Space Station 20th: Six Months Until Expedition 1

ISS - International Space Station 20th Anniversary patch.

April 8, 2020

With their anticipated ground-breaking launch to the International Space Station (ISS) just six months away, the Expedition 1 crew of Commander William M. Shepard, Flight Engineer Sergei K. Krikalev, and Soyuz Commander Yuri P. Gidzenko as well as their backups Kenneth D. Bowersox, Mikhail V. Tyurin and Vladimir N. Dezhurov divided their time between Russia and the United States. In April 2000 they took a side trip to Germany to familiarize themselves with one of the collaborative science experiments for their mission. In both the United States and Russia, engineers prepared the next modules and elements to be added to the still embryonic space station.

Two views of Expedition 1 commander Shepherd during an EVA training
session in the Hydrolab facility at Star City in February 2000. Images Credit: NASA.

The Expedition 1 prime and backup crews began the year 2000 with the astronauts training in the U.S. and the cosmonauts in Russia. They spent February training together in Russia, mainly at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City outside Moscow, among other things practicing for Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVAs) or spacewalks using the Russian Orlan spacesuits in the Hydrolab facility. In March, they trained at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, conducting EVA training in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory and joint simulations with Shuttle crews. In April they returned to Star City for additional training on Russian segment and Soyuz spacecraft systems.

Above: Expedition 1 crewmembers (left to right) Shepherd, Krikalev, Gidzenko, Dezhurov and Tyurin pose in front of the Plasma Kristall experiment hardware. Middle: The Plasma Kristall experiment hardware. Bellow: Expedition 1 crewmembers pose with the international Plasma Kristall experiment team. Images Credit: Max Planck Institute.

Unlike subsequent expeditions, the Expedition 1 crew had a somewhat modest amount of science experiments to conduct due to the priority placed on station assembly. The Plasma Kristall-3 (PK-3) experiment, later renamed PKE-Nefedov to honor Anatoli P. Nefedov, the Russian co-principal investigator who passed away in 2001, was one of the first natural science experiments conducted on the space station. The Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching near Munich, Germany, and the Institute for High Energy Densities in Moscow, part of the Russian Academy of Sciences, collaborated on the experiment to study the formation and behavior of plasma and dust crystals in microgravity. Earth-bound benefits from research in plasma crystals include improved means of disinfecting surfaces including wounds, aiding in the healing process. In April 2000, five of the six Expedition 1 crewmembers (Bowersox was not available) traveled from Moscow to Germany to train on the PK-3 experiment.

Above: ISS as it appeared in May 1999, with the Zarya module at left and the
Unity Node 1 at right. Bellow: The Zvezda Service Module at RKK Energia being prepared for shipment to Baikonur in April 1999. Images Credit: NASA.

On-orbit assembly of the still crew-tended ISS, begun in November 1998, was ready to continue in mid-2000 with the launch of the Russian-built Zvezda Service Module (SM), providing living accommodations for long-duration crews, including environmental control and life support equipment. The Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center in Moscow built Zvezda and delivered it to RKK Energia’s Test and Checkout Facility in 1998 so engineers there could begin extensive testing. In May 1999, workers transported the module to the Baikonur Cosmodrome’s Area 254 for additional testing and to begin prelaunch preparations. On Feb. 10 and 11, 2000, senior managers from the U.S., Russia and the European Space Agency met in Moscow to review the status of the ISS program, in particular Zvezda’s readiness for launch. At the conclusion of the meetings, the managers established July 8 to 14 as the launch window for the module, with July 12 as the optimal date, pending recertification of the Proton rocket after a launch failure in October 1999. The recertification mandated two successful launches before Zvezda’s.

Above: STS-101 crew posing outside the Spacehab module. Bellow: Members of the STS-101 crew inspect equipment inside the Spacehab module. Images Credit: NASA.

With Zvezda’s launch date firmly set, on Feb. 18 NASA managers decided to split the next Shuttle resupply mission, STS-101 and designated as 2A.2 in the overall ISS assembly sequence, into two separate flights. The first kept the STS-101 number but was redesignated as 2A.2a and initially scheduled for April, three months prior to the arrival of Zvezda. Several delays caused the mission to slip to May. The second became a new flight, STS-106 and 2A.2b, with a planned launch date in August (ultimately flew in September) to begin outfitting Zvezda before the Expedition 1 crew arrived in early November. Both missions made use of a Spacehab pressurized module to transport supplies to ISS.

Above: MEIT underway in the SSPF – US Lab Destiny is in the framework at right, the Z1 truss is at left. Middle: Controllers monitor the MEIT. Bellow: Astronauts inside the Destiny module during the MEIT – ISS Expedition 2 crewmember James S. Voss (upper left) and STS 98 crewmembers Kenneth D. Cockrell (lower left) and Mark L. Polansky (upper right). Images Credit: NASA.

In the United States, several ISS elements had already arrived at Kennedy Space Center’s Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) for preflight testing. These elements included the Destiny U.S. Laboratory module, the third Pressurized Mating Adaptor (PMA-3), several segments of the Integrated Truss Assembly, and the Canadian-built Canadarm2 Space Station Remote Manipulator System. Engineers in the SSPF conducted a months-long Multi-Element Integrated Test (MEIT) to ensure that the various components worked well together before they reached orbit. They connected electrical and fluid lines among the Destiny module, the Z1 and P6 truss segments and the PMA-3 and used an emulator as a stand-in for the Unity Node 1 already on orbit. In February 2000, engineers completed an End-to-End Test and a Mission Sequence Test with the Destiny module, essentially duplicating the activation of the Lab once in orbit. Shepherd and several crewmembers of STS-98, the mission that delivered the Lab to orbit, took part in the tests, as did engineers at the Johnson Space Center and the Marshall Space Flight Center. The tests identified several issues that engineers fixed on the ground, preventing major problems that would have occurred only after the elements reached orbit.

To be continued…

Related articles & link:

Space Station 20th – Women and the Space Station
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2020/03/space-station-20th-women-and-space.html

Space Station 20th: Long-duration Missions
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2020/03/space-station-20th-long-duration.html

NASA Counts Down to Twenty Years of Continuous Human Presence on International Space Station
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/11/nasa-counts-down-to-twenty-years-of.html

20 memorable moments from the International Space Station
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/11/20-memorable-moments-from-international.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Kelli Mars/JSC/John Uri.

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