After two days of
spaceflight and a somewhat tricky docking, a new crew is aboard the
International Space Station (ISS).
ISS Expedition 10
crewmembers Leroy Chiao and Salizhan Sharipov, along with visiting cosmonaut
Yuri Shargin, were greeted warmly by the space station's current tenants, who
have not entertained other humans for nearly six months.
Expedition 10's
arrival marked the end of the first Soyuz flight for Chiao, Sharipov and
Shargin. They docked successfully at 12:16 a.m. EDT (0416 GMT) on Oct. 16.
Chiao and Sharipov
are relieving the current ISS crew, Expedition 9 commander Gennady Padalka and
NASA science officer Michael Fincke, who have lived aboard the station since
April 21. Chiao, a veteran NASA astronaut, will serve as Expedition 10 commander
while Sharipov, a cosmonaut with Russia's Federal Space Agency, will serve as
flight engineer.
"The station is
looking gorgeous right now," Sharipov told Expedition 9's Padalka during the
docking.
"We try to do our
best," Padalka replied.
With their Soyuz
TMA-5 spacecraft docked at the Russian-built Pirs docking compartment, there
are currently three Russian spaceships attached to the space station. A Soyuz
TMA-4 spacecraft - Shargin's ride home with the crew of Expedition 9 - is
currently docked with the station's Zarya module, while a Progress supply ship
is attached to the aft of end of the Zvezda service module.
With NASA's space shuttle fleet grounded until at least
May 2005, Russia's Soyuz spacecraft are currently the only transport capable of
delivering new crews to the ISS.
A piloted approach
Expedition 10's
docking was not without incident.
Six minutes before
docking, with the Soyuz within 656 feet (200 meters) of the ISS and under
autonomous control, the spacecraft's speed shot up considerably, exceeding the
normal flight velocities for docking maneuvers and setting off alarms, Russian
flight controllers said during a post-docking news conference. An apparent
malfunction of the Soyuz's automated docking system seemed to be at fault, they
added.
But Sharipov, who
commanded the two-day Soyuz trip to the ISS, calmly took manual control of the
spacecraft, backed it away from the station, then brought in for a smooth
docking.
"I observed the
transition from autonomous to manual docking and it appeared seamless,"
said Fred Gregory, NASA's deputy administrator, during a post-docking news
conference in Moscow. "The crew was calm."
Before launching
into space from Baikonur Cosmodrome on Oct. 13, Sharipov expressed confidence
in his flight crew's ability to dock the Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft manually if it
were required.
"All crews are
trained for this scenario for the Soyuz," he told a group of reporters in a
preflight news conference. "We are prepared."
It took about three
hours to conduct leak checks between the Soyuz spacecraft and the ISS, after
which Expedition 10 entered the station at 3:25 a.m. EDT (0725 GMT).
Much work ahead
While Chiao and
Sharipov have a full six months of spaceflight ahead of them - including two
spacewalks and a series of maintenance and science experiments - the next eight
days will be dense with activity.
As the new keepers of
the ISS, Chiao and Sharipov will receive updates from Expedition 9 regarding
emergency procedures, equipment location, as well as ongoing experiments and
station issues. Sharipov and Padalka hope to repair a finicky Russian-built
Elektron oxygen-generating device using spare parts brought up by Chiao and
Sharipov. Chiao also plans to work with Fincke to repair one of three U.S.
space suits aboard the ISS, also using parts brought up by the new crew.
Meanwhile, Shargin
has eight packed days of science experiments planned, and will most likely not
have any free time during his stay aboard the ISS, Russian flight controllers
said.
More immediately, all
five men are due start deactivating and unpacking the Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft,
then enter an extended, 10-hour sleep period today beginning at 2:00 p.m. EDT
(1800 GMT). Expedition 9 and Shargin are currently scheduled to undock from the
ISS in their Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft and land on the steppes of Kazakhstan on
Oct. 23.
"We'll take good care
of this new crew and show them the ropes and show them the ship," Fincke told ground
controllers Friday. "We're looking forward to having a smooth handover."
Fincke told NASA
astronaut Ken Bowersox that while it will be sad leaving, he and Padalka look
forward to seeing their families again. Fincke especially looks forward to
meeting his new daughter Tarali Paulina, who was born on June 18 while he
orbited Earth.
"It still feels like
someone's kicking you out of your apartment, doesn't it?" asked Bowersox, who
flew aboard the ISS Expedition 6 from November 2002 to May 2003.
"You're absolutely
right," Fincke said.
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