Home Earth, Energy & Environment Expedition 10 Rockets to Station
Astronaut Leroy Chiao and Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:06 p.m. EDT Wednesday, right on time. Their Soyuz TMA capsule reached orbit a little less than nine minutes after liftoff. Russian flight controllers reported the spacecraft’s solar arrays had deployed as scheduled, and that all appeared normal. With this 10th crew of the International Space Station is Russian Space Forces Test Cosmonaut Yuri Shargin. Their Soyuz is scheduled to dock with the Space Station at 12:25 a.m. EDT Oct. 16.
Chiao and Sharipov are the Station’s fourth two-person crew. After the Columbia accident on Feb. 1, 2003, the ISS Program and the international partners determined that because of limitations on supplies the Station would be occupied by two crewmembers instead of three until the Shuttle flights resume.
It’s about exploration, Chiao said. ”By our nature, human beings are explorers. We’re curious. We need to see what’s on the other side of that mountain. All kinds of benefits come out of that. The Space Station is right along those lines.”
Sharipov agreed. ”New technologies, advanced technologies, are necessary to support spaceflights, and we learn new technologies while we are performing science in space. This is what we are contributing to humanity, to progress.”
Both spacewalks, the first in January and the second in March, will continue external outfitting of the Space Station. They will complete installation of communications equipment on the Zvezda Service Module to prepare for the arrival of the European Space Agency’s unpiloted Automated Transfer Vehicle in the fall of 2005. That spacecraft can carry 2 1/2 times as much cargo.
On both spacewalks, Chiao and Sharipov will wear Russian Orlan spacesuits and use the Russian Pirs Docking Compartment airlock.
Chiao and Sharipov also will get the Station ready to welcome the Space Shuttle Discovery on its STS-114 flight. Discovery will bring a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) packed with equipment and supplies to the Station. It will take the MPLM home filled with unneeded Station equipment and trash.
Chiao and Sharipov will pack hardware that has accumulated on the Station since the grounding of Shuttle flights. The equipment is designated for return to Earth on both STS-114 and the subsequent Shuttle flight, STS-121.
Science will continue, much of it with facilities and samples already on the Space Station. The Expedition 10 research agenda remains flexible. It includes experiments in human life sciences and space operations.
The science team at the Payload Operations Center at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will operate some experiments without crew input and other experiments are designed to function autonomously.
The 10th crew’s first unpiloted Progress cargo craft should arrive in late December. It will be followed by another Progress in March.
Chiao and Sharipov also will work with the Station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2. Their activities will focus on observations of the outside of the Station, maintaining operator proficiency, and completing the checkout of the Canadarm2 system.