Mir-21 Weekly Reports
Mir-21 - Week of April 5, 1996
Mission Status Report - filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
TV Interview - excerpts from a CNN interview with Dr. Lucid
Three weeks ago the space shuttle Atlantis delivered cargo and a passenger to the Russian space station Mir. That passenger, American astronaut Shannon Lucid, is now cosmonaut-researcher Shannon Lucid, and she is nearly three weeks into her planned four-and-a-half month tour of duty on Mir.
The 100-ton, 10-year-old Mir Space Station is circling 245 miles above the Earth, now moving east-southeast over the northern Pacific Ocean south of the Aleutian Islands. It travels at 17,500 miles an hour, completing each orbit in about 90 minutes.
LucidÆs mission on Mir began when Atlantis linked up to the space stationÆs Docking Module on March 23. During five days of joint operations the astronauts and cosmonauts brought food, water and other equipment onto the station, and brought hundreds of pounds of material from Mir back to Earth.
The Mir crew has been working on several microgravity and biological investigations, and their schedule calls for more of the same during the coming week. Later in the week, all three crew members will participate in their first English-language news conference of the mission, which is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, April 11, at about 10:05 central time.
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Mir
Increment
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Mir-21 - Week of April 12, 1996
Mission Status Report - filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid has been in orbit for three weeks now, tomorrow will mark her 21st day aboard the Mir Space Station. Her Russian cosmonaut crewmates, Commander Yuri Onufriyenko and Flight Engineer Yury Usachev are in their 51st day in orbit, having completed seven weeks aboard the Mir. Their scientific research program continues in a week marked by anniversary commemorations and the final preparation of a new science module for launch as the final component to the Mir.
35 years ago today, Yuri Gagarin was launched as the first human in space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Central Asia. Today, at Baikonur, the Priroda module is undergoing final inspections for a scheduled launch around April 23rd on a Russian Proton rocket to the Mir Station. Two weeks ago, technicians completed the final stowage of experiments in science racks in the Priroda.
The 43,000-pound Priroda will automatically dock to the Mir several days after launch to serve as a platform for Earth obervation studies by future Mir crews. It will carry U.S. equipment to the Russian outpost to be used by subsequent astronauts in their continuing scientific work on orbit. Priroda will be the final module to be attached to the Mir.
Today aboard the Mir, Lucid and her crewmates received congratulatory phone calls from former cosmonauts who have flown on the Mir, in tribute to Cosmonautics Day in Russia, a holiday which commemorates the historic mission of Yuri Gagarin.
The other U.S. astronauts in training for future flights on the Mir and International Space Stations are dividing their time today between activities here in Houston and at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.
John Blaha, Jerry Linenger and Mike Foale are undergoing Shuttle systems training at the Johnson Space Center, along with various Russian cosmonauts who will comprise the Mir crews they will join on orbit. Jim Voss remains at Star City undergoing preliminary language training and familiarizing himself with Mir systems.
Bill Shepherd is preparing to head to Russia to begin his training as a member of the first International Space Station crew. He'll return to Houston this fall along with his two crewmates.
John Blaha, a veteran shuttle commander, will follow Shannon Lucid aboard the Mir for 4 and a half months of scientific research starting in August. Blaha is scheduled for launch to the Mir with the STS-79 crew, that launch targeted for the late evening of July 31st.
Aboard the Mir, Shannon Lucid spent her week conducting more experiments with the fixation of quail eggs which are being studied for embryonic development in weightlessness and an experiment called OPTIZON, which uses a furnace onboard Mir to study the melting of metals in the absence of gravity.
In a news conference held aboard the Mir yesterday, Lucid said these and other experiments are proceeding on schedule, but at a very different pace than astronauts are accustomed to during Shuttle missions.
"The big difference between a typical day onboard Mir and a typical day onboard Shuttle is that we are here on Mir for a long time we're not going home within a week. Therefore, if we don't get something done right today we know that we have time to work things out... On the Shuttle, we have a very short flight in a very short time, so we try to accomplish everything that we can within a very short period. This is a much more livable way onboard Mir. We're here for a long time and so we pace ourselves more evenly."
Saturday, the three cosmonauts will conduct more work with the OPTIZON furnace, processing more samples of melted metals in the microgravity environment.
Sunday will be a day of rest for the cosmonauts aboard the Mir; no scheduled activities are on the flight plan.
On Monday, there will be additional metal samples processed in the OPTIZON furnace along with new experiments involving the growth of crystals aboard the Mir and the calculation of minor acceleration disturbances to the microgravity environment on the space station through the use of a special measuring device called SAMS.
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Mir-21 - Week of April 19, 1996
Mission Status Report - filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
Frank Culbertson interview - The Phase 1 Program Manager talks about Dr. Lucid's progress and the future of the Shuttle-Mir program
Astronaut Shannon Lucid was launched on her marathon mission to the Mir Space Station four weeks ago, and is nearing the end of the first month of a 4 1/2 month stay aboard Mir as the first of up to a half dozen astronauts who will rotate on long duration flights on the Russian Station, establishing a permanent U.S. presence in space in the name of scientific research.
Today, Lucid and her Mir-21 crewmates, Commander Yuri Onufriyenko and Flight Engineer Yury Usachev, are in their 27th day together aboard Mir, continuing to carry out a varied flight plan of scientific studies. Onufriyenko and Usachev are in their 58th day in space, their 56th day on the Mir. Onufriyenko and Usachev will return to Earth in late July.
Right now, Lucid, Onufriyenko and Usachev are orbiting the Earth at an altitude of about 240 statute miles. The Mir's systems are in good shape with the exception of a tiny leak in a cooling system that regulates the temperature inside the Mir and keeps station hardware from becoming too warm. The leak of Ethylene Glycol is almost imperceptible and has had no effect on the mission or the scientific work being conducted by the cosmonauts. A backup cooling system is being used until the leak is fixed.
Aboard the Mir, the work this week for Lucid and her colleagues has been varied, ranging from the melting of metals in a furnace onboard to better understand the effect of microgravity on materials processing, to the collection of blood samples as part of the complement of life sciences experiments on the Mir. Lucid has also studied ocean currents around Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands in South America from orbit.
During the next week, Lucid and her crewmates will be occupied with the arrival of the new Priroda science module to the Mir, the final module which will be linked to the decade-old Space Station for future research work.
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Mir-21 - Week of April 26, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
Tom Sullivan interview - The NASA-Mir Mission Scientist talks about the contribution of Priroda to the space station
Earlier today, a 21-ton science module slowly guided itself to an automated docking with the Russian Space Station Mir to complete a three-day journey as the final component to the station whose first module was launched over a decade ago.
The Priroda module was launched Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan atop a Russian Proton rocket. Its on-time arrival at the Mir today is good news for U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid, who along with her Mir-21 crewmates, Yuri Onufriyenko and Yury Usachev, now begins several weeks' worth of work to unload Priroda and more than a ton of U.S. science gear stored onboard.
Priroda equipment will be used by Lucid and other U.S. astronauts to follow for a variety of experiments in the areas of life sciences and materials sciences. In an interview earlier today, NASA-Mir Mission Scientist Tom Sullivan noted: "Many of these topics are relevant to society and industry today. [Dr. Lucid] has about 500 hours committed to performing research in addition to her commitments as a Mir crew member."
Right now, Mir is orbiting at an altitude of about 240 statute miles. Shannon Lucid is in her 35th day in space, her 34th day aboard the Mir. Her Russian colleagues are in their 65th day in space, their 63rd day on the Mir station. The cosmonauts have spent some time this week continuing their search for a microscopic leak of ethylene glycol from one of two coolant loops in the Mir's Core Module. The leak was first detected on April 15th. The tiny leak has had no effect on science operations aboard the Mir and poses no threat to the mission. The cosmonauts are using a backup coolant system to keep Core Module hardware from becoming too warm. Otherwise, the Mir's systems are in good shape.
On Wednesday, as Priroda headed toward the Mir, Lucid and her crewmates discussed the progress of their flight in a television interview. Commander Yuri Onufriyenko said the toughest part of the mission was still ahead.
"The hardest part is still ahead - the extravehicular activity. We've only spent 2 months so far and are just adjusting to each other. The main work is to receive the Priroda module tomorrow. It will have a lot of equipment on it for Shannon, and the main work is still ahead.
Several astronauts and cosmonauts in training for future flights aboard the Mir and the International Space Station are at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow.
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Mir-21 - Week of May 3, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
Wendy Lawrence interview - The Director of Operations, Russia talks about her job in Star City
U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid and her Mir-21 crewmates Yuri Onufriyenko and Yury Usachev have been involved in a variety of activities since the arrival of the Priroda module one week ago. They have spent the last week involved with duties associated with the reconfiguring of the space station, now that Priroda has been placed in its final position. They have also unloaded hundreds of pounds of science gear and hardware from Priroda.
Mir-21 Cosmonauts Onufriyenko and Usachev today marked their 72nd day in space and 70th day aboard Mir since being launched aboard a Soyuz rocket February 21. Lucid, who joined the Mir-21 crew during AtlantisÆ STS-76 mission, has been on Mir for 41 days. Right now the space station and its three cosmonauts are orbiting the Earth at an altitude of about 240 statute miles. The Mir is orbiting at an inclination of 51.6 degrees to either side of the equator, completing one revolution around the Earth every 91 minutes.
The Priroda science module docked as scheduled at 7:43 a.m. CDT last Friday and the crew pivoted the Earth-monitoring module into its permanent position opposite the Kristall module Saturday. The crew spent the beginning of the week unloading and preparing the module for research.
"We are real busy right now reconfiguring the Priroda so we can get started working in it," Lucid said Tuesday during an interview with a Los Angeles television station. Priroda will be used to study the Earth for environmental and ecological purposes.
Once the Priroda is configured, the crew will begin to prepare for a Progress supply vehicle, scheduled to launch Sunday. The supply module will dock with Mir on Tuesday and carry a variety of supplies for the station residents.
The crew completed the Optizon/Liquid Phase Sintering Experiment on April 20. Once the samples are returned to Earth, scientists will determine if the melting of samples at high temperatures in microgravity can enhance Earth-based technology.
"We have finished 55 samples," Lucid said during a televised status report Tuesday. "This experiment will find out the effects of hight temperature and will determine if new alloys can be formed."
Lucid added that the crew has been doing a lot of engineering evaluation of Mir to help design the International Space Station. "We have been looking at the quality of air and water, and have been monitoring the microgravity environment."
The Space Acceleration Measurement System supported protein crystal growth in the Kvant Module last week by measuring slight changes in Mir. Scientists will be able to determine any change in the crystals and if they are associated with movements in space. "Scientists need to know what types of activities disturb this environment so they can plan better," Lucid said.
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Mir-21 - Week of May 10, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
John Uri interview - NASA/Mir Science Officer
Almost two months into Shannon Lucid's flight aboard the Mir Space Station, all continues to proceed on track as she and her crewmates, Commander Yuri Onufriyenko and Flight Engineer Yury Usachev, press ahead with the scientific work and the operational activities involved in setting up shop aboard the recently arrived Priroda science module.
In a status report earlier in the week, Lucid said she and her crewmates have spent most of the past two weeks in Priroda. She said work has progressed normally in the removal and stowage of batteries from the new workshop, as well as the reconnection of other batteries to complete the activation of the module.
On Tuesday, another docking took place as a Progress resupply vehicle successfully linked up to the Russian outpost. Lucid said the arrival of Progress was a welcome sight.
This is Lucid's 48th day aboard the Mir, her 49th day in space since her launch aboard Atlantis back on March 22nd. Onufriyenko and Usachev are in their 79th day in space, their 77th day aboard Mir.
As it turns out, Lucid's crewmates will be staying onboard Mir a bit longer than originally planned. The Mir-21 mission has been extended until mid-August to accommodate an adjustment to the Russian flight schedule. At that time, a new cosmonaut crew will be launched to replace Onufriyenko and Usachev. Lucid's stay on Mir will not be affected; she still returns to Earth in early August, after Atlantis delivers astronaut John Blaha to the Mir on the next shuttle docking mission, STS-79.
All of the work conducted by the Mir-21 crew is being monitored by a team of scientists at the Russian Mission Control Center in Kaliningrad and here at the Johnson Space Center. NASA-Mir Mission Scientist John Uri heads up the team here in Houston. He was interviewed this morning.
Despite a light work schedule due to the Russian Victory Day celebrations this week, astronauts training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, outside Moscow, are involved in various stages of preparation for upcoming flights aboard the Mir. John Blaha, Lucid's replacement on the Mir, took an exam this week to test his skills on the Mir Core Module's control panels, and passed with flying colors. He also received training on medical procedures used on the Mir and an experiment involving water sample analysis.
Jerry Linenger spent most of his week in the water tank at Star City practicing spacewalking procedures in a Russian EVA suit. Linenger will be the first U.S. astronaut to conduct a spacewalk in a Russian suit outside Mir. Mike Foale also practiced EVA procedures in the EVA water tank. He also received instruction on the life support systems of the Soyuz spacecraft and the Mir's modules.
Tomorrow, Lucid will conduct more Earth observation studies, this time of the Danube River and the Arabian Sea. She'll also offer an early Mother's Day greeting to her family in Houston, in a videoconference from the Johnson Space Center to the Mir.
Last night, Lucid talked with her parents in Oklahoma through a phone hookup from orbit, to offer best wishes on her mother's 81st birthday. Earlier in the week, with Mother's Day on her mind, Lucid offered another message to mark the occasion.
On Sunday, there will be more Earth observation work for the cosmonauts as they train their cameras on the Philippine Island chain and the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Lucid will also prepare for an experiment which studies the effect of long duration exposure to microgravity on the human immune system. It is one of several life science experiment associated with the Mir-21 mission. Lucid and her crewmates will also complete the transfer of used batteries from the Priroda module to the Progress resupply ship. The Progress will ultimately be jettisoned and will burn up as it reenters the Earth's atmosphere.
On Monday, the cosmonauts will continue to unload used equipment from Priroda and will stow it on the Progress to make way for the start of scientific work in the module. There will also be some routine maintenance work on the Space Station, primarily involving the emptying of Mir's supply water tanks.
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Mir-21 - Week of May 17, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
Richard Fullerton interview - EVA Working Group chairman
It has been eight weeks since Shannon Lucid rocketed into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis to establish a permanent U.S. presence in space aboard the Russian Space Station Mir. During that time, Lucid and her crewmates, Commander Yuri Onufriyenko and Flight Engineer Yury Usachev, have conducted dozens of scientific experiments in both life sciences and materials sciences, and are now about to embark on more than 2 weeks of work to help augment the Mir's power capability.
Late Monday night, U.S. time, Onufriyenko and Usachev will venture outside Mir for the second spacewalk of the Mir-21 mission. And, with Lucid monitoring activities from inside Mir, they will move a solar array jointly developed by the U.S. and Russia from a container on the Mir's Docking Module to the nine-year old Kvant-1 module, where it will be attached.
Right now, the Mir is circling the Earth at an altitude of about 240 statute miles. Onufriyenko and Usachev are in their 86th day in space, their 84th day aboard Mir. Lucid has been in space for 56 days, 55 aboard the Mir.
Earlier this week, Lucid discussed the progress of her scientific research aboard the Mir, saying she is about to move into the most intense period of her 4 1/2 month stay on the Space Station.
"We had Priroda, the new module that came up, and we had to reconfigure that, and then we had Progress that came up and we had to unload it. We're gradually packing it up for its return. Now, I have all the United States experiments that we're getting ready to work on."
With all of the Mir's science modules now in full operation for scientific activities, Lucid said she is turning her attention to one of the most important U.S. experiments which recently arrived on the new Priroda module, the MIM.
According to Lucid, "This is a facility that will isolate various experiments from the perturbations that we have here on Mir in the microgravity environment. It's very important to many of the scientific experiments such as crystal growth and things like that, that they have very, very good microgravity environment. We do have a good microgravity environment here on space station Mir, but there are a lot of changes to it at various times due to crew activity, firings, and things like this. This facility will be able to isolate experiments from these perturbations so that the experiments can be carried out in a true microgravity environment.
Earlier this week, the Mir crew performed a checkout of the equipment and transmitted the checkout data to the ground. Principle investigators are reviewing MIM checkout data to determine how well the facility is working.
The spacewalks about to be conducted by Onufriyenko and Usachev will be monitored by engineers and officials here in Houston and at the Russian Mission Control Center in Kaliningrad. One of those observers is Richard Fullerton, the chairman of the working group overseeing spacewalk activity for the NASA-Mir cooperative program, who was interviewed earlier today.
Tomorrow and Sunday will see Onufriyenko and Usachev prepare their spacesuits for Monday night spacewalk. They'll also check their helmets and communications gear, just as they did back in March, for their first EVA of the mission. With Lucid acting as the spacewalk choreographer, Onufriyenko and Usachev will float out of an airlock on the Mir to unpack the Cooperative Solar Array from its canister, located on the side of the Docking Module.
The cosmonauts will move the array to the Kvant-1 module, where it will be attached to the underside of Kvant. The EVA should take about 5 hours and should conclude around 11 pm Houston time (Tuesday, 04:00 GMT).
On Tuesday, the Mir-21 cosmonauts will get some time off to rest after the spacewalk. Lucid plans to continue her Earth observation studies of points of interest in Europe and Asia.
While Shannon Lucid continues her work aboard Mir, six of her astronaut colleagues are in final preparations for launch Sunday aboard the Shuttle Endeavour for a planned 10-day mission. STS-77 is devoted to technology research and life and materials science experiments. Led by Commander John Casper, Endeavour is scheduled to liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center Sunday at 5:30 AM Central time. The countdown is proceeding smoothly with the weather forecast favorable for Sunday morning.
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Mir-21 - Week of May 24, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
The Mir-21 crew is spending time this week space walking to enhance power on the station. On Monday, the Russian cosmonauts completed a five-hour spacewalk. Yuri Onufriyenko and Yury Usachev removed the U.S.-Russian joint cooperative solar array from its canister on the Docking Module and attached it to the underside of the Kvant-1 module while cosmonaut researcher Shannon Lucid monitored systems on the station.
Onufriyenko and Usachev will unfurl that array during a spacewalk today. They will exit the station and move to the underside of the Kvant-1 module, where they attached the new solar array during Monday night's spacewalk. Tonight they will operate a handcrank to unfurl that array, which will augment the station's power capability. Shannon Lucid will be monitoring their activity from inside Mir.
The Mir-21 crew has been busy performing Mir upkeep and manitenance as it prepares Priroda for science operations. Priroda is now configured so the crew can conduct experiments in it.
"This week we were able to check out the Biological Technology System and it worked very well," said Lucid.
With the hectic schedule of space research being conducted on Mir, there has been little time for the crew to become bored. Lucid spends any available time observing the Earth. She says that she misses her family and friends back home, but she knows that when she returns she will also miss being onboard the Mir.
When asked by a German news reporter what she planned to do when her mission was completed Lucid said, "When I get back to Earth, I'm going to go to my house, I'm going to sit in a big chair, and I'm just going to listen to everyone tell me what they've been doing for the past so many months I've been gone."
Tomorrow the Mir crew will be busy with Earth observations, and Monday morning they will have a chance to talk with the shuttle astronauts aboard Endeavour. The ship-to-ship exchange will air on Monday morning at 8:25 CDT on NASA Television.
Shannon Lucid is almost halfway through her four-and-a-half-month stay on Mir. Atlantis brings John Blaha to replace her in early August. Now in training in Star City, Russia, Blaha spent the past week in his final instructional sessions on the U.S. experiments that are flying on Mir.
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Mir-21 - Week of May 31, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
American astronaut Shannon Lucid is in her 69th day on the Russian space station Mir, halfway through her four-and-a-half-month tour of duty establishing a permanent American presence in space. While Lucid has been busy with a variety of scientific investigations onboard the station, she has also assisted in three spacewalks as Mir Commander Yuri Onufriyenko and Flight Engineer Yury Usachev installed new power-generating capability on the ten-year-old station and attached new experiments to its surface.
After one spacewalk to move the new U.S.-Russian Joint Cooperative Solar Array into place on the Kvant-1 module, Onufriyenko and Usachev ventured outside Mir again last Friday night to unfurl that solar array. Lucid monitored their activities from inside Mir.
She also took some video of their space walk.
"The EVA was pretty exciting," Lucid said during a crew news conference Tuesday. "The thing that struck me when Yuri and Yuri went out and did their EVA was how big the station is. The first time I saw Yuri way out on that long pole and going out across nothing my heart went up in my throat."
Late yesterday the cosmonauts took another walk in space, this time for five hours, to attach the MOMS experiment to the exterior of the Priroda science module. The German-built Modular Optoelectronic Multispectral Scanner, which measures radiation outside the space station, is a descendant of a spectrometer which flew on space shuttle missions in 1983 and 1984.
Monday morning, while the space shuttle Endeavour was taking measurements of a small weighted satellite during the fourth rendezvous of that mission, Lucid and her colleagues had the opportunity to talk ship-to-ship with Endeavour Commander John Casper.
Endeavour is now home, landing safely at the Kennedy Space Center Wednesday morning, but the Mir flies on. This is the 100th day in space for Onufriyenko and Usachev, their 98th day aboard Mir. For Shannon Lucid, it is ten weeks since her marathon mission in space began when she was a mission specialist on the STS-76 mission, riding Atlantis into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center.
Tomorrow Onufriyenko, Usachev and Lucid will be busy with more Earth observations, and Lucid will work on a variety of microgravity science experiments in the Priroda module. The Earth observations will continue on Sunday, but much of the day is scheduled as off-duty time for the Mir-21 crewmembers.
Both Monday and Tuesday are science days, as Lucid and her colleagues concentrate on Life Sciences experiments; on Wednesday the cosmonauts will be making final preparations for their fifth spacewalk of the mission, the fourth since Lucid arrived.
Thursday Onufriyenko and Usachev will exit the space station to attach two new experiments to the outside of the Kvant-2 module. The Particle Impact Experiment, and the Mir Sample Return Experiment, both brought to the station onboard Priroda, will collect more data on the effects of micrometeor and orbital debris strikes to the exterior of the space station.
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| 8/9/96 | 8/16/96 | 8/23/96 | 8/30/96 |
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Mir-21 - Week of June 7, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
Interview: Charles Brown - Co-chair of the Crew Training and Exchange Working Group
American astronaut Shannon Lucid has begun the second half of her marathon mission on the Russian Space Station Mir, assisting her Russian colleagues in their fifth spacewalk of the mission.
Yesterday afternoon Mir-21 commander Yuri Onufriyenko and flight engineer Yury Usachev donned their spacesuits and went to work on the exterior of the Kvant-2 module. This time, the task was to attach two experiments similar to ones left on the station's Docking Module in March by astronauts Rich Clifford and Linda Godwin on the STS-76 mission.
The cosmonauts attached the Particle Impact Experiment and the Mir Sample Return Experiment, both of which were brought to Mir onboard the Priroda science module in April. One edge of the MSRE had to be strapped into place. The two experiments will collect more data on the effects of micrometeor and orbital debris strikes to the exterior of the ten-year-old station. Lucid monitored and coordinated the six-hour spacewalk from inside the station. The cosmonauts will make their sixth and final spacewalk of the mission next week.
For Onufriyenko and Usachev, this is their 107th day in space, the 105th day on the station, and the 77th day in space for Lucid, her 76th aboard Mir. During a news conference last week she expressed confidence her scheduled work would be completed before astronaut John Blaha arrives to replace her in early August.
"I don't think we will have any problems finishing up, I hope not," she said. "I hope that everything goes along as it's going along now, and we'll be able to finish everything up before STS-79 gets here and we change out. I don't know exactly how far along we are, but so far everything we have been doing has been going along fairly well, and I don't see anything that's going to be a show-stopper."
While Lucid has been busy with her duties on the Russian space station, the Americans who will follow her to the Mir have spent the week training in Star City, Russia for their mission. John Blaha went through his final training sessions on five separate science payloads this past week, and also had a four-hour simulation in a Soyuz vehicle mock-up.
Jerry Linenger, scheduled for launch in December to replace Blaha, finished the same sessions this week, and he had more training on the Russian EVA suit he will wear as the first American to do a spacewalk in a Russian suit next year. Mike Foale received more training on Mir Space Station systems this week, as well as on the russian EVA suit, and Jim Voss studied the radio and television systems of the Soyuz vehicle, and continued his Russian language lessons.
The coordination of the training of American astronauts in Star City and Russian cosmonauts here requires the efforts of a great many people on both sides. Training coordination was the subject of a recent interview with Charles Brown, the co-chair of the Crew Training and Exchange Working Group, which negotiates all of the training agreements and arrangements between NASA and the Russian Space Agency.
Tomorrow the Mir crew will download experiment data from laptop computers to floppy disks, preparing the laptops for next week's experiments. Sunday is a scheduled off duty day for Onufriyenko, Usachev and Lucid, but they will do more Earth observation work if weather on the ground permits it. Monday morning at 9:50 central time, Lucid will be interviewed as a guest on the debut edition of the Rosie O'Donnell show.
Tuesday Lucid and her cosmonaut colleagues will be back at work with life and materials science experiments in the Priroda and Kristall modules. On Wednesday, Onufriyenko and Usachev are to make their sixth spacewalk of the mission. Their task job is to attach a new boom to the underside of the Mir's core and Kvant-1 modules. The Rapana boom will replace the existing Strella boom, and will be used by cosmonauts on future spacewalks to transfer cargo from one module to another.
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Mir-21 - Week of June 14, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
The crew of the Russian Space Station Mir has completed the sixth spacewalk of their mission, a five-hour excursion to attach a new cargo transfer boom to the outside of the orbiting outpost.
Yesterday afternoon, U.S. time, Mir-21 commander Yuri Onufriyenko and flight engineer Yury Usachev donned their EVA suits and moved to the exterior of their station. Their job: attach the Rapana boom to the underside of Mir's Kvant-1 and core modules. The Rapana boom will replace the existing Strella boom, and will be used by cosmonauts on future spacewalks to transfer items from place to place on the outside of the station. Cosmonaut-researcher Shannon Lucid monitored their activity from inside Mir.
The Rapana boom not only moves supplies from one spot to another on the exterior of Mir, but space walkers, too. After astronaut Jerry Linenger arrives on Mir next year, he will be the first American to conduct a spacewalk wearing a Russian EVA suit, and his task will require a ride on the Rapana arm.
Wednesday's spacewalk was the sixth and final scheduled EVA for Onufriyenko and Usachev, who are now wrapping up their 114th day in space, the 112th onboard the Mir. This is Lucid's 84th day in space, the 83rd on the Russian space station. Her tour is scheduled to end in early August, when astronaut John Blaha arrives on the shuttle Atlantis to take over.
This week in Star City, Russia, in the final phases of training for his five-month mission, Blaha received additional instruction on the Mir's systems and its experiments. Jerry Linenger has been busy this week with more work on systems training for the Soyuz transport vehicle, and Mike Foale spent the week in water survival training on the Black Sea.
Jim Voss is still receiving Russian language training, and has begun the early stages of training on the operating systems onboard the Mir.
Tomorrow and Sunday, Earth weather permitting, Onufriyenko, Usachev and Lucid will concentrate their attention on a continuing series of Earth observations.
Monday morning at 8 CDT, Lucid is scheduled to conduct interviews with television stations in Houston and Indianapolis; that downlink will be carried live on NASA TV. Also on Monday, the Mir crew will perform another verification test of the Microgravity Isolation Mount, a Canadian-built apparatus designed to isolate microgravity experiments from the vibrational forces of the space station itself.
Tuesday is a life sciences work day, with Lucid scheduled to conduct more experiments on the sensory-motor adaptations made by space travelers while on orbit that contribute to coordination problems they encounter after returning to Earth from a long space flight.
On Wednesday she returns to microgravity investigations and additional test of a furnace being used to melt metals in an effort to measure how the liquid metals diffuse with one another.
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Mir-21 - Week of June 21, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
On-orbit science is the order of the day today onboard the Russian Space Station Mir. Cosmonaut-researcher Shannon Lucid, now in her 90th day on the Russian station, is monitoring a protein crystal growth apparatus in the Priroda science module; she and her cosmonaut colleagues have Earth observation work scheduled for tomorrow.
This week the crew worked with the QueenÆs University Experiment in Liquid Diffusion (QUELD) payload. QUELD is a fixed furnace facility that provides scientists with a way of measuring the diffusion coefficients in some metallic binary systems as well as glasses and semiconductor materials.
They also spent time sampling the air quality in two Mir modules, Spektr and the Core module. Two different sampling devices were used. The Solid Sorbent Air Sampler (SSAS) is designed to sample air quality over a long period (24 hours) as it looks for particular components in the air. The Grab Sample Container (GSC) is used to get a quick "snap shot" type reading of air quality at a specific time and place.
Astronaut John Blaha, who will take over for Lucid in early August, spent this past week in training in Star City, Russia, undergoing baseline medical examinations for a life sciences experiment on how muscles react to a weightless environment. He also finished a four-hour simulation in the Mir training module. The shuttle Atlantis, which will take Blaha to the Russian station and return Lucid to Earth, moves to the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC on Monday for final preparations for the launch of STS-79, still set for July 31.
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Mir-21 - Week of June 28, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
Investigating how liquid metals react with one another in microgravity is the focus of work today and tomorrow for American astronaut Shannon Lucid, now in her 97th day onboard the Russian Space Station Mir. She is working in the Priroda Science Module with a Canadian-built furnace doing several sample runs, while another apparatus monitors disturbances to the microgravity environment.
She and her cosmonaut colleagues, Commander Yuri Onufriyenko and Flight Engineer Yury Usachev, are also performing Earth observations.
Lucid's replacement on Mir, astronaut John Blaha this week was certified for flight by the Russian Space Agency; he will return to the Johnson Space Center late next week to conclude his shuttle mission training. Blaha's launch aboard Atlantis on mission STS-79 is scheduled for July 31.
Wednesday at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, the Mir-22 crewmembers held their prelaunch news conference. Commander Gennadi Manakov, Flight Engineer Pavel Vinogradov, and French researcher Claudie Andre-Deschays are scheduled to be launched August 14 and to dock with Mir two days later. Blaha agreed with his cosmonaut colleagues that they have a difficult four-month mission in front of them, but said he is eager for the challenge.
"Naturally, difficulties do exist in this program, but I am happy to participate," Blaha said. "This program will be a new page not only in space exploration but also in the interrelations between our countries."
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Mir-21 - Week of July 5, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
American Cosmonaut Researcher Shannon Lucid and her Russian Mir crewmates talked with the Space Shuttle Columbia astronauts last week to congratulate them on their ongoing mission. Lucid and her Mir crewmates -- Commander Yuri Onufriyenko and Flight Engineer Yury Usachev -- expressed regrets Wednesday that the two crews would not have a chance to work together.
"We welcome our neighbors in space," Onufriyenko said. "We would like to wish you successful completion of the experiments which study the effects of weightlessness on human beings." STS-78 Commander Tom Henricks voiced his appreciation for the success of the Mir-21's crew space walks. "We wish to congratulate you on your continued success during this long duration mission," he said.
Lucid reflected on the international flavor of the crews working concurrently in low-Earth orbit. "It's really great to talk to you, Tom and hearing all about your crew. We really have an international group up here. It's too bad we can't get a little closer and talk a little longer," she said.
Lucid also was involved in an online conference with students from the Manhattan School for Children in New York City last week. During this first ever online interview hosted by NASA, CNN and CompuServe, Lucid answered questions ranging from the taste of the food on Mir to advice on the best way to get into the space program.
In addition to these interviews, Lucid and her crewmates continued with their work aboard the space station this week, working with an experiment similar to the work being done on Columbia. The Candle Flame in Microgravity experiment focuses on studies of a candle flame in a weightless environment to gain additional insight into the complicated physiochemical process of combustion.
Continuing Earth observations focused on areas of the Texas/Louisiana Gulf Coast, Mexico City and the North East U.S. Urban Region.
Cosmonaut Researcher John Blaha finished his training activities in Star City and returned home this week after participating in a pre-flight press conference in Star City last Wednesday. He took the remainder of this week off, and will begin final preparations for his launch on STS-79 Monday. Blaha will replace Lucid on Mir in early August.
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Mir-21 - Week of July 12, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
Interview: Frank Culbertson - Phase 1 Program Manager discusses impact on Lucid's Mir mission
Astronaut Shannon Lucid breaks an American spaceflight record today, completing 115 days in space on a single flight. She surpasses the mark set last year by Norm Thagard, who arrived at the space station Mir in a Soyuz capsule with his Mir-18 crewmates and returned home on the Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-71.
Lucid's planned four-and-a-half month mission onboard the Russian station will be longer than planned. On Friday shuttle program managers announced their decision to delay the launch of STS-79, Lucid's ride home, until mid-September.
Astronaut John Blaha is back at JSC after completing his cosmonaut training and being certified for flight by the Russian Space Agency. He spent last week getting reacquainted with his STS-79 crewmates and resumed his training as a member of that shuttle crew.
There will be a visitor to Mir this month: an unmanned Progress re-supply vehicle is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome on July 22, and would dock with the Russian outpost two days later; the back-up launch date is July 25th. Progress will carry food, fuel and logistical items for the Mir-21 crew and for their replacements. The Mir-22 cosmonauts are scheduled to be launched to the Russian space station August 14.
Note: in our weekly reports we routinely make reference to the Russian city of Kaliningrad, outside of Moscow, where the Russian space program's Mission Control Center is located. Last week Russian President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree renaming the city "Korolyov," in honor of Sergei Korolyov, the father of the Russian space program. The previous honoree, Mikhail Kalinin, was an associate of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
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Mir-21 - Week of July 19, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
Interview: John Uri - NASA-Mir mission scientist provides a science update and discusses mission replanning efforts
Mir Crew News Conference - Excerpts from Lucid's comments
With 17 weeks down and nine more to go, astronaut Shannon Lucid now holds the American record for the most time in space on a single space flight. On Monday she surpassed the 115 days that astronaut Norm Thagard spent in space during his tour of duty on the Russian Space Station Mir and the shuttle Atlantis last year. During a crew news conference Monday to mark the occasion, Lucid discussed what she has learned about how to support people spending long periods away from Earth.
Lucid's mission will last about six weeks longer than originally planned. Friday afternoon the space shuttle program announced a delay, from late July to mid-September, in the launch of Atlantis on its next trip to the Mir, so the orbiter's solid rocket boosters can be replaced.
That decision was made to better understand why hot gases charred insulation near protective o-rings in the solid rocket motors from Columbia's launch June 20. Those boosters, and the ones slated for Atlantis, were prepared with a new pressure sensitive adhesive and a new cleaning solution, both required to comply with new federal regulations aimed at preventing ozone depletion in the atmosphere. The analysis indicates the damage in the field joints on the last set of boosters was most likely caused by those new materials.
The analysis also concludes that the risk of a failure of those joints is improbable, and that Atlantis' boosters were safe to fly, but the shuttle program opted to prepare new boosters using the old materials to improve the safety margins of the equipment. With work already underway to build a new set of boosters for Atlantis, this week NASA set September 12 as the target date for the delayed launch of Atlantis. That means extra time in orbit for Lucid.
The extension of Shannon Lucid's time onboard the Russian station requires mission managers on the ground to come up with a new schedule for the scientific work she'll now have time to conduct. NASA-Mir mission scientist John Uri discussed the on-orbit science and replanning in an interview last week.
The change in the planned launch of Atlantis back to the Russian station requires a change in planning and training for astronaut John Blaha. And because astronauts know launch schedules can change, Blaha has been mentally preparing for the future.
"I talked to Russian comonauts," Blaha explained, "and they told me that if you set your mind throughout your training period that your flight is a certain length, and there is any delay, that it's a tremendous psychological let-down on orbit, one that you never recover from. They have all told me to plan on staying longer in case something happens. So that's what I have done to prepare for that possibility."
Blaha will come home from Mir onboard Atlantis on mission STS-81, which is now scheduled for launch in January.
Back here in Houston this week, Blaha has been conducting physical training and brushing up on his Russian, undergoing exams to establish baseline data for comparison after his flight, and he participated in a dress rehearsal for Atlantis' docking to the Mir.
Jerry Linenger, who will follow Blaha to the mir next year, spent the week at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, preparing for investigations in the Russian space medicine program.
Astronaut Mike Foale also had training on the medicine program, as well as classroom and practical exercises on Mir systems. Both Foale and Linenger are now on two weeks' vacation.
Jim Voss spent the past week studying the life support systems on the Russian space station, and continuing his Russian language classes and physical training.
The mission of these astronauts on the Mir Space Station is preparatory to the mission of the International Space Station. The Boeing Defense and Space Group in Huntsville, Alabama, has finished welding together the five U.S. modules that will become a part of that outpost.
The spirit of international cooperation, which is being displayed in orbit now and will be required to build the International Space Station, will be evident here on the ground for the next three weeks. The summer Olympics begins today in Atlanta, and this week the Mir-21 crew sent a message to the Olympic athletes.
"In the same way that all of you are gathered there together in Atlanta for peaceful cooperation, Russia and America have been working together to further exploration of space. We would like to wish the athletes there our very best wishes, and I hope that each one of you is able to do the very best that you possibly can, and with that.. let the games begin!"
While the world watches the games in Atlanta, the crew of the Mir will be busy in space. Saturday and Sunday the Mir crew will spend some time doing Earth observation work, but they also have time off scheduled this weekend.
Monday Lucid will be monitoring microgravity experiments, including an apparatus experimenting with different methods of growing protein crystals, and another in which candles are burned to study the behavior of flame in microgravity.
Tuesday and Wednesday are life sciences days, with Lucid doing another session of arm and foot movements for the anticipatory postural activity experiment, investigating sensory-motor adaptations of space travelers.
On Thursday morning, Moscow time, a Progress resupply vehicle is scheduled to be launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome with food and other supplies for the Mir crew. It is scheduled to dock with the station two days after launch.
Next Friday morning, Lucid is scheduled to be interviewed by a television station in New Haven, Connecticut, and another here in Houston. That televised event from the Mir is expected in a window between 7-9 a.m. Central time.
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Mir-21 - Week of July 26, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
Interview: Charlie Stegemoeller - The Phase 1 Implementation Manager talks about sending extra supplies to Lucid
Astronaut Shannon Lucid is now in the fifth month of her record-breaking tour of duty on the Russian Space Station Mir, pursuing an agenda of scientific research while adding to the base of knowledge about long-duration space flight. It has been 18 full weeks since Lucid left earth on the space shuttle atlantis; today is her 124th day on the orbiting Russian outpost.
Lucid and her Mir-21 colleagues, commander Yuri Onufriyenko and flight engineer Yury Usachev, are now preparing for a visitor. An unmanned Progress resupply vehicle carrying food, fuel and other supplies is now scheduled to be launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazahkstan Thursday afternoon Houston time; it should dock with the Russian station about 48 hours later. Wednesday's scheduled launch was scrubbed 45 seconds before blast-off when a propellant tank failed to pressurize properly. Today's replanned launch was further delayed to allow Russian technicians to complete their analysis of that pressurization problem.
During the past week Lucid has been working on an experiment called Candle Flame in Microgravity, studying how flames behave in the absence of gravity. During a television interview this week Lucid described the difference in the appearance of the flames.
"I have a whole series of sizes of candles, and we're lighting them and videotaping and looking to see how the flame burns. It burns quite a bit differently here in a microgravity environment than it does on Earth. It's been a lot of fun. The flame looks like a little blue igloo sitting right on top of the wick. It's pretty neat to watch."
Lucid's work on the Mir, and that of the astronauts who will follow her there, is in preparation for building and living on the International Space Station. This week she also talked about her confidence that the Russians will be prepared to help build that station on schedule.
"I think the Russians are going to be ready. I've been very impressed with the way things are working here on Mir. I'm not a very patient person, and I think we ought to go a littler faster to get the space station built, but I think the Russians will be great partners for us to have."
Lucid will work onboard the Russian station until mid-September--the launch of mission STS-79 is still targeted for september 12th, and this week work continued at the Kennedy Space Center preparing the solid rocket boosters which will push Atlantis into orbit. The new booster stacks are being assembled with the pressure sensitive adhesive and cleaning solvent used prior to the last shuttle flight, when there was evidence of charring of some insulation near protective o-rings. The motors used on last month's flight of Columbia were prepared with different adhesives and solvents, which are believed to be at the root of that charring.
When the space shuttle program decided to delay Atlantis' launch to replace the boosters to improve safety margins, NASA's Shuttle-Mir program had the tasks of learning what extra supplies Lucid would require for an extra six weeks on orbit and then how to get them to the Mir. In a recent interview, Phase 1 implementation manager Charlie Stegemoeller discussed that process and how the work was accomplished.
The Progress launch is now scheduled for next Thursday afternoon. About two weeks later the Russians plan to launch the Mir-22 crew to the orbiting Mir outpost. That launch is currently targeted between August 16 and August 19, with a firm launch date expected soon. Mir-21 cosmonauts Onufriyenko and Usachev then will return to Earth in early September, along with the French researcher who will launch with the Mir-22 cosmonauts.
The last member who will join the Mir-22 crew, American astronaut John Blaha, is involved in training with his STS-79 crewmates here at the Johnson Space Center. For Blaha, most of the past week was spent in physical training and brushing up on his Russian language skills. Blaha is scheduled to return to Kazahkstan next month to be present at the Baikonur cosmodrome for the launch of his Mir-22 colleagues.
The two astronauts next in line behind Blaha for a tour onboard the Mir, Jerry Linenger and Mike Foale, are each midway through a 2-week vacation. When those vacations end, Linenger and Foale will join all of the American astronauts training for Mir missions, plus the next three cosmonaut crews, here at the Johnson Space Center for several weeks of joint training. They will all receive instruction on space shuttle systems and shuttle science hardware.
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Mir-21 - Week of August 2, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
In her 19th week aboard the Russian Mir Space Station, Cosmonaut Researcher Shannon Lucid and her crewmates, Commander Yuri Onufriyenko and Flight Engineer Yury Usachev, await the Russian supply capsule.
Progress--scheduled to reach Mir on Saturday--carries with it a special package for Lucid, put together after her stay on Mir was extended for six weeks. Specialty items included in the additional supplies requested by Lucid include books, M&Ms, twinkies and cheese pretzels.
In an interview last Thursday, Lucid made it clear that she was planning to keep busy during her extra time in space.
"I am still finishing up the United States experiments that we were doing, and then we're going to start in on the experiments that were scheduled to be started on the next segment," Lucid said. "I'll be pretty busy until the time I come home."
The extra time is allowing Lucid to collect extra samples from some of her experiments, producing more comprehensive data. Last week, Lucid continued work with the Candle Flames in Microgravity Experiment, using several spare sets of candles as part of the extension of her research. Researchers on Earth also provided Lucid with ways to change the experiment, giving investigators additional insight into the complicated physiochemical process of combustion.
Lucid has burned a total of 79 candles up in space, which surpasses the original plan based on a total of only 60 candles. In Thursday's interview, Lucid describes what she sees when a candle burns in microgravity.
"I have a whole series of different sizes of candles and we're lighting them and then we're videotaping and taking pictures and looking to see how the flame burns and it burns quite differently up here in a microgravity environment then it does down on Earth," Lucid said. "The way the flame looks is like a little blue igloo sitting right on top of the wick."
Experiments on the study of the Mir environment and its effects on sensitive microgravity experiments also continued in conjunction with the CFM experiment, as data from the Space Acceleration Measurement Systems and the Enhance Dynamic Load Sensors was collected.
Ultimately, Lucid's work, as well as the work of those who will follow her, is done in preparation for building and living on the International Space Station, and Lucid is excited about that station's future.
"I have been very impressed with the way that things have been working here on Mir," Lucid said. "I am not a very patient person, and I wish that we could go a little faster in getting the space station built, and I think the Russians are going to be good partners to have."
The spirit of international cooperation, which is being displayed in orbit now and will be required to build the International Space Station, has been evident here on the ground for the past two weeks. The Mir-21 crew was able to take a break from their science work over the weekend to watch some of the highlights of the Olympic games, which were uplinked to Mir on Saturday.
Lucid and her crewmates also downloaded radiation data from the Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter. This experiment helps doctors monitor the crew's on-orbit exposure to radiation and may aid in crafting better shielding for the future crews on the space station.
The Mir-21 crew also conducted the seventh Anticipatory Postural Activity session successfully. The POSA experiment provides fundamental research in how the muscles operate and respond in microgravity. The results of this research will help scientists understand how the body adapts to space flight.
The crew also continued its troubleshooting on the Biotechnology System to ensure its readiness for the next Mir mission. Mission managers are examining the possibility of manifesting a replacement computer for the system on STS-79.
The change in the planned launch of Atlantis back to the Russian station requires a change in planning and training for Astronaut John Blaha as well. And because astronauts know launch schedules can change, Blaha has been mentally preparing for the future.
"I talked to Russian cosmonauts," Blaha said, "and they told me that if you set your mind through out your training period that your flight is a certain length, and there is any delay, that it's a tremendous psychological let-down on orbit, one that you never recover from. They have all told me to plan on staying longer in case something happens. So that's what I have done to prepare for that possibility."
Back here in Houston this week, Blaha has been conducting physical training with the STS-79 crew and undergoing exams to establish baseline data for comparison after his flight. Blaha will return to Russia this month to watch the launch of his Mir-22 colleagues-Commander Gennadi Manakov, Flight Engineer Pavel Vinogradov and French Cosmonaut Researcher Claudie Andre-Deschays.
In the month of August, future Mir crews, both American and Russian, will be at JSC for a month of joint training on space shuttle systems and science training related to their upcoming missions.
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Mir-21 - Week of August 9, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
Greg Lang - An interview with the STS-79 lead systems integration engineer
Lucid and her Mir-21 crewmates, Commander Yuri Onufriyenko and Flight Engineer Yury Usachev, spent this week sorting supplies, sharing Olympic highlights and continuing scientific research. Progress, the unmanned Russian supply capsule, launched last Wednesday, reaching the Russian Mir Space Station last Friday. The supply capsule delivered two tons of food, fuel and other items to the Mir-21 crew, including the care package of books and junk food requested by Lucid for her extra six week stay on Mir. Progress also carried with it experiment hardware for the upcoming mission.
The crew spent Saturday viewing a package of highlights from the Olympic games, courtesy of NBC, which included the opening ceremonies and several events in which both the Russians and the Americans won Olympic gold medals. During a crew interview last Thursday, the crew received additional Olympic updates on two more gold medal winners -- Carl Lewis, who won the long jump for his ninth career gold medal, and Andrea Chermircin, who became the world's strongest man with a record lift during the weight lifting competition. The crew, in return, expressed their appreciation for the opportunity to view some of the games and congratulated all of the Olympic athletes.
"We wish them the achievement of success that they have place before them in their trip to Atlanta and success in the future," said Yuri Onufriyenko.
"We want to wish all of the athletes there at the Olympic games the best success and I hope that every single one of them returns home feeling that they have done their very best and that they are very satisfied with the effort they put forth," Lucid added.
This week, the Mir-21 crew finished up many of its planned experiments and began setting up the experiments for the next Mir crew which is now set to launch approximately 8:18 a.m. Aug. 17 from Kazhkstan, Russia. American Astronaut John Blaha, who will join the Mir-22 crew when Atlantis docks with the Russian outpost during STS-79, will leave this weekend to watch the launch of his crewmates, Commander Gennadi Manakov, Flight Engineer Pavel Vinogradov and French Cosmonaut Researcher Claudie Andre-Deschays.
In an interview this week, Blaha talked about his reasons for wanting to live aboard Mir.
"If this is what we're going to be doing for the next 15 years," he said, "what better way to understand what being on a space station is than to go and do it? That's my motivation. I love the space program; I like working on it. I feel I can do a better job in the space station era if I have flown on a space station flight myself. Then I will understand what future crewmembers will go through, what kind of training program they need to be efficient, what type of timeline they need to do on-orbit. These things are probably different than what we do for shorter space flights."
Last week, Lucid completed the Candle Flames in Mircrogravity experiment, answering questions from scientists about the experiment, and providing them with additional data before stowing the experiment for its return to Earth and passing her notes on to the CFM investigators for use on future experiments.
Lucid also set up the Forced Flow Flamespread Test last week, which was meant to examine the flame spreading behavior of solid fuels under different circumstances in microgravity. Lucid began collecting data on Tuesday and finished up on Thursday.
Data collected from the Solid Sorbent Air Sampler for the Volatile Organic Compounds on Mir Station Experiment will be used to develop advanced life support systems, air quality monitors and to help evaluate the Mir environment during long duration missions.
Data from the Space Acceleration Measurement System continued to be collected in conjunction with the other experiments in an ongoing study of how the Mir environment effects sensitive microgravity experiments. Similarly, Lucid ran the Enhanced Dynamic Load Sensors experiment, taking acceleration measurements to evaluate the effect of crew activities on experiments. Earth observations have focused on several sites in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
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Mir-21 - Week of August 16, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
Frank Culbertson - An interview with the Phase 1 Program Manager
The Mir-22 backup crew will be pressed into service for a Saturday launch to the Russian Mir Space Station after doctors diagnosed a possible health problem in primary Commander Gennadi Manakov.
Mir-22 Commander Valeri Korzun and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri replaced Manakov and Pavel Vinogradov after Manakov failed to pass a preflight electrocardiograph test for unspecified reasons. Vinogradov now becomes the flight engineer for the Mir-24 mission next June and will be joined by veteran Mir Commander Yuri Gidzenko.
Korzun and Kaleri, along with French Researcher Claudie Andre-Deshays, will blastoff on a Soyuz TM-24 rocket approximately 8:18 a.m. Saturday from the Baikonur launch site in Kazahkstan, docking with Mir Monday.
"That will be a very exciting time here on station Mir," said Cosmonaut Researcher Shannon Lucid in an interview earlier this week. "French Cosmonaut Andre-Deshays will be here and we will be doing all of the various French experiments, and that will be very exciting."
Astronaut John Blaha, who has been in Russia this week brushing up on Mir systems and language training, will join the Mir crews once Atlantis reaches Mir during STS-79. Andre-Deshays will return to Earth on Sept. 2 with Mir-21 cosmonauts Onufriyenko and Usachev after two weeks of scientific research. Lucid will return home with the STS-79 crew at the completion of Atlantis' joint docking mission, leaving Korzun, Kaleri and Blaha aboard Mir for the rest of the year.
Lucid also said this week that the news of scientists discovering evidence of ancient life on Mars has her and her Mir-21 crew mates talking about the possibility of humans going there to investigate in person.
"When the ground told us, we were really excited," Lucid said in an interview with CBS on Monday. "It filled up our whole conversation at supper time. We talked about the possibility of life on Mars, and understandably, our conversation turned to the possibility of taking trips to Mars, and how we hoped Americans and Russians and other nations will be able to work together and develop a means of making a trip. We think that would be absolutely fantastic." Lucid, Commander Yuri Onufriyenko and Flight Engineer Yury Usachev spent this week packing up their experiments for the trip home and setting up experiments in preparation of the arrival of the Mir-22 crew.
Before Monday's interview, Lucid had a chance to reflect on her mission, now in its 21st week. "Things are going real well here on Mir. We are beginning to think about wrapping up this mission and getting ready for the next mission," Lucid said. "We started off my phase of the flight with Quail eggs, developing little baby birds inside the eggs and watching the development, and we are ending up the flight growing wheat seeds. I think it is real interesting."
Over the past three weeks, the Mir crew has set up the greenhouse needed to grow wheat seeds, installing sensors and probes, watering and testing the unit. The crew planted the seeds Monday, and is already beginning to see results.
"We got the wheat seeds planted and now we can see the tiny little plants beginning to grow," Lucid said.
The Mir-21 crew started work on the Greenhouse Experiment, originally planned for the next mission, so the plants can be harvested as originally scheduled. The experiment is designed to see how plants grow in microgravity.
Overall, Lucid and her crew mates are happy with the way their mission has turned out thus far.
"We finished up everything that was planned for this flight, and I think it always makes you feel really good to get everything finished up," Lucid said. "And of course, right now, we are looking forward to the Mir crew that's coming next week."
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| 8/9/96 | 8/16/96 | 8/23/96 | 8/30/96 |
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Mir-21 - Week of August 23, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
Cosmonaut Researcher Shannon Lucid and her Mir-21 crewmates welcomed the Mir-22 crew onboard the Russian space station on Monday.
Mir-22 Commander Valeri Korzun and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri, along with French Cosmonaut Researcher Claudie Andre-Deshays, docked their Soyuz TM-24 spacecraft with Mir on Monday after a Saturday launch from Russia. They will join Lucid, Commander Yuri Onufriyenko and Flight Engineer Yury Usachev for a two week stay on the. Astronaut John Blaha, the final member of the Mir-22 crew, set to arrive via STS-79 in September, was in Russia to see the launch and receive some refresher training before joining the STS-79 crew later this week.
The trio's arrival was a welcome sight for the Mir-21 crew, which has gone several months without visitors.
"Things are exciting here on Mir with the new crew. We have six people onboard station -- four from Russia, one from France and one from America," Lucid said in an interview Monday. "It is the first time Yuri, Yuri and I talked face-to-face with a different person in about five months, so its pretty exciting up here on Mir."
The international crew is indicative of how life will be on the International Space Station. Lucid said the experiences being gathered by the joint cooperation on the Russian space station are providing the groundwork for the future space station.
"One of the main objectives of this cooperative program that we have with the Russians right now, which we call Phase 1, is so that we can learn how to work with other cultures, and learn to work with other nations, and especially working with the Russians since they will have such a vital part in the space station that we will be building," Lucid said. "It gives not only astronauts and cosmonauts the opportunity to learn how to work together, it also gives the ground support people the opportunity to learn how to work together to mix the cultures to make a good working environment."
The multiple docking operations needed to accommodate the Mir-22 mission underscore the versatility of the Russian program which contributes valuable flight operations experience to the International Space Station team. Currently, the Progress supply capsule which had been docked with Mir has been undocked and moved to a parking orbit around the station to accommodate both Soyuz capsules now currently docked with Mir.
Korzun and Kaleri will spend six months on Mir, mostly with Blaha, while Andre-Deshays is scheduled to return to Earth on Sept. 2 with Onufriyenko and Usachev aboard the Soyuz TM-23 which has been docked with Mir for more than six months. When Blaha replaces Lucid, he will continue the Phase 1 scientific investigations begun by Lucid, complete the first on-orbit handover to support a permanent U.S. human presence in space. Both Lucid and Blaha's time aboard Mir will roughly equal the time to be spent by crews aboard the International Space Station in the future.
To continue America's presence on the Russian station, two new American astronauts, Wendy Lawrence and David Wolf, were named to the list of future Mir crew members this week. Lawrence is scheduled to begin a four month stay on Mir in September 1997, launching aboard Atlantis as part of the STS-86 crew, and becoming a member of the Mir-24 and 25 crews. Wolf is scheduled to replace Lawrence in early 1998 aboard Discovery during STS-89. During his stay, he will be a member of both the Mir-25 and 26 crews.
"Wendy and Dave are excellent additions to the cadre of astronauts currently training in Star City, or flying on a Mir mission," said Frank Culbertson, Phase 1 Program Manager. "They will continue the American presence on Mir as we work with our Russian partners and move toward the launch of the first element of the International Space Station in late 1997." The STS-88 crew, the first shuttle mission to carry hardware into space for the assembly of the International Space Station, also was named this week. STS-88 Commander Bob Cabana will be joined by Pilot Rick Sturckow and Mission Specialists Nancy Currie, Jerry Ross and Jim Newman for the historical seven-day mission.
Joint training for the initial space station crew, William Shepherd, Sergei Krikalev and Anatoly Solovyev, is set to begin in two weeks and will take place in both the U.S. and Russia. Now in her 22nd week aboard Mir, Lucid can still say that she would agree to undergo the experience all over again.
"I have enjoyed the entire experience I have had here on Mir, and that is both from a personal standpoint and from a scientific standpoint," Lucid said. "I have really enjoyed being able to have the opportunity to be in space for a long period of time. And yes, if I had known it was going to be for six months, I still would have asked to be able to come," Lucid said. Lucid continues to pack up her experiments for the upcoming trip home as work aboard Mir this week will center mainly on the French experiments of Andre-Deshays.
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| 8/9/96 | 8/16/96 | 8/23/96 | 8/30/96 |
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Mir-21 - Week of August 30, 1996
Mission Status Report - Filed from Mir Mission Control in Moscow
The transition of crewmembers onboard the Russian Space Station Mir is all but complete, as three of the six inhabitants of that orbiting outpost make final preparations to return to Earth monday, while American astronaut Shannon Lucid heads into the final few weeks of her six month tour of duty there. On her 159th day aboard the Mir station and 161st in space, Lucid is more than five months into a mission now scheduled to end in three weeks' time.
On Monday Lucid and her five crewmates conducted a news conference on orbit, and she was asked what about her "home away from home" she will miss when her mission ends next month.
"I will miss not getting to work in a laboratory every day," she said. "It's really been a lot of fun to more or less have my own laboratory that I was in charge of in making decisions, and just working in a lab every day."
Lucid's ride home, the space shuttle Atlantis, is now scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on September 14 at 4:39 a.m. Central Time, on the STS-79 mission which will bring astronaut John Blaha to the Mir for a four-month mission. The launch date was set by NASA managers after a lengthy Flight Readiness Review at KSC.
NASA officials will be keeping tabs on tropical storm activity in the Atlantic and keeping their fingers crossed that Mother Nature will not disrupt plans for Atlantis' launch.
Blaha will spend most of his four-month mission on the station with the Mir-22 cosmonauts, commander Valeri Korzun and flight engineer Alexander Kaleri. Their arrival on the station 12 days ago came only a week after they were elevated from their status as the back-up crew, after the Mir-22 prime crew commander was grounded for medical reasons, and along with him his flight engineer. Although Korzun and Kaleri did not have an extensive training regimen with Blaha, Korzun says he is eager to work with the veteran American astronaut.
"We did survival training with him, along with the rest of the crew. We know each other fairly well as colleagues, as friends. I think the presence of such an astronaut as John Blaha onboard Mir, someone with his experience as a pilot and commander... we will work together with him with great pleasure fulfilling the program, and I don't see any problems in our joint work together."
Likewise, during a shuttle crew news conference last week, Blaha acknowledged having had less time to get to know Korzun and Kaleri than he would have had in a normal training routine; nevertheless, he's set to get to orbit and get to work.
"I ended up training with two different crews in Russia, and now I'm going to fly with a third crew that I didn't train with. I met both of these two people a year and a half ago in Star City, I've seen them a little bit around the campus, talked to them extensively down in Baikonur last week on a trip there, and I'm looking forward to working with them. They're an experienced crew and we have a full plate.
"We'll have some space walks. During those space walks I'll have some duties inside the Mir, maneuvering the solar panels and maneuvering the vehicle when people tell me to. I'm a foreigner onboard that vehicle so basically I don't do too much unless someone tells me to do it."
Korzun, Kaleri and Lucid will be on hand to greet Blaha and his shuttle crewmates when Atlantis docks to the Mir about 43 hours after its launch, but the other three cosmonauts are due to come home this weekend. Mir-21 commander Yuri Onufriyenko and flight engineer Yury Usachev are in their 189th day onboard the Mir, their 191st in space. In the early morning hours of Monday, Moscow time, they and French astronaut Claudie Andre-Deshays, who arrived on the Mir with Korzun and Kaleri, will climb into the Soyuz capsule which brought Onufriyenko and Usachev to the Mir in February. They will undock from the Mir and return to Earth, ending the Russians' six months in space and Andre-Deshays' 16-day mission.
The Atlantis astronauts spent most of this past week at KSC participating in the dress rehearsal of the final phase of the countdown for their mission, and they have now returned to Houston for the final phase of their mission training.
Also at JSC this past week were astronauts Jerry Linenger and Mike Foale, the next in line behind John Blaha for a tour of duty on the Mir Space Station. Both have been in Houston for an update on their shuttle systems training, before returning to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow, where they will resume their Mir training.
Meanwhile, eight Russian cosmonauts who will be on the Mir during upcoming shuttle visits have also been in Houston this week. The Mir-23 cosmonauts, commander Vasily Tsibliev and flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin, have been at JSC for three weeks learning space shuttle systems; for the past two weeks they have been joined by the Mir-25 cosmonauts, commander Talgat Musabayev and flight engineer Nikolai Budarin.
This week, they were all joined by both the prime crew for Mir-24, commander Yuri Gidzenko and flight engineer Pavel Vinogradov, and the Mir-24 back-up team of commander Gennadi Padalka and flight engineer Sergei Avdeyev. Gidzenko and Avdeyev flew together on Mir 20, and were onboard late last year when Atlantis delivered the docking module to the station on mission STS-74. Vinogradov was the flight engineer for Mir-22, and would be in orbit today but was grounded when commander Gennadi Manakov was pulled from the flight because of a suspect electrocardiograph reading.
A ninth Russian cosmonaut has been at JSC this week, but she will remain when the others go home. Elena Kondakova, the current record holder for longest single spaceflight by a woman at 169 days, was recently named to fly on the shuttle as a mission specialist when Atlantis ventures to the Mir next may on STS-84. Kondakova has been settling in here in houston and taking English lessons in the early phase of her training.
Tomorrow and Sunday, Mir-21 commander Yuri Onufriyenko and flight engineer Yury Usachev will complete their handover of station operational duties to their Mir-22 counterparts, Valeri Korzun and Alexander Kaleri, and will finish packing up their gear as they complete their six-month mission.
Late Sunday night, Houston time, CNES researcher Claudie Andre-Deshays will join Onufriyenko and Usachev in their Soyuz capsule, and at 11:20 p-m, they will undock from the Mir station to begin a 3.5-hour trip back to earth. They are scheduled to make a soft landing in central Asia at 2:45 a.m. Houston time Monday morning.
Tuesday morning, about 4:30 Central Time, the Progress resupply vehicle, which has been orbiting near the Mir station since the arrival of the Mir-22 crew, will redock to the station, using the docking port vacated by the Mir-21 crew's Soyuz capsule.
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