Progress MS-2 lifts off the pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Photo Credit: NASA TV
A Soyuz rocket lofted a Russian cargo ship with 5,300 pounds of fuel, water and supplies bound for the International Space Station.
The craft, dubbed Progress MS-2, lifted off the pad at 10:44 p.m. local Kazakhstan time (16:23 GMT) at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Nearly nine minutes later, the spacecraft was in orbit gearing up for a two-day trek to the orbiting laboratory.
The capsule will automatically dock with the rear port of the Zvezda service module around 1:01 p.m. CST (18:01 GMT) on April 2. It is packed with 5,346 pounds of fuel, air, water and equipment to support the Expedition 47 crew.
Progress MS-2 will join two crewed Soyuz vehicles and another Progress attached to the Russian Orbital Segment of the ISS. Additionally, an Orbital ATK Cygnus recently berthed on the U.S. Segment.
To make room for the new spacecraft, Progress M-29M was loaded with trash and undocked on Wednesday. It will remain in orbit until April 8 when it will be commanded to de-orbit over the South Pacific Ocean.
This is the second cargo ship in as many weeks to arrive at the orbiting outpost. The next cargo ship, a SpaceXDragon, will launch on April 8 and berth with the ISS on April 10.
Scott Kelly gives a "thumbs up" just minutes after being extracted from the Soyuz capsule. Photo Credit: Bill Ingalls / NASA
Blazing through the atmosphere and landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko returned to Earth on the morning of March 2, 2016, after spending nearly a year at the International Space Station. Kelly and Korniyenko returned in the Soyuz TMA-18M with Sergey Volkov, who launched to the orbiting laboratory back in September and spent 181 days in space. The one-year duo were launched to the ISS on March 27, 2015 in Soyuz TMA-16M and subsequently spent 340 days in space—the longest single flight for an American and longest mission in the history of the ISS program. Over the course of their stay, they orbited Earth over 5,440 times and traveled more than 143 million miles (230 million kilometers). Additionally, nearly 400 experiments were performed in areas ranging from life sciences, robotics, biology and more. Kelly, who had been the commander of the space station since Sept. 5, 2015, relinquished his post to fellow NASA astronaut Tim Kopra on Feb. 29. “It’s kind of hard to believe that we’ve been here for two and a half months and it’s only a portion of Scott and [Mikhail’s] time here,” Kopra said after Kelly handed over command. “Special thank you to Scott. Thank you for your leadership. You’ve been such a great role model to us in every aspect—as a crew member and as a space station commander—so we’re very, very grateful.” Expedition 46 officially ended and Expedition 47 began when the Soyuz undocked at 7:02 p.m. CST on March 1 (00:10 GMT on March 2) from the Poisk module. Hatches between the spacecraft had been closed a few hours prior at 3:43 p.m. CST (21:43 GMT). Remaining on board the space station are Commander Kopra and Flight Engineers Tim Peake, from the European Space Agency (ESA), and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. All three have been in space for more than 77 days. “We are very grateful to this crew, to you [Mikhail] and to you Scott,” Malenchenko said before hatch closure. “Thank you to the mission control centers in Moscow and Houston. Good luck guys and we’ll see you soon on the ground.”
Photo Credit: Scott Kelly / NASA
After pulling away from the station, the first separation burn occurred when the Soyuz was 66 feet (20 meters) away. The spacecraft fired its thrusters again for a second burn just 90 seconds later. About two and a half hours after undocking at 9:32 p.m. CST (3:32 GMT), while 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) from the ISS, the crew commanded the Soyuz’s SKD engine to fire for four minutes and 49 seconds, slowing the spacecraft down by about 420 feet (128 meters) per second. With that, the vehicle and crew were on an intercept course with the upper atmosphere. Shortly before Entry Interface, 27 minutes after the de-orbit burn, the three modules of the Soyuz—the Orbital Module, Descent Module and the Service Module—separated. Only the Descent Module with crew is intended to return to Earth safely. The Soyuz began to skirt the atmosphere just after 10 p.m. CST (4:00 GMT) going 4.73 miles (7.62 kilometers) per second. They were about 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the Arabian peninsula. Just under seven minutes later, slowing down to 1.41 miles (2.28 kilometers) per second while still 20.7 miles (33.4 kilometers) high, the crew experienced their maximum gravity load of about 4.57 times the force of Earth’s gravity. “Doing OK, feeling the pressure, feeling the G’s,” Volkov said during descent. The spacecraft soared through the atmosphere, creating a trail of super-heated plasma around the capsule for nearly 10 minutes before slowing down enough for the first set of parachutes to deploy.
That deployment came with the release of pilot chutes to pull the drogue chute out. The spacecraft and crew were just over 6 miles (10 kilometers) in altitude at this point, still going 695 feet (212 meters) per second. The drogue slowed the capsule to only 262 feet (80 meters) per second before the main parachute deployed. It’s surface area of 10,764 square feet (1,000 square meters) slowed the vehicle to about 21 feet (6.5 meters) per second. This slow descent lasted for about 10 minutes while the spacecraft and crew began to prepare for touchdown. First, the heat shield was jettisoned, which revealed the Soft Landing engines. Next, the cabin pressure was equalized with the outside. Finally, the crew seats, called Kazbek, were moved slightly upward relative to the horizon in order to absorb the shock of landing. As the spacecraft descended, the recovery team began to locate and track the capsule. Once the main parachute deployed, helicopters began a wide circle around the landing area. About one second before touchdown, the Soft Landing engines ignited in a momentary burst to cushion the final three feet (about one meter) of the crew’s journey. The official landing time was 10:26 p.m. CST (10:26 a.m. local Kazakh time, 4:26 GMT). The spacecraft landed upright. To prevent the parachute from dragging the capsule around, the line connecting the two was automatically cut, as planned. Once confirmation of touchdown occurred, the helicopters landed, and nearby all-terrain vehicles rushed to the capsule to begin the careful extraction of the crew. The first thing the search and rescue teams did was erect a ladder around the module. Then they opened the hatch at the top of the vehicle.
Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Korniyenko, left, Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos, center, and Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly rest in chairs outside of the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft just minutes after they landed in a romote area near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, March 2, 2016. Photo Credit: Bill Ingalls / NASA
The first to be extracted was Volkov, then Kelly and Korniyenko. They were individually lowered and moved to lawn-chair like couches nearby and given a blanket. Temperatures at the landing area were around 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius). “The air feels great out here,” Kelly said, “I don’t know why you guys are all bundled up.” Kelly, who last flew in space five years ago as part of the Expedition 25/26 increment in 2010 and 2011, told a medical officer that he didn’t feel much different than he did when he landed then. After the medical evaluations were complete, the crew was flown to nearby city Dzhezkazgan, where Kelly parted ways with Korniyenko and Volkov, before flying to their corresponding space agency's headquarters.
The view of the main pressurized modules of ISS from
the astronauts during US EVA-35. Credit: NASA
Welcome to 2016. I know it is already February. It has been a busy last couple of months. I plan to expand the website this year, and get into better posting habits. But for now, here is my outlook on what to expect at our favorite palace in space. This year, the International Space Station turns 16 years old—at least some of the pieces. This was the year that ISS program was originally supposed to end. In 2010, all five space station partner agencies decided to delay that to 2020. Even now, talks are underway to continue the life of the outpost to 2024. Had the decision held to end the program, it is arguable that the burgeoning commercial cargo and crew industries would still be a decade or more away. Instead, today, active private cargo ships are routinely delivering supplies to the station. Next year, commercial crews will begin visiting the outpost. This year, Bigelow Aerospace, a company that develops expandable space habitats, will have it's first module attached to the ISS, and there are talks of a private airlock being added to ISS by 2018. Instead of planning for the disposal the 400 ton satellite into the Pacific Ocean this year, mission planners are busy working on "traffic jams" of visiting vehicles constantly coming and going to and from the station. They do this all while working on training for more than a half-dozen spacewalks. This year promises to be one of the busiest at the outpost. Starting in March, the first of up to five SpaceX Dragon cargo ships will be launched to resupply the orbiting lab. Commercial Resupply Service 8 will be a return to flight for SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship after a launch mishap in June of last year during the CRS-7 mission. The company already returned the Falcon 9 booster to flight in December.
BEAM seen attached to Tranquility's aft port. Photo Credit: NASA
CRS-8 will haul with it the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM). Once the capsule berths to the Harmony node, the BEAM will then be pulled out of the "trunk" of Dragon by the space station's robotic arm and be attached to the aft port of the Tranquility module. BEAM is a small test module that will study the structural integrity, leakage, radiation exposure and more, during its two year stay on the outpost. Afterwords, it will be removed and allowed to burn up in the atmosphere. Bigelow Aerospace intends to use a similar design for an airlock on it's eventual private space stations sometime in the 2020s. SpaceX will launch International Docking Adapter 2 in March on CRS-9. This will be attached to Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 on forward end of Harmony. IDA-1 was originally supposed to be attached there, however, it was lost during CRS-7. A replacement, IDA-3, will be launched on a future SpaceX Dragon flight. It will be attached to PMA-3. To prepare for that, it will be moved from it's current location (port side of Tranquility) to the zenith port of Harmony.
Cygnus OA-4 as seen from the ISS crew below the station moments before being captured by the space stations robotic arm. Photo Credit NASA
The other company delivering cargo, Orbital ATK, recently returned it's Cygnus cargo ship to flight. This year, the company plans to launch three times. As early as late May, the OA-5 Cygnus mission should see the return to flight of the Antares rocket, which exploded shortly after liftoff in October 2014. If the schedule holds, SpaceX and Orbital ATK should both have cargo ships berthed to the space station at the same time in late spring or early summer. While commercial resupply is poised to have it's biggest year yet, the Russian's plan to continue their steady supply of Progress spacecraft. Three are scheduled to launch this year - all of which are of the new modernized MS variant. Additionally, Japan will launch it's HTV-6 cargo ship in October. In all, up to 12 resupply ships could reach the station in 2016. In March, the first one-year crew members on the ISS are scheduled to return to Earth. Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko launched in late March 2015 and are scheduled to return to Earth on March 3, 2016. Also leaving with them will be Sergey Volkov, who launched in September 2015. Launching a couple of weeks later, Soyuz TMA-20M will take Russian cosmonauts Aleksey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka as well as NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams. They will stay aboard as part of Expedition 47 and 48 and return to Earth in September. This will put Williams about 14 days ahead of Kelly as the most experienced U.S. astronaut with a cumulative 534 days over four missions.
A new Soyuz model, called MS, will replace the TMA-M series currently serving the space station. Photo Credit: NASA
Following the departure of TMA-19M in June with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and astronauts Timothy Peake and Timothy Kopra of ESA and NASA respectively, Expedition 48 will begin. Joining the expedition a couple weeks later will be the crew of a brand new Soyuz: Soyuz MS-1. Aboard will be NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins, Russian cosmonaut Anatoli Ivanishin and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi. They will stay in space till November. Launching on Soyuz MS-2 in September to be part of Expedition 49 will be NASA astronaut Robert Kimbrough and Russian cosmonauts Andrei Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhikov. They will land in March 2017. Finally, in November, the 50th expedition to the orbiting outpost will launch. Soyuz MS-3 will carry NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and French astronaut Tomas Pesquet. They will stay in space till May 2017. So far in 2016, the ISS has seen one extravehicular activity. US EVA-35 saw astronauts Tim Kopra and Tim Peake step outside to fix a failed power regulator. The Sequential Shunt Unit, as it is called, failed in November and needed to be replaced at the earliest convenience. The SSU was fixed, and other tasks completed as well, however, only a few hours into the spacewalk, water was discovered in Kopra's helmet forcing a "termination" of the EVA. The suit will be evaluated before used further. This month, the ISS should see a Russian EVA, as well as the departure of the Cygnus currently berthed at the Earth facing port of Node 1.
A highlight video of EVA-35, which occurred on Jan. 15.
The crew of Expedition 44 became fully staffed at six people when the Soyuz TMA-17M docked with the Russian Rassvet module of the International Space Station. Launch occurred at 21:02 UTC (4:02 p.m. CDT) on 22 July 2015 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Onboard were NASAs Kjell Lindgren, Russia's Oleg Kononenko and Japan's Kimiya Yui. Hatches were opened just under eight hours later at 4:56 UTC (11:56 p.m. CDT). Kononenko was the first to enter the space station to join the three currently residing onboard: Russia's Gannady Padalka and Mikhail Korniyenko and NASAs Scott Kelly. Kelly and Korniyenko are scheduled to be on the ISS till March 2016. A little over a week later, Russia formally notified ISS partners that they will continue the partnership at least to 2024. The United States and the Canadian Space Agency have already committed to 2024 leaving only the European space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency as the only partners yet to make a decision. ESA is expected to do so in late 2016. Assessments of each of the components of the ISS show that the station could remain operational without any major funding increase for repairs to at least 2028.
Yesterday, Space Exploration Technologies' seventh resupply flight carrying the Dragon cargo ship bound for the International Space Station ended in failure about two minutes 19 seconds into flight. The Falcon 9 rocket launched on June 28, 2015 at 9:21 CDT at Cape Canaveral. Everything happened normally in flight all the way to, and through, Max Q, the time in the launch where aerodynamic stress loads on the rocket are at a maximum.
Shortly after that, a small plum appeared near the top of the second stage of the rocket, and quickly engulfed the whole rocket. Moments later, the rocket disintegrated. This was the Falcon 9s first launch failure, and SpaceXs first complete loss of mission since 2008.
NASA TV coverage of the SpaceX launch
"Falcon 9 experienced a problem shortly before first stage shutdown. Will provide more info as soon as we review the data," said Elon Musk, the chief executive officer and founder of SpaceX, in a twitter post. A few minutes later on twitter, he reported there was an "overpressure event" in the second stages liquid oxygen tank. He said the data suggests a counter-intuitive cause. The second stage engine was in the process of getting ready to take over within the next minute of flight, but before staging could occur, the anomaly happened.
International Docking Adapter 1 at the payload processing
facility. A second one was scheduled to launch later
this year. Credit: NASA
The Dragon capsule riding on top of the Falcon 9 was carrying a multitude of cargo for the orbiting outpost. The biggest loss was the International Docking Adapter, one of two adapters that will be used to support commercial crew dockings to the ISS. This was the third space station cargo ship to fail in eight months. On October 28, 2014, Orbital Sciences Antares rocket failed seconds after liftoff, destroying the Cygnus Capsule. The Russian Progress cargo ship, launched by a Soyuz rocket, failed shortly after orbital insertion on April 28, 2015. Shortly after it was discovered that the ship was spinning out of control, and would not be able to dock to the station. It later reentered the atmosphere.
The CRS-7 contingency press conference.
Credit: NASA/Glenn Benson
During a press conference a few hours later, William Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said the station crew in orbit would be fine for the time being. There are enough supplies to support the crew, which will increase to six in July, though October. However, a number of supply ships will soon be launching, including the a re-flight of the Russian Progress ship. Additionally, a Japanese HTV cargo ship will be launching in august. Gerstenmaier said that NASA was working with Orbital Sciences to move up the next launch of their Cygnus spacecraft, which will launch on an Atlas 5 rocket, from December to as soon as October. Michael Suffredini, space station program manager, said there are parts for a third IDA; the second one will fly on a future SpaceX launch as soon as flight resume. Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, said she expects the accident investigation to last between four and six months.
More information will be posted on this blog as it becomes available.
And it begins. Scott Kelly, Mikhail Korniyenko and Gennady Padalka are on their way to the International Space Station. Launch was at 2:42 p.m. CDT, but it was 1:42 a.m. in Kazakhstan.
The night sky was clear with the only light, besides the stars, was coming from the launchpad lights. As soon as the rocket engines ignited, night was no more. The Soyuz rocket began to rise, and soon, it was well on its way to orbit.
The crew is on a "fast track" to the station and will arrive in about six hours after four orbits, as opposed to a two day trek to the station.
How exactly does the Soyuz get to the station? The YouTube channel SmarterEveryday did a great interview with Scott Kelly, and Reid Wiseman to find out exactly that. You can watch the video below.
Docking is scheduled for 8:36 p.m. CDT tonight. They will dock to the space facing Poisk module.
Over the course of the yearlong mission, two major anniversaries will pass. The first is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz test project, the first joint mission between American and Russia (then the USSR). The second is the 15th anniversary of continuous crew operations at ISS.
Kelly, left, Padalka, middle, and Korniyenko looking
at their launch vehicle. - Credit: NASA
Today is the day! Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko will be launching to space for one year. Actually, to be more precise, it will be 342 days. Watch on NASA TV (coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. CDT) or follow #YearInSpace on twitter to keep up to date.
The launch is scheduled at 2:42 p.m. with docking at the International Space Station scheduled for 8:36 p.m.
In the hours before the launch of Kelly, Korniyenko and Gennady Padalka on Soyuz TMA-16M, it might be worth to note that Kelly is the NASA astronaut with the most patches with his name on it for a mission.
Kelly with his one year patch.
- Credit: NASA
In fact, in a story by Robert Pearlman of CollectSpace, Pearlman writes about a particular name patch that was supposed to launch to orbit back in late October 2014 aboard the Cygnus cargo capsule. The rocket carrying it exploded seconds after liftoff. Apparently those patches survived unscathed, and Kelly will be taking them on his launch today as a memento of good luck. Kelly has a number of other patches associated with him. In total, he has 11 patches with his name on it. This doesn't include honorary patches and patches that had to be changed. The person with the most space mission patches is Gennady Padalka, with 13 patches. Read the CollectSpace article here.
Kelly and Korniyenko's one year mission patch.
- Credit: NASA
It is T minus 5 days till Scott Kelly, along with Mikhail Korniyenko and Gennady Padalka launch to the ISS. Kelly and Korniyenko will be staying aboard for a whole year before returning to earth in March of 2016. Liftoff is scheduled for 27 March 2015 at 2:42 p.m. CDT in Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan aboard Soyuz TMA-16M.
Kelly has been tweeting regularly about his preparations to launch, and he plans to continue tweeting regularly in space, something that has become common of most American astronauts.
"I'm thinking this is about to get real. #YearInSpace"
- Credit: @StationCDRKelly
The 51 year old Kelly has spent more than 180 days in space to date on two space shuttle missions and aboard the ISS on the expedition 25/26 crew increment.
On this mission, NASA has the opportunity to compare how his body reacts to being in space for a year with his identical twin brother, Mark, who will stay on Earth.
Mark was also an astronaut and spent over 54 days in space on four shuttle missions. He is currently retired.
The purpose of the year long mission is to better understand how the human body reacts to longer missions, such as a mission to mars, which will be on the order of 30 or more months long. One of the main focuses will be on the human eye. It has been found that microgravity effects astronauts' vision. It is believed to be caused by the swelling of tissue at the back of the eye due to fluid flow. This distorts the eye's shape. It can cause near sightedness and farsightedness.
A photo of a CRS-3 at the launch pad in April 2014.
- Credit: NASA
Two weeks after Kelly and crew launch to the station, SpaceX will be in the spotlight launching its next Dragon capsule to ISS.
SpX-6 or CRS-6 will launch on April 10 at 4:42 p.m. CDT. This comes after a delay with another Falcon 9 rocket that was to launch a European-built communications satellite for the government of Turkmenistan. SpaceX decided to flip the order of launches as to keep the flow going, and not cause large delays with the overall manifest.
This Falcon 9 rocket will have landing legs affixed to it's first stage and will attempt to land on the company's Automated Spaceport Drone Ship known as "Just Read The Instructions."
If the landing is successful, it will be the first time SpaceX has recovered a booster stage, and the first time a flown orbital class rocket has landed on an ocean going platform.
SpaceX intends to use the first recovered stage as a test article in New Mexico to determine hardware limits, such as how many times the stage can be reused.
Three people fell back to earth on March 11, 2015 in their Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft after spending 167 days in space. NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore, and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Yelena Serova undocked their Soyuz from the International Space Station earlier that day
Yelena Serova was only the fourth Russian woman to fly in space.
Berry "Butch" Wilmore participated in three spacewalks to help prepare the space station for future commercial crew vehicles, as well as other various maintenance.
Their mission into space started off with a little concern, as one of the two solar panels of the Soyuz did not deploy. But upon docking, enough vibration caused the panel to shake open.
During landing procedures, there was a longer than normal communications blackout, which caused some to be concerned, but communications was eventually reestablished. Landing occurred in the southeast of Dzhezkazgan, but touchdown took extra time to confirm because of a low cloud deck with heavy fog. The next crew to go to the station will launch abourd Soyuz TMA-16M on March 27, 2015 at 2:42 p.m. CDT. That crew will include Gannady Padalka on his fifth flight to space, as well as two crew members that will stay on ISS for a whole year. Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenkio, on their fourth and second flights respectively, will stay in space till March 2016.
It has been a few weeks since my last post, but a lot has happened with the International Space Station since then. Because of that, this post will be dedicated to a review of September highlights and a list of upcoming October events.
TMA-12M crew after landing Credit: NASA
~ September 10, 2014
At 6:01 PM Central time, three members of the expedition 40 crew departed the space station in their Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft and landed in Kazakhstan 3.5 hours later. Aleksandr Skvortsov, Oleg Artemyev, and Steven Swanson spent a total of just over 169 days in space. The three crew members that remained ISS were Maksim Surayev, Gregory Wiseman, and Alexander Gerst. With the departure of TMA-12M, Expedition 41 officially began for the remaining crew.
NASA announces winners of the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) to be Boeing's CST-100, and SpaceX's Dragon V2. CCtCap is NASA's program to help the commercial industry develop a domestic human spacecraft. Since the end of the Space Shuttle Program, the United States has relied on Russia to get crews to and from ISS.
~ September 21, 2014
Eleven days after the landing of TMA-12M, an uncrewed Dragon cargo capsule was launched to ISS by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. It was captured by the crew with the space station robotic arm two days later on September 23.
Barry Wilmore, Aleksandr Samokutyayev, and Yelana Serova - Credit: NASA
~ September 25, 2014
The big ISS story of the month was the launch of Soyuz TMA-14M with three fresh crew members to join the current Expedition 41 crew. The capsule launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Russia's launch complex in Kazakhstan, and carried Aleksandr Samokutyayev, Barry Wilmore, and Yelena Serova. Yelena Serova is only the fourth Russian woman to fly to space, and the first Russian woman to visit ISS.
Soyuz on ISS approch - Credit: NASA
After launch and capsule separation from the rocket, normally two solar panels deploy to power the ships computers. Unfortunately, only one of the two twin panels deployed. Since the crew was on a fast track to ISS (only 6 hours), Russian flight controllers deemed it safe to proceed to ISS. Upon docking, the vibration caused by the two ships connecting was enough to jostle the un-deployed panel to where it finally extended.
Upcoming ISS Events
October 7 - Wiseman and Gerst are scheduled to perform a spacewalk
October 8 - ISS reboost by ATV-5
October 15 - Another spacewalk scheduled for Wiseman and Gerst
October 18 - Dragon cargo ship unberthing and de-orbit
October 21 - Cygnus launch at 8:29 PM CDT
October 22 - Spacewalk by Samokutyayev and Suraev
October 24 - Cygnus capture and berthing to ISS
October 27 - Progress M-24M cargo ship undocking and de-orbit
