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Next space station crew rockets into Earth orbit BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: October 10, 2007 A Soyuz rocket roared to life and climbed away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome today, carrying the international space station's first female commander, a veteran Russian cosmonaut who commanded an earlier expedition and Malaysia's first space flier.
Spectacular video showed the rocket's four strap-on boosters tumbling away as the core booster accelerated toward space, followed by a no-longer-needed escape rocket and a protective fairing. All three crew members appeared attentive but relaxed in the cramped Soyuz capsule as they monitored the progress of their ascent.
"The Russian cosmonaut training center does an excellent job of getting people prepared to fly in space," Whitson said in a July interview. "And I'm very impressed with their ability to do that in a safe manner. ... I've gotten to know Sheikh over the past few months and he's actually a very pleasant guy, I think he'll be easy to be around and so I don't consider him to be a headache or someone I'll have problems dealing with aboard the station. I think it'll be great for his country and for him to share that experience with the young people of his country." Whitson and Malenchenko will replace Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov, who were launched to the station last April aboard the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft. They plan to return to Earth with Shukor on Oct. 21. Expedition 15 science officer Clay Anderson, launched aboard the shuttle Atlantis last June, will remain aboard the outpost with Whitson and Malenchenko until his replacement - astronaut Dan Tani - arrives aboard the shuttle Discovery at the end of the month. By coincidence, Discovery's crew was strapped in aboard the shuttle, working through a dress-rehearsal countdown at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, when Whitson's crew took off from Baikonur. Discovery is commanded by Pam Melroy and both women are looking forward to working together in space. "It is coincidental that it is happening," Whitson said in a recent interview. "But I do think it is special, not only special just for Pam and I because you know, we have flown in space before, but the experience of having two women up there at the same time will hopefully be an inspiration to somebody. I was inspired when I was young by the Apollo-era astronauts and in particular, I was motivated to become an astronaut when they selected the first female astronauts. I would hope that we could be a role model like that." Melroy and her crewmates will deliver a new multi-hatch module called Harmony, temporarily mounting it on the left side of the central Unity module. The shuttle astronauts also will move a stowed set of solar arrays from a central mounting point to the far left end of the lab's main power truss. Discovery's crew plans four spacewalks to outfit Harmony, move the P6 solar array segment and test shuttle heat shield repair techniques. Before the shuttle crew departs, Whitson and Malenchenko will stage a fifth spacewalk to prepare Harmony for its eventual move from Unity's port-side hatch to the front of the station. After Discovery undocks, Whitson and Tani will use the station's robot arm to remove the shuttle docking port from the front of the Destiny laboratory module and attach it to Harmony. The new module and its attached docking port then will be moved to the front of Destiny and connected to station power and ammonia cooling loops during two more spacewalks by Whitson and Tani in November. With Harmony in place, the stage will be set for launch of the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory module in December followed by Japanese lab modules next February and April. Columbus will be attached to Harmony's starboard port while the Japanese Kibo module will be mounted on the port side. "As the commander, obviously, my primary responsibilities are the safety of the crew and the safety of the vehicle," Whitson said in a NASA interview. "But we have a very exciting mission planned. I'm looking forward to all the new elements that we're going to be able to add to the international space station. Three new modules will be arriving, and a new attachment for the robotic arm will also be arriving, so we have the involvement, truly, of our international partners for the first time through all phases of this mission. So I think itıs going to be very exciting." Here is a timeline of major events leading up to the Soyuz TMA-11 docking with the space station Friday (in EDT and mission elapsed time; AR&D: automated rendezvous and docking): DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...EVENT 10/10/07 12:58 PM...00...03...36...DV1 rocket firing (dV: 35.6 mph) 01:42 PM...00...04...20...DV2 rocket firing (dV: 23.8 mph) 10/11/07 10:17 AM...01...00...55...DV3 rocket firing (dV: 4.5 mph) 10/12/07 07:19 AM...01...21...57...US-to-Russian motion control system handover 08:09 AM...01...22...47...ISS maneuvers to docking attitude 08:22 AM...01...23...00...AR&D automated rendezvous start 08:42 AM...01...23...20...AR&D DV4 impulse 1 rocket firing (dV: 32.8 mph) 09:05 AM...01...23...43...AR&D impulse 2 rocket firing (dV: 2.4 mph) 09:08 AM...01...23...46...Soyuz/KURS-A rendezvous radar activation 09:10 AM...01...23...48...Zvezda/KURS-P rendezvous radar activation 09:28 AM...02...00...06...AR&D DV5 impulse 3 rocket firing (dV: 52.8 mph) 09:35 AM...02...00...13...Good KURS-P data at 50 miles 09:56 AM...02...00...34...KURS short test at 9 miles 10:01 AM...02...00...39...Range: 5.6 miles 10:02 AM...02...00...40...Range: 5 miles; Soyuz TV activation 10:10 AM...02...00...48...AR&D impulse 4 rocket firing (dV: 15.8 mph) 10:12 AM...02...00...50...AR&D ballistic targeting point 10:15 AM...02...00...53...AR&D impulse 5 rocket firing (dV: 9.1 mph) 10:17 AM...02...00...55...AR&D impulse 6 rocket firing (dV: 3.5 mph) 10:19 AM...02...00...57...AR&D fly around mode start 10:28 AM...02...01...06...AR&D station keeping start 10:41 AM...02...01...19...Russian ground station AOS 10:43 AM...02...01...21...AR&D final approach start 10:48 AM...02...01...26...Sunset 10:52 AM...02...01...30...ISS Docking 10:57 AM...02...01...35...Russian ground station loss of signal 11:12 AM...02...01...50...Soyuz hooks closed 11:59 AM...02...02...37...U.S. motion control system resumes attitude control |
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VIDEO:
SOYUZ LAUNCH TO ORBIT MOVIE