ISS expedition 16

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Mission emblem
Mission emblem Expedition 16
Mission dates
Mission: ISS expedition 16
Crew: 3
Rescue ships: Soyuz TMA-11
Space station: ISS
Start: October 12, 2007, 14:50 UTC
Started by: Coupling of Soyuz TMA-11
The End: April 19, 2008, 5:06 UTC
Ended by: Decoupling from Soyuz TMA-11
Duration: 189d 14h 16min
Number of EVAs : 5
Total length of the EVAs: 35h 21min
Team photo
v. l. No. Front: Juri Malenchenko, Peggy Whitson Back: Clay Anderson, Daniel Tani, Léopold Eyharts, Garrett Reisman,
v. l. No. Front: Juri Malenchenko, Peggy Whitson
Back: Clay Anderson, Daniel Tani, Léopold Eyharts, Garrett Reisman,
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ISS Expedition 16 is the mission name for the 16th long-term crew of the International Space Station (ISS). The crew lived and worked on board the ISS from October 2007 to April 2008.

team

Substitute team

Mission description

The two spacemen Juri Malentschenko and Peggy Whitson started on October 10, 2007 together with the Malaysian Angkasawan Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor on board the Soyuz TMA-11 for the ISS.

Soyuz TMA-11 on approach

After 49 hours, the Soyuz capsule with the 16th long-term crew approached and docked at the space station on October 12 at 14:50 UTC. Whitson was the first woman in command to arrive on the ISS. She will live and work on board for the next six months together with her flight engineer Malenchenko. At 16:22 UTC the hatches were opened and the two floated with the Malaysian guest spaceman into the space station.

Fyodor Yurtschichin and Oleg Kotow , Expedition 15 , returned with Shukor on October 21, 2007 on board Soyuz TMA-10 . Due to an initially suspected computer error, the landing did not go entirely according to plan. For reasons that were not yet clear, the on-board computer had redirected the return capsule to a replacement ballistic trajectory. This was steeper and exposed the three space travelers to greater acceleration (peak value: 8.56 g = 84.0 m / s²). Soyuz TMA-10 fell 360 kilometers west of the target area in the Kazakh steppe. The crew reached the earth safely.

New module arrives at the station

The first visit by the 16th long-term crew arrived after a two-day flight on October 25 at 12:40 UTC with the STS-120 shuttle mission . When the bulkheads were opened two hours later, ISS commander Peggy Whitson and shuttle commander Pamela Melroy welcomed each other for the first time, two women who were leading a space mission at the same time. On the same day, mission specialist Daniel Tani replaced ISS flight engineer Clayton Anderson .

The main payload of the STS-120 was the Harmony node , which was installed on the space station on October 26th. The 14.5 ton cylinder was initially “parked” on the port side of Unity. It was only after the Discovery split up that Harmony was installed in its final location at the Destiny Laboratory. With the connection node built in Europe, a new pressure module was added to the space station for the first time in six years. Since the Russian airlock Pirs was installed in September 2001, only the lattice structure has been expanded. In addition, the P6 solar module was moved to its position on the port end of the lattice structure.

After eleven days of working together, the Discovery disconnected from the space station on November 5th at 10:32 UTC. Clayton Anderson was on board with the STS-120 crew and returned to Earth after five months. With the landing of the orbiter on November 7th, its first space flight came to an end after 151 days and 18 hours.

Expansion of the Harmony module

Malenchenko (left) and Whitson during the first exit

On November 9, ISS commander Whitson and flight engineer Malenchenko carried out the first spacecraft mission on Expedition 16. They left the airlock at 9:54 UTC and prepared the PMA-2 coupling ( Pressurized Mating Adapter ) for its transfer to the Harmony module. Several cables were disconnected within 6 hours and 55 minutes.

After this preliminary work, PMA-2 could be added a few days later. On November 12th, the coupling adapter was attached to the Harmony module using the station's robot arm . The mission lasted just under two hours.

Two days later, on November 14, the crew of the ISS relocated Harmony with the PMA-2 to its final position. The module was moved to Destiny's front coupling with the help of the station's robotic arm. This operation was a prerequisite for the European Columbus module to be coupled to the station in February 2008 .

In order to finally make Harmony part of the station, Commander Peggy Whitson made another exit with flight engineer Daniel Tani. On November 20, the two astronauts connected the module to the power supply and the cooling circuit within 7 hours and 16 minutes.

These activities were completed on a third external mission on November 24th. Tani and Whitson disembarked at 9:50 UTC and worked a total of seven hours and four minutes in free space. In addition to connecting the lines for cooling and power supply, an inspection of the defective SARJ swivel joint ( Solar Alpha Rotary Joint ) was on the agenda. The starboard SARJ had vibrations during tracking from mid-September. In addition, the motor used more electricity. Tani had already inspected the SARJ during an STS-120 exit on October 28. He discovered metal shavings, a sample of which he had taken back to earth. During the inspection, Tani noticed the metallic wear again and said that the SARJ's bearing ring was damaged.

Two unplanned field trips

At short notice, NASA ordered another exit on December 18. Whitson and Tani re-examined the SARJ swivel on the starboard side. Despite the in-depth inspection that lasted 6 hours and 56 minutes, the exact cause of the defect could not be found. This was the 100th space station mission. In addition, Commander Whitson set a record: With a total of 32 hours and 36 minutes, she was now outside a spaceship longer than any woman in front of her. She exceeded the previous record (29 hours and 17 minutes), which her colleague Sunita Williams had set on February 8, 2007.

On December 19, the 90-year-old mother of flight engineer Daniel Tani was killed in a traffic accident. That same evening, the astronaut was informed about it by his wife Jane and a NASA flight doctor. The Russian space agency Roskosmos and NASA condoled Tani. The latter promised him any support, especially psychological help.

On December 23, the last Progress freighter of 2007 took off for the space station with a total of 2.24 tons of supplies. The rocket took off as planned at 7:12 UTC with the unmanned space transporter from the Baikonur Cosmodrome . The day before, the old feeder, Progress M-61, had been decoupled from the ISS. Progress M-62, filled with fuel, drinking water, oxygen, and equipment and Christmas gifts from family members, docked at the station on December 26 at 8:14 UTC.

On January 30th, 2008, another outboard operation was carried out, during which Tani and Whitson successfully carried out the repairs to the BGA automatic tracking system on awning 1A. After replacing the motor, the awning turned back into the sun and immediately provided more electricity.

After the space travelers had filled the freighter Progress M-62 with unnecessary equipment and garbage in the past few days, the spacecraft was decoupled from the space station on February 4 at 10:32 UTC. One day later, at 13:03 UTC, Progress M-63 took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. After a two-day flight, the new feeder docked at the ISS on February 7 at 14:30 UTC.

Europe's ISS module Columbus

Schlegel works on the outside of Columbus

On February 9th, Columbus, the European research module, arrived at the ISS when the US space shuttle Atlantis docked at 17:17 UTC . The STS-122 mission crew conducted three spacecraft missions, during which Columbus was installed at the station on February 11, a nitrogen tank on the station was replaced two days later, and two experimental platforms were installed on the outside of Columbus on February 15. On board the shuttle was the German Hans Schlegel , who replaced a nitrogen tank when he was exiting space. After nine days of working together, the Atlantis left the space station on February 18 at 9:24 UTC. ISS flight engineer Dan Tani had previously relinquished his post to the French Léopold Eyharts and returned to Earth after four months with STS-122.

The first component in Japan is installed

Just three weeks after the last space shuttle left the station, the Endeavor moored at the ISS on March 13 at 3:49 UTC. The astronauts from STS-123 made five exits, more than ever before during a shuttle visit, and expanded the space station with two new components: the ELM-PS (Experiment Logistics Module - Pressurized Section) logistics module and a Canadian "robot hand" .

The Japanese logistics module

The first part of the Japanese Kibō module was assembled with the ELM-PS . All nations involved in the construction of the ISS are now represented with at least one module.

The robot hand called Dextre by the engineers was delivered in nine individual parts. There were just three field missions involved in assembling them. Dextre is equipped with two arms and two hands and will in future take over repairs that previously had to be carried out in exits by astronauts.

When the Endeavor undocked from the ISS after twelve days on March 25 at 0:25 UTC, flight engineer Eyharts had swapped places with mission specialist Reisman . The Frenchman returned to earth after two months.

Arrival of the European space freighter ATV

The ATV is approaching the ISS

On March 9, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) "Jules Verne" was launched with an Ariane 5 rocket from the European spaceport in Kourou in French Guiana . After extensive tests, the unmanned space freighter of the European space agency ESA docked fully automatically at the International Space Station on April 3 at 14:45 UTC. Previously, the ATV was stationed 2,000 kilometers from the ISS, where it remained parked until the STS-123 left the station on March 25. “Jules Verne” brought supplies and fuel to the ISS and stayed connected to the space station for about four months. The cargo hold was under pressure and could be entered by the station's crew and used as an additional space. During the docking period, the ATV's engines were used to raise the station to a higher orbit. Then “Jules Verne” was loaded with waste and burned up in the atmosphere.

Arrival of the 17th permanent crew

With Commander Sergei Volkov and flight engineer Oleg Kononenko , Peggy Whitson and Yuri Malenchenko were replaced on April 10th. Soyuz TMA-12 docked at the Pirs airlock at 12:57 UTC . On board was the South Korean guest spaceman So-Yeon Yi , who did research on the ISS for a week and a half. This returned to Earth on April 19, together with the old long-term crew.

Landing of the 16th crew

After six months of work in space, ISS commander Whitson and flight engineer Malenchenko returned to Earth on April 19, along with the first South Korean space traveler Yi. The return was as unplanned as when the Soyuz TMA-10 landed in October 2007. Due to problems separating the service module from the landing module of the Soyuz capsule, the re-entry did not take place on the planned aerodynamic path, but on the much shorter and rougher ballistic path. The landing capsule therefore went down at 8:29 UTC 428 kilometers west of the targeted landing site.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ RIA Novosti: ISS crew happy about the outcome of the risky landing , October 23, 2007
  2. ↑ NASA Feature: Station Spacewalk Prepares for PMA, Harmony Moves , November 9, 2007 (English)
  3. ↑ SPACE.com: Station Astronaut Draws Support From Earth After Family Loss , December 20, 2007 (English)
  4. ^ RIA Novosti: ISS crew unloads docked Progress spacecraft , December 26, 2007
  5. ↑ William Harwwod: Possible Soyuz separation trouble under scrutiny. Spaceflightnow.com, April 22, 2008, accessed May 20, 2008 .

Web links

Commons : ISS Expedition 16  - Collection of images, videos and audio files