As One ISS Crew Prepares for Landing, Another Gears Toward Launch
|
|
The International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 10 crew. NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao will command the mission and serve as ISS science officer. Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov, of the Russian Federal Space Agency, will comand the Soyuz spacecraft to reach the ISS and serve as the station's flight engineer. CREDIT: NASA/JSC. |
HOUSTON - As the two-man crew of the International Space Station (ISS) prepares to return home after six months in orbit, a fresh trio of astronauts is counting down to an April launch to the orbital laboratory.
ISS Expedition 10 commander Leroy Chiao and flight engineer Salizhan Sharipov are set to drop back down to Earth aboard their Soyuz 9 spacecraft on April 24 at about 6:00 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT), effectively ending the first long-duration spaceflight for both astronauts.
"It's been quite an impact...watching the Earth go by there knowing how much life is there," Chiao said to reporters here at Johnson Space Center during a video link. "It's beautiful, even the parts where I know there is strife and war, it looks so peaceful from here."
Meanwhile, the astronauts of ISS Expedition 11 - led by Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev with NASA astronaut John Phillips serving as flight engineer - are spending their final weeks on Earth conducting fit checks inside their Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft. European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Roberto Vittori, an ISS visitor, will join the Expedition 11 crew during the launch.
For better and worse
Chiao and Sharipov are in the homestretch of a mission that has had its share of surprises.
In recent weeks, the space station has suffered a few glitches - by now familiar to both the crew and ground controllers - including a lost gyroscope stabilizer due to a power glitch and an Elektron oxygen generator that won't quite stay on. The crew also overcame a potentially serious food shortage early in their mission that forced them to modify their caloric intake until a fresh Russian cargo ship arrived on December 25, 2004. The arrival of a second Progress cargo ship on March 2, 2005 boosted onboard food supplies.
"In terms of consumables, [the station] is in better shape than at the mission's start," ISS Expedition 10 increment manager Susan Brand told SPACE.com.
The space station's U.S-built gyroscope attitude control system, however, is a bit worse for wear, Brand said.
The ISS is currently relying on two functional gyroscopes - the minimum required without resorting to Russian thrusters - after circuit breaker failed last month. Meanwhile, the station's finicky Elektron oxygen generator, which was working for about 30 hours over the weekend before shutting down, has had to be repeatedly nursed by the Expedition 10 crew.
"It just switches off every now and then," said Sharipov of the Elektron, which he has been working with throughout the mission. "The situation is such that we have plenty of oxygen onboard."
A long run for space veterans
Chiao and Sharipov have been living aboard the ISS since October, when they took over station operations from Expedition 9's Gennady Padalka and Michael Fincke. Since then, they have conducted two spacewalks to install science hardware to the station's exterior and prepare the outpost to receive an unmanned European cargo ship due to dock sometime next year.
Though both Chiao and Sharipov are spaceflight veterans, Expedition 10 marks the first long-duration spaceflight for both men.
Sean Roden, flight surgeon for Expedition 10, said the station crew is in great shape and has completely recovered from their earlier dietary constraints during the food shortage.
"They've adapted perfectly," Roden said of Chiao and Sharipov's acclimation to long-duration spaceflight. "The amount of weight they lost [during their adjusted diet] was insignificant."
Roden said the Expedition 10 astronauts have exercised rigorously to maintain muscle strength and bone density despite the lack of gravity aboard the ISS. An added bonus, he said, has been the availability of a resistance exercise device resembling a set of football shoulder pads connected to the station floor with thick elastic bands.
"This is the first mission that we've been able to use this device during the entire mission," Roden said of the resistance exercise device. "The equipment has performed flawlessly."
The second scientific paper based on research by ground scientists and an ISS crew will be published this month in the April issue of the Journal of Trauma, which the Expedition 10 astronauts contributed to. The first scientific paper featuring research collected by ISS astronauts appeared in the online edition of Radiology in November 2004. Data from that study was conducted by Expedition 9 astronauts.
The next ISS crew await
The Expedition 11 crew and Vittori are currently set to launch spaceward aboard their Soyuz TMA-6 spacecraft at about 8:45 p.m. EDT on April 14 (0045 April 15 GMT) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and arrive at the space station two days later.
Krikalev, Phillips, Vittori and their backup crew have completed flight training at Baikonur and were set to return to Russia's Star City today, the Russian news service Interfax reported today.
Krikalev told reporters that he and his crew are "ready for the flight," Interfax reported.
Expedition 11 is expected to host at least one - if not two - space shuttle crews as part of NASA's return to flight efforts. The space shuttle Discovery is currently slated to launch toward the ISS no earlier than May 15, with its follow-up mission - STS-121 aboard Atlantis - is scheduled to launch in mid-July. Both missions will test new safety tools and techniques for shuttle flight.
Krikalev and Phillips are also expected to conduct two spacewalks during their mission, the first in U.S. spacesuits and the second in Russian-built Orlan suits, for station assembly and science activities.
More science aboard ISS
Don Thomas, ISS program scientist, told reporters today that Expedition 11 will mark a substantial rise in space station science. Not only do flight controllers plan to loft new science racks to the ISS during the upcoming shuttle flights, but the added launch capability of the two shuttle flights also allows researchers a chance to resume studies that have been limited in the past due to launch restraints.
"Over the last few years, we have only sent about 100 pounds (45 kilograms) or so of science equipment to the station," Thomas said, adding that the lack of shuttle flights - which were grounded after the Columbia accident - accounts for the low number. "During Expedition 11 we will be launching 4,000 pounds (1,814 kilograms) of scientific equipment to the space station."
Two Russian cargo ships are also set to dock at the ISS during Expedition 11, with the first - Progress 18 - set to dock on June 10 while its successor slated to arrive on August 26.
NASA flight controllers said today that Chiao and Sharipov will spend the next two weeks preparing for Expedition 11's arrival. After about eight days of handover activities, the Expedition 10 crew and Vittori will board their Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft and make the plunge Earthward.
By the end of their mission, the Expedition 10 crew will have spent 192 days in space. After landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan, they will be taken to Russia's Star City for three weeks of physical rehabilitation to reacclimatize themselves to gravity's pull.
MORE FROM SPACE.com
Image Albums
Countdowns
Topics
Infographics
