Ups and Downs for March

[GordonD]

24 MARCH

 

1961 MR-BD

 

Though nobody realised it at the time, this flight was to change history. The previous Mercury-Redstone launch, MR-2, had suffered a stuck thrust regulator which caused the vehicle to fly faster and higher than planned. Despite this, the flight was seen as a success and all the astronauts were willing to fly it. However the engineers insisted on an additional test to make sure there would be no repetition of the problem. Carrying the reconditioned capsule from Little Joe 1B, the Mercury-Redstone Booster Development flight carried out a textbook mission, reaching a peak altitude of 183km and a velocity of 8,245km/hr. No attempt was made to separate the spacecraft, and the combination came down in the Atlantic some 495km downrange. Though all of the objectives were met, the delay meant that the first manned flight could not take place before the end of April. By that time Yuri Gagarin had orbited the Earth in Vostok 1 and the race had been lost.

 

 

1992 STS-45 launch

Crew: Charlie Bolden (CDR); Brian Duffy (P); Kathy Sullivan, David Leestma, Michael Foale (MS); Dirk Frimout [Belgium], Byron Lichtenberg (PS)

 

46th Shuttle mission; 11th flight of Atlantis

Payload was the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS-1). This was the first of several flights planned to take place over a single eleven-year solar cycle, during which solar flares, sunspots and other magnetic activity move from intense activity to relative calm. ATLAS consisted of twelve instruments from various nations including the Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy (ATMOS); Grille Spectrometer; Millimeter Wave Atmospheric Sounder (MAS); Imaging Spectrometric Observatory (ISO); Atmospheric Lyman-Alpha Emissions (ALAE); Atmospheric Emissions Photometric Imager (AEPI); Space Experiments with Particle Accelerators (SEPAC); Active Cavity Radiometer (ACR); Measurement of Solar Constant (SOLCON); Solar Spectrum (SOLSPEC); Solar Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SUSIM); and Far Ultraviolet Space Telescope (FAUST). To maximise the science return the crew was divided into two shifts: Leestma, Foale and Lichtenberg forming the Red Team and the others comprising the Blue.

[GordonD]

25 MARCH

 

1992 Soyuz TM-13 landing

Crew: Aleksandr Volkov (CDR); Sergei Krikalev (FE); Klaus-Dietrich Flade [Germany] (RC)

Landing site: 85 km NE of Arkalyk

 

Of the three cosmonauts aboard, only Volkov had been launched aboard the TM-13 capsule, the previous October. His flight time was 175d 2h 51m, covering 2,771 orbits. Flight Engineer Sergie Krikalev had already been aboard Mir for nearly five months when Volkov joined him; his flight time was 311d 20h and 4,934 orbits. He had been launched in Soyuz TM-12 alongside Britain's first astronaut, Helen Sharman. The third crewmember for the descent, Klaus-Dietrich Flade, had been in orbit for a little over a week, having flown to Mir on Soyuz TM-14 with the eleventh resident crew. His flight time was 7d 21h 57m.

 

While Krikalev and Volkov were in orbit, the USSR had been dissolved, so they began their missions as citizens of the Soviet Union, launched from the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, and landed as Russians in the independent Republic of Kazakhstan.

 

 

2014 Soyuz TMA-12M launch

Crew: Aleksandr Skvortsov (CDR); Oleg Artemyev, Steven Swanson [USA] (FE)

 

ISS Expeditions 39/40. The original plan was to fly the 'fast-track' rendezvous with the station, docking only six hours after launch, but though the first two engine firings were carried out the third was cancelled because of an attitude control problem and the flight reverted to the more traditional two-day approach. However docking went without a hitch and the crew joined the Expedition 38/39 team of Tyurin, Mastracchio and Wakata. Planned mission duration was around six months.

[GordonD]

26 MARCH

 

2009 Soyuz TMA-14 launch

Crew: Gennadi Padalka (CDR); Michael Barratt [USA] (FE); Charles Simonyi [USA] (SP)

 

Padalka and Barratt formed ISS Expedition 19; Simonyi was a Spaceflight Participant (fare-paying tourist) who was actually making his second trip into space; to date the only person to have made two trips as a passenger. Docking with the ISS was achieved after the usual two-day approach and the crew took over control from the Expedition 18 team, with whom Simonyi would return to Earth in ten days' time.

[GordonD]

27 MARCH

 

2008 STS-123 landing

Crew: Dominic Gorie (CDR); Greg H. Johnson (P); Robert Behnken, Michael Foreman, Takao Doi [Japan]; Richard Linnehan; Léopold Eyharts [France] (MS)

Landing site: Kennedy Space Center

 

Flight time for the main crew was 15d 18h 11m, 249 orbits. Eyharts had been part of the ISS resident crew and was exchanged for Garrett Reisman; his flight time was 48d 4h 54m, 758 orbits.

 

 

2015 Soyuz TMA-16M launch

Crew: Gennadi Padalka (CDR); Mikhail Korniyekno, Scott Kelly [USA] (FE)

 

ISS Expeditions 43/44 (and 45/46 for Korniyenko and Kelly). This was the beginning of the Year in Space mission: though the Russians had carried out a number of very long flights, these had all been aboard Mir more than a decade earlier. It was decided to put two men aboard the ISS for a year to take advantage of the improved medical techniques that had been developed since then. Scott Kelly was the natural choice for the American side, as he has an identical twin brother who was also an astronaut and would provide the perfect control subject by remaining on Earth during the mission. 

[GordonD]

28 MARCH

 

1963 SA-4

 

SA-4 was the fourth development flight for the Saturn I. A month earlier, NASA announced that the vehicle’s designation was being changed from C-1 to the simpler Saturn I, with the Saturn C-5—then still on the drawing boards—becoming the Saturn V. During the first stage burn one of the eight H-1 engines was deliberately shut down, 100 seconds after lift-off, as a test of the vehicle’s ability to recover from such an event. The launcher’s Instrument Unit handled the situation as expected and burned the remaining seven engines for longer than normal to compensate, putting the vehicle back on its pre-programmed trajectory. The retro-rockets on the first stage were tested again, and the upper stage was fitted with simulated camera pods and ullage motors for the first time.

 

 

2009 STS-119 landing

Crew: Lee Archambault (CDR); Dominic Antonelli (P); Joseph Acaba, Steven Swanson, Richard Arnold, John Phillips, Sandra Magnus (MS)

Landing site: Kennedy Space Center

 

Sandra Magnus was returning from her residency aboard the ISS as part of Expedition 18; her flight time was 133d 18h 18m, 2,105 orbits. Flight time for the other members of the crew was 15d 20h 29m.

 

 

2013 Soyuz TMA-08M launch

Crew: Pavel Vinogradov (CDR); Aleksandr Misurkin, Chris Cassidy [USA] (FE)

 

ISS Expeditions 35/36. Docking with the station was achieved just 5h 45m after launch, a new record. The crew joined the Expeditions 34/35 team of Romanenko, Hadfield and Marshburn.

[GordonD]

29 MARCH

 

1974 Mariner 10

 

The Mariner 10 probe made its first flyby of Mercury, passing just 703km from the planet. The spacecraft had already flown past Venus at a distance of 5,768km, and would encounter Mercury twice more in the months to come: in September, a little over 48,000km distant and then in March the following year just 327km from the North Pole. A week after that it became clear that the probe's attitude control propellant had been exhausted and a signal was sent to shut it down. Mariner is presumably still in solar orbit.

[GordonD]

30 MARCH

 

1981 Soyuz 39 landing

Crew: Vladimir Dzhanibekov (CDR); Jugderdemidyin Gurragcha [Mongolia] (RC)

Landing site: 170km SE of Dzheskasgan

 

Visiting flight took place during Salyut 6 Expedition 6 but no exchange of spacecraft was carried out. Flight time was 7d 20h 42m; 124 orbits.

 

 

1982 STS-3 landing

Crew: Jack Lousma (CDR); Gordon Fullerton (P)

Landing site: White Sands, New Mexico

 

Excessive rain at Edwards AFB had led to flooding and the landing site was switched to the White Sands Space Harbor, which was used for Shuttle pilot training. The flight was then extended by one day due to high winds but Columbia then returned safely, the only Shuttle mission not to end at either KSC or Edwards. Flight time was 8d 5m; 130 orbits. The landing may have come as a relief to the crew as the Shuttle's toilet malfunctioned when it was first used, leading to what Lousma described as "eight days of colourful flushing".

 

 

2006 Soyuz TMA-8 launch

Crew: Pavel Vinogradov (CDR); Jeffrey Williams [USA] (FE); Marcos Pontes [Brazil] (SP)

 

Vinogradov and Williams formed ISS Expedition 13; Pontes, as a Spaceflight Participant (fare-paying passenger) would be returning with the Expedition 12 crew after a week or so. Docking with the station was achieved after the normal two-day approach.

[GordonD]

31 MARCH

 

1996 STS-76 landing

Crew: Kevin Chilton (CDR); Richard Searfoss (P); Ron Sega, Rich Clifford, Linda Godwin (MS)

Landing site: Edwards AFB

 

This had been the third Shuttle/Mir docking and Shannon Lucid had as planned remained aboard the station. The landing had originally been scheduled for 31 March but was brought forward by a day because of bad weather forecast at Kennedy. However after the payload bay doors had been closed ready for re-entry the return was postponed as the weather closed in earlier than expected. There was a minor hitch when the crew tried to reopen the doors (necessary to expose the radiators as otherwise the Orbiter would overheat) when some of the central latches appeared not to have released but a visual inspection seemed to indicate all was well and the doors were opened manually. As the weather at the Cape was no better on 31 March the landing was switched to Edwards. Flight time was 9d 5h 16m; 144 orbits.