Happy 50th Birthday, Sergei

Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalyov turns 50 today! С днём рожденья, Сергей! (Not that he ever reads this…) I wonder what he will achieve in his next half-century? Maybe be 1st on Mars!

From Novosti Kosmonavtiki news №724:

28/08/2008/00:09 – The President of Russia, D.A. Medvedev, congratulated the pilot-cosmonaut S.K. Krikalyov on his 50th birthday

On 27 August the President of Russia, Dmitrii Medvedev, congratulated pilot-astronaut and deputy chief designer of Rocket and Space Corporation Energiya, Sergei Krikalyov, on his 50th birthday.

“You are deservedly considered one of the record holders among cosmonauts for the total length of time spent in orbit,” Mr. Medvedev said in his telegram. “Your truly heroic biography is an outstanding example of courage, strength of will and firmness of character. Your competence, organisational talents and professional and personal qualities have earned the deserved respect of your colleagues and friends.”

From the Energiya website:

August 28, 2008. S.P.Korolyov RSC Energiya, Korolyov, Moscow region.

An S.P. Korolyov RSC Energiya deputy general designer, instructor-cosmonaut-tester, 1st Class, Hero of the Soviet Union and of the Russian Federation, Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalyov turned 50 on August 27, 2008.

The President of the Russian Federation D.A. Medvedev sent him a congratulatory telegram, which, among other things, says: “You are rightfully considered one of the record-breakers among active cosmonauts with regard to the total duration of your orbital missions. Your truly heroic biography became an outstanding example of courage, will-power and fortitude. Your competence, managerial ability, professional and personal qualities earned you a due respect of your colleagues and friends” (news on the web site of the Russian President www.kremlin.ru).

On this significant day, S.K. Krikalyov was congratulated by Governor of St.Petersburg V.I. Matvienko, heads of the Federal Space Agency, management and staff of the S.P. Korolyov Rocket and Space Corporation Energiya, representatives of various companies and organizations in the Russian space industry and Russian Academy of Sciences, including the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Head of the town of Korolyov A.F. Morozenko, S.P. Korolyov RSC Energiya cosmonaut team, NASA representatives, friends and colleagues.

Dear Sergei Konstantinovich!

The management and staff of the S.P. Korolyov Rocket and Space Corporation Energiya heartily congratulate you on this significant day of your 50th anniversary!

Upon graduating with honors from the Leningrad Mechanical Institute in 1981, you took a job with the world-known Korolyov’s company, where you have been working for more than a quarter of a century now, having risen through the ranks from an engineer to a deputy general designer.

You worked on developing manuals for cosmonauts, proposals on displaying operator’s data on consoles of the Mir space station, updating the on-board documentation of the Salyut-7 space station. You worked at the Mission Control Center during several long-term missions. After communication was lost with Salyut-7 in 1985, you, as a member of a “ground crew”, took part in developing various options for procedures of flying and docking with the uncontrollable space station. Afterwards, this operation was successfully performed for the first time in history! The same year you joined the team of cosmonauts of NPO Energiya. You were training yourself and were taking an active part in training cosmonauts at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and at Baikonur.

You have accomplished six space missions to the muti-modular space station Mir, the unique creation of the 20th century, and the International Space Station, an ambitious international project of the 21st century, during which hundreds of sessions of scientific and applied research experiments were carried out, providing invaluable results for Russian and world science. And your pictures taken in space are the envy of any professional photographer!

Special milestones in your career are the activities on the International Space Station. Three times you worked onboard the station, and each of these missions was unique in its own way. The first mission was the first manned mission under the International Space Station assembly program, in the course of which US Node 1 module was docked to the Functional Cargo Module Zarya. Together with Space Shuttle Commander R. Cabana, you were the first to open the hatch leading to ISS. The second mission was under the program of the first expedition to ISS (ISS-1). It started the continuous operation of the ISS. You were the first to make habitable the Service Module Zvezda and Functional Cargo Module Zarya, and, later on, the Laboratory Module Destiny, and started scientific research under Russian and US programs. In the third mission you set up the absolute world record for the total space flight endurance of 803 days, which remains unbroken by any other nation in the world!

For the courage and heroism displayed during your missions into space, you were given titles of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Hero of the Russian Federation, and awarded both Russian and foreign orders and medals. You are an honorary citizen of St. Petersburg. Your energy, commitment and perseverance in achieving your goal, high professionalism and erudition, communication skills and kindness towards people earned you due respect among your Russian colleagues and foreign partners. Everybody also knows about your achievements in sports: you have learned to fly several types of airplanes, including a foreign airplane, and you won prizes several times at the USSR, Europe and world championships.

On this great day, dear Sergei Konstantinovich, please accept our heartfelt wishes of good health, happiness and prosperity to you and your relatives, of new creative successes and luck in the course of flight design tests and operation of the rocket and space hardware for the sake of strengthening the power and prosperity of Russia.

– President, General Designer V.A. Lopota

(Photo via Energiya)

Star City article

I’ve had a head cold since last week, so I haven’t felt much like doing anything. *Snuffle*

“Going to Space? First Stop: Eight Months of Grueling Training in Russia’s Star City”, Wired Magazine, September 2008. An overview of Star City, Звёздный Городок. A somewhat quirky overview of the place from the point-of-view of the space tourists training there.

Marina Driga, a military captain and press liaison, confides what some around Star City think of its high-profile trainees: “People say it is better to send monkey.”

“Mission Possible”, Anatoly Zak, Air & Space Magazine, 1/9. An overview of the Phobos-Grunt probe to be launched in 2009 (hopefully).

He started it!

Georgia’s pea-brained hothead of a president decided to provoke Russia by invading South Ossetia, this while the Olympics are on too. Naturally the Western media are siding with Saakashvilli, who has them well and truly conned (“Saakashvili as a propaganda phenomenon”, RIA Novosti). This thread at NASASpaceflight.com speculates whether the hostilites will affect the ISS partnership, seeing as the USA has sided with Georgia (whose military has been trained by U.S. forces). Though as one notes, the U.S. invasion of Iraq didn’t affect the partnership.

Some blog commentaries: Da Russophile (beginning from this entry); Saakashvilli’s War at Sean’s Russia Blog. The Western media is generally useless for anything approaching impartial reporting when regards to Russia (some exceptions: “Russo-Georgian conflict is not all Russia’s fault”, Christian Science Monitor; “Plucky little Georgia? No, the cold war reading won’t wash”, Guardian).

ISS medical training

Some information on the medical training cosmonauts receive for an ISS stay, from Novosti Kosmonavtiki news №719:

31/7/2008/12:30 – ISS commander and military pilot Sergei Volkov was trained for a new profession as the head physician

Sergei Volkov – ISS-17 commander and Lieutenant Colonel of the Russian Federation VVS (Air Force) – has for some time been trained for a new profession as the head physician of the Station. The more so because today in orbit is medical day. The official representative of TsUP (Moscow Mission Control Center), Valerii Lyndin, said, “Today the physicians are evaluating the physical fitness level of the of Russian cosmonauts on the treadmill, and Volkov is still developing critical skills for the medical operations.”

“Exercises are conducted with the cosmonaut on working with the onboard American medical equipment of which there is a lot onboard the Station,” explained Irina Alferova, the head of the TsUP Medical Group. According to her, NASA assigns a specialist in each expedition to be responsible for medicine and train them to use onboard equipment and to render aid to associates aboard. If there is a doctor in the composition of the crew – as there was, for example, in ISS-15, where Oleg Kotov had medical qualifications – that question is solved. But if the ISS crew only comprises pilots and engineers, then one of them is selected, who will, during the entire flight, fulfill the function of head physician and will periodically refresh his skills by training with the medical equipment.

Several times during the flight, training is conducted aboard to deal with a non-standard medical situation, which includes the additional training of crew for the use of equipment for the rendering of first aid. The NASA specialists assign to the cosmonauts a specific situation – for example, to remove a mote from the eye of an associate or to dress a wound – and they perform the function of physicians, using the multifunctional medical equipment existing onboard the ISS. “Through the Russian program we do not carry out such training, since we consider that our cosmonauts without this are wonderfully prepared and can render each other practical assistance,” emphasized Alferova.

“Before the flight, all Russian cosmonauts during the year pass a special course on medicine and obtain knowledge and habits, which correspond to a unfinished higher medical education.” Onboard the ISS there is all that is necessary for the rendering of first aid. Cosmonauts can give each other an electrocardiogram, take a blood analysis, or perform intravenous infusion. On the sudden stopping of heart of one of the crew members, their partner can use a defibrilator, which is located on the Station in a special medical case. There is on the ISS dentistry equipment, which includes the necessary tool for the treatment and the removal of teeth. “Truthfully, in the entire time of the operation of the Station, the dental tools have so far been not required, since before the flight the cosmonauts treat their teeth with a special composition of fluorine.”

“Can people live on Mars?”, RIA Novosti, 25/7. NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will carry some Russian equipment, the Russian Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons, or DAN. On a side note, when the New Horizons space probe reaches Pluto, NASA will have visited every planet in the solar system! Russia, in contrast, hasn’t done anything in unmanned spaceflight since the failed Mars-96 launch in 1996.

Russian President Dmitrii Medvedev declared 2011 the “Year of Russian Cosmonautics”. He could back that up with some funding for a manned Russian Mars mission! (Wishful thinking…)

EVA-20 completed

Sergei Volkov (EVA-1, Orlan #27, red stripes) and Oleg Kononenko (EV-2, Orlan #26, blue stripes) completed their second spacewalk. This was the originally-scheduled spacewalk for various tasks. The duration was 5h 54m (17:08-23:02 on 15 July). Reports:

• ISS Daily Report
• MSNBC.com: “Spacewalkers spruce up the station”, 15/7
• NASA
• NASASpaceflight.com forum thread

ISS EVA-20a completed

“Phew! Spacewalkers remove explosive bolt”, MSNBC.com, 10/7. Sergei Volkov (EVA-1, Orlan #27, red stripes) and Oleg Kononenko (EV-2, Orlan #26, blue stripes) completed their first spacewalk to retrieve a suspected faulty pyro bolt from Soyuz TMA-12. The spacewalk lasted 6h 18m. More reports at NASA and this NASASpaceflight.com thread. Their next EVA is to take place on 15 July.

This blog entry regarded them as somewhat amateurish:

They fumbled and they stumbled, and wrestled with their space tools, but in the end, cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergei Volkov managed to cut through insulation and pull an explosive bolt from a Soyuz spacecraft parked at the International Space Station.

[…]

Nowhere near as polished as U.S.-trained spacewalkers, the Russians had problems finding their tools which were tethered to a special case and often tangled. At times the pair looked like a couple of amateur car mechanics with fishbowls on their heads, working with oven mitts, trying to change spark plugs with a spoon.

This was the first EVA for both; they also did not have extensive rehearsal training on Earth like the NASA Shuttle astronauts do. Russian EVA training tends to be more general, rather than focus on learning specific tasks like U.S. EVAs do (for Shuttle missions). The EVA was also somewhat unexpected (not initially scheduled). This item from Novosti Kosmonavtiki news №714 elaborates:

8/7/2008/09:28 – The ISS crew for the first time in the history of the Station conducted a second “general rehearsal” before going out in open space

A “general rehearsal” for the upcoming EVA will be held again today on the ISS. Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko will hold a second so-called “dry run” in the Russian space suit Orlan-M for the EVA, scheduled for July 10, said Valerii Lyndin, the official representative of Moscow Mission Control Center. The first rehearsal was similar to that of June 26, he recalled.

The Russians dismantled ducts in the Pirs docking module from where they will step into space, then donned 130 kg Orlans and “take a walk” in them in the module. There is provision also for entrance to the docking compartment of the Soyuz attached to Pirs, in which the crew could return to Earth in case of emergency. In addition, the crew must test the system transition and living quarters.

On the ISS this is the first precedent of this prolonged and thorough preparation for an EVA; usually crew conducts one training session in their flight suits and one in the spacesuits. However, this time Volkov and Kononenko decided to twice practice abandoning the Station and entering the “lifeboat” in the Orlan-M spacesuits. The reasons for this are several. First, Volkov and Kononenko are novices; for them this is their first EVA. Certainly, they worked out in detail all EVA operations in the hydrolaboratory of the Zvezdni Gorodok/Star City; however, training on Earth is still not work in open space. Furthermore, this output is unplanned; the cosmonauts before the flight did not do extensive training for it. The novices have to inspect “the lifeboat” – the Soyuz spacecraft – and extract the cartridge, which the specialists consider the reason “for the disruption” to the ballistic descent of two previous expeditions – ISS-15 in October 2007 and ISS-16 in April this year. This is not a trivial task even for an experienced crew, since the Soyuz is not fitted with handrails unlike other ISS modules. And one additional difficulty: conditions are complicated by the unusual configuration of the Station, when the Soyuz spacecraft, which usually is docket to the end of the Russian segment, is “moored” to Pirs, from where cosmonauts exit into space. In the case of a contingency situation for Volkov and Kononenko, it is necessary for them to move directly into the Soyuz Orbital Module in their bulky spacesuits so they can, after removing their spacesuits, take their seats in the Descent Module of the Soyuz spacecraft vehicle, in which the third member of the ISS-17 crew – American Gregory Shamitoff – will already be waiting.

According to Lyndin, the only precedent for such operations before Volkov and Kononenko VKD are Russian Alexander Kaleri and NASA astronaut Michael Foale (ISS crew-9), but both had experience of several long-duration flights on the orbital complex Mir, and the ISS Station crew then consisted only of two people, so the cosmonauts did not have to worry about the safety of a third crew member.

After some comments (from the NASASpaceflight.com forum!), the blog author edited:

Many readers rightly point out (see the comments section) that this was the first spacewalk for these cosmonauts and that Russians don’t traditionally undergo the same level of highly choreographed EVA training as their U.S. counterparts. They also point out the spacewalk achieved its objectives and was a success. Agreed on all counts and important points. No disrespect was intended. Nevertheless, it was a markedly different experience from recent NASA spacewalks. – RB

More on cosmonaut training from NK news №214:

9/7/2008/00:09 – Russian cosmonauts will do parachute training in Siberia

The group of GCTC cosmonauts who are undergoing parachute training will be based in a separate helicopter regiment of the Siberian air force and air defense, said Lieutenant Vladimir Drik, temporarily Acting Assistant Commander of the Air Force, on Tuesday.

“The main program for the group, which will be prolonged to the middle of August, consists of jump training, which is part of a comprehensive training for the cosmonauts crews for work in space,” said Drik.

According to him, the special exercises for the training of cosmonauts, developed by domestic specialists, which are to be undertaken in just a few seconds of flight, make it possible to train for complex combined activities. During the exercises the instructors check the rapidity of reaction, the speed of decision-making of the cosmonauts and the clarity of their actions, specified the assistant Commander.

“During the jump the cosmonaut must be able to simultaneously keep track of many sources of information, and at the same time be prepared for any abnormal situations. Parachute jumping for the cosmonauts brings out the necessary qualities for spaceflight – concentration, attentiveness, courage,” said Drik.

“Will We Ever Reach Mars?”, RIAN/Space Daily, 7/7. Andrei Kislyakov opinion piece, mainly to do with the upcoming IMBP medical experiment (26/6 entry).

Sergei Krikalyov back on flight list

According to Sergei’s biography page at Astronaut.ru (in Russian), he has reappeared on the ISS crew list, initially as a backup for ISS-21A (for cosmonaut Aleksandr Kaleri on the prime crew):

In 2008, Sergei has tentatively been named as part of the backup crew of ISS-21A. According to these plans, the prime crew will launch on Soyuz TMA-18 in March 2010. This will be the first flight of a new modification of the Soyuz-TMA spaceship (700 – Series 1).

Soyuz tourist ship

“Russia seals agreement with private investor for space tourism”, Space Daily, 2/7. After some confusion it seems this project is real (see announcement at Space Adventures early in June).

The Russian space agency has sealed a deal with a private investor to build a Soyuz spacecraft specially for tourist hire and operational in 2011, a statement said Wednesday. “We have concluded an agreement with an investor to begin financing such a Soyuz vessel with an anticipated launch date of 2011,” the Roskosmos website stated. The craft, piloted by a professional astronaut, is designed to carry two so-called space adventurers.

I can’t feel much enthusiasm for it (see 15/6 entry and Cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov’s complaints in the 18/5 entry). The once-grand vision of the Soviet space program has been degraded into a taxi service for bored rich capitalists. I don’t believe government programs should be providing rides for tourists – leave that to the private industry! (Whenever the latter actually launches a spaceship into orbit.)

Upcoming Russian spacewalks

Two Russian spacewalks in Orlan spacesuits are to take place at long last – the previous one was just over a year ago (6 June 2007). James Oberg gives an overview in “Next spacewalk will have an explosive twist”, MSNBC.com, 2/7.

Two Russian cosmonauts on the international space station practiced Thursday for a dramatic spacewalk planned in July, which will involve taking an explosive bolt from the exterior of a docked Soyuz spacecraft and bringing it into the station itself. The risky operation is aimed at figuring out why similar bolts on earlier Soyuz spaceships misfired, leading to two rugged, off-course landings over the past year. The cosmonauts hope to avoid similar problems when they use the currently docked Soyuz to return to Earth at the end of their mission in October.

The 2/7 ISS Daily Report provides an outline of both spacewalks (20A and 20):

EVA-20A Timeline Preview: Orlan EVA-20a by Volkov/EV1 & Kononenko/EV2 is scheduled to begin at ~2:18 p.m. EDT [18:18 UTC] (DC1 EV hatch open) on 10/7, to last an estimated 6 hrs. During the spacewalk, EV2 will be riding on the DC1-based Strela 1 crane, operated via hand crank by EV1, who will then join EV2. Main objective is the inspection of the Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft at its first separation plane (Plane I) followed by removal of one pyrobolt for return to Earth. Before removing the separation bolt, EV2 will install temporary protective covers on the spacecraft’s DPO attitude control thrusters, open up the MLI (Multi-Layer Insulation), demate the pyrobolt’s electrical connector and cut the wiretie between the pyrobolts. MLI will then be reattached and the covers removed again. If enough time remains after the Soyuz activity, the spacewalkers will also install a docking target (for the new MLM/Multipurpose Laboratory Module) in the SM PkhO (Transfer Compartment) area for zenith port docking. [Background: Before their separation, Descent Module (SA) & Instrumentation Compartment (AO) are connected by five locks, each “zamok” containing two pyrobolts with individual electrical connection, of which only one needs to fire to release the lock. The locks are equally spaced around the 360-degree circumference of the separation plane, i.e., 72 deg apart. After the five locks have released, five pushers, also equally spaced, separate the two modules by pre-loaded spring force. Each lock and pusher is located at the apex (node) of two triangularly arranged aluminum pipes, i.e., altogether 20 inclined pipes, which make up the open truss structure between the modules.]

EVA-20 Timeline Preview (preliminary): The Orlan EVA-20 by Volkov (EV1) & Kononenko (EV2) on 7/15 is scheduled to begin at ~1:14 p.m. EDT [17:14 UTC] (DC1 EV hatch open), to last an estimated 5 hrs 30 min, i.e., concluding at approximately 6:44 p.m. [22:44 UTC] Part of the EVA will be supported by the DC1-based Strela 1 crane, operated via hand crank. Main objectives of the Russian spacewalk are:

• Closeout ops on Soyuz TMA-12 Plane I inspection/pyrobolt removal (if not completed during EVA-20A);
• Installation of a new docking target on SM PkhO (Transfer Compartment), Plane IV, for MLM (if not completed during EVA-20A);
• Post-installation photography of the new docking target;
• Inspection of mounting holes for an adapter of a Kurs antenna (4AO-VKA) on PkhO-RO (SM Working Compartment, small diameter section);
• Transferring one “Yakor” foot restraint (of two) from the DC1 EVA ladder to the SM and installing it in an attachment socket at a PkhO handrail (two Yakors were installed on DC1 ladder during EVA-17A on 2/22/07);
• Installing the VSPLESK (“Burst”) science payload on the SM RO (large diameter section); and
• Removing the BIORISK-MSN (BIO-2) experiment container 1 from the DC1 for return to the station (BIORISK-MSN #1 was installed with two other BIO-2 containers during EVA-19 on 6/6/07).

Mars-500 delayed

Unfortunately the Mars-500 has been delayed for 6 months. From Novosti Kosmonavtiki news №213:

1/7/2008/16:50 – Mars-500 experiment postponed for at least six months

The beginning of a major scientific experiment in which scientists intended to simulate the conditions of a manned flight to Mars, has been delayed more than six months. This was announced by Moscow’s Institute for Space Research (IMBP), which will host the experiment named “Mars-500”.

According to new data, a preliminary 105-day study is rescheduled for the first quarter of 2009. Accordingly the start date of the implementation of the 520-day experiment is also moved back. Maybe it will begin in late 2009, the Institute says.

IMBP notified all partners involved in the project of the postponement of the experiment, said a representative of the institution. He also said that at the moment, the institute had selected 10 Russians, who may take part in the ground “flight” to Mars. Six of them are participating in the ongoing two-week research study in the IMBP on the development of methods of non-surgical treatment of disorders that may arise during the flight to Mars.

The source also added that the institute completed the pilot complex ground volume 550 cubic meters, consisting of five airtight linked modules. The only module remaining unfinished is the one which simulates the Martian surface.

Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov had some complications after surgery on 16 June for lower stomach pain (he was treated by the urology department) and was put in intensive care, but was released from hospital on 23 June. He is 74 years old. (Relevant NASASpaceflight.com and CollectSpace threads)