ISS expedition 15

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Mission emblem
Mission emblem Expedition 15
Mission dates
Mission: ISS expedition 15
Crew: 3
Rescue ships: Soyuz TMA-10
Space station: ISS
Start: April 9, 2007, 19:10 UTC
Started by: Coupling of Soyuz TMA-10
The End: October 21, 2007, 7:14 UTC
Ended by: Decoupling from Soyuz TMA-10
Duration: 194d 12h 4min
Number of EVAs : 3
Total length of the EVAs: 18h 43m
Team photo
(from left) Sunita Williams, Fyodor Jurtschichin and Oleg Kotow
(from left) Sunita Williams, Fyodor Jurtschichin and Oleg Kotow
(from left) Clayton Anderson, Fyodor Jurtschichin and Oleg Kotow
(from left) Clayton Anderson, Fyodor Jurtschichin and Oleg Kotow
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ISS Expedition 15 is the mission name for the 15th long-term crew of the International Space Station . The crew lived and worked on board the ISS from April 9 to October 21, 2007.

team

Substitute team

Mission history

The two space travelers Fyodor Yurtschichin and Oleg Kotow set off for the International Space Station (ISS) on April 7, 2007 together with the US space tourist Charles Simonyi . Yurtschichin and Kotow form the 15th long-term crew of the ISS, replacing their predecessors ( Michael López-Alegría and Michail Tjurin ). These returned to earth after seven months on April 21st.

The flight engineer Sunita Williams , who had worked at the station since December 2006, was originally supposed to return with the STS-118 shuttle mission and at the same time be replaced by Clayton Anderson . Due to the delayed launch of STS-117 from March to June 2007, NASA decided on April 26th to bring the crew change forward by one flight. The crew planning of the ISS is not affected by the small change.

SPHERES tests

The SPHERES satellites float in the Destiny module

In March and April, Suni Williams and her colleagues carried out further SPHERES tests (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites). These are small experimental satellites developed by the Space Systems Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . The first representative reached the ISS a year earlier with the Progress M-56 ; Williams had the third ball in her luggage when she arrived. During the sixth SPHERES flight on March 17th, the third ball was used for the first time - the whole system is now ready for use. The three spheres, each 20 centimeters in size, are battery-powered devices that are deployed in the space station and fly freely. Computer-controlled, they can position and align themselves using small gas nozzles. The aim of SPHERES is the development of simple, autonomous coupling processes by improving the software used.

The astronauts at the station regularly talk to radio amateurs on earth via the ARISS system (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station). After Williams had already contacted students from the European School in Varese, Italy, and children from a primary school in Virginia on April 23, she had an appointment with German youths five days later. In the afternoon, five students from the Samuel-von-Pufendorf-Gymnasium in Flöha , Saxony , had the opportunity to ask the flight engineer 18 of their 20 prepared questions. The conversation represented the climax of a three-year project work during which the school radio station was set up.

Progress M-60

Yurtschichin presents a selection of the fresh fruit that arrived with Progress

Four months after reaching the last cargo spaceship, a new feeder started as scheduled on May 12th from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the direction of the ISS. Progress M-60 delivered a total of 2.3 tons, including 476 kilograms of fuel, 420 liters of drinking water, 45 kilograms of oxygen, 241 kilograms of food (canned food, fresh fruits and vegetables), medicines, clothing and scientific equipment. There were also mail, books, DVD films (Russian comedies and the Soviet science fiction classic Solaris ) and magazines on board to edify the space travelers. The 25th unmanned ISS transporter automatically docked with the station's Zvezda module at 5:10 a.m. on May 15.

First expedition

Fyodor Yurtschichin and Oleg Kotov carried out the expedition's first space exit (EVA) on May 30, 2007. Due to communication difficulties between the two spacemen and the Russian control center, the start of work, which was set at 18:20 UTC, was postponed by 45 minutes. The disembarkation began at 19:05 UTC with the opening of the hatch of the Russian Pirs airlock . Commander Yurchichin and flight engineer Kotow, dressed in Orlan M spacesuits, undertook the first EVA of their careers.

Yurchichin (left) and Kotow put on their spacesuits

The main objective of the exit was the installation of several SMDP shields (Service Module Debris Panels) on the module Zvezda . The 2.5 centimeter thick aluminum plates for protection against micrometeorites were gathered on a structure that was located on the PMA-3 . This adapter, known as the “Christmas tree” because of its appearance, was moved near the Zvezda module by means of the Strela freight crane and temporarily stored. For this purpose, the 13.7 meter long Strela 2 was specially equipped with a 4.6 meter extension.

Then the two cosmonauts interrupted the assembly of the mudguards and laid a GPS cable along Zvezda, which is needed for the navigation of the European ATV feeder, which will fly to the ISS for the first time in spring 2008. Then Kotow and Yurchikhin returned to the front end of Zvezda to install the five SMDP panels. A total of 17 of the 60 cm by 90 cm panels were bundled in three “branches” of the Christmas tree that was brought to the station in December 2006 with the STS-116 . After assembling the aluminum sheets, the two space travelers returned to the Pirs airlock. After 5 hours and 25 minutes, the disembarkation ended with the bulkhead being closed at 0:30 UTC.

Second exit

The second space exit followed a week later, on June 6th, and was again carried out by Fyodor Yurtschichin and Oleg Kotow wearing Orlan-M spacesuits. Suni Williams stayed in the station and, as with the last EVA, directed the activities of her Russian colleagues.

The cosmonauts left the Russian airlock in Pirs at 14:23 UTC. This time they finished the preparations faster and got off seven minutes earlier than planned. First, they exchanged a sample container for the Russian Biorisk experiment, which studies the adaptability of fungal spores and bacteria. Then a 13.1 meter long Ethernet cable was laid on the outside of the Sarja module. This will make it possible in future to send control commands from the American to the Russian part of the space station via the computer network in an emergency.

Zarya was damaged by a meteorite

While working on the outer shell of Zarya, the cosmonauts discovered the impact of a tiny meteorite. Commander Yurtschichin reported to the control center that the damage looked like the hole in a revolver bullet and was five to six millimeters in size. The micrometeorite had penetrated the module's insulating material and hit a supply device, but otherwise did not cause any serious damage. When Zarya, which has been in orbit since November 1998, was hit could not be determined. Such destruction had already been detected on the great wings of the sun, but it was the first time that an impact hit a module of the space station.

Then Kotow and Yurtschichin devoted themselves to their main task: assembling the remaining SMDP sheets on Zvezda, each two and a half centimeters thick. With the twelve protective plates of this EVA, the five from last week and the first six that were installed in 2002, the Russian module has 23 SMDPs to protect against meteorite impacts.

The exit ended after 5 hours and 37 minutes. Yurchichin and Kotow had worked so quickly that the mission was 13 minutes shorter than planned. It was the 55th EVA that was undertaken from the space station (rather than the shuttle) and the 22nd that was undertaken through the Pirs Lock.

STS-117 delivers the S3 / S4 module

The S3 / S4 module can be seen in the loading space of the Atlantis

The US space shuttle Atlantis took off for the ISS on June 8th with a three-month delay . The necessary repairs to the outer tank, which became necessary after a hailstorm in late February, had delayed the start of STS-117 . With the new S3 / S4 component and Clayton Anderson , the replacement for flight engineer Williams, in the luggage, the orbiter connected to the PMA-2 adapter of the Destiny laboratory on June 10th .

The Atlantis crew assembled the S3 / S4 module on the starboard side in four exits, rolled out its two solar panels and folded the remaining 35-meter boom of the P6 girder so that it could be moved to its final location during STS-120 can.

After nine days, Atlantis decoupled from the space station and landed back on Earth on June 22nd. During the return flight, Suni Williams had taken the place of her colleague Clay Anderson. She had lived and worked on the ISS for half a year. At 195 days, she had been in orbit longer than any other woman on landing. The previous record was set by her colleague Shannon Lucid eleven years earlier when she lived and worked for 188 days on the Russian space station Mir in 1996 .

New oxygen system activated

On July 11th, the new OGS oxygen system (Oxygen Generation System) went into operation. Clayton Anderson activated the device in the US Destiny module and monitored its work. The fine adjustments were made with the technicians at the control center in Houston.

The OGS is integrated into the station's water cycle and works according to the electrolysis process to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. The latter is released into space. To do this, two STS-117 astronauts mounted a hydrogen valve on the outside of the Destiny module during an exit on June 15. The system, housed in a rack, can produce around five kilograms of oxygen (selectable between two and nine kilograms) per day.

The OGS was originally supposed to be brought to the ISS at the end of its construction phase, when the crew size was increased from three to six people. Since the Russian Elektron system in the Zvezda module had repeatedly failed in the past, the delivery was brought forward and the 680 kilogram equipment was transported to the station in July 2006 on the STS-121 shuttle mission .

The OGS was switched off again after three days. NASA plans to activate the facility only about once a month. The OGS will only go into continuous operation when the crew is increased.

Third outboard mission

Six weeks after Clay Anderson's arrival on the space station, he and ISS commander Fyodor Yurtschichin carried out a space exit. On July 23, the two astronauts switched the US spacesuits to internal supply at 10:24 UTC, six minutes earlier than planned, and shortly afterwards left the station via the Quest airlock .

First, Yurchichin and Anderson attached a 23 kg camera mount to the lattice structure of the ISS. The VSSA (Video Stanchion Support Assembly) bracket, which is 148 centimeters long, was installed at the junction between elements S0 and P1. Commander Yurtschichin then replaced a defective power switch so that the backup circuit for the mobile transporter works again. Meanwhile, Anderson went to the ISS robot arm and attached himself to a footrest after checking the power connection of an S-band antenna. The 17 meter long arm was controlled by Oleg Kotow, who was in the Destiny module, making it the first Russian to operate the robotic arm. Anderson then threw the frame to which the camera tripod was attached overboard at around 1:20 p.m. UTC.

An ammonia tank is disposed of

The main task of this spacecraft followed: removing a container filled with ammonia that is no longer needed. This so-called Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS) was brought to the space station with STS-105 in August 2001 and mounted on the P6 element. The EAS served as an auxiliary tank for the station's provisional cooling circuit before the main cooling system went into operation in December 2006. After disconnecting all connections, the 635 kilogram tank was thrown behind the ISS at 14:36 ​​UTC by Anderson attached to the robot arm. It was then tracked as space debris under Norad Catalog No. 31928 and burned up in an uncontrolled manner on November 3, 2008 04:51 UTC at 48 ° S, 151 ° E about 600 km SSE-east of Tasmania . A week earlier, the mean height was 207 km and decreased by 3.0 km daily.

In preparation for the implementation of the PMA-3 adapter, which was carried out five weeks later, the two astronauts then cleaned the earth-facing CBM ( Common Berthing Mechanism ) coupling on the Unity module. PMA-3 was transferred there at the end of August 2007. A video inspection four weeks earlier revealed small contamination from lubricants that could have prevented an airtight coupling.

After these planned activities, Yurchichin and Anderson completed tasks that should have been performed during a later disembarkation: the ISS commander moved a bag, which is used to deposit tools and equipment, from its position on the P6 solar module to its new location the Z1 structure. Anderson went to segment S0 and removed a defective GPS antenna .

The EVA ended after 7 hours and 41 minutes at 18:05 UTC. While it was Yurchichin's third field trip, Anderson left a spaceship for the first time.

Four hours after the exit, the orbit of the space station was raised by seven kilometers. The 21-minute engine ignition of the Progress M-60 created a safe distance from the EAS tank and prepared the ISS for the arrival of the next space freighter.

Change of Progress transporter

The cargo spacecraft Progress M-59, which had reached the space station on January 20, undocked from the Pirs docking port on August 1 at 2:07 p.m. UTC . In the past few days, the spacemen had filled the feeder with unnecessary equipment and garbage. The space freighter entered the dense layers of the earth's atmosphere five hours later and largely burned up while the remaining parts sank in the Pacific.

Progress M-61 shortly before landing

One day later, at 17:34 UTC, a Soyuz U launcher took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and launched the Progress M-61 spacecraft to the ISS. In honor of the 150th birthday of the "father of Russian space travel", the shuttle was christened Konstantin Ziolkowski and had his portrait on the payload fairing.

The 2.3 tons of supplies also included a new processor unit, as well as cables and connectors for the computers in the Russian part of the station, which had failed in June. Progress also brought fuel (720 kilograms), drinking water (210 liters), oxygen (48 kilograms), scientific equipment, spare parts, food such as fresh fruit and vegetables, and mail from the families to the station. After a three-day flight, Progress M-61 docked with the space station on August 5 at 18:40 UTC.

The launch of the space shuttle was originally scheduled for July 23. The postponement came about because this time was needed to manufacture and test the new computer system equipment.

STS-118 brings the S5 element

View from the ISS of the docked Endeavor

After an interruption of five years, the Endeavor arrived at the ISS on August 10 at 18:02 UTC. The US space shuttle last visited the terrestrial outpost with STS-113 in November 2002 to expand the station with the P1 element . This time, the completely modernized Orbiter provided with the mission STS-118 , the segment S5 on and a gyroscope.

The crew of the Endeavor undertook four spacecraft missions - supported by ISS flight engineer Anderson, who was involved in the last two. The S5 element was installed, a gyroscope that had failed in October 2006 was replaced and an ESP holding structure ( External Stowage Platform ) was attached. After nine days, the orbiter cast off again from the space station on August 19 at 11:56 a.m. UTC.

Implementation of PMA-3

After a week of intensive preparation, the three-person crew relocated a component of the station to another location on August 30th. The PMA-3 coupling adapter ( Pressurized Mating Adapter ) was offset from the port side of the Unity module by 90 degrees on its underside.

Work began around 9:30 a.m. UTC with the station's attitude control switched off to prevent the engines from suddenly igniting. Dressed in yellow construction workers' helmets that the crew from STS-118 had brought with them, the three space travelers checked whether the pressure in PMA-3 was released overnight and the hatches closed correctly. Clay Anderson operated the ISS robotic arm from the control panel in the Destiny laboratory and was assisted by Oleg Kotow. The coupling mechanism was controlled by station commander Yurtschichin.

The spacemen put PMA-3 into practice wearing yellow helmets

After Anderson had detected the PMA-3 with the robotic arm at 10:08 UTC, Yurchichin opened the motor-driven screws of the CBM (Common Berthing Mechanism) coupling. Afterwards, PMA-3 was uncoupled by flight engineer Anderson at 12:18 UTC and swiveled to the so-called nadir port with the ISS robot arm . 49 minutes later, the 1.2-ton coupling adapter docked at 13:07 UTC on the earth-facing CBM ring. The robot arm was disconnected from the PMA-3 at around 1.30 p.m. UTC.

This action was carried out so that the next module ( Harmony ), which was delivered in November 2007 with the STS-120 shuttle mission , could be attached to the port nozzle of Unity.

Progress M-60 docks

The Freighter Progress M-60 was loaded with rubbish and was decoupled from the space station on September 19 at 12:37 a.m. UTC. Contrary to the previous procedure, after the transporter was burned up a few hours later in the earth's atmosphere, Progress remained in orbit for five days. The Russian control center carried out some experiments with the disused freighter.

Soyuz is relocated

On September 27, after configuring the station for unmanned flight, the astronauts boarded their Soyuz lifeboat to take it from the Zarya Nadir port to the rear Zvezda docking adapter. This maneuver serves to open the docking point for the newcomers to ISS Expedition 16 . The flight started at 19:20 UTC and went without any problems. At 19:47 UTC, Soyuz TMA-10 re-docked with the ISS after 27 minutes. The station was then manned again and the systems that had been switched off were reactivated.

The solar cell carriers of the Sarja module had to be retracted so that the radiators of S1 and P1 can be folded out during the next shuttle mission . The starboard wing was retracted on September 28th. The operation, controlled by the Russian flight control center, began at 14:14 UTC and lasted a quarter of an hour. The port-side solar module was retracted 23 hours later. Although the wings have not been activated since Zarya was commissioned nine years ago, folding worked without any problems.

Arrival of the 16th permanent crew

On October 12, Soyuz TMA-11 reached the space station with the 16th long-term crew and docked at 14:50 UTC. With Peggy Whitson , the first commander of the ISS arrived. She will live and work on board for the next six months with her flight engineer, Yuri Malentschenko . The two professional astronauts were accompanied by Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor , the first Malaysian space traveler.

After the traditional welcoming ceremony, the teams began working together. The schedule not only provided for an introduction to the work processes and control of the station, but also training for photographing the Discovery's heat shield as it approached the station.

On October 21, Yurchichin and Kotow started their journey home together with the Malaysian guest cosmonaut Shukor. Soyuz TMA 10 undocked from the station at 7:14 a.m. UTC. The landing did not go entirely according to plan because of a computer error. For reasons that had not yet been clarified, the on-board computer had redirected the return capsule to a substitute flight path. This was steeper than planned and exposed the three space travelers to stronger acceleration (peak value: 8.56 g). The Soyuz TMA-10 capsule traced a ballistic trajectory and fell several hundred kilometers from the target area in the Kazakh steppe at 10:36 UTC. All three spacemen reached the earth safely.

See also

Web links

Commons : ISS Expedition 15  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ NASA: ISS Status Report # 07-18, April 7, 2007 (English).
  2. ↑ RIA Novosti: Russian Soyuz spaceship landed safely - crew well, April 21, 2007.
  3. ↑ NASA: NASA to Rotate Station Astronauts on Next Shuttle Mission, April 26, 2007 (English).
  4. ↑ eoPortal: SPHERES (English)
  5. ↑ Youngsters in Europe, US Get Front-Row Seats to Space via Ham Radio. In: ARRL Letter, Vol 26, No 19.ARRL, May 4, 2007, accessed on September 21, 2013 .
  6. ↑ NASA Feature: Progress Docks to Space Station, May 15, 2007 (English).
  7. ↑ NASA Feature: Spacewalk Complete, Debris Panels Installed, May 30, 2007 (English).
  8. ↑ Patrick Peterson: Spacewalkers Discover Meteorite Damage. (No longer available online.) Florida Today, June 6, 2007, archived from the original on September 22, 2013 ; accessed on September 21, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.floridatoday.com
  9. ↑ NASA Feature: Cosmonauts Wrap Up Debris Panel Spacewalk, June 6, 2007 (English).
  10. ↑ NASA: NASA's Shuttle Atlantis Begins Mission to the Space Station, June 8, 2007 (English).
  11. ↑ SPACE.com: Orbital Rendezvous: Shuttle Astronauts Arrive at Space Station, June 10, 2007 (English).
  12. ↑ NASA: Shuttle Atlantis Crew Returns Home After Successful Mission, June 22, 2007 (English).
  13. ↑ NASA Feature: Astronaut Suni Williams Sets the Record Straight, and Long, June 16, 2007 (English).
  14. ↑ NASA: New NASA System Will Help Space Station Crews Breathe Easier, July 17, 2007 (English).
  15. ↑ NASA Feature: Station Crew Winds Up Ammonia Reservoir Jettison Spacewalk, July 23, 2007 (English).
  16. ↑ Kommersant: ISS Altitude Increased by 7.5 km, ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. July 24, 2007 (English). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kommersant.com
  17. ↑ RIA Novosti: Progress M-59 space shuttle sunk in the Pacific, August 2, 2007.
  18. ↑ NASA Feature: Progress Docks to Space Station, August 5, 2007 (English).
  19. ↑ NASA Feature: Mission STS-118: Investing in Future Exploration, August 28, 2007 (English).
  20. ↑ NASA Feature: PMA-3 Relocation, August 30, 2007 (English).
  21. ^ RIA Novosti: ISS crew happy about the outcome of the risky landing, October 23, 2007.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 30, 2007 .