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Three men prepare for blastoff to the space station BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: October 7, 2010 
Russian engineers readied an upgraded Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft for launch Thursday evening from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to ferry a veteran shuttle commander and two cosmonauts to the International Space Station. If all goes well, the trio will join the two-man one-woman Expedition 25 crew aboard the lab complex late Saturday, boosting the station's crew back to six.
"The crew is ready for flight and I would like to thank everyone that created this vehicle and made sure it is ready for flight," Kaleri said at a pre-launch news conference Wednesday. "We're going to do our best and fulfill your expectations and your trust." If all goes well, Kaleri will oversee an automated docking at the upward-facing port of the Russian Poisk compartment atop the station's Zvezda command module at 8:02 p.m. Saturday (0002 GMT Sunday). Kaleri, Kelly and Skripochka will serve as flight engineers during the remainder of Expedition 25, taking over as core members of Expedition 26, with Kelly in command, when Expedition 25 commander Douglas Wheelock, Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin depart at the end of November. Three fresh crew members -- Dmitri Kondratyev, Catherine Coleman and Paolo Nespoli -- are scheduled to arrive in mid December, assuming an investigation into an apparent shipping mishap does not reveal any significant damage to their spacecraft. In what promises to be an extremely busy six months aboard the space station, the Expedition 25/26 crews will welcome two space shuttle crews, one in November and the other in late February, carry out three Russian spacewalks, and oversee dockings by Russian Progress supply ships, a European cargo craft and a Japanese logistics vehicle. "You are well prepared and ready to go on what I consider one of the most historic set of increments to be concluded on the ISS, and that's the last two shuttle assembly flights," NASA space station Program Manager Michael Suffredini told the crew Wednesday. "So given the significance of your expedition, I think it's most appropriate that your are launching from the very pad where spaceflight began 53 years ago. We just celebrated that birthday this Monday. So good luck, godspeed and we'll talk to you when you get to orbit." In an August interview, Kelly told CBS News he viewed command of the space station as similar to commanding a ship at sea. "What a perfect job for a Navy captain," he said. "It is much different from a shuttle mission. It's a marathon versus a sprint, there are crew dynamics issues that can be significant because your'e in this confined environment for such a long time. But just like on a shuttle, there are some aspects of the job that are absolutely the same. My priority is that none of the crew members get hurt, we don't break anything and we complete all our mission objectives." In a remarkable coincidence, the commander of the shuttle Endeavour, scheduled for launch Feb. 27, is Mark Kelly, Scott's twin brother. Endeavour originally was scheduled for launch last July, but the flight was delayed because of problems with its primary payload, a $2 billion particle physics experiment. It now is scheduled for launch near the end of the Expedition 26 increment. If the schedule holds up, the Kelly brothers will be the first siblings in space at the same time. "I understand it's a human interest story," Scott told CBS News. "It will certainly be fun for us. But our primary focus is on our respective missions, doing them safely and completing all the mission objectives. It's kind of a neat thing, but certainly not by any stretch of the imagination the focus of these missions." Mark Kelly and other family members flew to Kazakhstan to watch the Soyuz launch Thursday evening. "As kids growing up we never thought we'd be in this unique and privileged position to be able to do this," Scott told reporters Wednesday. "My brother's launch was supposed to be in July, so it's really just a strange coincidence that it was delayed ... to the end of our increment. So from a personal aspect, it's interesting to us and it will certainly enhance the experience somewhat. However, that is absolutely secondary to both of our primary focus of completing the mission safely and completing all the mission objectives." The International Space Station has been continuously staffed by rotating crews of NASA, Russian, European, Japanese and Canadian crew members since the first expedition arrived Nov. 2, 2000. Looking ahead to the 10th anniversary of the first manned flight to the outpost, Kelly said he was struck by the magnitude of the international effort it took to build the lab complex. "Then I think just how complicated and incredible an achievement it is to build this space station in different countries, using different technologies while orbiting the Earth at 17,500 mph in extremes of temperatures, in a radiation environment, put together by astronauts and cosmonauts in these very difficult to work spacesuits," he said. "I think it's probably one of the most difficult and complicated things human beings have accomplished." The Soyuz TMA-01M is an upgraded version of Russia's venerable Soyuz line, featuring lighter, more energy efficient avionics and computer hardware as well as improved software. According to a Russian fact sheet, 36 obsolete devices were replace by 19 new units and the overall mass of the spacecraft was decreased by 154 pounds. "It's a vehicle with updated on-board systems," Kaleri said, speaking through a translator. "The updates concern the motion control system and navigation, the telemetry system as well as the on-board computer complex, on-board measurement system. ... The current vehicle is different in the way the computer complex is secreted, with a different architecture that has different capabilities. It will provided new, interesting opportunities as far as motion control is concerned." Here is a timeline of launch-through-docking activities (in EDT and mission elapsed time; best viewed with fixed-width font):
DD...HH...MM...SS...EDT...........EVENT
10/07/10
00...06...00...00...01:10 PM......Batteries installed in booster
00...05...30...00...01:40 PM......State commission 'go'
00...05...15...00...01:55 PM......Crew arrives at site 254
00...05...00...00...02:10 PM......Tanking begins
00...04...20...00...02:50 PM......Spacesuit donning
00...04...00...00...03:10 PM......Booster is loaded with liquid oxygen
00...03...40...00...03:30 PM......Crew meets delegations
00...03...10...00...04:00 PM......Reports to the state commission
00...03...05...00...04:05 PM......Transfer to launch pad
00...03...00...00...04:10 PM......1st/2nd stage oxygen fueling complete
00...02...35...00...04:35 PM......Crew arrives at launch vehicle
00...02...30...00...04:40 PM......Crew ingress
00...02...00...00...05:10 PM......Crew in re-entry vehicle
00...01...45...00...05:25 PM......Re-entry vehicle hardware tested
00...01...30...00...05:40 PM......Hatch sealed and tested
00...01...00...00...06:10 PM......Launch vehicle control system preps
00...01...00...00...06:10 PM......Gyro activation
00...00...45...00...06:25 PM......Launch pad service structure halves lowered
00...00...40...00...06:30 PM......Suit leak checks
00...00...40...00...06:30 PM......Re-entry vehicle testing complete
00...00...30...00...06:40 PM......Emergency escape system armed
00...00...25...00...06:45 PM......Service towers retracted
00...00...15...00...06:55 PM......Suit leak checks complete; escape system to auto
00...00...10...00...07:00 PM......Gyros uncaged; on-board recorders activated
00...00...07...00...07:03 PM......Prelaunch operations complete
00...00...06...15...07:04 PM......Final launch countdown operations to auto
00...00...06...00...07:04 PM......Launch complex and vehicle systems ready
00...00...05...00...07:05 PM......CDR's controls activated
00...00...05...00...07:05 PM......Launch key inserted
00...00...03...15...07:07:40 PM...Combustion chamber nitrogen purge
00...00...02...30...07:08:25 PM...Booster propellant tank pressurization begins
00...00...02...15...07:08:40 PM...Ground propellant feed terminated
00...00...01...00...07:09:55 PM...Vehicle to internal; 1st umbilical tower sep
00...00...01...00...07:09:55 PM...Auto sequence start
00...00...00...40...07:10:15 PM...Ground power umbilical to 3rd stage separates
00...00...00...20...07:10:35 PM...Launch command given
00...00...00...20...07:10:35 PM...Central/side pod engines on
00...00...00...15...07:10:40 PM...Second umbilical tower separates
00...00...00...10...07:10:45 PM...Engine turbopumps at flight speed
00...00...00...05...07:10:50 PM...Engines at maximum thrust
00...00...00...00...07:10:55 PM...LAUNCH
00...00...08...45...07:19:40 PM...Orbital Insertion
00...03...40...12...10:51:07 PM...DV-1 rendezvous burn (20.8 mph)
10/07/10
00...04...09...01...11:19:56 PM...DV-2 (52 mph)
10/08/10
01...00...37...30...07:48:25 PM...DV-3 (4.5 mph)
01...21...57...05...05:08:00 PM...US to Russian attitude control handover
01...22...09...05...05:20:00 PM...ISS maneuvers to docking attitude
01...22...31...54...05:42:49 PM...AR&D Automated Rendezvous start
01...22...48...28...05:59:23 PM...AR&D DV-4/impulse 1 (49 mph)
01...23...10...15...06:21:10 PM...AR&D impulse 2 (3.1 mph)
01...23...13...05...06:24:00 PM...Soyuz Kurs-A Activation
01...23...15...05...06:26:00 PM...SM Kurs-P Activation
01...23...33...34...06:44:29 PM...Range = 62 miles: Soyuz VHF-2 voice link
01...23...35...30...06:46:25 PM...AR&D DV-5/impulse 3 (36.8 mph)
01...23...38...34...06:49:29 PM...Range = 49.7 miles: Valid Kurs-P range data
01...23...51...21...07:02:16 PM...Daily orbit 1 Russian ground station AOS
01...23...59...34...07:10:29 PM...Range = 9.3 miles: Kurs-A & Kurs-P short test
01...23...59...48...07:10:43 PM...Sunrise
02...00...06...34...07:17:29 PM...Range = 4.9 miles: Soyuz TV activation
02...00...14...24...07:25:19 PM...Daily orbit 1 Russian ground station LOS
02...00...14...57...07:25:52 PM...AR&D impulse 4 (14.2 mph)
02...00...16...54...07:27:49 PM...AR&D ballistic targeting point
02...00...19...40...07:30:35 PM...AR&D impulse 5 (13.5 mph)
02...00...22...24...07:33:19 PM...AR&D impulse 6 (4 mph)
02...00...25...22...07:36:17 PM...AR&D flyaround mode start
02...00...34...25...07:45:20 PM...AR&D stationkeeping start
02...00...40...05...07:51:00 PM...AR&D final approach start
02...00...43...05...07:54:00 PM...ISS inertial snap-and-hold window open
02...00...51...05...08:02:00 PM...DOCKING (Poisk zenith)
02...00...53...05...08:04:00 PM...ISS inertial snap-and-hold window close
02...00...55...27...08:06:22 PM...Sunset
02...01...13...05...08:24:00 PM...Soyuz hooks closed
02...01...24...40...08:35:35 PM...Daily orbit 2 Russian ground station AOS
02...01...47...26...08:58:21 PM...Daily orbit 2 Russian ground station LOS
02...02...14...05...09:25:00 PM...Russia to US attitude control Handover
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VIDEO:
BIOGRAPHIES OF KELLY, KALERI AND SKRIPOCHKA 