Soyuz Launch to ISS Reinforces Expedition 43

Soyuz Launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Another crew for the ISS lifted off yesterday after midnight in Kazakhstan. Soyuz mission TMA-16M (NASA designation Soyuz 42- or is it the other way around?) lifted off at 1:42 p.m. MDT, carrying Soyuz commander cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko (both from Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency), and astronaut Scott Kelly. They docked with the space station about 6 hours later.

Crew of TMA-16M (L-R): Scott Kelly, Gennady Padalka, Mikhail Kornienko in front of Soyuz training simulator in Star City.

Currently on board the station are Expedition 43 commander Terry Virts (NASA), and Flight Engineers Samantha Cristoforetti (ESA) and Anton Shkaplerov (Roscosmos). When they return home in May, Gannady Padalka will become the next Expedition commander. While he will himself leave the station some time in September, Kelly and Kornienko will remain on board as part of a special project studying the effects of living in space for one entire year.

Already at the station: another Soyuz (closer to camera) and a Progress resupply ship.

50 Years Ago: Ranger IX Crashes into the Moon

Last of the Ranger probes, Ranger IX.

Quickly following the successful flight of Gemini 3 the day before, NASA scientists were busy crashing a probe into the lunar surface - on purpose. Ranger IX was the last in the Ranger series of Lunar Exploration probes designed to give scientists close up video and pictures of potential landing sites. On March 24, a final use of thrusters precisely tilted the spacecraft for maximum camera use and the craft plunged to its impact site in the crater Alphonsus. The speed of the crash was at about 8,800 feet per second.

Ranger image of the floor of the crater Alphonsus before impact.

50 Years Ago: First Manned Gemini Mission Blasts Off

Gemini 3 crews (L-R): John Young, Gus Grissom, and backup crew Wally Schirra, Tom Stafford.

Fifty Years ago the first manned flight of a Gemini spacecraft lifted off from Launch Complex 19 on the Cape Kennedy installation. Astronauts Gus Grissom (who flew on Mercury's second sub-orbital flight) and rookie astronaut John Young rode the spacecraft perched on the Titan II rocket. The 4 hour 52 minute flight lifted off at 9:24 am Eastern time on March 23 and the Gemini spacecraft successfully entered orbit. 

The gantry lowers into firing position.

Titan II missile lifts off from the pad carrying the GT-3 capsule and crew.

Th 3-orbit mission was designed to test the flying capabilities of the Gemini spacecraft. Besides a thorough checkout of the life support and operational systems, the crew was to test their ability to change orbital levels, maneuver, and manually control their descent to a splashdown location. All parameters were successful, although they did end up about 80 miles from their expected landing position.

View of a Gemini mission lifting off from LC-19.

During the flight, it turned out that the playful John Young had snuck a corned-beef sandwich onto the capsule. During the flight, he surprised Grissom with a sandwich he pulled out from his flight suit. Each astronaut took a bite, then stowed the sandwich away. Mission controllers were later upset, worried that crumbs might have gotten into the flight controls and endangered the mission.

There was also a slight thruster problem, in that a left yaw variation kept occurring. This was later traced to a venting water boiler. This problem would have dire consequences in a later Gemini flight.

After splashdown, the crew moved into rafts once Navy divers secured the craft and helicopters arrived to remove the crew.

Once safely returned to Earth, the crew had to wait a half hour longer than expected while the recovery ship USS Intrepid moved to their location. Considering the loss of the Mercury capsule earlier, Grissom and Young decided not to open the hatches until the recovery divers had arrived.

The empty capsule about to be hoisted aboard USS Intrepid.

With the completion of GT-3, the Russians seemed to still be ahead - they had already had a three-man mission (Voskhod 1), and their two-man mission (Voskhod2) had completed an EVA as well. For NASA, however, it was the first flight of an American two-manned craft, and the first re-entry of a manned capsule where the crew could change their splashdown site. NASA was ready to begin the long series of Gemini test missions which would prepare crews for the Apollo program. 

The Gemini 3 capsule was preserved, and today can be seen at the Grissom Memorial in Mitchell, Indiana.

50 Years Ago: Soviet Cosmonaut Walks in Space

Hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Leonov.

Fifty years ago on March 18, 1965 the Soviet Union again pulled ahead of the United States in the Great Space Race. From Baikonur in the province of Kazakhstan, a forerunner of the Soyuz rocket lifted off carrying the two-man Voskhod 2 capsule. Aboard the spacecraft were cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Commander Pavel Belyayev. The Voskhod 2 had been modified for this flight with the addition of a special airlock in preparation for the first EVA, or Extra-Vehicular-Activity (spacewalk).

Comparison of the Voskhod 1 and version 2 with undeployed airlock.

Once the spacecraft reached orbit, the special airlock was inflated so that the outer hatch was moved a distance from the descent module. In the EVA plan, a cosmonaut would pressurize the extended airlock, then enter the airlock, named Volga. The hatch to the cabin would then be closed, and the airlock depressurized. This was necessary because the Voskhod controls and avionics were air-cooled, and would not function properly if the cabin were depressurized.

Illustration of the EVA elements.

In the actual event, post-flight statements from the Soviet government that the EVA went perfectly turned out not to be true. After leaving the airlock, Leonov floated to the end of his umbilical hose, and his pressure suit began to "balloon" and stiffen due to over pressurization. Finding it very difficult to move freely, he was unable to activate a switch on his suit that would allow him to take pictures from a chest-mounted camera. He was also unable to control his movements enough to retrieve an exterior-mounted camera recording his EVA. After 12 minutes he finally managed to re-enter the airlock, but had entered head-first, not according to procedure. He became stuck trying to turn around, and finally solved the problem by risking "the bends" by lowering his suit pressure so that he could bend. Supposedly, Leonov could have been ejected with the airlock if he could not recover and the commander would return alone. The EVA was so difficult that doctors later reported that Leonov could have suffered from heatstroke, and he admitted later that he was sweating profusely so much that water "sloshed" in his spacesuit. Fortunately, he did manage to return, repressurize the airlock, and then re-enter the cabin.

Leonov outside the airlock entrance.

Before re-entry, the airlock was jettisoned. Unlike the earlier Vostok capsules, the Voskhod had no escape method and so instead of parachuting to ground after re-entry, the crew would ride the descent module to a harder landing with retro-rockets just before touchdown. The crew did land safely despite a problem with the descent module not separating cleanly from the service and instrument sections. They landed in the Ural mountains area so far from their rescue teams that they had to spend the night in their capsule, while wolves were heard outside.

Leonov, second from right, in Salt Lake City in 2005.

These days, Alexei Leonov is a great promoter of space exploration, a businessman, and is an artist as well. In 2005 he attended the XIX COngress of the Association of Space Explorers held in Salt Lake CIty, UT. As part of the ceremonies, our Space Center staff was able to participate and later meet with the astronauts from around the world. I took the picture above of Leonov standing with cosmonauts from the former Soviet Union, and of course I got his autograph.

50 Years Ago: Asset Lost at Sea and an Atlas Rocket Explodes

Back on February 23, 1965 the United States Air Force lost one of its Assets. Literally. As part of Project Asset, the US Air Force was testing the heat shield part of the cancelled DynaSoar X-20 program. Realizing that the data on glider re-entry would still be valuable, the ASSET program continued and the information would later be used to help design the Space Shuttle.

The Asset launches used pad 17B on Cape Canaveral, and were planned to arc out over the Atlantic and have the glider test craft recovered for analysis. ASV-1, launched on a Thor rocket, succeeded in re-entry and landing in the ocean, but it's recovery system malfunctioned and it sank and was lost. Remaining missions used a Thor-Delta rocket configuration using a second stage to propel the craft on a steeper re-entry path. The second launch was also a disaster, the second stage malfunctioned and the craft was self-destructed in flight. ASSET 3 was a success, and the craft recovered and is preserved in the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH. The other flights were also lost at sea after successful flights but failures in recovery. ASV-6, occurring 50 years ago, was the end of the program.

Pictures by Ed Hengeveld.

Within a few weeks of the ASV-6 failure, there was another disaster at the Cape. Two seconds after ignition on Pad 36B, an Atlas-Centaur rocket carrying a dummy test Surveyor spacecraft, exploded into a fireball. A fuel valve shut off at ignition, causing 2 of 3 engines to fail. The rocket collapsed back onto the launchpad, having only risen three feet. It then tipped over and exploded onto the ground. No one was hurt and the damage was estimate at $5 million.

Atlas-Centaur 5 on Pad 36B.

Flames surround the rocket as it settles back onto the pad.

The explosion engulfs the tower as well.

More distant view of the explosion.

Wreckage at the site.

 

50 Years Ago: GT-3 Gets its Name

One version of the GT-3 mission patch design.

With less than a week to go before launch, astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young officially designated their upcoming flight spacecraft as "Gemini 3" and "Molly Brown." During Grissom's last flight, a sub-orbital mission launched on a Redstone rocket, disaster struck as the crew hatch explosive bolts accidentally ignited, blowing the hatch off the spacecraft and allowing seawater to flood the spacecraft. Despite heroic efforts, the recovery team could not save the ship and it sank to the Atlantic seafloor. Just barely escaping the capsule, Grissom's suit began to fill with water as well but he was successfully hoisted into the hovering helicopter. At first blamed for a possible pilot error by some in the press, Grissom was cleared by an investigation. As commander of the first manned flight of the Gemini program, Grissom and Young decided to name the craft after the "Unsinkable" Molly Brown, a flamboyant and popular rich American woman who was one of the survivors of the Titanic sinking in 1912. 

Molly Brown.

Evidently the name was intended to be "good luck" and an assurance that THIS spacecraft was not about to be lost under Grissom's command.

Commemorative medallion, front and back, and carried aboard the flight.

Interestingly, the design was not made as a patch at first. No mission patch was worn by the crew, as would be made popular in later flights. The design was made into several medallions that were taken on the flight and later given to family members of the astronauts. After the flight, a patch design was created to go along with other Gemini mission patches.

 Finalized mission patch.

Expedition 42 Returns to Earth

The Soyuz TMA-14M descent module floats down to a landing in Kazakhstan.

Expedition 42 came to an end this week, and Expedition 43 has begun. On Tuesday March 10, Expedition 42 commander Barry Wilmore gave command of the space station to Expedition 43 commander Terry Virts in a change of command ceremony. Astronaut Wilmore, Soyuz commander Alexander Samokutyaev, and cosmonaut Elena Serova undocked the Soyuz spacecraft from the ISS at 6:44 pm Eastern on Wednesday. They maneuvered their craft into a re-entry position and began to enter the Earth's atmosphere, touching down in the snowy fields of Kazakhstan at 10:07 pm Eastern. Unexpectedly, during the return, the spacecraft lost communications contact with ground flight controllers once the parachute had deployed.