The Soyuz era

Half-way through the year and only 3 entries here! My former enthusiasm has really slackened off.

The final flight of the Space Shuttle program, STS-135 Atlantis, landed safely on 21/7 after a mission to the ISS. There has been 30 years of Shuttle missions (¾ of my life). Now Russia will be the sole means of transport to the space station until the U.S. develops its next generation of transport, either by NASA or commercial companies. Exactly what this may be seems uncertain (I have not been following the heated forum debates much) – the current NASA version seems to be the Space Launch System. I am dubious as to whether commercial companies can develop spaceflight quickly as this is a difficult and expensive endeavour.

“Russians: ‘It’s our space age now’ ”, Cosmic Log, 23/7. A translation of a Roskosmos article about the Shuttle retirement is causing some ire (see NASA Watch entry) because the tone of the article appears gloating. It’s unfortunate if that is the case, though one commenter points out: “you have to be aware that russian is a harsh language, so a literal translation may come across as saying one thing, but in reality, they are saying something with a far different tone.”

The Mars-500 crew are still enroute home. They have been in “flight” 415 days, and only have around 4 months to go! (The experiment finishes sometime in November; there is no set date yet.) That period of time has gone swiftly for me, as years seem to do now; I wonder if their perception of time is similar.

The Russian Space Agency Roskosmos got a new head or chief on 29 April: Vladimir Popovkin, formerly the  First Deputy Minister of Defense, replacing Anatolii Perminov.

Into the sunset

One of the ISS-22 crew took a striking photo of STS-130 Endeavour silhouetted against an orbital sunset (the photo is a bit blurry). It seems pointedly symbolic! There are just 4 more flights after this, in 2010 (if the schedule holds): STS-131, -132, -134, -133.

Cranky curmudgeonly Apollo astronaut Jack Schmitt (who has featured here before) wrote another opinion piece on the U.S. space program changes, “New Space Policy Cedes Moon To China, Space Station To Russia, And Liberty To The Ages”, full of the usual “paranoid patriot” hysteria about the loss of America’s dominance in space. Mate, there’s plenty of room out there for everyone! The article seems to have been removed from the site where I originally read it, but there is a copy on another blog. Some extracts below and my trite commentary (there should be a “drinking game” for everytime the words “leadership” and “freedom/liberty” are mentioned for these types of articles).

The Administration finally has announced its formal retreat on American Space Policy after a year of morale destroying clouds of uncertainty. The lengthy delay, the abandonment of human exploration, and the wimpy, un-American thrust of the proposed budget indicates that the Administration does not understand, or want to acknowledge, the essential role space plays in the future of the United States and liberty. This continuation of other apologies and retreats in the global arena would cede the Moon to China, the American Space Station to Russia, and assign liberty to the ages.

Just a bit histronic. “Wimpy, un-American thrust”?? That sounds…suggestive.

Histories of nations tell us that an aggressive program to return Americans permanently to deep space must form an essential component of national policy. Americans would find it unacceptable, as well as devastating to liberty, if we abandon leadership in space to the Chinese, Europe, or any other nation or group of nations. Potentially equally devastating to billions of people would be loss of freedom’s access to the energy resources of the Moon as fossil fuels diminish and populations and demand increase.

Again the obsession with leadership. Diminishing resources will be better coped with by learning to live more sustainably and decreasing population growth, rather than hold out a nebulous hope of magically solving these problems by exploiting the Solar System’s resources (not with current spaceship technology we won’t!).

Returning to the Moon and to deep space constitutes the right and continuing space policy choice for the Congress of the United States. It compares in significance to Jefferson’s dispatch of Lewis and Clark to explore the Louisiana Purchase. The lasting significance to American growth and survival of Jefferson’s decision cannot be questioned. Human exploration of space embodies the same basic instincts as the exploration of the West – the exercise of freedom, betterment of one’s conditions, and curiosity about nature. Such instincts lie at the very core of America’s unique and special society of immigrants.

The frontier myth cited yet again *groan*. The exploration of the West came at the cost of the original inhabitants (Native Americans).

With a permanent resumption of the exploration of deep space, one thing is certain: our efforts will be as significant as those of our ancestors as they migrated out of Africa and into a global habitat. Further, a permanent human presence away from Earth provides another opportunity for the expansion of free institutions, with all their attendant rewards, as humans face new situations and new individual and societal challenges.

Outer space = Libertarian paradise? He’s been reading too much Heinlein.

Returning to the Moon first and as soon as possible meets the requirements for an American space policy that maintains deep space leadership, as well as providing major new scientific returns. Properly conceived and implemented, returning to the Moon prepares the way to go to and land on Mars. This also can provide a policy in which freedom-loving peoples throughout the world can participate as active partners.

Moon’s been done. It’s boring! Go to Mars.

Again, if we abandon leadership in deep space to any other nation or group of nations, particularly a non-democratic regime, the ability for the United States and its allies to protect themselves and liberty will be at great risk and potentially impossible. To others would accrue the benefits – psychological, political, economic, and scientific – that the United States harvested as a consequence of Apollo’s success 40 years ago. This lesson has not been lost on our ideological and economic competitors.

How about trying co-operation rather than competition? Space colonization is too big and expensive for any one country to do it alone.

Mars-105 completed

The Mars-105 isolation experiment was concluded yesterday (14th) at 10:00 UTC, the 6 participants emerging in good spirits. One wonders if the same will be the case after 500 days! I suspect not. Mars-500 is currently due to begin in early 2010. “Mars flight simulation experiment ends”, MSNBC.com, 14/7, has some details. Having no Internet access would be a major deprivation for me!

NASA’s fifth launch attempt of STS-127 Atlantis was unsuccessful, so they are trying for a sixth today! (22:03 UTC) The record for the most launch attempts is 6 for STS-61C in 1985-86 (launched on the 7th attempt). The External Tank is certified for 13 refill cycles before it is no longer usable. There are 7 flights left before the Shuttle program ends.

Moon melancholy

The 40th anniversary of the first Apollo Moon landing is coming up, so there is a lot of blather and angst in the media and on various forums. No Russian cosmonaut has yet been out of low Earth orbit – one wonders if they ever will. The anniversary has inevitably brought out the Paranoid Patriots, as evidenced in these quotes:

Now potential rivals such as China seek to challenge US dominance in space, and some see the new space race as once again a battle between ideologies.

“From the point of view of the future of the western world and its Asian allies it’s imperative that the US, Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada and other like-minded countries be competitive in deep space,” Moonwalker and geologist Harrison Schmitt told AFP.

Schmitt said he believed that “non-democratic nations of the world, China, Russia and maybe others, fully intend to be dominant in space…[and] gain that kind of prestige, that kind of advantage in technology and education and other fields that come with being the dominant space power.

“With the Apollo program we taught them how,” said Schmitt, who was the last astronaut to step out of a lunar craft and onto the moon surface in 1972.

– “Space, man’s greatest challenge, 40 years after Moon walk”, Space Daily, 12/7/2009

STS-127 Atlantis is still trying to launch; it has had 4 scrubs so far! Originally to have launched on 13 June, the first delay was due to a hydrogen gas vent leak; the second because of a work light knob embedded between the pressure pane on Atlantis’ pilot window and the dashboard panel, and the last two because of thunderstorms. The next attempt is in a few hours. A very frustrating process for all involved, as the orange External Tank has to be drained and refueled each time, and the Shuttle crew has to prepare themselves, only to be disappointed. (Maybe they should try sacrificing a goat.) The Soyuz manned rocket launches are, in contrast, rarely delayed (I don’t know if any have been).

Posters at the Novosti Kosmonavtiki forum are not too impressed with the proposed names (6/7/2009 entry) for the next 3 Russian ISS modules, describing them as “utilitarian”, lacking in romanticism, difficult to pronounce (i.e. too long) and imitating NASA’s pointedly symbolic names. Some proposed are: «Спектр», Spektr (Spectrum), «Природа» Priroda (Nature), «Радуга», Raduga (Rainbow), «Горизонт», Gorizont (Horizon). The names are “recycled” (used on previous projects, such as the Mir space station) but are nicer than the officially-proposed ones.

Progress M-02M successfully performed a re-rendezvous test today to verify the new passive KURS-P system antennas and TORU target installation accuracy at the SM PkhO (Service Module Transfer Compartment) zenith port. There was some nervousness about this as a similar 1997 Progress (M-34) rendezvous with Mir bumped into the space station.

Mars-500 pointless?

From NK 792. Former cosmonaut Valentin Lebedev is of the opinion that the Mars-500 experiment will not reveal anything new, and is not an effective simulation of a journey to Mars.

03/07/2009 / 00:05 – Valentin Lebedev: Mars-500 experiment “will not provide the necessary scientific data for a manned flight to Mars”

The Mars-500 scientific experiment, which is scheduled to begin next spring, will not give scientists the data needed to understand the possibility of interplanetary flight, said the member of Russian Academy of Sciences, pilot-cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Valentin Lebedev.

“As for the ground experiments, the similar Mars-500 experiments, which now try to mimic the conditions of the Martian mission, offer little understanding of the problems of human flight in deep space, while we have for decades made long flights on orbital stations,” said V. Lebedev, whose paper is published on the Roscosmos site.

According to him, an experiment with human habitation in an enclosed space does not provide the necessary psychological conditions, as participants at any time may leave the premises. “It's conditional, as if preparing to drift on ice floes in the Arctic held in winter on a pond near Moscow,” said the cosmonaut.

As noted by Lebedev, ground-based studies have little relevance to real interplanetary flight, adding that experiments on living people in closed spaces were conducted in the country several times, and the Mars-500 experiment is just a repeat of this.

The cosmonaut suggested that a special module be developed that would simulate a Mars mission, and attach it to the ISS. “Then it will be possible to create conditions in the module closest to interplanetary flight,” said V. Lebedev.

The beginning of the Mars-500 experiment, during which the scientists are planning to simulate a manned flight of six volunteers to Mars, is scheduled for the beginning of 2010. During the 520-day virtual flight, scheduled work will take place on the Martian surface for a month by two participants in the experiment inside the simulator constructed in the Institute of Biomedical Problems building.

He does have a valid point – the experiment also takes place in full gravity with no worries about radiation exposure from deep space. Attaching a specialized module to the ISS is a valid alternative; but it would be expensive (though perhaps not much more than the $10 million or so for the ground experiment?).

The rather graphic diagram below – “Mechanism of lumbar spine distraction fracture (Chance Fracture)” – is from a report on the STS-107 Columbia accident, showing the seatbelt of a crewperson cutting through their waist and snapping their spine. Ugh! That’s about the most gruesome image in the report – no photos of the bodies, alas. I suppose they would have looked something like the charred cosmonaut in my 30/11/2008 entry, but broken into pieces. There is another of a charred helmet, also below – temperatures it endured are given as 300-400°C, so one can imagine the state of the head inside. (If I go asking such morbid questions on forums though, I will be told off, so I will have to restrict my ghoulish curiosity about such things to my blog. Well, Dad was an Airworthiness Inspector [who saw dead bodies!] and Mum was a nurse [who saw dead bodies!], so I’ll blame this on them.)

ISS symmetrical

A busy few days at the ISS. STS-119 undocked after having installed the fourth and last set of solar arrays, so the Station looks symmetrical again (NASA photos). Soyuz TMA-14 launched on 26/3, carrying Expedition 19 and space tourist Charles Simonyi on his second visit to orbit.

I rather liked this comment in a NASA Watch article:

You have to note the differences between the shuttle and Station crews. The shuttle people appear to be very hyped up, still living in 1983 and full of false bravado (and what’s with those MIT baseball hats the wrong way around and cheesy embroided polo shirts, they look like an OAPs golf club on tour). Where as the station crew (presumably with its heavy slavic influence) is reassuringly nonchalant about the whole thing. “Spacewalk to connect some pipes? We do that every week.”

Vive la difference! I can’t wait for the permanent european and japanese crew members to arrive. Then we might be somewhere close to Kubrick’s best-guess. From the shuttle-heavy NASA coverage you might think it was Uncle Sam who built and paid for everything.

– Posted by: Ben at March 22, 2009, 5:14 p.m.

“Valley Girls: Esther Dyson”, BBC News, 29/1. Interview with Charles Simonyi’s backup, Esther Dyson.

“My parents were European. Mum was a mathematician and dad a physicist. We travelled a lot and knew about the world. I actually thought salesmen were the scum of the earth. I have certainly changed my opinion on that,” she said.

Her original opinion was correct! She has a website, and a Flickr account with photos.

Russian moon rocket – maybe

I have not posted much as I just haven’t felt like it, and there has been little space news to interest me.

“Final European crewmembers announced for human Mars mission simulation”, 26 February 2009. Selected for the prime crew are Oliver Knickel, a mechanical engineer in the German army, and airline pilot Cyrille Fournier from France. Cedric Mabilotte and Arc’hanmael Gaillard, both from France, are assigned as backup crewmembers.

“Russia to approve new Moon rocket”, BBC News, 16/3. Anatoly Zak reports that Russian space officials are to select the winning proposal for a new rocket intended to carry cosmonauts on missions to the Moon. The rocket is to fly its first test mission in 2015 (if all goes to plan).

According to the objectives given by the Russian space agency (Roscosmos) to industry, a future rocket should be able to hoist a payload three times heavier than Russia’s veteran Soyuz spacecraft, including twice the number of crew, and use environmentally friendly propellants. The development of the new rocket should be accompanied by work on Russia’s next-generation manned spacecraft, which will use it to get into orbit. Russian space officials say the yet-to-be-named rocket should carry its first manned spacecraft in 2018.

Expedition 18 completed a spacewalk (#21A) from the Pirs docking module wearing Russian Orlan-M spacesuits on 10 March. This is the last time the -M designation will be worn; the next Russian spacewalk will test the new -MK suits with digital controls.

• Yurii Lonchakov (EV1, Orlan-M №26, blue stripes)
• Michael Fincke (EV2, Orlan-M №27, red stripes)
• 4h 49m (16:22-20:11)
• ISS Daily Report; NASA

Suits Orlan-M №26 & 27 have an on-orbit lifetime till 30 June 2009. In future they will be jettisoned respectively as RadioSkaf-2 and RadioSkaf-3 satellites in Russian spacewalks: the first of them will be launched during EVA #24 in November/December, the second of them – in 2010.

In the next Russian spacewalk (EVA #22, 5 June 2009) the new Orlan-MK spacesuits will be tested. At this time there will be three modernized spacesuits onboard ISS. The first of them, Orlan-MK #4 (#1170004) with blue stripes, was delivered by Progress M-65 cargo ship on 17 September 2008. The second of them, Orlan-MK #5 (#1080005) with red stripes, arrived aboard Progress M-66 on 13 February. The third spacesuit, Orlan-MK #6 (#1080006) with blue stripes, will be delivered by Progress M-02M on 12 May. (via Anik)

STS-119 Discovery launched on 15 March. It carries the S6 truss segment, and ISS 18-19 Flight Engineer-2, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata, who will be the first long-duration Japanese astronaut on the ISS.

The March 2009 edition of Russian Space, «Российский космос», has an article, «Надежда – мой компас…» (“Nadezhda/Hope – my compass…) on what former cosmonaut Nadezhda Kuzhel’naya, Надежда Кужельная, is doing now with her life: an Aeroflot pilot of the A-320. She was never given a space flight despite waiting ten years, and resigned in 2004. I have yet to do a translation of the article.

One item of information I am coveting but have been unable to find is a diagram of the TsUP/Moscow Mission Control Room, similar to this one of the new FCR-1. I have looked on the TsUP site, but there doesn’t seem to be anything. I would like to know the positions and roles of the TsUP flight controllers! (I posted this request at NASASpaceflight.com forum, but it has languished unanswered.)

I happened upon a copy of The Thrillionaire® by Nik Halik in my local library (Nik was Richard Garriott’s backup for Soyuz TMA-13 in October 2008). I have not actually read the book yet; just skimmed through parts of it. Nik is an Australian of Greek descent, born 1971. His book is evidently self-published (being a millionaire, he can obviously afford it!). Some advice: for a professional-appearing book, don’t:

• use the Photoshop “3D text effect” for your cover page title (looks tacky);
• double-space paragraphs rather than indent (double-spacing is the default for webpage paragraphs, but is hard to read on printed pages).

The “Thrillionaire®” title is rather gag-worthy (and the “registered trademark” symbol after it gets irritating). The book mostly consists of a bored rich guy’s adventures – namely undertaking activities such as deep-sea diving to the Titanic, climbing mountains, staying with a bemused Tuareg tribe, presumably to see how “the other half live” (I can imagine them muttering amongst themselves, “Who the f**k is this wanker?” or whatever the equivalent is in Tuareg :-); incidently the men veil themselves rather than the women – a nice change!), and so on. There are also a lot of “motivational” stories of the corporate variety (which I regard with eye-rolling cynicism). So that’s my impressions without actually reading the book. He’s certainly not shy about promoting himself.

New NASA Columbia report

NASA has released a Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report (16.2 MB PDF – press release page) featuring a detailed description of the sequence of events for the crew and orbiter during its breakup. A summary from the report is below:

1.1.1 Events with lethal potential

There were five events identified with lethal potential to the crew.

1. The first event with lethal potential was depressurization of the crew module, which started at or shortly after orbiter breakup.The majority of the SCSIIT findings related to the first lethal event were connected to the operational incompatibilities of the advanced crew escape suit (ACES) with the orbiter. The launch and entry suit was added in response to the Challenger accident, rather than as a part of the original vehicle design. The ACES was the successor to that suit. The suit protects the crew in many scenarios; however, there are several areas where integration difficulties diminish the capability of the suit to protect the crew. Integration issues include: the crew cannot keep their visors down throughout entry because doing so results in high oxygen concentrations in the cabin; gloves can inhibit the performance of nominal tasks; and the cabin stow/deorbit preparation timeframe is so busy that sometimes crew members do not have enough time to complete suit-related steps prior to atmospheric entry.

   As Columbia entered the atmosphere, one crew member was not yet wearing the ACES helmet and three crew members were not wearing gloves. Per nominal procedures, the crew wearing helmets had visors up. There was a period of about 40 seconds after the orbiter loss of control (LOC) but prior to depressurization when the crew was conscious and capable of action. Part of this short timeframe was undoubtedly employed in recognizing that a problem existed, as the indications of LOC developed gradually. The crew members could have closed their visors in this timeframe but did not. The SCSIIT attributed this to the training regimen, which separates vehicle systems training from emergency egress training and does not emphasize the transition between problem resolution and a survival situation. Once the cabin depressurization began, the rate of depressurization incapacitated the crew so quickly that even those crew members who had fully donned the ACES did not have time to lower their visors. Although circulatory systems functioned for a brief time, the crew could not have regained consciousness upon descent to lower altitudes due to the effects of the depressurization.

2. The second event with lethal potential was unconscious or deceased crew members exposed to a dynamic rotating load environment with nonconformal helmets and a lack of upper body restraint. The orbiter lost control, probably when the hydraulic systems failed due to hot gas intrusion in the left wing. The resulting motion was not lethal but did require bracing by the crew. The forebody (crew module and forward fuselage) eventually separated and the crew module lost pressure at orbiter break- up. When it separated, the forebody began a multi-axis rotation at approximately 0.1 revolution/second. Loads due to deceleration significantly decreased at the moment of breakup due to the change in ballistic number, but began to climb as the forebody continued to decelerate.

   After the crew module depressurized and the crew lost consciousness, the seat inertial reel mechanisms failed to lock despite the off-nominal motion. The reels were not defective; they were simply not designed to lock under the conditions the forebody experienced. The upper harness straps failed at some point prior to the forebody breakup, causing the straps to recoil back into the inertial reel mech- anism. Because the reel mechanisms did not lock, the unconscious or deceased crew members were exposed to cyclical rotational motion while their upper bodies were inadequately restrained. Helmets that did not conform to the head and the lack of upper body restraint resulted in injuries and lethal trauma.

3. The third event with lethal potential was separation from the crew module and the seats with associated forces, material interactions, and thermal consequences. This event is the least understood due to limitations in current knowledge of mechanisms at this Mach number and altitude. Seat restraints played a role in the lethality of this event. The breakup of the crew module and resultant exposure of the crew to entry conditions was an extremely significant event but was very difficult to characterize since many related events occurred in a short period of time. The consequences of exposure to entry conditions included traumatic injury related to seat restraints, high loads associated with deceleration due to a change in ballistic number, aero- dynamic loads, and thermal events. All crew were deceased before, or by the end of, this event. The ACES has no performance requirements for occupant protection from thermal events and may not provide adequate protection even for egress scenarios involving heat and flames. There is no known complete protection from the breakup event except to prevent its occurrence.
4. The fourth event with lethal potential was exposure to near vacuum, aerodynamic accelerations, and cold temperatures. The ACES system is certified to operate at a maximum altitude of 100,000 feet, and certified to survive exposure to a maximum velocity of 560 knots equivalent air speed. The operating envelope of the orbiter is much greater than this. The actual maximum protection environment for the ACES is not known.
5. The final event with lethal potential was ground impact. The ACES system provides protection from ground impact with a parachute system. The current parachute system requires manual action by a crew member to activate the opening sequence.

There are some “Redacted” sections; presumably containing details about the crew’s remains that the report authors didn’t want to be made public. There were reports of body parts found scattered over the landscape (sorry, this brings out my inner ghoul):

Reports of body parts being found started coming in Saturday night as emergency workers and residents searched hundreds of square miles of Texas and Louisiana for bits of what once was space shuttle Columbia.

In Hemphill, near the Louisiana state line, hospital employee Mike Gibbs reported finding what appeared to be a charred torso, thigh bone and skull on a rural road near what was believed to be other debris. Billy Smith, an emergency coordinator for three East Texas counties, confirmed the find.

“I wouldn’t want anybody seeing what I saw,” Gibbs said. “It was pretty gruesome.”

On a farm not far away, two young boys found a charred human leg, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday. “From the hip to the foot, it’s all there, scorched from the fire,” said their father, Bob White.

I wonder if the bodies broke up during re-entry or on impact? Human bodies aren’t designed for high-g forces, as innumerable airplane crashes have demonstrated. [According to Dad, bodies that are found in pieces mean they have been shredded when in a fragmenting aircraft in the air; if not they turn into a “blob of jelly” when they impact the ground and all the bones shatter. So that’s some trivia you probably didn’t want to know.]

On a more cheerful note, Expedition 18 completed a spacewalk last week on 23 December wearing Russian Orlan spacesuits. Yurii Lonchakov (EV1, Orlan-M №26) and Michael Fincke (EV2, Orlan-M №27) were outside for 5h 38m (00:51-06:29 UTC). Reports: ISS Daily Report, NASA.

A random observation: I visit various spaceflight forums (see my links list) and it is rare to encounter other females! I don’t know why that is, as there are plenty of women in the aerospace industry (at least there are in the USA and Europe). (I did have a chance to begin a career in the industry a long time ago, but as with so much of my life, I botched that chance.)

Buran 20th anniversary

Been depressed and haven’t felt much motivation to write here. Turning 38 doesn’t help my mood!

Soyuz TMA-12 landed on 24/10 at 03:36 UTC with no incidents (i.e. a normal not a ballistic landing). Expedition 18 is now on the ISS. STS-126 Endeavour launched successfully; its crew will install equipment (such as a regenerative environmental control and life support system) to enable the ISS’s crew to expand to 6 next year.

More money woes for Energiya (a familiar lament): “No Money, No Spacecraft, Russian Producer Warns”; “Finances may threaten Soyuz construction”, Space Daily, 24/10.

Astronaut Leroy Chiao has a blog entry about getting a look at a Chinese spacesuit.

“A Russian resurgence? (part one)”, The Space Review, 10/11. The situation for Russia’s space program has much improved since the dismal 1990s, but there are still funding problems to contend with, and the economy is precarious.

14 November marked 20 years since the first and only launch of the Buran space shuttle; a rather poignant anniversary of what could have been.

Today, 14 November, the Rocket and Space Corporation Energiya marked the 20th anniversary of the flight of the space shuttle Buran.

In the Conference Room, Energiya brought together those who took part in creating this unique system, the representatives of various enterprises rocket and space industry of Russia, whose combined efforts made this flight possible.

Leading the commemorative meeting, the president and general designer of RKK Energiya, Vitalii A. Lopota presented a welcoming speech, congratulated the anniversary and screened a documentary about the creation of the Buran system. Those actors in the film were familiar – the guests and employees of Energiya recognized their much younger selves. A scene of the Buran landing was met with thunderous applause.

At the meeting, several shared their memories of that time: Vitalii Khusseinovich Doguzhiev (Виталий Хуссейнович Догужиев), Minister of General Machine- Building in the Soviet Union between 1988-89; Oleg Dimetrievich Baklanov (Олег Дмитриевич Бакланов), Minister of General Machine-Building USSR between 1983-88 and the secretary of the CPSU Central Committee in 1988; Yurii Pavlovich Semenov (Юрий Павлович Семенов), Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, General Designer of RKK Energiya, 1989-2005, and one of the leaders of the Buran development; Vakhtang D. Vachnadze (Вахтанг Дмитриевич Вачнадзе), Director General of NGO Energiya between 1977-1991; Maj. Gen. Vladimir Evgeni’evich Gudilin (Владимир Евгеньевич Гудилин), head of training and of the start-up launcher Energiya and the universal space-rocket transportation system Energiya-Buran.

All speakers pointed out that the achievements of the time and date are unique in the world, and regretted the closure of the Energia-Buran program, said that today Russia needs to pay more attention to space programs, and improve support and development of the personnel policy branch.

In conclusion, V.A. Lopota once again congratulated all the participants of the meeting. “Who knows whether history will repeat its mistakes,” said Vitalii Alexandrovich, thus expressing the mood and aspirations of all those present.

A cosmonaut from Kazakhstan will fly on the ISS in October 2009. There are two in the Cosmonaut Group with the qualification of cosmonaut-tester (космонавт-испытатель): Mukhtar Aimakhanov (Мухтар Аймаханов) and Aidyn Aimbetov (Айдын Аимбетов). Both joined the 2003 selection group.

ASU fixed, hopefully!

STS-124 Discovery docked to the ISS and the next elements of the Kibo module (Kibo Pressurized Module) were installed. The new pump was installed in the ASU and appears to be working normally so far! From the 4/6/2008 Daily Report:

FE-1 Kononenko had two hours set aside for working a major IFM (In-flight Maintenance) on the Russian ASU toilet facility in the SM (Service Module), removing the failed MNR-NS gas/liquid separator pump of the facility and replacing it with a new unit delivered on STS-124. As of now, the IFM appears to have been successful: the ASU is working nominally, so far.

The STS-124 Flight Day 3 images show how big and gangly the ISS looks now; the ESA ATV can be seen docked to the end of Zvezda.

Soyuz TMA-11 landing photos are up at the Novosti Kosmonavtiki website.

ESA Mars-500 candidates selected

“Mars500 – European candidates selected”, ESA news, 27 May 2008. 32 candidates were selected out of the thousands of applicants, and the final selection (two ESA candidates) for the experiment will be taken from these 32. (I do wish the IMBP would redesign their awful website!)

“NASA puts rush order on space toilet fix”, MSNBC.com, 28/5. Spare parts for the troubled ISS toilet will be delivered by the Shuttle STS-124 Discovery when it launches on 31/5 at 21:02 UTC.

A busy launch week

The European Space Agency’s unmanned ATV cargo spacecraft, Jules Verne, is due to launch tomorrow! At 04:03 UTC (3:03 p.m. in Melbourne). It will be the first new spacecraft (for the human space program) to enter orbit since China’s Shenzhou launch in 2003. The Space Shuttle, STS-123 Endeavour, is also to launch on 11 March at 6:28 UTC; the main components to be installed are the Japanese Experiment Module (Kibo), and the Canadian Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) Dextre robotics system. A busy week in orbit, assuming both launch on time! (Russia is getting overshadowed a bit; it has not launched a module since Pirs in 2001 – though the ATV has some Russian components and will dock to the end of Zvezda – “Our Russian colleagues look at the ATV as though it were also their own vehicle”.)

“NASA wary of relying on Russia”, MSNBC, 7/3. With the imminent retirement of the Space Shuttle, Russian Soyuz spaceships will be the only way for NASA to get its astronauts into space until the Orion spaceship is developed.

I spent most of the afternoon doing 2 pages for my “RuSpace” site about Russian space toilets! (For the ISS and Soyuz.)

I didn’t make any posts last month (February); there wasn’t much that interested me!

The new Russian President was elected on 2 March: Dmitrii Medvedev (Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев) – to no-one’s surprise! I wonder if he will take any interest in his country’s space program. (Vladimir Putin looks set to become Prime Minister.)

Some previous collected news tidbits:

“Russia has the corner on guns in space”, James Oberg, MSNBC, 12/2. An overview of the gun carried on board the Soyuz spaceship that the relevant authorities don’t want to acknowledge!

Perhaps a year or so ago, nobody would have raised an eyebrow over “trained spacefarers” being able to grab a gun at will, for whatever reason they felt like. But in the wake of the past year’s tragic violence involving professional astronauts and space center veterans, and in light of stories now surfacing over psychological crises on past missions (including one threatened suicide that the mission commander took very seriously), the open access to such lethal hardware needs reappraisal.

At the very least, the survival kit needs to be locked, with the key (or combination) in the possession of the capsule commander. The very presence of the gun probably also needs to be reviewed again, to determine if it is a critical piece of safety gear or a space disaster just waiting to go off.

I can just imagine the headline: “Psychotic astronaut slaughters crewmates on Space Station!”

“An interview with Richard Garriott”, The Space Review, 18/2. He is also updating his journal more regularly. He seems to be missing the greater variety of foods back home!

The United Nations flag is to be taken onboard the next Soyuz flight in April with Korean guest cosmonaut Ko San.

A tidbit of information about Sergei Krikalyov from his page at Space Encyclopedia ASTROnote is that “in December 2007 he was a candidate for the Deputies of the State Duma 5th convocation on the list of the All Russia political party ‘United Russia’, the regional group № 81 (St. Petersburg). Despite the fact that the party overcame the 5% barrier, being the 16th in the list of regional groups in the allocation of seats, in the number of deputies has not shown up.” Is he getting involved in politics?

From Novosti Kosmonavtiki news №687:

In Star City (Звездном городке, Zvezdni Gorodok) an exhibition was opened of the photographic works of airman-cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of Russia Sergei Krikalyov with the symbolic name “Paintings of the Creator”. Our planet Earth is presented in an unusual perspective – from space. All photographs were taken from onboard the International Space Station.

Russia-bashing

NASAWatch notes the excessive “Russia-bashing” contained in this Bill being put forward by a Congressman Weldon to prolong the operations of the Space Shuttle to 2015 (rather than the current end date of 2010). “RUSSIA IS NOT A RELIABLE PARTNER”, etc… (There is a long discussion thread at NASASpaceflight.com.) What a Paranoid Patriot Weldon is (a Republican, not surprisingly)! The thought of someone like him becoming U.S. President is dismaying!

Progress M-61 undocked from the ISS yesterday (22/12) at 3:57 UTC. It will remain in autonomous orbit for about a month, performing a series of technical experiments. Progress M-62 launched today at 7:12:35 from Baikonur.

12 December: Cosmonaut candidates visit the Khrunichev Center

Today, for the purpose of acquaintance with the activities of one of the most important enterprises of the rocket-space industry, the cosmonaut candidates and the instructors of the Yu. A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center visited GKNPTs Khrunichev.

The state space scientific and industrial center named after M.V. Khrunichev was selected on purpose. The old enterprise has almost a half-century length of employment in the field of creation and operation of rocket-space technology.

The Center has a special role in the implementation of the manned programs of the USSR and Russia. Here was created the “Salyut” orbital manned stations and the TKS transport supply ships, the large-dimension modules for the Mir orbital complex, and the FGB Zarya and SM Zvezda modules for the International Space Station. At present, according to the ISS program, work is conducted here on the creation of the third module, the Multifunctional Laboratory Module.

The manager of the rocket-space plant, Victor Latyshev, described all this to his guests. The instructors of TSPK – V. Kolyasnikov, A. Radchenya and A. Larin – and also the cosmonaut candidates O. Novitskii, A. Ovchinin, S. Ryzhikov, A. Misurkin, M. Ponomarev, E. Serova and N. Tikhonov visited the assembly shops of the space center, and with their eyes they saw the process of assembling the “Proton-M” heavy carrier rocket, and boarded the full-scale copy of the legendary complex Mir.

Taking into account that the encounter in GKNPTs Khrunichev passed on the threshold of the New Year, the center management presented memorable gifts to the cosmonaut candidates.

«Кандидаты в космонавты посетили Центр имени Хруничева», Khrunichev.

Russian space tourist?

Haven’t felt much like posting; just don’t feel much interested, so here is some collected news as remarked on in my other journal.

As-yet unconfirmed reports say that a Russian businessman-politician, Vladimir Gruzdev, looks set to be a space tourist in September 2008 or in 2009. I bet the cosmonauts won’t be happy about that! Especially those who have spent years waiting for their first flight (e.g. Dmitri Kondrat’ev – selected 1997, Oleg Kononenko – selected 1996, Roman Romanenko – selected 1997), only to have someone with loads of money “jump the queue”.

Energiya changed some of the links at their site, so I had to redo most of the links to them on my site (and blog), rather annoyingly! I think they are all working.

Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa!

S.P. Korolev RSC Energia, Korolev, Moscow region. Cosmonaut tester of the S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation cosmonaut team Mikhail Borisovich Kornienko, upon his return to Moscow after climbing mountain Kilimanjaro (5895 meters high) as a member of a team of three mountaineers, was received by the Head of the Federal Space Agency A.N. Perminov.

M.B. Kornienko accomplished this climb while being on vacation. On the highest peak of Africa he left one copy of the Roskosmos commemorative badge and planted the flag of S.P. Korolev RSC Energia. The second copy of that badge that had been to the top of Kilimanjaro, M.B. Kornienko handed over to the Head of Roskosmos.

A.N. Perminov pointed out the high level of preparedness of the cosmonaut tester for working in extreme conditions, which allowed him, the only one of the whole team, to overcome the difficulties of the climb in its final phase.

Russian Federal Space Agency: Космонавт вышел на «малую» орбиту – покорил Килиманджаро (Cosmonaut has reached a “small” orbit – he conquered Kilimanjaro).

A Russian Proton-M rocket with a Japanese satellite onboard crashed on launch on 9/9.

“Russia To Get A New Space Port”, RIAN/SpaceDaily, 11/9.

On the last day of summer, the Russian Space Agency made a sensational announcement. Its head Anatoly Perminov painted an epic picture of Russia’s immediate future in space, specifically its manned part. A week and a half ago, during a final news conference with journalists at the MAKS-2007 International Air Show, to the surprise of many, he spoke modestly about the evolutionary path to be taken by the space industry. “Our primary objective,” he said, “is to stick to existing reliable systems already used in manned flights.” Evidently they found the air show to be the wrong place to disclose the Agency’s truly revolutionary ambitions.

“Female commanders set for landmark mission”, MSNBC.com, 13/9. Two female NASA astronauts will command the ISS (Peggy Whitson) and Space Shuttle (Pamela Melroy, STS-120 Discovery) next month. No Russian woman has been in space since Elena Kondakova in 1997, and none will for a few years yet (assuming the only current female cosmonaut, Elena Serova, successfully completes her candidate training). Russia are now dismayingly far behind in this area.

A Soyuz-U rocket successfully launched yesterday with an unmanned Foton spacecraft carrying various experiments (listed in Russian and English at the FKA site). Some fish and Mongolian gerbils (small rodents) are getting a ride into space as part of the experiments. A space tether experiment will also be performed (James Oberg’s comments about it at FPSpace).

“Mice and men: space gerbils blaze trail for humans to Mars”, Space Daily, 14/9. More on the gerbils getting their first and only spaceflight; unfortunately some of the hapless creatures will be dissected after landing. (A brief RIA Novosti news item on the creatures the Foton is carrying.)

From Novosti Kosmonavtiki news №653:

18/9/2007/00:01: Russian manned spacecraft will fly to Mars, possibly in 2020, Aleksandr Kaleri thinks

A Russian spacecraft with the crew aboard will fly to Mars, possibly in 2020. About this stated the chief of the flying space center of company Energiya, airman-cosmonaut Aleksandr Kaleri, at the All-Russian astronomical conference the “Space Boundaries of the 21st Century”, that was opened on 17 September in Kazan. “The flight duration will be two years with a one-month stay on Mars,” noted the cosmonaut. It is assumed that aboard the ship with a weight of up to 600 tons will fly the crew of 4-6 people. To put this ship immediately into orbit is impossible, therefore they will assemble it in orbit from the modules, said Kaleri.

According to him, the dimensions of modules and subsistence maintenance system are developed, the methods of creating the large constructions now are selected: so the length of each of two solar batteries will compose 700 meters. Studies with respect to the guarantee of reliability of flight are conducted. For example, for the protection from the solar radiation it is proposed the walls of crew quarters for the cosmonauts are to be filled with inert gas.

According to the most optimistic forecasts, the flights will begin in 2020, with the most pessimistic beginning in 2025. In the first flight only the circling around the “red planet” will be undertaken. The second flight will carry a full-scale landing module, but also without the embarkation of cosmonauts. And only in the third flight half of the crew will land on the planet, the cosmonaut concluded.

(Russian version, Русская версия)

Computer woes

Yurchikhin and Kotov successfully completed their second spacewalk on 6 June, taking 5h 37m (14:25-20:02 UTC). A micrometerorite or space debris impact hole was found on the Zarya module, as this photo shows. Photos taken during the spacewalk are on pages 12 and 13 of the Human Spaceflight Gallery.

The launch and docking of STS-117 Atlantis went well (launched on the first attempt on 8/6 at 23:38 UTC; docked at 19:36 UTC on 10/6).

Computer problems on the Russian segment of the ISS. This happened after the new solar array (S3/S4 truss) was unfurled, so a possibility is electromagnetic interference from the array. I think the computers in question are the Data Management System. It seems to be one of those unforeseen issues that are only revealed in live operation rather than testing on the ground.

“Space station glitch puzzles the experts”, James Oberg, MSNBC.com, 14/6, and “Atlantis ready to support ISS troubleshooting” at NASASpaceflight.com.

[Update, 18/6: the ISS computer problems appear to be fixed; details in “Teamwork, Expertise and Confidence – solving the ISS’ troubles” at NASASpaceflight.com and STS-117 MCC Status Report #17. The situation predictably brought out the Russia-bashers, such as this post at Habitable Zone.]

From Novosti Kosmonavtiki news №633:

15/06/2007/00:06: The new (2006) group of cosmonauts will prove their proficiency in free flight and under the canopy of a parachute

The new group of cosmonauts admitted to general spaceflight preparation in October of last year, today begin the first serious test. As Yurii Gidzenko – the head of the Special Preparation Department of the Cosmonaut Preparation/Training Center (TsPK, ЦПК) – informed an ITAR-TASS correspondent, “from 14 June to 14 July in Yeysk, the cosmonauts candidate for will undertake the first of two stages of special parachute preparation (SPPK, Специальной парашютной подготовки, СППК)”. Such preparation is intended to determine the speed of thinking, control and other qualities of the future cosmonauts, he specified.

Seven recruits – among whom there is one woman, an engineer from Rocket & Space Corporation Energiya, Elena Serova – will demonstrate the psychological stability and skill to operate in an extreme situation, which is so necessary in the cosmonaut profession. Before the candidates start tests from a great height, they will undertake more than 20 fact-finding jumps from heights of 1 km up to 1.5 km, Gidzenko specified. That completed, the future cosmonauts will demonstrate these qualities during 2-3 control jumps from a height of 2.5-3 km, to where they will be flown with a Mi-8 helicopter.

Before the “examination” test, each candidate will receive their task on a card at which he can glance only before jumping from the flying machine, explained the ITAR-TASS correspondent in TsPK’s search and rescue and paraborne service. In the set time before opening a parachute, in free fall mode, and then under a parachute canopy, the examined should solve the tasks put in “ticket” in a set time and, through a built-in helmet microphone, comment on the actions in an extreme situation.

Comments are stored on a small dictaphone fixed to the belt of the cosmonaut, then psychologists will analyse this, and physicians will decipher the data from special devices monitoring the condition of the basic bodies during a jump. The sensors of these devices are attached to the body of the examinee, enabling them to monitor his medical parameters in online mode, TsPK said. Besides this, an operator flying by a line records the pose and behaviour of the cosmonaut on a videocamera, and these records are analyzed also by experts on the ground.

The second stage of SPPK for the new group will take place in following year. “Now we shall teach the cosmonauts to jump with a parachute and to speak during a jump, which in itself is not easy, and at the second stage the card with tasks becomes more difficult,” Gidzenko explained.

Russian version, Русская версия

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12/6/2007/18:06: The space industry should not be held hostage to commerce

Russia should work out effective ways to ensure national security in the space industry. This was the view of Grigorii Chernyavskii (Deputy CEO Russian Space Research Institute of Robotics and Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences), reports RIA Novosti. Chernyavskii believes that the Russian space industry should not stoop to the provision of space tourists. Unfortunately, Russia has opted for the commercialization of space and space-based services instead of creating and effective space means of ensuring national security, as is customary in the world, said the specialist. According to Chernyavskii, to make a difference, the government must declare the establishment of security at the state level, to measure the number of manned flights with real opportunities and increase public financing for space activities.

Russian version, Русская версия

Shuttle fuss

STS-116 Discovery undocked today and as usual the mission has been reported in breathless detail by the world’s media. It was a spectacular mission that involved four complex spacewalks by the Shuttle crew.

In contrast Russian missions are rarely reported by the mainstream media as they probably seem rather dull in comparison and aren’t doing anything noteworthy, apart from transporting crew. There’s been no Russian ISS components added since Pirs in 2001, and the MLM isn’t to be added until 2009 at the earliest (see 22/11 entry.

Sunita Williams has replaced Thomas Reiter as the third crew member; she will be the third American woman to stay for a long-duration ISS mission. Again Russia is a sorry contrast; they have not sent any Russian women into orbit since 1997 (Elena Kondakova on STS-84) and whose sole hope for another woman cosmonaut, Elena Serova, is only beginning her training, and (assuming she succeeds) it will be many years before she gets into orbit.

Some Russian news from Space Daily:

• “Russia Rolls Out The Red Carpet To University Students In Bid To Attract Talent”, 15/12.
• “Russia’s Rocket Policy Chaos”, 12/12.
• “Russia Faces Problems In Developing Space Technology”, 15/12.
• “Russia Set To Implement Ambitious Space Program: Part 1, Part 2”, 20/12.

And an article from Interspace News: “Russia’s Plans For The Next 26 Years In Space”. A detailed examination of Russia’s space plans for the future – but will the Government support them?

Still waiting for Charles Simonyi to begin his blog!! He also said that his two Russian cosmonaut crewmates, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov, will be posting entries too, so I look forward to that! (I might add that I really hate Flash-animated sites as I have to “load” the site every time I visit, and I can’t copy-and-paste text to quote it! The photos are also Flash, so I can’t save them to my computer unless I take a screenshot and open it in a photo editor. Annoying!)