly in space The Zarya module completed its 50,000th orbit (August 14), as the oldest element of ISS

Installation of ESP3 using just the Space Station and Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) without help of EVA astronauts as on previous two installations

First use of the Station-Shuttle Power Transfer System Caldwell celebrates her 38 th birthday (August 14)