ISS : événements à venir

International Space Station Status Report #07-10
4 p.m. CST Friday, Feb. 16, 2007
Expedition 14 Crew

Following Sunday’s unexpected circuit breaker trip and subsequent reset and repowering of affected equipment, the International Space Station had no further incidents. The Expedition 14 crew continued to focus on preparation for its final planned spacewalk ahead of Space Shuttle Atlantis’ arrival in March.

As Atlantis was moved to the launch pad this week, station Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Mikhail Tyurin conducted leak checks of the Russian Orlan spacesuits they will wear for their venture outside Feb. 22. They also installed some additional equipment on the suits, including lights that will assist in their tasks.

Today they verified the suits are in good condition by conducting telemetry and communications checks with flight controllers in Russia at the Mission Control Center in Korolev.

The spacewalk will be the fifth by the Expedition 14 crew – a record for ISS crews. It will be the fourth spacewalk conducted from the station in the past three weeks. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at approximately 4 a.m. CST and last six hours. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television beginning at 3 a.m. CST.

The spacewalkers will attempt to free a stuck antenna on the ISS Progress 23 cargo craft docked at the aft end of the station. They also will survey docking navigation systems for the European Automated Transfer Vehicle, a cargo craft planned to make its maiden voyage this summer.

Securing or removing the antenna will ensure it will not interfere with the Progress ship’s undocking in April. The spacewalk will be the 10th for Lopez-Alegria, a record for a U.S. astronaut.

Also this week, robotics ground controllers in Houston commanded the station's mobile transporter rail car to move to the starboard side of the station's truss in preparation for the arrival of Atlantis. Atlantis will bring a new, school bus-sized truss segment with a third set of U.S. solar arrays for the complex plus batteries and other electronics. The crew will spend Monday training on the operation of the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm from a work station inside the Destiny laboratory.

La station après STS 117!

le soyuz TMA-10 partira le 07 avril
novosti

International Space Station Status Report #07-11
11 a.m. CST Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007
Expedition 14 Crew

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin retracted a stuck antenna on a cargo spacecraft during a 6-hour, 18-minute spacewalk that ended at 10:45 a.m. CST Thursday.

On Oct. 26, the antenna did not properly retract when the Progress vehicle docked to the station's Zvezda Service Module. Moving the antenna was necessary to ensure it would not interfere with the Progress undocking in April.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin had planned to release the antenna latch with a punch and a hammer. When clearance issues prevented that, they cut struts supporting the antenna. That enabled them to partly retract the antenna and secure it with wire ties. They reported it had about six inches of clearance from Zvezda, adequate for undocking.

Early in the spacewalk, Tyurin had problems with his spacesuit's cooling system, which caused his visor to fog up. But he and Lopez-Alegria were able to complete a number of other tasks. They began the spacewalk by photographing a Russian satellite navigation antenna and changing out a Russian materials experiment. They also inspected and photographed an antenna for the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). The European cargo craft has more capacity than the Progress and is scheduled to make its first trip to the station later this year. The spacewalkers also photographed ATV docking targets.

They photographed a German robotics experiment, inspected, remated and photographed hardware connectors and inspected retention mechanisms and bolted joints on a hand-operated Strela crane that helps transport people and equipment outside Pirs. They also stowed two foot restraints on a ladder at Pirs before ending the spacewalk.

The spacewalk from the Pirs docking compartment was conducted in Russian Orlan spacesuits. It was the 81st for station assembly and maintenance, the 53rd from the station, the 20th from Pirs and the fifth for this station crew. This was the 10th spacewalk for Lopez-Alegria, a U.S. record, and the fifth for Tyurin.

International Space Station Status Report #07-12
3 p.m. CST Friday, March 2, 2007
Expedition 14 Crew

The International Space Station's Expedition 14 crew continued work this week on scientific experiments, station maintenance and clean up following a Feb. 22 Russian spacewalk.

An altitude reboost engine firing planned for Friday was postponed following the launch delay of Space Shuttle Atlantis earlier this week. The STS-117 mission had been targeted for liftoff on March 15, but was put on hold following a hail storm Monday resulting in damage requiring repair to the external fuel tank's foam.

Russian flight controllers now plan two engine firings on March 16 and 28 to increase the station's altitude, which will place the station in the desired orbit for arrival of a Soyuz spacecraft set to launch April 7. The Soyuz will bring Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov and spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi to the station. Docking to the station is April 9. Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and Simonyi plan to land in Kazakhstan April 19.

Space station managers are reviewing the work planned aboard the station for the remaining weeks of Expedition 14 and for Expedition 15 in light of the shuttle launch delay. The review seeks to optimize use of the crews' time due to the shuttle's delay.

Thursday, the station crew was awakened briefly by a caution signal when the starboard Thermal Radiator Rotary Joint (TRRJ) experienced a dropout in commands from the Rotary Joint Motor Controller. The TRRJ automatically defaulted to another command link, and there was no impact to operations. Engineers are analyzing what may have caused the problem. The rotary joint turns the radiator to provide the best possible cooling.

Flight Engineer Suni Williams practiced on a laptop computer simulation Wednesday to maintain her skill in using the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm. She also joined her fellow crewmates in the Test of Reaction and Adaptation Capabilities experiment to gather hand-eye coordination data before, during and after their mission. TRAC Principal Investigator Dr. Otmar Bock of the German Sport University in Cologne, Germany, hopes to better understand how the brain adapts during spaceflight. The experiment will be performed during both Expedition 14 and Expedition 15.

International Space Station Status Report #07-13
3 p.m. CST, Friday, March 9, 2007
Expedition 14 Crew

Science and setup for assembly highlighted the week on board the International Space Station, where the Expedition 14 crew members performed experiments related to human adaptation to space and made preparations for upcoming additions to the orbiting outpost.

Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni Williams completed the last of the internal assembly tasks for the startup later this year of the new Oxygen Generation System (OGS) in the Destiny laboratory. The astronauts installed sound-deadening equipment and an electrical cable and reconnected a wastewater hose for the hardware that was delivered last summer on space shuttle mission STS-121. OGS, which will be required once the station crew size expands to six people, is slated for activation during Expedition 15. It will function initially as another backup to the Russian Elektron system.

Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin spent time this week in maintenance of systems in the Russian segment of the station and in long-range preparations for arrival of the first of the European Space Agency’s cargo-carrying Automated Transfer Vehicles. Tyurin set up equipment in the Zvezda module for a ground-operated test of the satellite navigation system to be used during autonomous docking of the ATV to the Zvezda module’s aft port. He also pressurized and stowed a spare liquids unit for the Elektron, which supplies oxygen for the station's crew, and installed a new liquid crystal display for the TORU system, the manual docking system for Progress unpiloted supply ships.

Expedition 14 crew members used their brains this week for scientific experiments. Lopez-Alegria and Williams conducted another session with the Anomalous Long-Term Effects in Astronauts' Central Nervous System (ALTEA) experiment. It measures exposure to cosmic radiation.

For 90 minutes, each crew member wore an instrumented helmet containing six different particle detectors which measured radiation exposure, brain electrical activity and visual perception. ALTEA will further understanding of radiation impact on the human central nervous and visual systems, especially the phenomenon of crew members seeing flashes of light while in orbit.

Crew members also tested their hand-eye coordination during the Test of Reaction and Adaptation Capabilities, or TRAC, experiment. TRAC studies the theory that while the brain is adapting to space, it is unable to provide the resources necessary to perform normal motor skills such as hand-eye coordination.

They used a laptop and a joystick to control the position of a cursor, and a reaction time box to measure their response to audio and visual cues. Understanding how the brain adapts to microgravity could lead to improved procedures for activities requiring precise motor skills.

U.S. and Russian station officials reached agreement this week on a plan to have the Expedition 14 crew relocate the Soyuz TMA-9 craft on March 29 from the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module to the aft port of the Zvezda module. This will alleviate the next station resident crew from having to perform the maneuver to reach Zarya as its final destination for the Expedition 15 increment.

The ISS Progress 23 cargo ship currently docked to Zvezda, will be cast off on March 27 to make room for the Soyuz.

Both sides also agreed this week to conduct a reboost of the station on March 15 using the Progress 23 engines to place the station at the correct altitude for the launch of the Expedition 15 crew in the Soyuz TMA-10 capsule on April 7. They will dock to Zarya on April 9. The Expedition 14 crew will now return to Earth on April 20.

International Space Station Status Report #07-14
3 p.m. CDT, Friday, March 16, 2007
Expedition 14 Crew

The Expedition 14 crew was busy this week moving trash into the ISS Progress 23, installing a new window and preparing for upcoming missions to the station.

The new window was installed on Wednesday on the port side hatch of the Unity node. It is fitted with a berthing camera system that includes target markings on the outside of the hatch. This will help robotic operators align and dock the station’s new elements. The window’s installation was part of the crew’s work to ready the station’s Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3) for its relocation later this year to Unity’s Earth-facing port. This was the second hatch window installed by an Expedition crew. A similar window was installed by Expedition 6 crew members on Unity’s starboard hatch.

Additionally, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni Williams temporarily relocated a “wall” of collapsible water bags to allow them access to PMA-3 and provide access to some of the station’s computer cables, allowing Williams and Lopez-Alegria to install new, upgraded cabling.

Lopez-Alegria and Williams emptied all the items stowed in PMA-3 except for a spare Bearing Motor and Roll Ring Module, which was tied down for the adapter’s robotic relocation later this year. The apparatus is used to help the solar arrays swivel, or gimbal, to point to the sun for the generation of electricity. Additional work included preparations for the April 9 arrival of the Expedition 15 crew and U.S. spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi aboard Soyuz TMA-10. The ISS Progress 23 thrusters were fired on Thursday for 12 minutes, 32 seconds to lift the station into the correct orbit for rendezvous and docking of the Soyuz. This orbital boost also provided the correct trajectory for landing of the Expedition 14 crew members and Simonyi aboard Soyuz TMA-9 on April 20.

Other tasks included preparation for the March 29 relocation of the Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft from the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module. As a result, the Soyuz TMA-10 will not need to perform the maneuver to reach Zarya as its final destination.

Also, the crew prepared for the undocking and discarding of the ISS Progress 23 cargo ship, the station’s giant trash can, on March 27. To ready the station for the STS-117 mission, Williams began photography practice for space shuttle Atlantis' Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver. She and her new Expedition 15 crewmates will take photos of Atlantis’ heat shield as it performs the slow, 360-degree nose-forward back flip 600 feet below the station. Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin this week completed photographic observations of Earth as part of the Russian “Uragan” Earth-imaging investigation, and monitored radiation inside the station for another set of experiments. He tracks data on three different experiments that monitor cosmic rays and background radiation.

Next week, Lopez-Alegria and Williams will conduct some of the work required to install the station’s new integrated station computer network. This new system is ten times faster than the station’s current local area network (LAN) system. It will use Ethernet connectivity over a router through either cable or wireless equipment, thus eliminating drag-through cables from the U.S. segment into the Russian segment. Installation of the LAN originally was planned for the Expedition 15 crew. However, the STS-117 launch delay prompted station managers to advance the LAN work to save time during Expedition 15.

International Space Station Status Report #07-15
3:30 p.m. CDT Friday, March 23, 2007
Expedition 14 Crew

HOUSTON - The Expedition 14 crew continued work this week on scientific experiments and increased the bandwidth on the International Space Station's computer network.

Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni Williams spent time working with experiments that may hold the key to several aspects of long-duration space flight as NASA looks forward to missions back to the moon and on to Mars or other destinations.

Each served as test subject and operator for the Anomalous Long Term Effects in Astronauts' Central Nervous System experiment that examines how cosmic radiation affects brain waves. As test subjects, they wore an electroencephalograph cap that records readings of their brain functions, and over that, a special helmet with Italian-designed instruments that records the amount and types of cosmic rays passing through the station. Since cosmic radiation is even more prevalent at greater distances from Earth, the research could lead to countermeasures important to the safety and productivity of future explorers.

Lopez-Alegria and Williams also worked with the Nutritional Status Assessment experiment tracking how their bodies process nutrients in space and how food supplies are affected by storage in that environment.

Additionally, Lopez-Alegria provided the final samples associated with the Renal Stone Risk during Spaceflight: Assessment and Countermeasure Validation investigation, which is looking at the space effectiveness of a drug used on Earth to prevent kidney stones. Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin worked with three Russian experiments that monitor cosmic rays and background radiation as they relate to long-duration flights and documented the condition of the Earth below from the unique vantage point of the station.

The crew worked on an upgrade to the laptop computer network. The new, integrated station computer network will be 10 times faster than the current network, using Ethernet connectivity over a router and either cables or wireless equipment. This will eliminate drag-through cables from the U.S. segment into the Russian segment. The work was accelerated because of the STS-117 launch delay.

They also continued preparations for the undocking and discarding of the ISS Progress 23 cargo ship, which will be full of trash when it departs Tuesday, March 27. Russian flight controllers sent commands Friday that piped the last of the Progress 23 oxygen supplies into the station, and vented the Progress' propellant and oxidizer lines overboard to ensure a safe departure. The Progress is scheduled to undock at 1:11 p.m. CDT next Tuesday.

The station traffic schedule includes next Thursday's relocation of the Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft from the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module. All three crew members will undock the Soyuz at 5:25 p.m. and redock at 5:53 p.m. This will make room for the arrival of the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft carrying the Expedition 15 crew and U.S. spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi. The new crew is scheduled to launch from the Baikanour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan April 7 at 12:31 p.m. and dock with the station April 9 at 2:15 p.m.

Following a week of joint operations, Lopez-Alegria, Tyurin and Simonyi will climb into Soyuz TMA-9 and head for home April 20. They will leave Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov on board with Williams to start Expedition 15.

vp a écrit:The station traffic schedule includes next Thursday's relocation of the Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft from the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module. All three crew members will undock the Soyuz at 5:25 p.m. and redock at 5:53 p.m.

C'est cette nuit à 00h25 pour les couche-tard (ou les lève-tôt ;) )

International Space Station Status Report #07-16
6:30 p.m. CDT Thursday, March 29, 2007
Expedition 14 Crew

HOUSTON - The Expedition 14 crew continued preparations for the April arrival of a new station crew by boarding their Soyuz TMA-9 craft and taking a 24-minute flight from one station docking port to another.

Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin guided the Soyuz away from the Earth-facing port of the station's Zarya module and docked it to the aft port of the Zvezda module. The move frees the Zarya port for the arrival of the Expedition 15 crew aboard the Soyuz TMA-10, scheduled to dock to the station on April 9.

Tyurin undocked the Soyuz from Zarya at 5:30 p.m. CDT and redocked to the Zvezda port at 5:54 p.m. CDT as the station and the Soyuz flew 210 miles above the east coast of South America. Minutes later, hooks and latches engaged between the Soyuz' docking probe and Zvezda's docking port to attach the craft firmly to the station. During the time from undocking to redocking, the crew traveled about a third of the way around the world.

To prepare for Thursday's undocking and relocation, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Tyurin and Sunita Williams shut down key station systems and configured the complex for autonomous operations in the unlikely event they would not be able to redock.

Prior to undocking, Tyurin activated the Soyuz’ backup battery as a precaution when the prime spacecraft battery indicated a slightly lower voltage reading. It was quickly determined that the voltage drop was due to the activation of some Soyuz systems, and the prime battery soon returned to its normal voltage output.

Late Thursday into early Friday, the crew will open the hatch to the Soyuz, re-enter the station and reactivate systems for regular activity. Friday will be an off-duty day for the crew as they readjust their sleep cycles, which were changed to accommodate the Soyuz move.

Further preparation for the Soyuz relocation included the undocking and discarding of the ISS Progress 23 cargo craft from the aft Zvezda port on Tuesday, March 27, making room for the Soyuz to redock. That activity went smoothly; the ISS Progress undocked at 1:11 p.m. CDT and re-entered Earth's atmosphere at 5:44 p.m.

Additional work for the crew this week included a first for the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) experiment. The experiment uses 8-inch diameter spherical satellites that fly within the station cabin. The satellites test the basics of formation flight and autonomous docking that could be used in future spacecraft. The battery-powered satellites use carbon dioxide to fuel 12 thrusters as they fly in the cabin. During a weekend "Saturday Science" session, Williams conducted a SPHERES experiment run. This was the first time three satellites flew together in tests. Investigators for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, deemed the experiment highly successful.

Back on Earth, Expedition 15 cosmonauts Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, along with spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, a U.S. businessman, prepared for their April 7 launch at the Baikonur Cosomodrome, Kazakhstan.

International Space Station Status Report #07-17
3 p.m. CDT, Friday, April 6, 2007
Expedition 14 Crew

The Expedition 14 crew of the International Space Station was busy this week performing fitness evaluations, working on scientific experiments and preparing for the arrival of the Expedition 15 crew.

Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin, Expedition 15 commander, and Oleg Kotov, Expedition 15 flight engineer, and spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, a U.S. businessman, are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan about 12:30 p.m. CDT Saturday. Their Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the station about 2:12 p.m. Monday.

The Expedition 14 crew, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, will return to Earth with Simonyi on April 20. In preparation for their departure, Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin reviewed descent procedures.

Flight Engineer Suni Williams, who joined Expedition 14 in progress, will remain on the station as an Expedition 15 crew member for the first part of its increment. The two crews held a space-to-ground conference on Wednesday discussing upcoming mission activities.

On Monday, Lopez-Alegria set a new U.S. single-mission spaceflight record, passing the 196-day mark previously set by station crew members Dan Bursch and Carl Walz in 2001 and 2002.

The Expedition 14 crew performed periodic fitness evaluations this week. Additionally, they worked on a video tape recorder and on a faulty light of an ophthalmoscope that was used during a health check. They downloaded information from the Internal Wireless Instrumentation System, or IWIS, which monitors the health of the station's systems.

The crew continued scientific activities aboard the station. Williams tested a bacteria detection instrument developed by researchers at Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and industry partners. The device, Lab-On-a-Chip Application Development Portable Test System (LOCAD-PTS) is a portable bacteria detection system small enough to fit into a compact ice cooler. Four more sessions with LOCAD-PTS are planned for upcoming weekend science sessions.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin tested their hand-eye coordination by completing their sixth sessions with the Test of Reaction and Adaptation Capability (TRAC) experiment. The experiment studies whether the decline of motor skills during spaceflight is a result of the brain adapting to space. The hand-eye coordination test is performed before, during and after the mission.

The crew also continued their work with the Anomalous Long-Term Effects in Astronauts' Central Nervous System (ALTEA) experiment. Using an instrumented helmet, the experiment measures the cosmic radiation that passes through a crew member's head, brain activity and visual perception. The experiment should help researchers better understand what levels of cosmic radiation crew members are exposed to and develop countermeasures for future long-duration spaceflights.

vp a écrit:On Monday, Lopez-Alegria set a new U.S. single-mission spaceflight record, passing the 196-day mark previously set by station crew members Dan Bursch and Carl Walz in 2001 and 2002.

Bravo à lui !
Il a donc depuis passé la barre des 200 jours.

A Tiourine aussi, car même s'il ne bat pas de record, il est parti en même temps que lui.

International Space Station Status Report #07-18
1 p.m. CDT Saturday, April 7, 2007
Expedition 14 Crew

Two cosmonauts and a space flight participant launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:31 p.m. CDT Saturday for a two-day flight to the International Space Station.

Less than 10 minutes after launch their spacecraft reached orbit and its antennas and solar arrays deployed. The Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft is scheduled to dock at the station at a little after 2 p.m. Monday.

Once they arrive at the station, Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin, Expedition 15 commander, and Oleg Kotov, Expedition 15 flight engineer, and spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, a U.S. businessman, will be greeted by the station’s current crew, Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Suni Williams.

Simonyi, flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency, will return to Earth on April 20 with Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin, who have been aboard the station since September 2006.

Williams, who has served as an Expedition 14 crew member since December, will remain on the station joining the Expedition 15 crew. She is scheduled to return home aboard space shuttle Endeavour this summer.

International Space Station Status Report #07-19
2:30 p.m. CDT Monday, April 9, 2007
Expedition 14 Crew

Two Expedition 15 cosmonauts and a spaceflight participant aboard a Soyuz spacecraft docked with the Earth-facing port on the International Space Station's Zarya module at 2:10 p.m. CDT Monday.

After hatch opening, scheduled for a little before 4 p.m., Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, a U.S. businessman, will be greeted by the station’s current crew, Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Suni Williams.

Williams, who has served as an Expedition 14 crew member since December, will remain on the station providing Expedition 15 with an experienced flight engineer for the early part of its mission. She is scheduled to return home aboard space shuttle Endeavour this summer.

Yurchikhin is making his second flight into space. He was crew member on space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-112 mission to the station in October 2002. He holds a Ph.D. in economics and was named a cosmonaut-candidate in 1997. Kotov is making his first spaceflight. He graduated from the Moscow Medical Academy in 1988, and was named a cosmonaut-candidate in 1996.

Astronaut Clay Anderson is scheduled to replace Williams during Expedition 15. Two Expedition 16 crew members are expected to arrive next fall to replace Yurchikhin and Kotov.

Simonyi, flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency, will return to Earth on April 20 with Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin, who have been aboard the station since September 2006.

La NASA versera 719 millions d'USD supplémentaires à Roskosmos pour le transport d'astronautes et de frets jusqu'à l'ISS
11:00 | 10/ 04/ 2007

WASHINGTON, 10 avril - RIA Novosti. La National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) a signé un additif de 719 millions de dollars au contrat la liant à Roskosmos (Agence spatiale russe).

Selon les termes de cet additif, la partie russe devra assurer l'acheminement jusqu'à la Station spatiale internationale de 15 astronautes et de 5,6 tonnes de frets. Six astronautes voleront en 2009, six autres l'année suivante et trois en 2011, lit-on dans un communiqué de la Nasa.

"La NASA achète aussi l'utilisation d'un module russe de transport pour l'acheminement de 1,4 tonne de frets jusqu'à l'ISS. Cette opération devrait se réaliser en 2010", relève-t-on dans le communiqué de presse.

La NASA espère ainsi affranchir ses navettes de surcharges superflues.

En outre, la NASA achète aussi le vol d'un autre astronaute vers l'ISS en 2009. "Ce vol permettra à un astronaute désigné par l'un de nos partenaires du programme ISS de séjourner six mois supplémentaires à bord de la station".

International Space Station Status Report #07-20
3 p.m. CDT Friday, April 13, 2007
Expedition 14 Crew

Two Expedition 15 cosmonauts spent much of the week in handover activities with their Expedition 14 predecessors. Their new crewmate, Sunita Williams who has been aboard the International Space Station for more than three months, also is helping them learn the ropes.

E15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov arrived at the station Monday after a Saturday launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. With them on their Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft was Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, a U.S. businessman flying under a contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin are scheduled to return home in their Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft April 20. Simonyi will return with them after about 11 days on the orbiting laboratory.

Lopez-Alegria, who came to the station with Tyurin last September, continuously sets new U.S. single spaceflight duration records. Williams is likely to break Lopez-Alegria's record with her return tentatively planned for August after serving as an E15 crew member for the early part of that increment.

This week, in addition to handover, both crews got in their regular exercise sessions – especially important for Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin as their return to Earth approaches. Crews did required station maintenance and still managed to spend considerable time on science activities. Those activities began with time-critical transfer of several experiments from the newly arrived Soyuz to the station and station power.

Among experiments getting crew attention were Bioemulsion, a Russian effort to develop technology to produce microorganisms safely for bacterial, fermental and medical preparations. Tyurin worked with that experiment Tuesday.

On Wednesday Kotov set up the European Exhaled Nitric Oxide-2 experiment. It measures nitric oxide exhaled by spacewalkers before and after their excursions. The idea is to better understand the potential for decompression sickness.

Meanwhile, Tyurin worked with the Russian Pilot experiment. It is designed to measure during long-duration spaceflight changes in a crew member's ability to pilot a spacecraft.

On Thursday, Lopez-Alegria spent more than three hours resizing U.S. spacesuits for future users. The suits were the ones they used on an unprecedented series of three station spacewalks in a nine-day period beginning Jan. 31.

Throughout much of the week, beginning with the crew news conference on Tuesday, crew members took breaks to talk with news media representatives. U.S. organizations whose reporters interviewed them included ABC News, Space.com, CNN, and CBS.

International Space Station Status Report #07-21
7 p.m. CDT, Friday, April 20, 2007
Expedition 14 Crew

The crew members aboard the International Space Station spent this week finalizing handover operations, conducting experiments and preparing for the departure of the Expedition 14 crew.

E14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, accompanied by Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, will touch down in central Kazakhstan in their Soyuz spacecraft about 7:30 a.m. CDT Saturday, a day later than planned.

The primary landing site will be too wet for landing operations due to the spring thaw. The one-day delay in landing will allow for touchdown in a more southerly landing zone.

The landing will conclude a 215-day flight for Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin, and mark the longest single flight by an American astronaut. Live coverage of the landing operations will begin on NASA-TV Saturday at 12:30 a.m. for hatch closing, then will return at 3:45 a.m. for undocking, and resume at 6:15 a.m. monitoring the deorbit burn and landing.

Crew members held a ceremony Tuesday afternoon marking the change of command of the station from Lopez-Alegria to Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin. Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams are now officially entrenched on board the station. Williams, who served as an Expedition 14 crew member since December, will provide Expedition 15 with an experienced flight engineer for the early part of its mission.

On Monday, Williams became the first person to run a marathon in space. Williams, an accomplished marathoner, was an official entrant in the Boston Marathon and ran the 26.2 mile race on a station treadmill in the Zvezda module, circling Earth at least twice in the process. Williams’ run coincided with the tens of thousands on the ground. She completed her marathon with an official time of 4:23:10.

Russian specialists are preparing plans to repair the Condensate Feed Unit in the Russian system that processes condensate recovered in the U.S. segment of the station into potable water. Since the unit failed over the weekend, the supply of drinking water has been decreasing faster than the replenishment rate. Even if they are unable to repair the unit, there is enough water already onboard to last until the ISS Progress 25 cargo vehicle docks in mid-May, providing a new supply of water.

For about 90 minutes, Lopez-Alegria completed his final session with the Anomalous Long-Term Effects in Astronauts' Center Nervous System (ALTEA) experiment, which investigates the phenomenon of crew members seeing flashes of light while in orbit. Using an instrumented helmet, the experiment measures the cosmic radiation that passes through a crew member's head, brain activity and visual perception. ALTEA should help researchers better understand what levels of cosmic radiation crew members are exposed to and develop countermeasures for future long-duration spaceflights.

Lopez-Alegria and Williams also worked on an Education Payload Operations activity linked to the International Polar Year. The crew members videotaped their Earth photography activities and their observations of sea ice and auroras. These images will later be used in NASA education videos sent to classrooms around the world.

Education Payload Operations include curriculum-based activities that demonstrate basic principles of science, mathematics, technology, engineering and geography. They are designed to support the NASA mission of inspiring the next generation of explorers.

International Space Station Status Report #07-22
8 a.m. CDT Saturday, April 21, 2007
Expedition 14 Crew

The 14th crew of the International Space Station, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, along with spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi landed their Soyuz spacecraft in the steppes of Kazakhstan at 7:31 a.m. CDT Saturday.

The Expedition 14 mission included many highlights during its seven-month duration, including the setting of several records. Lopez-Alegria completed five spacewalks, which gave him a total of 10 for his career. This set a U.S. record for not only number of spacewalks, but also cumulative spacewalk time, 57 hours, 40 minutes. He also set a U.S. record for a single spaceflight's duration with more than 215 days. This tops the 196-day mark, set by station crew members Dan Bursch and Carl Walz in 2001 and 2002.

During the mission Flight Engineer Sunita Williams set the record for number of space walks and total time spent on spacewalks by a woman. She participated in four space walks for a total of 29 hours and 17 minutes. Williams will remain on the station for the first part of Expedition 14.

Three of the crew's spacewalks were conducted over the course of nine days, an unprecedented schedule for a station crew. Starting from scratch, it takes about 100 crew-member hours to prepare for a spacewalk. By doing them a few days apart, considerable crew time can be saved by not having to repeat some of those preparatory steps.

Before closing the Soyuz-station hatches at 1:03 a.m. Saturday, Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin said farewell to the Expedition 15 crew, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Williams. The new crew and Simonyi launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 7 and arrived at the station on April 9. Simonyi, a U.S. businessman, spent 12 days aboard the station under a contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will now spend several weeks in Star City, near Moscow, for debriefing and medical examinations. Their return to Earth was originally scheduled for Friday, April 20, but was delayed due to wet ground conditions, which could have precluded helicopter operations. The one-day change allowed for landing farther to the south.

International Space Station Status Report #07-23
3 p.m. CDT Friday, April 27, 2007
Expedition 15 Crew

The Expedition 15 crew aboard the International Space Station completed its first week of station orientation as the crew worked with experiments and hardware maintenance.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams began the week with a couple light duty days after the busy handover operations with the former crew. Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, accompanied by Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, returned to Earth on Saturday and are at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, for several weeks of post mission debriefing and rehabilitation.

Additionally this week, the station crew participated in several drills to maintain medical and emergency proficiency skills. Yurchikhin and Kotov began sessions throughout the first two weeks of their residence to orient themselves with the station’s operating systems. Williams, who served as an Expedition 14 crew member, is aiding Expedition 15 with their station orientation.

On Thursday, Williams was told that she will return to Earth aboard space shuttle Atlantis, targeted for launch June 8. That shuttle mission, STS-117, will carry astronaut Clay Anderson to the station to join Expedition 15 in progress. Their rotation was originally planned for STS-118, targeted for launch Aug. 8.

NASA managers approved the crew rotation after a more detailed review determined it would not impact station operations or future shuttle mission objectives. Since an earlier crew rotation was possible, they decided it would be prudent to return Williams and deliver Anderson sooner rather than later. Upon Williams' return, she will have accumulated more time in space than any other woman.

Williams spent some of her off-duty time completing additional test runs for the Capillary Flow Experiment. Capillary flow is the key process used to move fluids in a microgravity environment. It uses the low-gravity environment provided by the station to understand the special dynamics of capillary flow and will aid in the design of fluid transport systems on future spacecraft.

On Monday, Williams set up and activated cameras for the Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students, or EarthKAM, education experiment. Middle school students program a digital camera on the station to photograph a variety of geographical targets from the unique vantage point of space. Undergraduate teams at the University of California at San Diego manage the images and post them on the Web for the public and participating classrooms around the world to view. Nearly 4,000 students from 66 schools in seven countries are participating in this run.

On Friday, Williams performed a series of test flights with small free-flying satellites for the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) experiment. The experiment uses 8-inch diameter spherical satellites that fly within the station cabin. The satellites test the basics of formation flight and autonomous docking that could be used in future spacecraft. The battery-powered satellites use carbon dioxide to fuel 12 thrusters as they fly in the cabin.

In addition to general station orientation, Yurchikhin and Kotov also performed maintenance work on life support hardware in the Russian segment. The water separator in the air conditioning system was replaced. The separator dispositions condensate water and air collected from the station’s atmosphere that forms through the air conditioner, maintaining optimum humidity levels onboard.

Flight controllers and mission managers test fired the two main engines on the Zvezda Service Module in a Wednesday reboost, raising the station’s altitude. It was the first time the engines had been fired since initial arrival of Zvezda in 2000. Another reboost using ISS Progress 24 engines is scheduled for Saturday in order to finish placing the station in its correct position for the arrival of the ISS Progress 25 cargo vehicle May 15 and the space shuttle Atlantis in June.

T'es bien matinal.. merci pour l'info

Apolloman a écrit:T'es bien matinal..

Ah les enfants ;)

L'orbite de l'ISS rehaussée de 4,2 km (TSOUP)
17:55 | 28/ 04/ 2007



MOSCOU, 28 avril - RIA Novosti. Le Centre russe de contrôle des vols spatiaux (TSOUP) a samedi effectué une correction de la trajectoire de l'ISS (Station spatiale internationale) en utilisant les moteurs arrimés au module de service russe Zvezda.

"La correction a été accomplie avec l'objectif de garantir des conditions optimales de rapprochement avec le vaisseau cargo Progress M-60 qui sera lancé vers l'ISS le 12 mai. Les moteurs de correction du module Zevzda ont été allumés à 14h40 heure de Moscou durant 78,3 secondes. L'altitude moyenne de l'orbite a été relevée de 4,2 km", rapporte une note publiée sur le site officiel de Roskosmos (Agence fédérale spatiale russe).

Les spécialistes du TSOUP avaient pris soin de tester les moteurs du module Zvezda avant d'entreprendre l'opération de rehaussement de l'orbite.

"A 14h23 heure de Moscou nous avons procédé à un test des moteurs du module Zvezda. L'opération a duré 33 secondes et s'est déroulée comme prévu. L'impulsion était d'un mètre par seconde", a déclaré antérieurement à RIA Novosti un porte-parole du TSOUP.

Actuellement, les Russes Fiodor Iourtchikhine et Oleg Kotov se trouvent à bord de l'ISS et remplacent Mikhaïl Tiourine et Michael Lopez-Alegria, revenus sur Terre le 21 avril. Ils sont accompagnés de l'astronaute américaine Sunita Williams de la NASA qui se trouve à bord depuis décembre 2006. Elle doit revenir sur Terre l'été prochain à bord d'une navette américaine

vp a écrit:"La correction a été accomplie avec l'objectif de garantir des conditions optimales de rapprochement avec le vaisseau cargo Progress M-60 qui sera lancé vers l'ISS le 12 mai. Les moteurs de correction du module Zevzda ont été allumés à 14h40 heure de Moscou durant 78,3 secondes. L'altitude moyenne de l'orbite a été relevée de 4,2 km", rapporte une note publiée sur le site officiel de Roskosmos (Agence fédérale spatiale russe).

Il me semble que ça faisait assez longtemps que les moteurs de Zvesda n'avaient pas été utilisés.

Steph a écrit:Il me semble que ça faisait assez longtemps que les moteurs de Zvesda n'avaient pas été utilisés.

Si l'on excepte le test de mercredi dernier, c'est leur premier allumage depuis l'arrivée du module en 2000.

mic8 a écrit:

Steph a écrit:Il me semble que ça faisait assez longtemps que les moteurs de Zvesda n'avaient pas été utilisés.

Si l'on excepte le test de mercredi dernier, c'est leur premier allumage depuis l'arrivée du module en 2000.

Et ben, 7 ans sans fonctionner et ça a l'air de s'être bien passé.