ISS expedition 14

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Mission emblem
Mission emblem Expedition 14
Mission dates
Mission: ISS expedition 14
Crew: 3
Rescue ships: Soyuz TMA-9
Space station: ISS
Start: September 20, 2006, 5:21  UTC
Started by: Coupling of Soyuz TMA-9
The End: April 21, 2007, 9:11 UTC
Ended by: Decoupling from Soyuz TMA-9
Duration: 213d 3h 50min
Number of EVAs : 5
Total length of the EVAs: 28h 4m
Team photo
(from left) Thomas Reiter, Michael Lopez-Alegria and Michail Tjurin
(from left) Thomas Reiter, Michael Lopez-Alegria and Michail Tjurin
(from left) Sunita Williams, Michael Lopez-Alegria and Michail Tjurin
(from left) Sunita Williams, Michael Lopez-Alegria and Michail Tjurin
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ISS Expedition 14 is the mission name for the 14th long-term crew of the International Space Station . The crew lived and worked on board the ISS from September 20, 2006 to April 21, 2007.

team

Substitute team

Mission history

The two astronauts Michael López-Alegría and Michail Tjurin took off on September 18, 2006 together with the American space tourist Anousheh Ansari on board the Soyuz TMA-9 and docked two days later on the ISS . Ansari moved up as the third crew member at short notice, as it was only announced four weeks before take-off that the originally planned Japanese Daisuke Enomoto was not allowed to take the flight for medical reasons (kidney stones).

On September 29, Pavel Vinogradov , Jeffrey Williams (both Expedition 13 ) and Anousheh Ansari returned to Earth aboard the Soyuz TMA-8 . Thomas Reiter , who arrived on the space station in July 2006, stayed on board as a member of Expedition 14 for half a year and was then replaced by Sunita Williams . He returned to Earth on the STS-116 shuttle flight in December 2006.

Problems with Progress

Progress M-58 approaches the ISS

On October 10, Soyuz commander Tjurin and flight engineers López-Alegría and Reiter boarded the Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft. They closed the hatches and coupled at 18:14 UTC from the rear docking port of the Zvezda from modulus to accommodate the Progress to create -Frachter which should arrive two weeks later. Mikhail Tyurin steered the spaceship to the forward Zarya adapter and moored there again after 20 minutes at 18:34 UTC.

On October 26th at 14:29 UTC the unmanned supply spaceship Progress M-58 docked at the ISS. It was launched three days earlier and brought 2,183 kg of fresh food, oxygen (50 kg) and fuel (870 kg) as well as DVD films, music CDs, books and magazines to the space station. But 1,263 kg of equipment technology, such as spare parts for the "Elektron" oxygen generator that failed on September 18, were also delivered.

Complications with the approach system of the transporter initially prevented a complete mechanical connection: the course antenna could not be completely folded in and a small gap remained between Progress and the station. The control center decided to decouple the freighter and try again. Progress moved 40 centimeters from the ISS and finally moored on the adapter at 18:06 UTC. To make sure that the connection was really hermetically sealed, the check took longer than usual. The hatches could therefore only be opened the next day.

The astronauts Mikhail Tyurin and Mike Lopez-Alegria took on 23 November from 12:17 UTC the first spacewalk (EVA) of the mission from the Russian airlock Pirs . This was unusually sporty, because cosmonaut Tyurin played golf for advertising purposes: at the beginning of the almost six-hour EVA, he hit a small plastic golf ball (three grams with a diameter of four centimeters) from a special platform for the Canadian golf equipment company "Element 21". (The first golfer in space history was Alan Shepard , who hit two golf balls on the moon in February 1971). The two then examined the Progress freighter that had docked at the station four weeks earlier. Problems with a radio antenna had occurred. This had not folded back as planned. Tyurin tried to move the antenna by hand, but failed. Finally, the spacemen worked on an antenna to enable the ESA's unmanned ATV cargo spacecraft to dock at the station. The exit came to an end after 5 hours and 38 minutes.

Rider disembark

On December 11, 2006, the ISS crew received a visit from the US space shuttle Discovery when it docked with the space station at 22:12 UTC. The STS-116 shuttle mission brought the P5 lattice structure to the ISS and carried out a changing of the guard: Thomas Reiter, who had been in orbit for six months, was replaced by astronaut Sunita Williams. The shuttle crew made four exits, mounting the P5 adapter, reconfiguring the power line network of the space station and retracting a jammed solar wing. After eight days, the Discovery undocked from the space station on December 19 at 22:10 UTC and took Thomas Reiter, who had been researching on board the ISS since July, back to Earth.

On January 20, 2007 at 2:59 UTC, the unmanned supply spaceship Progress M-59, launched two days earlier and named in honor of the 100th birthday of the Soviet space pioneer Sergei Korolev , docked with the ISS. On board were 2.3 tons of cargo, including 780 kg of fuel, 50 kg of oxygen, various spare parts, food and water. The Progress M-57 transporter laden with rubbish had been disconnected from the station three days earlier and burned up shortly afterwards when it reentered the earth's atmosphere.

Four outdoor jobs in a row

ISS commander Michael López-Alegría and his colleague Sunita Williams left the space station on January 31 for 7 hours and 55 minutes via the US airlock Quest . The disembarkation began at 15:14 UTC and was the second of this mission. In the first three hours, the two US astronauts separated the Destiny module from the makeshift EEATCS and connected it to the permanent EATCS (External Active Thermal Control System) cooling circuit that had been activated six weeks earlier by the STS-116 crew . Williams and López-Alegría cut four EEATCS lines that were connected to the radiators of the P6 module and connected them to cooling circuit A. Then at 19:22 UTC one of the twelve-meter-long radiators was folded up and a reserve cooling line was shut down. Sunita Williams noticed how some small ice flakes of ammonia , which was circulating in the pipes, floated away. Although the crystals did not come into contact with the spacesuits, flight control ordered the emergency plan. This stipulated that the astronauts should carry out a decontamination phase in the airlock at the end of the exit.

López-Alegría during the exit on February 4th

Less than 87 hours after the end of the first, Sunita Williams and Michael López-Alegría conducted the next spacecraft on February 4th. They finished the work on the space station's cooling system that had begun four days earlier. The exit from the Quest airlock began at 13:38 UTC. When the six-year-old lines were disconnected, some coolant (ammonia) leaked out again, but this did not endanger the astronauts. After the cooling circuit B was activated, the two of them inspected the grid element P6 with its large solar cell panels. This was moved to its final position on the outermost port side of the ISS on October 29, 2007 using the main manipulator arm of the station. To do this, the solar cell boom had to be retracted beforehand. When folding the first one in December 2006 there were unexpected problems. So López-Alegría and Williams took photos of the condition of the solar cell wing, which was pulled in during the next shuttle visit in August 2007, on behalf of NASA engineers. Eventually, the two astronauts ran electrical cables outside the Destiny laboratory. These SSPTS lines ( Station-to-Shuttle Power Transfer System ) were installed on the PMA-2 coupling and will in future be able to supply the US space shuttles with energy from the space station, which will allow them to operate longer on the ISS. The mission ended successfully at 20:49 UTC after seven hours and eleven minutes. Flight engineer Williams set a new space record: At 22 hours and 37 minutes, she spent more than any other woman in free space. For the ISS commander López-Alegría it was the eighth space exit, which took third place in the EVA times world rankings after Anatoly Solowjow and Jerry Ross .

Sunita Williams prepares the space suit helmet for her fourth exit

The third exit began on February 8th at 13:26 UTC, half an hour earlier than planned. After López-Alegría and Williams exited the US airlock Quest, they removed two covers. These had protected parts of the electronics on the P3 grid from cooling down and were no longer needed. López-Alegría threw the thermal blankets away from the space station, where they burned up in the earth's atmosphere. They then installed a UCCAS (Unpressurized Cargo Carrier Attach System) platform, which serves as a storage area for equipment. Before the successful work assignment ended, the two US astronauts established the last SSPTS connections, the installation of which began during the last EVA. (The new power transmission was first used during STS-118 .) The 80th space station exit ended at 20:06 UTC after 6 hours and 40 minutes. With three EVAs in nine days, it was the first time that so many ISS spacecraft missions had been conducted in such a short time. Michael López-Alegría also overtook his American colleague Jerry Ross , who had the second most EVA experience to date, and Sunita Williams increased her record for the longest EVA time for a woman to 29 hours and 17 minutes.

The next exit (EVA) - the fourth in just three weeks - took place on February 22nd. This time at 10:27 UTC Michael López-Alegría and Mikhail Tjurin in Russian spacesuits left the Pirs airlock to remove an unruly antenna on the Progress spacecraft. The antenna could not be retracted correctly on October 26th last year when the Progress transporter docked with the rear coupling socket of the Zvezda module because it got stuck in the structure of the station. This problem had to be resolved in order to easily undock the freighter. At the beginning of the EVA, Tyurin struggled with a fogged visor because a vaporizer responsible for regulating the temperature of his Orlan spacesuit was malfunctioning.

In addition to solving the Progress antenna problem, López-Alegría and Tjurin did numerous other tasks. They photographed a Russian satellite navigation antenna and exchanged a Russian experiment. Before the connections and restraint mechanisms on a hand-operated Strela crane at the Pirs airlock were inspected, the astronauts photographed an antenna for the European ATV and checked a German robotics experiment.

After six hours and 18 minutes, the two astronauts boarded the ISS again at 16:45 UTC through the Pirs lock. It was the 81st spacecraft deployment to set up the space station and the 53rd exit from the ISS itself. Of these, 20 exits were via Pirs. This was the fifth spacecraft mission for this ISS crew. Michael López-Alegría set a new US record with his tenth space exit . Only the Russian Anatoly Solowjow has more exits (16).

Research and interior work

After their extensive work outside the ISS, the three-person crew resumed their scientific research program. Two days after the last EVA, new soldering processes were tested under the name SoRGE (Soldering in Reduced Gravity Experiment) . Soldering agents used up to now can lead to the formation of bubbles, gaps or pores in weightlessness due to the gases produced, which can weaken the metal connection. That is why equipment on the space station is often replaced instead of repaired.

Sunita Williams on the TRAC computer

On February 28, flight engineer Sunita Williams used a computer simulation to train her skills in handling the space station's robotic arm . Then she and her colleagues Tjurin and López-Alegría devoted themselves to the TRAC experiment (Test of Reaction and Adaptation Capabilities). With this, Prof. Dr. Otmar Bock, head of the Institute for Physiology and Anatomy at the German Sport University in Cologne , together with Canadian and US scientists, find out how people get used to weightlessness. At times space travelers had reported that their motor skills decreased the longer they were in space. The researchers attribute this to the fact that the brain restructures itself for a life in microgravity. To do this, it demands more resources that are withdrawn from other areas. The team worked regularly with the TRAC laptop to document the progress - not only during the mission, but also before and after the flight.

At the beginning of March, the last renovation work in the US module Destiny was completed in order to be able to put the new OGS oxygen system into operation in autumn 2007. The oxygen generation system is integrated into the station's water cycle and splits water into oxygen and hydrogen. OGS, which was brought to the ISS with the STS-121 shuttle mission in July 2006, is an important part of the life support system and indispensable if the permanent crew strength is increased to six people.

At the same time, flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin was preparing the Russian part of the space station for the arrival of the new large-capacity supply freighter ATV. Before the maiden flight of the automatic freight feeder built by Europe, some tests still have to be carried out on board, which mainly have to do with the satellite navigation system, as ATV approaches the station completely independently and attaches it to the Zvezda module. The first launch of the freighter is currently scheduled for spring 2008.

On March 14, the regular crew installed a new interior window on the port side of the Unity junction . It is equipped with a camera system that will simplify future automatic docking maneuvers and handling of the ISS robot arm. A structurally identical window had already been installed four years ago on the opposite side of Unity.

The upgrade of the internal OpsLAN computer network (Operations Local Area Network) began in mid-March . The new Ethernet data network is ten times faster and connects all ISS computers with one another via routers . Computers that are not wired can be reached by radio. This also improves the work with the systems on the Russian part of the space station, because its cable network has only a low bandwidth . Originally, the network expansion should only be carried out by the next team. Due to the postponed start of STS-117 , this work was brought forward.

Preparation for the newcomers

Progress M-58 takes off from the ISS

On March 27, 2007 at 18:11 UTC, the unmanned supply freighter Progress M-58 undocked from the space station after five months of joint flight. The crew had previously loaded the transport capsule with rubbish and locked it. With a brake ignition Progress was steered into the denser layers of the earth's atmosphere, where it burned up a few hours later over the Pacific.

In order to make room for the crew replacement, which arrived a week later, the three spacemen climbed into their Soyuz spaceship on March 29 and disconnected from the station. Mikhail Tyurin steered the spaceship from the coupling socket of the Zarya module to the Zvezda adapter. After just 24 minutes, the spaceship had covered the short distance - both “parking spaces” are only 25 meters apart - and docked again at the ISS at 22:54 UTC.

After almost 50 hours of flight, Soyuz TMA-10 reached the space station on April 9, 2007 with the next regular crew and docked at the Zarya adapter at 19:10 UTC. The replacement, consisting of the ISS commander Fyodor Yurtschichin and his flight engineer Oleg Kotow , brought along the American space tourist Charles Simonyi .

Williams runs the Boston Marathon

Williams runs the marathon in space

Sunita Williams was the first person in space to run a marathon. On April 16, held by rubber bands, she ran the 111th Boston Marathon on the treadmill in the space station . After weeks of training, it started at 14:00 UTC at the same time as the 23,900 other active participants, including 7,600 women, on Earth. Williams, who grew up in Massachusetts and is an avid marathon runner, not only participated symbolically, but also qualified by doing well in the Houston marathon last year. With the participant number 14000 it started over the Pacific and after 4 hours and 23 minutes and two and a half orbits, monitored by two computers, had covered the full distance of 42.195 kilometers over Russia. She was 57 minutes slower than the Houston Marathon and was also defeated by her sister Pandya, who reached the finish a few minutes earlier in stormy weather in Boston - gusty wind, rain, temperatures around 10 ° C.

The return

With a small ceremony Mike López-Alegría and Michail Tjurin handed over command of the ISS to their two successors on April 17th at 20:40 UTC. These had been briefed on the work processes in the past week. Sunita Williams stood by the two newcomers as an experienced flight engineer, because she stayed on the station to reinforce Expedition 14.

Soyuz TMA-9 lands on parachute

On the same day, the return of López-Alegría and Tjurin was postponed for one day. Spring backwater had softened the landing area in the Kazakh steppe, which would have made the work of the rescue teams more difficult. The Russian space agency therefore decided that Soyuz TMA-9 should not land in a region to the south until 24 hours later.

Tjurin and López-Alegría returned safe and sound as planned on April 21 after seven months with their Soyuz TMA-9 landing capsule. As at the beginning of their mission, they had a space tourist on board - this time it was the ex-Microsoft programmer Simonyi, who started the journey home after two weeks in orbit. Two and a half hours after leaving the space station, the Soyuz spacecraft was ignited for four minutes. The re-entry and landing went smoothly. Two hours before sunset, the landing capsule landed at 12:31 UTC around 135 kilometers northeast of Dscheskasgan in the Kazakh steppe. Immediately afterwards, the search and rescue teams, consisting of twelve helicopters, two aircraft and six all-terrain vehicles, arrived at the landing site and took the three space travelers out of the landing capsule just 15 minutes after touchdown.

For commander Michael López-Alegría, these 215 days meant a new national long-term flight record : he exceeded the record set by his compatriots Carl Walz and Daniel Bursch during the fourth ISS expedition in 2002 by nine days. In addition, with over 67 hours and ten exits, he became the US astronaut with the most outboard experience and ranks second on the EVA table by number and total duration . Only Anatoly Solowjow spent 16 exits and over 78 hours more time outside of a spaceship.

Potentially significant result

It has long been known that the human immune system does not work correctly in weightlessness. In the course of scientific investigations, it was apparently at least partially solved on the basis of an experiment carried out in 2006 as part of the ISS Expedition 14 on board the International Space Station.

During his second long-term stay in space, Thomas Reiter carried out an experiment on behalf of ESA in which certain cells of the human immune system were held in microgravity on the one hand and subjected to a gravity substitute in a centrifuge on the other . At the end of the experiment, the cells were frozen and examined in detail on the ground. The result: in the cells that had developed without gravity, an important signal chain of the immune response was interrupted. The transcription factor NF-Kappa-B could no longer have an activating effect together with a so-called Rel protein. This only happens in the interaction of the two factors as dimers . On their own, NF-Kappa-B1 and B2 have an inhibitory effect.

The new knowledge could be used in two ways in the future. On the one hand, one could control the immune response to an infection by using suitable inhibitors so that it does not become more life-threatening than the infection itself. On the other hand, and this is probably the more interesting way, one could slow down excessive autoimmune responses, possibly even prevent them. The best-known autoimmune diseases include arthritis , rheumatic fever , type 1 diabetes mellitus , multiple sclerosis , gastritis , narcolepsy or ankylosing spondylitis . The immune system incorrectly attacks the body's own healthy cells. To slow it down or even to stop it could mean an incredible advance in human medicine and save enormous resources worldwide in the long term.

See also

Web links

Commons : ISS Expedition 14  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

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  1. ↑ NASA: 14th Station Crew Docks with Space Station , September 20, 2006 (English)
  2. ↑ RIA Novosti: Japanese space tourist is not admitted to space flight by doctors , August 21, 2006
  3. ^ RIA Novosti: Landing device of the Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan , September 29, 2006
  4. ↑ Spaceflight Now: Resupply vessel latched to station after delay , October 26, 2006 (English)
  5. ↑ NASA: ISS Status Report # 06-51 , November 23, 2006 (English)
  6. ↑ NASA: STS-116 MCC Status Report # 05 , December 11, 2006 (English)
  7. ↑ RIA Novosti: Progress ferry "Koroljow" successfully docked to the International Space Station , January 20, 2007
  8. ↑ NASA: Station Crew Members Wind Up Successful Spacewalk , January 31, 2007 (English)
  9. ↑ NASA: Crew Completes Scheduled Spacewalk Tasks, and More , February 4, 2007 (English)
  10. ↑ NASA: Spacewalkers Successfully Wrap Up Record Series , February 8, 2007 (English)
  11. ↑ NASA: Spacewalkers Successfully Retract Progress Antenna , February 22, 2007 (English)
  12. ↑ Spaceflight Now: International Space Station supply ship undocks , March 27, 2007 (English)
  13. ↑ NASA: Station Crew Moves Soyuz , March 29, 2007 (English)
  14. ↑ NASA: ISS Status Report # 07-19 , April 9, 2007 (English)
  15. ↑ NASA: Race From Space Coincides with Race on Earth , April 16, 2007 (English)
  16. ^ Sunita Williams - Biography, Achievements, & Facts. In: britannica.com. September 15, 2018, accessed November 9, 2018 .
  17. ↑ NASA: Space Station Crew Landing Moved to Saturday , April 18, 2007 (English)
  18. ↑ NASA: Expedition 14 Back on Earth , April 21, 2007 (English)
  19. ↑ Cause for immune deficiency found in space. Raumfahrer.net, February 5, 2013, accessed June 8, 2013 .
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on August 26, 2007 in this version .