Ups and Downs for May

[GordonD]

26 MAY

 

1969 Apollo 10 splashdown

Crew: Tom Stafford (CDR); Eugene Cernan (LMP); John Young (CMP)

Splashdown site:15° 2' S, 164° 39' W (east of Samoa in the Pacific Ocean)

 

This was the final test before the lunar landing attempt, checking out the LM in lunar orbit. Flight time was 8d 0h 3m; just 1.5 Earth orbits and 31 lunar ones. Splashdown was just 5.4km from the recovery vessel USS Princeton.

 

 

1980 Soyuz 36 launch

Crew: Valeri Kubasov (CDR); Bertalan Farkas [Hungary] (RC)

 

Fifth Interkosmos mission; third taxi flight to Salyut 6. The mission was delayed by a year because of the problems experienced on Soyuz 33 but all went well on this occasion, with docking taking place a day into the flight and the crew joining the resident Expedition Four team. Over 60 percent of Hungary's territory was photographed, while at the same time pictures were taken from an altitude of between six and eight kilometres, for comparison purposes.

 

 

1981 Soyuz T-4 landing

Crew: Vladimir Kovalyonok (CDR); Viktor Savinykh (FE)

Landing site: 125 km E of Dzheskasgan

 

Salyut 6 Expedition 5, the last crew to occupy that space station. When they separated from Salyut it was done by triggering the explosive bolts attaching the Orbital Module, leaving that segment still docked. This would normally prevent any following craft from docking so the OM was jettisoned after five days. Meanwhile Soyuz T-4 made a safe landing after 74d 17h 37m and 1,178 orbits.

 

 

2010 STS-132 landing

Crew: Kenneth Ham (CDR); Tony Antonelli (P); Garrett Reisman, Michael Good, Stephen Bowen, Piers Sellers (MS)

Landing site: Kennedy Space Center

 

Flight time 11d 18h 28m, 186 orbits. This was supposed to be the final flight of Atlantis but the Orbiter would make one more trip, though with a greatly reduced crew.

[GordonD]

27 MAY

 

1999 STS-96 launch

Crew: Kent Rominger (CDR); Rick Husband (P); Tamara Jernigan, Ellen Ochoa, Daniel Barry, Julie Payette [Canada], Valeri Tokarev [Russia] (MS)

 

94th Shuttle mission; 26th flight of Discovery

The primary objective was to deliver supplies and equipment to the ISS, though the first expedition was still eighteen months away. One EVA was carried out, on 30 May, with Jernigan and Barry installing crane systems that would be used on future assembly operations. The EVA lasted 7h 55m. Technically, this was the first docking of a Shuttle Orbiter with the ISS: the previous assembly flight had delivered the Unity Module and attached it to the Zarya base block, but on this occasion Discovery linked up with the components already on orbit. 

 

 

2009 Soyuz TMA-15 launch

Crew: Roman Romanenko (CDR); Frank de Winne [Belgium]. Robert Thirsk [Canada] (FE)

 

ISS Expeditions 20/21. Mission Commander was Roman Romanenko, son of cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko. Docking was achieved on 29 May: with the Expedition 19 team of Padalka, Barratt and Wakata already aboard, the ISS resident crew was increased to six for the first time. The arrival of Soyuz also marked the beginning of Expedition 20.

[GordonD]

28 MAY

 

1964 A-101/SA-6 launch

 

The sixth Saturn I was the first to carry a dummy Apollo CSM, the boilerplate vehicle BP-13, as opposed to the nosecone from a Jupiter missile that had been flown on the previous five launches. During the first stage burn, one engine shut down 26 seconds early, as had happened on SA-4, but this time it had not been planned. The Instrument Unit, however, operated as on the earlier flight, running the remaining seven engines until the propellant tanks were empty; thus ensuring that the vehicle kept as closely as possible to its intended trajectory. When the first stage dropped away, the S-IV took over, pushing the CSM on up towards orbit: the first piece of Apollo hardware to reach it. No attempt was made to separate the spacecraft from the launch vehicle, or to recover the capsule, and the Apollo-Saturn combination re-entered and burned up when the orbit decayed after four days. Post-flight telemetry analysis revealed that the engine failure had been caused when the teeth were stripped from a gear-wheel in its turbopump. Previous ground-testing had already given the engine builders cause for concern, and a new design had already been produced and was due to be used on the next flight: thus the programme continued without delay.

 

 

2013 Soyuz TMA-09M launch

Crew: Fyodor Yurchikhin (CDR); Luca Parmitano [Italy], Karen Nyberg [USA] (FE)

 

ISS Expeditions 36/37. The spacecraft followed a fast-track approach trajectory and docked with the ISS just six hours after launch, the crew joining the Expedition 35/36 team of Pavel Vinogradov, Aleksandr Misurkin and Chris Cassidy. During the mission, two EVAs were carried out, both by Cassidy and Parmitano: on 9 July, they replaced a space-to-ground communications receiver and wireless video equipment and installed power and cables for a Russian multipurpose laboratory module. This lasted 6h 7m. Then on 16 July a second EVA had to be cut short when Parmitano felt the back of his neck becoming wet and it was realised that his helmet was filling with water. The astronauts had to make an emergency return to the station, after just 1h 32m. This was made more difficult because the ISS had just begun to pass over the night side of Earth. Later analysis found that one of the suit's filters had become clogged, causing water from the cooling system to back up and escape into Parmitano's helmet. The total time for both men was 7h 39m.

 

 

2014 Soyuz TMA-13M launch

Crew: Maksim Surayev (CDR); Greg Wiseman [USA], Alexander Gerst [Germany] (FE)

 

ISS Expeditions 40/41. This was another fast-track rendezvous with docking just six hours into the flight. Already aboard the ISS were the Expedition 39/40 team of Aleksandr Skvortsov, Oleg Artemyev and Steven Swanson. Several EVAs were carried out during this mission: those involving members of the TMA-13M crew were as follows:

 

(1) 7 October; Wiseman and Gerst (6h 13m): The astronauts moved a failed cooling pump from temporary to long-term storage on the station's truss. They also installed a new relay system that will provide backup power options to the mobile transporter, which moves the large robotic arm around the out outside of the space station.

(2) 15 October; Wiseman and Wilmore (6h 34m): Replaced a sequential shunt unit electronics box (voltage regulator)

(3) 22 October: Surayev and Samokutyayev (3h 38m): Removed and jettisoned several pieces of hardware no longer needed on the Russian segment of the station and conducted a detailed photographic survey of the exterior surface of the Russian modules.

 

Wiseman's total EVA time was 12h 47m. Wilmore and Samokutyayev were members of the following expedition, arriving aboard Soyuz TMA-14M on 26 September.

[GordonD]

29 MAY

 

1996 STS-77 landing

Crew: John Casper (CDR); Curtis Brown (P); Andrew Thomas, Daniel Bursch, Mario Runco, Marc Garneau [Canada] (MS)

Landing site: Kennedy Space Center

 

Mission conducted various experiments with the SPACEHAB module. Flight time 10d 0h 39m; 161 orbits.

 

 

2000 STS-101 landing

Crew: James Halsell (CDR); Scott Horowitz (P); Mary Ellen Weber, Jeffrey Williams, James Voss, Susan Helms, Yuri Usachyov [Russia] (MS)

Landing site: Kennedy Space Center

 

ISS assembly flight; delivered supplies and equipment ready for the arrival of the first occupants in around six months' time. Flight time 9d 20h 9m; 155 orbits.

[GordonD]

30 MAY

 

1966 Surveyor 1 launch

 

The Surveyor programme was designed to develop soft-landing technology and to provide basic scientific and engineering data in support of Project Apollo, and succeeded at the first attempt. Surveyor 1 touched down in the Ocean of Storms on 2 June and began transmitting the first of more than 11,150 clear, detailed television pictures to Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Deep Space Facility in Goldstone, California. The landing sequence began 3,200km above the Moon, with the spacecraft travelling at a speed of 9,700km/hr. The spacecraft was successfully slowed to 5.6km/hr by the time it reached an altitude of four metres and then free-fell to the surface at 13km/hr. The landing was so precise that the three footpads touched the surface within 19 milliseconds of each other, and it confirmed that the lunar surface could support the LM. 

[GordonD]

31 MAY

 

2008 STS-124 launch

Crew: Mark Kelly (CDR); Kenneth Ham (P); Karen Nyberg, Ron Garan, Michael Fossum, Akihiko Hoshide [Japan], Greg Chamitoff (MS)

 

123rd Shuttle mission; 35th flight of Discovery

Delivered the Kibo Module, the pressurised part of the Japanese section of the ISS. A partial crew exchange was also carried out, with Chamitoff remaining behind when Discovery returned to Earth: he replaced Garrett Reisman who was ending a three-month stay. Three EVAs were conducted during the mission, all by Fossum and Garan:

 

(1) 3 June; 6h 48m. The Orbital Boom Sensor was transferred back to the Orbiter from the ISS truss and Kibo prepared for attaching to the station: this was later achieved using the manipulator arm.

(2) 5 June; 7h 11m. External television equipment was installed on Kibo and thermal covers removed; also the attachment point for the module's external platform was prepared for its arrival on a future flight

(3) 8 June; 6h 33m. A malfunctioning nitrogen tank on the ISS truss was replaced with a new one.

 

Total EVA time for both men was 20h 32m.