Ups and Downs for February

[GordonD]

26 FEBRUARY

 

1966 AS-201

 

During the Saturn I programme, it started to become clear that a more powerful launch vehicle would be required for manned Apollo flights in Earth orbit, before the Saturn V was ready to fly lunar missions. Though NASA had plans for a launcher then called the Saturn C-3, this was never built and it was decided instead to put a more powerful stage two on top of the S-I first stage of the Saturn I. In the event the first stage was uprated too and renamed the S-IB. Its weight had come down and engine thrust was increased to a total of 725.76 tonnes, in comparison to the 682.1 tonnes of the later S-I stages. For the second stage, the S-IVB was chosen, the same vehicle that would become stage three of the mighty Saturn V. This would give the new intermediate launch vehicle, to be known as the Saturn C-1B (later just the Saturn IB) an Earth-orbit payload capacity of around 18 tonnes, enough for an Apollo CSM if its propellant tanks were not filled to capacity—which for an Earth-orbital mission was not necessary anyway. The maiden flight of the new launcher carried the first production CSM, SC-009. Launch was delayed due to problems with the pressure in the gaseous nitrogen purge system, but got under way at last, the spacecraft following a sub-orbital trajectory and reaching a peak altitude of 488km. After the CSM separated, the Service Module engine was fired twice, the first burn lasting a little more than three minutes and the second, following almost immediately, for ten seconds. This manoeuvre demonstrated the engine’s restart capability, vital for a flight to the Moon. The effective result of these burns was to boost the Command Module back into the atmosphere at high speed, simulating a return from the Moon. The capsule landed safely in the Atlantic, some 320km from Ascension Island.

[GordonD]

27 FEBRUARY

 

1992 Russian Space Agency established

 

Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree bringing into being the Rossiyskoe Kosmicheskoye Agentsvo or Russian Space Agency, which would in future be responsible for overseeing all Russian space activity in the same way as NASA. Projects for space operations will be submitted to the RKA for evaluation of the necessity and cost then sent to the Parliament for approval.

[GordonD]

28 FEBRUARY

 

1966 Gemini IX prime crew killed

 

On a flight to the McDonnell plant at St. Louis, to inspect their Gemini IX spacecraft, the mission's prime crew of Charlie Bassett and Elliot See were killed when their plane missed the approach and struck the building where the capsule was under construction. Both men were killed instantly. The mission was ultimately flown by the backup team of Tom Stafford and Eugene Cernan (who were also flying to St. Louis but managed to land safely). The other backup teams moved up one mission, which meant that the new backup Pilot Buzz Aldrin would eventually fly on Gemini XII, making him eligible for Apollo 11 - as a rookie he would not have been considered.

 

 

1977 Space Shuttle Orbiter/SCA Flight CI-4

 

The fourth Captive-Inactive test simulated the flight profile which would be followed when the Orbiter was released to glide back on its own: a direct ascent to an altitude of 7,620m. The carrier then pitched down to fly a series of shallow dives, a manoeuvre which on the real flights would help the Orbiter separate cleanly and quickly pull away to a safe distance. The 747 then climbed to a record programme altitude of 8,700m to begin a further series of dives, ending with a simulated emergency descent in which all four engines were throttled back to the idle position. On the final approach the aircraft carried out a landing abort, throttling up the engines to full power and overflying the runway at a height of just 6m before going around for a second attempt, during which full braking power was applied, bringing the aircraft to a complete standstill in a distance compatible with the 2,280m runway at the Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville, Alabama, where the Enterprise would be taken at the end of the ALT programme, for further vibration testing.

 

 

1990 STS-36 launch

Crew: John Creighton (CDR); John Casper (P); Mike Mullane, Dave Hilmers, Pierre Thuot (MS)

 

34th Shuttle mission; sixth flight of Atlantis

This was a classified Department of Defense mission, which deployed a reconnaissance satellite. Payload requirements meant that the Shuttle had to reach an orbital inclination of 62°, greater than the normal maximum of 57°. As such the launch rules prohibiting flight over land were suspended, with the vehicle's trajectory taking it over Cape Hatteras, Cape Cod and parts of Canada.

 

 

1999 Soyuz TM-28 landing

Crew: Gennadi Padalka (CDR); Ivan Bella [Slovakia] (RC)

Landing site: 50° 42' N, 67° 12' E

 

Padalka had been launched aboard the spacecraft the previous August as Mir Expedition 26. His flight time was 198d 16h 31m and he completed 3,144 orbits. Sergei Avdeyev, launched with him, would remain aboard Mir for a further six months; the third member of that crew, Yuri Baturin, had already returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-27 after a short 11-day flight. Alongside Padalka for the landing was Ivan Bella, who had been launched a little over a week earlier in Soyuz TM-29; his flight time was 7d 21h 56m and 125 orbits.

 

 

2018 Soyuz MS-06 landing

Crew: Aleksandr Misurkin (CDR); Mark Vande Hei, Joseph Acaba [both USA] (FE)

Landing site: 47°21'23.04"N, 69°36'24.36"E

 

ISS Expeditions 53/54. Flight time 168d 5h 14m; 2,617 orbits.

[GordonD]

29 FEBRUARY

 

1996 Soyuz TM-22 landing

Crew: Yuri Gizenko (CDR); Sergei Avdeyev, Thomas Reiter [Germany] (FE)

Landing site: 51° 18' N, 67° 27' E

 

Mir Expedition 20. Mission duration was 179d 1h 42m, 2,833 orbits.

 

[Bengalensis]

Many thanks for another month of interesting happenings, I'm impressed.