Capcom 243

CapCom is Published by Midlands Spaceflight Societywww.midspace.org.uk

Editor: Mike Bryce | President: David J Shayler | Secretary: Dave Evetts

Honorary Member: Helen Sharman OBE

CapComyour window to space

Volume 24 Number 3 January/February 2014

China success as Jade Rabbit explores the Moon

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Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 24 no 3 January/February 2014

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space news roundup

China’s moon rover flexes muscles(Cover Image)

China’s moon rover, Yutu (Jade Rabbit), completed an arm flexing assessment early on Monday, a key test before beginning other work on the surface, according to the Beijing Aerospace Control Center.

The trial checked the rover is in the best condition to endure extreme temperatures of minus 180 degrees Celsius in the first moonlight night, said Zhou Jianliang, chief engineer with the center.

During the 15-day lunar night which begins on 26 December at the rover’s location, will last for about 15 days, during which the rover will “go to sleep” without any energy supply.

The trial will help the rover continue explorations after the night, Zhou added.

Yutu has had to deal with direct solar radiation raising the temperature to over 100 degrees centigrade on its sunny side, while its shaded side simultaneously fell below zero.

Chang’e-3 soft-landed on the moon’s Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows, on 14 December, establishing China as the third country in the world capable of carrying out such a rover mission after the United States and former Soviet Union.

Yutu will survey the moon’s geological structure and surface substances and look for natural resources for three months, while the lander will conduct in-situ exploration at the landing site for one year.

China Dailyhttp://www.chinadaily.com.cn

Space-X Successfully Completes First Mission To Geostationary Transfer OrbitUpgraded Falcon 9 launch vehicle delivers SES-8 satellite to targeted orbit

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully completed its first geostationary transfer mission, delivering the SES-8 satellite to its targeted 295 x 80,000 km orbit. Falcon 9 executed a picture-perfect flight, meeting 100% of mission objectives.

Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at 5:41 PM Eastern Time on 3 December 2013. Approximately 185 seconds into flight, Falcon 9’s second stage’s single Merlin vacuum engine ignited to begin a five minute, 20 second burn that delivered the SES-8 satellite into its parking orbit. Eighteen minutes after injection into the parking orbit, the second stage engine relit for just over one minute to carry the SES-8 satellite to its final geostationary transfer orbit. The restart of the Falcon 9 second stage is a requirement for all geostationary transfer missions.

“The successful insertion of the SES-8 satellite confirms the upgraded Falcon 9 launch vehicle delivers to the industry’s highest performance standards,” said Elon Musk, CEO and Chief Designer of SpaceX. “As always, SpaceX remains committed to delivering the safest, most reliable launch vehicles on the market today. We appreciate SES’s early confidence in SpaceX and look forward to launching additional SES satellites in the years to come.”

This mission marked SpaceX’s first commercial launch from its central Florida launch pad and the first commercial flight from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in over five years. SpaceX has nearly 50 launches on manifest, of which over 60% are for commercial customers.

This launch also marks the second of three certification flights needed to certify the Falcon 9 to fly missions for the U.S. Air Force under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. When Falcon 9 is certified, SpaceX will be eligible to compete for all National Security Space (NSS) missions.

Space-Xwww.spacex.com

LAS Tower Complete in Preparation for Orion’s First MissionNASA engineers and contractors have successfully completed the Orion Launch Abort System (LAS) tower, marking a milestone that puts NASA one step closer to sending Orion 3,600 miles into space on the uncrewed Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission, scheduled to launch in September 2014. Orion is America’s next generation spacecraft that will carry astronauts to destinations beyond low Earth orbit.

The LAS is designed to protect astronauts if a problem arises during launch, by pulling the Orion spacecraft away from a failing rocket. Its tower awaits the arrival of a fairing assembly that forms an aerodynamic shell for Orion and protects the crew module during launch. Both the LAS and the fairing assembly will be put to the test during EFT-1 – a mission that will not only advance space exploration, but also make critical technological leaps for the nation. Because EFT-1 is an uncrewed mission, only the jettison motor will be active on the LAS. The tower structure will detach itself from the crew module as it would during a normal ascent. This flight test will provide information on the abort system’s performance during the vehicle’s trip to space.

“The Orion Program uses cutting-edge technologies that advance the state of the art,” said Kevin Rivers, NASA’s LAS project manager. “For instance, the LAS will be the first actively controlled launch escape system ever flown, and it incorporates a throttleable solid-rocket motor for attitude control, a novel reverse-thrust abort motor, advanced solid propellants, and lightweight composite materials in the abort motor case and fairing.”

The LAS, built and processed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is comprised of three motors: the abort, attitude control, and jettison motor.

In a worst-case scenario, the abort motor would propel the crew module away from the launch pad. The attitude control motor would be used to steer the vehicle, producing up to 7,000 pounds of thrust. The jettison motor that will be used during EFT-1 will pull the LAS away from the crew module, allowing its parachutes to deploy and the vehicle to land.

NASAhttp://www.nasa.gov/orion


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Recently Reactivated NASA Spacecraft Spots Its First New AsteroidNASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) spacecraft has spotted a never-before-seen asteroid -- its first such discovery since coming out of hibernation last year.

NEOWISE originally was called the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), which had made the most comprehensive survey to date of asteroids and comets. The spacecraft was shut down in 2011 after its primary mission was completed. But in September 2013, it was reactivated, renamed and given a new mission, which is to assist NASA’s efforts to identify the population of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs). NEOWISE also can assist in characterising previously detected asteroids that could be considered potential targets for future exploration missions.

NEOWISE’s first discovery of its renewed mission came on 29 December. -- a near-Earth asteroid designated 2013 YP139. The mission’s sophisticated software picked out the moving object against a background of stationary stars. As NEOWISE circled Earth scanning the sky, it observed the asteroid several times over half a day before the object moved beyond its view. Researchers at the University of Arizona used the Spacewatch telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory southwest of Tucson to confirm the discovery. Peter Birtwhistle, an amateur astronomer at the Great Shefford Observatory in West Berkshire, England, also contributed follow-up observations. NASA expects 2013 YP139 will be the first of hundreds of asteroid discoveries for NEOWISE.

2013 YP139 is about 27 million miles (43 million kilometres) from Earth. Based on its infrared brightness, scientists estimate it to be roughly 0.4 miles (650 metres) in diameter and extremely dark, like a piece of coal. The asteroid circles the sun in an elliptical orbit tilted to the plane of our solar system and is classified as potentially hazardous. It is possible for its orbit to bring it as close as 300,000 miles from Earth, a little more than the distance to the moon. However, it will not come that close within the next century.

WISE discovered more than 34,000 asteroids and characterised 158,000 throughout the solar system during its prime mission in 2010 and early 2011. Its reactivation in September followed 31 months in hibernation.

NEOWISE will continue to detect asteroids and comets. The observations will be automatically sent to the clearinghouse for solar system bodies, the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachussetts, for comparison against the known catalog of solar system objects and to determine orbit if the object is not known. A community of professional and amateur astronomers will provide follow-up observations, establishing firm orbits for the previously unseen objects.

JPL manages the project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colo., built the spacecraft. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

NASAhttp://www.nasa.gov/wise

A former NASA space shuttle hangar will serve as the new home and servicing facility for a fleet of secretive military space planesThe Boeing Company announced on 3 January it will begin converting Orbiter Processing Facility-1 (OPF-1) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to support the U.S. Air Force X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV). Built by Boeing’s Phantom Works, the winged X-37B resembles in some ways a smaller version of NASA’s shuttle with a 15-foot (4.5 m.) wingspan.

The move to use OPF-1 will “enable the U.S. Air Force to efficiently land, recover, refurbish, and re-launch” the 29-foot-long (8.8 m.), reusable unmanned spacecraft, Boeing officials said in a statement.

No other details were released, other than Boeing noting the project will expand its presence in Florida by “adding technology, engineering and support jobs at the Kennedy Space Center.”

CollectSpace.com

Blue Origin test fires a powerful new hydrogen- and oxygen-fueled American rocket engineBlue Origin conducted the test of its BE-3 rocket engine on a stand at the company’s West Texas facility near Van Horn on 20 November. The engine fired for 2 1/2 minutes, then paused for several minutes before re-igniting for a minute in a pattern that simulated a suborbital mission.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) has been working with the company on several aspects of the engine’s development. The program supported testing of the BE-3 under the agency’s Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) initiative and continues to offer technical support. NASA and Blue Origin also are partnered in review and tests of the company’s Space Vehicle design.

During the test, the engine demonstrated a full mission duty cycle, mimicking the flight of the company’s suborbital New Shepard vehicle by thrusting at 110,000 pounds in a 145-second boost phase, shutting down to simulate coast through apogee. The engine then restarted and throttled down to 25,000 pounds thrust to simulate controlled vertical landing.

Blue Origin’s Orbital Launch Vehicle will use the BE-3 engine to propel the company’s Space Vehicle into orbit. Unlike other boosters that burn once and then fall away to never be used again, the Reusable Booster System is designed to send a crew into space and then make a soft landing on Earth before being refurbished for another mission. The Space Vehicle is envisioned to carry people into orbit and could potentially carry astronauts to the International Space Station.

The engine firing comes about a year after the BE-3’s thrust chamber was tested at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Developing a new rocket engine is one of the most difficult aspects of launch vehicle design because of the dynamics involved with creating a powerful machine that can safely operate in a range of -423 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of liquid hydrogen, to more than 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit in the engine during a firing. The BE-3 is the first new liquid-hydrogen rocket engine built for production since the RS-68, which was developed more than a decade ago for the Delta IV rocket family.

NASAhttp://www.nasa.gov


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ISS MISSION REPORTBy George Spiteri

Expedition Thirty-Eight has been in orbit for over one month aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The complex is manned by Russian commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers, Russians Sergey Ryazanskiy and Mikhail Tyurin and Americans Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio and Japan’s Koichi Wakata. Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin, American Karen Nyberg and Italian Luca Parmitano returned safely to Earth in mid-November.

The unmanned Cygnus commercial vehicle was released by the Station’s Canadarm2 at 1231 BST on 22nd October and sent to a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean the following day. Cygnus was packed with 2,850 pounds of unwanted items and had been docked at the ISS for nearly one month.

The crew spent the weekend of 26th/27th October photographing the eruption of the Mount Etna volcano in Sicily and also took time out to celebrate Oleg Kotov’s 48th birthday.

Europe’s Automated Target Vehicle-4 (ATV-4) “Albert Einstein” was undocked from the Station’s Zvezda Module at 0855 GMT on 28th October and sent to a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean five days later.

On 31st October, the ISS celebrated 13 years of the Station being continuously manned since the launch of Expedition One in 2000.

Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano boarded their Soyuz vehicle and undocked it from the Station’s Rassvet Module at 0833 GMT on 1st November and re-docked at Zvezda’s vacated port twenty-one minutes later.

Soyuz TMA-1M/37S was launched from Baikonur at 0414 GMT on 7th November (1014 local time) carrying an all veteran crew of Tyurin, Mastracchio and Wakata. The trio docked at the vacated Rassvet Module following the now familiar fast-track six hour, four orbit profile at 1027 GMT. With the hatches opened, the ISS was host to a temporary crew of nine astronauts and cosmonauts. Also taken to the ISS was the Olympic Torch that will be used in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

Kotov and Ryazanskiy took the torch outside during a spacewalk on 9th November for an out of this world photo opportunity. They exited the Pirs Module at 1434 GMT and after 5 hours 50 minutes completed their EVA in which they also installed some handrails and removed a launch bracket outside Zvezda. Some tasks were deferred for future spacewalks. It was 174th EVA devoted to ISS assembly and maintenance, totalling 1094 hours 39 minutes.

On 10th November, Yurchikhin handed over Command to Kotov and later that day, Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano undocked their Soyuz spacecraft from Zvezda at 2326 GMT to signal the official start of Expedition Thirty-Eight. Soyuz landed 90 miles South East of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan at 0249 GMT on 11th November (0849 local time), 29 minutes after local sunrise. Yurchikhin, Nyberg and

Parmitano had been in space for 166 days 6 hours 19 minutes with Yurchikhin having logged over 537 days in orbit, making him the world’s 12th most experience space traveller.

14th November saw another orbital birthday, this time it was Ryazanskiy’s turn, who turned 39.

Several small Nanosatellites or Cubesats were deployed from the Station’s Kibo Module airlock over the period of 19th/20th November. At 1218 GMT on 19th November, three satellites, Pico Dragon, ArduSat 1 and ArduSat X were released and at 0750 GMT the following day TechEdSat 3 was deployed. All four Cubesats were carried to the ISS aboard the Japanese HTV-4 earlier this year. Hopkins described on his Twitter page that it was “pretty exciting to see live”.

20th November, marked the 15th anniversary of the Zarya Module’s launch. Zarya was the first element of the ISS and was followed a month later by Space Shuttle STS-88 which took up the US Unity node to begin the construction of the complex in orbit.

Progress M-21M/53P docked at Zvezda’s aft port at 2230 GMT on 29th November, following a longer than usual four day trip from Baikonur that involved testing the new upgraded automatic Kurs-NA docking system on 27th November. Progress flew within one mile of the ISS to successfully test Kurs but during the actual docking, Kotov took over manual control using the TORU system inside Zvezda when Kurs put Progress in a station keeping mode.

Progress delivered food, fuel, supplies and holiday gifts to the crew who opened the hatches to the cargo vehicle the following day.

The complex received two re-boosts on 11th and 13th December when the thrusters of the newly arrived Progress were fired to raise the Station’s orbit.

On 11th December the Station’s pump module on one of its two external cooling loops automatically shut down when it reached pre-set temperature limits. These loops circulate ammonia outside the ISS to keep both internal and external equipment cool. Ground control teams worked to get the cooling loop up and running and suspect a flow control valve inside the pump module itself may have not been functioning correctly. As a result, the crew on the US side of the Station have shut down various systems and scientific experiments and there remains the possibility of an unscheduled EVA to rectify the problem.

As of 13th December, Kotov, Hopkins and Ryazanskiy have been in space for 80 days, whilst Tyurin, Mastracchio and Wakata have logged 37 days in orbit.

GS


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ASTRONAUT NEWSROB WOOD

ISS Crewing UpdateOn 29 November 2013, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced their seventh ISS residency crewmember as part of ISS Expedition 48/49. Launch and return will be on a Soyuz spacecraft and the mission is scheduled to commence in about June 2016. Takuya Onishi is the nominated astronaut and he will be making his first spaceflight.

Takuya Onishi was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1975. He holds a degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics. In 1998 he joined All Nippon Airways and worked in a ground role until he commenced flight training. After three years of flight training he flew as a co-pilot on Boeing-767 twin engine jet airliners.

He was selected as a Japanese astronaut in 2009 and joined NASA’s Group 20 astronauts of the same year for astronaut candidate training. He participated in NEEMO 15, NASA’s underwater mission of 2006. The aim of the NEEMO missions is to provide a convincing analog to space exploration.

New Soyuz Crew Launches to ISSAt 10:14 on the morning of 7 November 2013, local Kazakh time, Soyuz TMA-11M lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Aboard were three new crew members for the ISS who would form part of Expedition 38/39. A highly experienced crew, who between them had already accumulated nearly 550 days in space during eight spaceflights.

Mikhail Vladislavovich Tyurin was born in Kolomna, Moscow Region, on 2 March 1960. He represents the Russian Federal Space Agency and is on his third ISS expedition. He is the Soyuz commander and will be one of the ISS flight engineers. He studied at the Moscow Aviation Institute and following graduation in 1984 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering joined RSC Energia. He was selected as a cosmonaut in 1994.

Following cosmonaut training he served as a back-up flight engineer to the first ISS expedition crew before making his first flight as a flight engineer on ISS Expedition 3 in 2001 using the US Space Shuttle for his journey to and from the station (STS-105 and STS-108). He made three spacewalks. His second flight was as a flight engineer on ISS Expedition 14 in 2006/2007 using the Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft which he also commanded. He made two further spacewalks.

Richard Alan Mastracchio was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on 11 February 1960. He is representing NASA and is a flight engineer for Soyuz and ISS. He has previously flown on three shuttle missions. He has degrees in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Physical Science. He worked in private industry until he joined NASA in 1990 following three years at JSC as a contractor. He was selected as an astronaut in 1996 (NASA Group 16)

He first flew in space on STS-106 in 2000, followed by STS-118 in 2007 and STS-131 in 2010. All three missions flew to the ISS and Mastracchio was a mission specialist each time. He made three spacewalks on each of his second and third flights.

Koichi Wakata (Ph. D.) was born in Omiya, Saitama Perfecture, Japan, on 1 August 1963. He is a representative of JAXA and is making his fourth spaceflight. He is a flight engineer for Soyuz and the first part of the ISS expedition before taking over command of the station for the second period of the mission.

He obtained degrees in Aeronautical Engineering and Applied Mechanics before earning his doctorate in 2004 in Aerospace Engineering, all from Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan. From

1989 to 1992 he worked for Japan Airlines as an aircraft structural engineer. He was selected as a Japanese astronaut in 1992 and joined NASA’s Group 14 astronauts of the same year for mission specialist training.

His first spaceflight was on STS-72 in 1996, which retrieved the Japanese launched Space Flyer Unit satellite after a ten month mission. Wakata operated the shuttle’s Canadarm during the flight. His second flight was on STS-92 in 2000, an ISS assembly mission. He again operated the shuttle’s robotic arm. Six years later he served as commander for the NEEMO 10 underwater mission.

His third spaceflight was as a flight engineer for ISS residency 18/19/20 in 2009, using the US Space Shuttle for his journey to and from the ISS (STS-119 and STS-127). He was the first Japanese ISS resident crew member and with Expedition 38/39 will also be the first to command the space station. He is also the first to fly two resident missions.

Please Sir I Want Some More (part two)On 4 October 1957 the first artificial satellite was put into orbit. No one who was around then would have imagined that exactly 56 years later a regional court in Moscow would be hearing a lawsuit filed by a Russian cosmonaut against the Russian Federal Space Agency over unpaid salary. In the last issue I wrote about Yuri Lonchakov leaving the cosmonaut team for a higher salary and now we have another money story. I wonder where it will all end.

During the recent reorganisation of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre it was put under civilian control. From 2012, the centre was no longer considered a posting for serving military personal and they were given the option of resigning from the military or re-assignment to another place. Serving military cosmonauts were also allowed to leave the military and join the cosmonaut team as civilian specialists.

Prior to this time military cosmonauts received bonuses based upon their experience and work carried out such as training other cosmonauts. The bonuses vary from 55 per cent of salary for third class cosmonaut instructors up to 120 per cent for first class astronaut instructors. In August 2012, the Russian Federal Space Agency stopped paying the bonuses citing that the cosmonauts were now receiving military pensions in addition to their civilian cosmonaut salaries.

Sergei Volkov, who has flown on two expeditions to the ISS, was representing a number of fellow military cosmonauts serving in the cosmonaut team. His legal team argued that the Russian Federal Space Agency had no justification for removal of the bonuses and their reasons were irrelevant. They said the space agency just did not want to pay out the money and had no legal basis for halting the bonuses.

The court upheld Volkov’s lawsuit and awarded him 1.4 million rubles (about £27,000) in back wages. Volkov is still an active cosmonaut and is due to fly again launching in September 2015. He is also currently a deputy commander within the cosmonaut team and a top rated instructor (first class) hence his 120 per cent award by the court.

The chief of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Sergei Krikalyov, commented that that there was no conflict within the centre just a lack of clarity as to what they were required to pay. A spokesperson for the space agency later said that they would not appeal.


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Ex-Astronaut Movements in the Private and Other Public Sector AreasClayton Anderson, who retired from NASA in January 2013, has joined the engineering faculty of Iowa State University from October 2013. He is an alumnus of the University having received a master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from there in 1983. He worked for NASA for 30 years, 15 as an astronaut, and flew twice in space. He was a member of ISS Expedition15 in 2007 and made a short visit to the space station in 2010.

“It’s not every day that we get an opportunity to hire an ‘astronaut in residence,’” noted Iowa State University President Steven Leath. “I am thrilled our students will learn from Clayton’s knowledge and experiences as they foster their own dreams for careers in science and even space travel.” In his new position, Anderson will work with freshmen aerospace engineering students, engaging them in hands-on problem solving, and helping design cutting-edge research projects for the aerospace department’s students and faculty.

On 8 October 2013 the University of Waterloo, Ontario, announced that Chris Hadfield is to join them as a Professor of Aviation. He has a link to the University having conducted some post-graduate research there in 1982 in the Faculty of Engineering, looking at aircraft fuel pump design. Hadfield was a Canadian astronaut from June 1992 to July 2013 and made three spaceflights. In the process he became the only Canadian to visit the Russian Mir space station. He holds a number of Canadian firsts, including flying as a mission specialist on the shuttle, using the Canadarm and making an EVA. He was also the first to command the ISS.

“We are delighted to welcome Chris Hadfield to the University of Waterloo as a member of our faculty,” said Feridun Hamdullahpur, President and Vice-Chancellor of Waterloo. “This is a tremendous opportunity for our students and researchers to work with, and learn from, one of the greatest Canadians of recent times.” He will not however be joining them until Autumn 2014 term when he will start a three year cross-appointment contract to the Faculties of Science, Environment and Applied Health Science.

In the September/October 2013 issue of CapCom I reported that Lieutenant General Susan Helms had been nominated for assignment as Vice-Commander of US Space Command. Lt. Gen. Helms was a NASA astronaut from 1990 to 2002 making five spaceflights including one as a member of ISS Expedition 2. I noted that the new assignment was awaiting Senate approval. This approval has not been forthcoming and it now appears that Lt. Gen. Helms has put in for retirement from military service.

Obituary Notes

Andrzej Bugala 1940-2013

Andrzej Bugała was one of the final five Polish candidates for an international flight with the Soviet Union under the Intercosmos Programme. The Intercosmos Programme originally started as unmanned satellite research missions but in 1976 the Soviets opened it up for manned flights involving other communist countries. Poland made the second flight in 1978 following Czechoslovakia and Miroslaw Hermaszewski flew the mission with Zenon Jankowski acting as the back-up.

Andrzej Bugała was born in Bartkowice, Poland, on 5 February 1940. He graduated from flight school in 1962. He has flown a number of aircraft including several Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG jet fighters and the Antonov An-26 twin engine turboprop military transport aircraft. In the early 1970’s he attended the Yuri Gagarin Air Force Academy in the Soviet Union and then served as a squadron commander.

In October 1976 he was one of five Polish candidates for Poland’s Intercosmos slot but was rejected because of his height. The remaining four were sent to Moscow for further evaluation. He

continued to serve in the Polish Air Force until 1997 when he retired with the rank of Colonel. He died on 10 July 2013 in Krakow, Poland. He was married with one child.

Dmitri Alekseyevich Zaikin 1932-2013

Dmitri Zaikin was a contemporary of Yuri Gagarin having been selected as a cosmonaut in the same group. He never flew in space but was the back-up commander for Voskhod 2 in 1965. He was medically disqualified in 1969 but continued to work in the space programme as a training official and engineer until 1987. He died on 21 October 2013 after a long illness.

He was born in the agricultural village of Yekaterinovka in the Rostov Oblast of the Russian Federation, on 29 April 1932. Following Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 his family had to move several times to avoid the fighting. Sadly, in December 1942, his father was killed during the battle for Stalingrad.

In 1951 he graduated from the 10th Rostov Air Force School and then attended basic flight training at the Chernigov aviation school for one year. From 1952 he underwent advanced pilot training at the Frunze aviation school from where he qualified as a fighter pilot in 1954. Another of the graduates at the same time was Andrian Nikolayev who would also join the Gagarin group and become the third Soviet cosmonaut to fly in space.

Over the next five years Zaikin served in various air force units. In the second half of 1959 he was interviewed at his air force base and was told this was in connection with flying in space. He was asked not to tell anyone about the manned spaceflight programme and to await further contact.

He was called to a further interview and physical testing in Moscow. At the end of this process 29 candidates were still in the running and this was further narrowed down to 20 including Zaikin. On 25 March 1960 his official orders were signed to join the Soviet Union’s first cosmonaut team.

Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space on 12 April 1961 when he flew on Vostok. This was followed by five more manned Vostok flights through to June 1963. There were plans for further missions in the Vostok Programme and in September 1963 Zaikin was one of eight cosmonauts to form a training group for those missions but in February 1964 they were cancelled in favour of the Voskhod Programme.

In April 1964 Zaikin was one of six cosmonauts assigned to train for Voskhod 2 but by July 1964 he was acting in a support role only and was not amongst the four main candidates. However, in January 1965 one of them, Viktor Gorbatko, was taken off flight status and Zaikin stepped in to replace him. Zaikin was the official back-up commander for Voskhod 2 (which flew 18-19 March 1965) but the other back-up, Yevgeny Khrunov, would have replaced either of the prime crew cosmonauts if only one could not fly due to his greater level of training.

In April 1965 Zaikin was assigned to train as one of four male back-ups for an all female crewed Voskhod 5 mission that would have also seen the first female spacewalk. In September 1965 the same four males were assigned for a further Voskhod EVA flight. The Voskhod Programme suffered delays due to technical and other issues and to all intent and purposes was cancelled in June 1966 without any further crewed missions taking place.

In September 1966 Zaikin was assigned to the Almaz military space station project that had been instigated by the Soviets in response to MOL, the US military space station. Around the same time he also worked on the Zvezda 7K-V1 project which was basically about using a highly modified Soyuz type spacecraft as a space fighter and satellite interceptor. Amidst much internecine political infighting Zvezda was cancelled in February 1968 in favour of another military space station project [see note 1]. Two years later in February 1970 this project was also cancelled.

Zaikin graduated from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering


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Academy in 1968 but that year would also see his dreams of flying in space ended. In May he was suspended from training due to the discovery of an ulcer during a routine medical check-up. On 25 October he was formerly discharged from the cosmonaut team.

He did not leave the space arena though. He was assigned to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre as an engineer and cosmonaut instructor. In 1970 he helped look after a new intake of cosmonauts and in the following years helped train them for flights to the Salyut space stations.

He was still part of the Soviet military until 1987 when he retired from service with the rank of Colonel. He continued to work at the training centre in a civilian capacity both as an engineer and training instructor. He retired in 1996.

Note 1: Zaikin may have done some work on this later project but this is not clear from my research.

UK Astronaut Sightings1/ The HQ of the British Interplanetary Society is the venue for the lecture ‘British Participation in Human Spaceflight: A Chequered Record’ commencing at 19:00 on 15 January 2014. The lecture will be given by Richard Farrimond who was one of four British military candidates for two shuttle missions in the 1980’s. The flights were cancelled in the wake of the Challenger disaster of January 1986.

2/ Autographica 20 will be held at the Radisson Edwardian Heathrow Hotel in London over 21 to 23 March 2014. There are six astronaut guests, including two moonwalkers in Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin and Apollo 12’s Alan Bean. The remaining four are shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless who made the first untethered MMU EVA in 1984, Joseph Allen and the husband and wife team of Robert ‘Hoot’ Gibson and Rhea Seddon.

Buzz Aldrin also flew on the last Gemini mission, Gemini 12, in 1966 and Al Bean followed his moon mission with the command of the second manned Skylab flight in 1973. Bruce McCandless was selected as an astronaut in 1966 but had to wait until the shuttle to fly in space when he flew twice in 1984 and 1990. Joe Allen flew twice on the shuttle in the 1980’s and was part of the XS-11 science astronauts of 1967. ‘Hoot’ Gibson and Rhea Seddon were both selected in the first shuttle astronaut group in 1978 and between them have accumulated eight shuttle flights.

2/ Thomas ‘Ken’ Mattingly is the next guest of Ken Willoughby with a dinner and lecture. Dinner event commences at 18:00 on 11 April 2014 at Wentbridge House Hotel, The Great North Road, Wentbridge, West Yorkshire. WF8 3JJ. The public lecture is on 12 April 2014 with event commencing at 14:30 at Carleton Community High School. Carleton Green, Carleton Road, Pontefract, West Yorkshire. WF8 3NW. Ticket and further event information is available at:- http://space-lectures.com/

Ken Mattingly was the Command Module Pilot (CMP) for Apollo 16 and flew around the moon as part of that mission in 1972. He was also the prime CMP for Apollo 13 in 1970 but was removed from the crew a few days before launch due to a scare that he might come down with German Measles during the flight following recent exposure. In the 1980’s he went on to command two shuttle missions.

NB: If anyone wants to know more about these or other sightings and they do not have access to the Collect Space Sightings pages on the Internet please contact me by email at [email protected]. I often find out about visits at too short notice to put in CapCom. But, a word of warning. It is always best to check in advance of travelling that an event is taking place as planned. I travelled all the way to London a number of years ago to meet a cosmonaut only to discover he had cancelled because of work commitments. I had not phoned before travelling. I have no involvement in the organisation of the above astronaut events and therefore no liability is accepted for any changes that occur in the details shown.

Bits & Pieces 1/ The Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients for 2013 include a posthumous award for Sally Ride, the first US female to fly in space. The award was announced on 8 August 2013. The award is the highest US civilian honour and is presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the USA, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavours.

2/ On 19 October 2013 the first woman in space Valentina Tereshkova lit the Olympic Cauldron in her home city of Yaroslavl to mark the start of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games torch relay.

3/ The National Business Aviation Association has made its Meritorious Service to Aviation Award for 2013 to Moonwalker Eugene Cernan. The award is to recognize extraordinary lifelong professional contributions to aviation. The award was presented on 21 October 2013.

Acknowledgements and sources:AINonline; Astronaut.ru; British Interplanetary Society; Canadian Space Agency; CapCom (previous issues); Collect Space; The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team ©2009 by Colin Burgess and Rex Hall; Google; Lenta.ru; Iowa State University; NASA; NASASpaceflight.com; National Business Aviation Association; The New Russian Space Programme ©1996 by Brian Harvey; Novosti Kosmonavtika; The Observer’s Book of Unmanned Spaceflight ©1974 by Reginald Turnill; RIA Novosti; The Rocket Men ©2001 by Rex Hall and David J Shayler; The Soviet Space Race With Apollo ©2000 by Asif A Siddiqi; Spacefacts; Space Lectures; Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge ©2000 by Asif A Siddiqi; University of Waterloo; The Whitehouse; Wikipedia; Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre.

CapCom SubscriptionsFor just £14, you can join the Midlands Spaceflight Society and receive CapCom

magazine for one year. That’s six issues.There are two ways to pay:

Online: go to the MSS website www.midspace.org.uk and follow the links for a secure purchase through PayPal.

By post: cheques and postal orders payable to Midlands Spaceflight Society can be posted to the MSS Secretary, Dave Evetts, 124 Stanhope Road, Smethwick B67 6HP.

Tel. 0121 429 8606 (evenings & weekends only)or e-mail [email protected].


page 8

SPACE LECTURESPresent

Rear Admiral TK Mattingly USN Ret.

Apollo 16 Command Module Pilot and STS 4 + STS-51-C

Dinner at:Wentbridge House Hotel, The Great North Road, Wentbridge, West Yorkshire. WF8 3JJ.

Friday April 11th 2014 @ 19:00 – 21:00. Tickets = £70 each.Cheques payable to Ken Willoughby.

Photo session with TK, 18:00 – 18:45 = £20, payable on night.These will be signed after the dinner.

Please inform if Vegetarian?Auction after the dinner.

Further information from:[email protected]/01977 795535

Tickets limited for both Friday & Saturday events so please book early if wishing to attend.

COMBO TICKET-FRIDAY DINNER & SATURDAY TALK = £120.

DO NOT USE PAYPAL!


page 9

SPACE LECTURESPresent

The Spirit and Triumph of Apollo 13by

Rear Admiral TK Mattingly USN Ret.

Apollo 16 Command Module Pilot and STS 4 + STS -51-C.

Saturday April 12th 2014, 16:00 – 17:00Photo shoot-14:30-15:45=£20. Payable on night.

@Carleton Community High School

Carleton Green, Carleton Road, Pontefract, West Yorkshire WF8 3NW.

Tickets - £60 each. One signed item free per person.

Tickets – Stamped address envelope to:Ken Willoughby, 11 Hardistry Drive, Pontefract, West Yorkshire, WF8 4BU.

[email protected]/01977 795535 Cheques payable to Space Lectures.

www.space-lectures.com

DO NOT USE PAYPAL!


page 10

“You and the Rest”: The Repair of the Hubble Space Telescope

by Ben EvansTwenty years since the first Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission Ben looks

back at the Mission, the crew, and the hardware of this historic space shuttle mission.

Continued from previous issue ...

Thornton and Akers (“the even couple”, according to Dick Covey) ventured into the payload bay at 10:35 pm on 5 December to the sight of a slightly different Hubble, for the roller-blind-like solar arrays had been commanded to fold up. The plan was to replace the arrays with new ones, carried aboard a Solar Array Carrier (SAC) in the payload bay, then load the old arrays onto the SAC for the return to Earth. One of them (the port-side array) folded up perfectly and could be stowed for return to Earth, but a bent bi-stem strut prevented the other one from doing likewise. It could only be moved to a position about 30-percent-closed, because any attempt to fold it further risked breaking the bi-stem and creating a risk to the spacewalkers. This left Thornton and Akers with little alternative but to dump it overboard. Interestingly, Thornton lost voice communications with Endeavour or the ground until around three hours into the EVA, requiring Akers to serve as a ‘relay’. (Earlier, she had also experienced lower-than-normal pressure in her vent garment, due to a temporary ice ‘plug’ in the suit’s plumbing system.) An hour into the EVA, they dismounted the damaged array – which was 4.8 m long when folded up and weighed 160 kg – during orbital darkness, to minimise electrical activity, and Thornton held it until the next daylight pass. This would allow mission controllers to track its position and relative velocity. She threw it overboard at 11:52 pm, as Endeavour sailed high above Somalia, describing its departure as resembling a bird in flight.

“Then we had to fire our manoeuvring jets to get away from it,” remembered Hoffman. “The solar array was just inert. That was really spectacular, because when the exhaust plume from the reaction control jets hit this solar array...and it started to oscillate, up and down, it looked like the wings of a giant prehistoric bird, just flapping out in space.” Watching from Endeavour, the crew of STS-61 was mesmerised by the spectacle, as the array somersaulted a few times in the vacuum. Those moments of silent awe were suddenly broken by a voice over the radio. It was Tom Akers. “Hey,” he said, “isn’t somebody supposed to be reading me the procedures? We have work to do!”

That broke the spell, recalled Hoffman, and they went back to work. EVA-2 ended after six hours and 36 minutes. Its relative brevity came as a relief, for the astronauts were at least able to enjoy dinner together and a proper night’s sleep. In Hoffman’s mind, if EVA-2 had lasted as long as EVA-1, it might have thrown them seriously behind on the timeline. He also had the fright of his life when he helped Thornton to remove her space suit; as he pulled off one of her gloves, Hoffman noticed that her fingertips were bright red. His first thought was that it was blood. As it turned out, a chunk of Thornton’s red-coloured food bar had floated away from her mouth and somehow made its way down through her suit, into one of the arms and into the glove...

“Not nearly as serious as it looked,” Hoffman acquiesced, “but I got quite a shock when I pulled her glove off.”

It was Musgrave and Hoffman’s turn the following night, 6-7 December, with the primary task of installing WFPC-2 into the telescope. This had been developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1985 as a ‘spare’ and after the discovery of the spherical aberration NASA and the WFPC team had installed an optical corrector. “The new design incorporates an optical correction by the refiguring of relay mirrors already in the optical train of the cameras,” read NASA’s pre-flight press kit. “Each relay mirror is polished to a new specification that will compensate for the incorrect figure on [Hubble’s] primary mirror. Small actuators will fine-tune the positioning of these mirrors on-orbit, ensuring the very precise alignment that is required.” The WFPC team also upgraded the instrument, by reducing the number of cameras from eight to four in order to develop an alignment system and adding improved charge-coupled devices to aid its ultraviolet sensitivity.

An hour into the spacewalk, Hoffman crisply removed the old whiffpick from its housing in Hubble’s bowels and inserted it into a storage container in the payload bay. A protective hood was then removed from the new device and it was installed perfectly at 1:05 am EST. Ground controllers ran an ‘aliveness’ test and verified that the 280 kg pie-wedge-shaped WFPC-2 was working correctly. The spacewalkers then replaced a pair of magnetometers, before returning inside Endeavour after six hours and 47 minutes. This proved exceptionally good time, when one considers that training for the whiffpick replacement alone had typically taken four and a half hours in the water tank.

Thornton and Akers were next, on 7-8 December, with the long-awaited installation of the COSTAR optics package to restore Hubble’s blurred vision. Before launch, Hoffman remembered being told not to worry if they did not accomplish everything on the manifest; as long as either the new whiffpick or the COSTAR was successfully installed, the scientists on the ground would be “deliriously happy”. However, they were not fully appreciative of NASA’s collective mindset of having a one-hundred-percent-successful mission. In the months prior to the mission, there was talk that STS-61 was too complex and that all of the tasks demanded far more than could be achieved by even five EVAs and a mammoth 11-day flight. Some managers considered splitting the mission into two halves. “But from a technical point of view,” said Hoffman, “if you removed half the tasks from a mission, how do you know that you’ve not left the ones that you’re going to fail at? At least if you have more things for us to do, we have a better chance of at least getting some of them done.” To Hoffman and his crewmates, it made little sense to split SM-1 into two halves.

Exchanging the 220 kg High Speed Photometer for the 290 kg COSTAR involved Thornton and Akers opening the telescope’s bay doors and loosening latches and removing electrical connectors in order to slide out the instrument. The new corrective optics package was then fitted. In training on Earth, the operation had taken around three and a half hours. The intensity of the mission – an intensity which had impacted Story Musgrave for almost two


page 11

years, to such an extent that he remarked, with the merest hint of jest, that the only peace and solace he could find from the mission was sitting in the dentist’s chair – began to lessen somewhat when Thornton and Akers successfully removed the photometer and installed COSTAR in its place. By the end of their six hour and 50 minute EVA, both the new whiffpick and the corrective optics had been triumphantly fitted.

Musgrave and Hoffman’s final EVA, lasting seven hours and 21 minutes on the night of 8-9 December, replaced the overheating solar array drive electronics on the telescope, installed magnetometer covers and an electrical connection box on the GHRS. All were listed as critical tasks. By the time the two men returned inside the Shuttle, STS-61 had accomplished five remarkably complex EVAs and a tally of more than 35 hours of spacewalking...in a single flight. Whilst this would be duplicated several times over the years, it must be borne in mind that STS-61 was the first Shuttle flight in which the bounds of accomplishment in terms of mission duration, complexity and the intricately linked EVA-RMS-orbiter operations were pushed to their absolute limits.

That night, the night after the final EVA, the crew of STS-61 celebrated their success above the roof of the world. “Of all of the programmes that I have been associated with,” Dick Covey remembered, years later, “it’s the one that was best planned and has been best executed, in terms of using astronauts and crewed vehicles to be able to support, enable and enhance the scientific mission of space.” They did not yet know if the corrective optics would work, of course, but they had carried out their share of the repair. Prior to deploying Hubble back into space, its orbit was slightly boosted to around 595 km. To overcome the drag experienced since its initial deployment in 1990.

Late on the evening of 12 December, preparations for STS-61’s triumphant return to Earth got underway. Re-entering from almost twice the average altitude for a Shuttle mission, the de-orbit burn of Endeavour’s OMS engines lasted almost five minutes, but was completed by 11:19 pm EST, committing the Shuttle to a 70-minute descent. Passing over Mexico City during their period of peak heating, Covey was convinced that Endeavour gave ground-based observers a great view. “The orbiter was fully enveloped in the ionisation plume,” he said later, “and as we banked up into a left bank coming over Mexico City and the windows were white because of the plume, I could look out and still see all the lights. It was not washed out at all; it was very bright through that, so we had to be giving them a great show.” Eventually, the crew of STS-61 returned to Florida airspace. At 12:25 am on the morning of the 13th, trailing double sonic booms in her wake, she swept like an enormous bird of prey into Florida and alighted perfectly onto the concrete surface of KSC’s Runway 33.

STS-61 had done nothing less than save NASA itself. Few other human space missions since Apollo 11 had exerted such a positive influence on the agency’s subsequent fortunes. Of course, we know today that fixing Hubble’s optics was triumphantly successful

and the telescope repair team received the prestigious Robert J. Collier Trophy in March 1994 for their work. The citation praised their “outstanding leadership, intrepidity and the renewal of public faith in America’s space programme by the successful orbital recovery and repair of the Hubble Space Telescope”.

Acapulco was once again a holiday destination, not a place for out-of-work NASA engineers...Over the following weeks, the Servicing Mission Orbital Verification (SMOV) got underway, encompassing the checkout of Hubble and a resumption of scientific activities as soon as possible. This included the optical alignment and focusing of WFPC-2 and the deployment of COSTAR’s mechanical arms, as well as test observations. The announcement came on 13 January 1994, when NASA Administrator Dan Goldin revealed the first new images at a press conference at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Accompanied by Dr John Gibbons, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, Goldin told the gathered media that Hubble was “a true international treasure”. Mikulski, who had earlier poured scorn and criticism upon the telescope after the discovery of its spherical aberration in mid-1990, now lauded the successful repair as “a wonderful victory for the Hubble team”.

The astronauts, of course, knew of the success well ahead of the press conference.

And for one of them – the astronomer, Jeff Hoffman – it came as a particularly sweet gift. In the early hours of New Year’s Day 1994, he and his English-born wife, Barbara, hosted friends to their Houston house. By the end of the evening, everybody had left and Hoffman was cleaning up in the kitchen.

The telephone rang. It was one of Hoffman’s astronomer friends.

“Jeff, hi,” came the greeting. “Do you have any champagne left?”

“Yeah. I still have a half bottle in the refrigerator. Why?”

“Well, crack it open, because we’ve just gotten the first pictures back from Hubble. It works!”

Ben Evans

The Hubble Space Telescope is pictured in orbit as seen from the Space Shuttle aas it approaches the satellite for repairs.

Image: NASA


page 12

Midlands Spaceflight

SocietyContact

Dave Evetts, Secretary,

Midlands Spaceflight Society

124 Stanhope

Road, Smethwick. B67 6HP

Tel. 0121 429 8606

(evenings & weekends only) or

e-mail [email protected]

Web Site:www.midspace.org.uk

----------------------------------------------

Contributions to CapCom

The Editor welcomes contributions for CapCom. Articles on any aspect of space

exploration are considered. Articles in Word format or text files should be sent by email to [email protected]. Material is accepted in any form whether hand written

or typed. Editorial Address: Mike Bryce, Editor CapCom, 16 Yellowhammer Court,

KIDDERMINSTER. DY10 4RR. The Society is not responsible for individual opinions expressed

in articles, reviews or reports of any kind. Such opinions are solely those of the author.

Material published in CapCom does not necessarily reflect the views of the Society. Any comments directly concerning the magazine

should be addressed to the Editor at the address above.

Copy DeadlineAll copy intended for the March/

April 2014 issue should be emailed to the editor by

Friday14 February 2014

Liftoff for ESA’s billion-star surveyorESA’s Gaia mission blasted off on 19 December 2013 on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on its exciting mission to study a billion suns.

Gaia is destined to create the most accurate map yet of the Milky Way. By making accurate measurements of the positions and motions of 1% of the total population of roughly 100 billion stars, it will answer questions about the origin and evolution of our home Galaxy.

The Soyuz launcher, operated by Arianespace, lifted off at 09:12 GMT (10:12 CET). About ten minutes later, after separation of the first three stages, the Fregat upper stage ignited, delivering Gaia into a temporary parking orbit at an altitude of 175 km.

A second firing of the Fregat 11 minutes later took Gaia into its transfer orbit, followed by separation from the upper stage 42 minutes after liftoff. Ground telemetry and attitude control were established by controllers at ESA’s operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, and the spacecraft began activating its systems.

The sunshield, which keeps Gaia at its working temperature and carries solar cells to power the satellite, was deployed in a 10-minute automatic sequence, completed around 88 minutes after launch.

Gaia is now en route towards an orbit around a gravitationally-stable virtual point in space called L2, some 1.5 million kilometres beyond Earth as seen from the Sun.

ESAhttp://www.esa.int

Spacex Successfully Launches Thaicom 6 Satellite To Geostationary Transfer OrbitTHAICOM 6 mission marks second successful GTO flight for the upgraded Falcon 9 launch vehicle. On 6 January, SpaceX successfully launched the THAICOM 6 satellite for leading Asian satellite operator THAICOM. Falcon 9 delivered THAICOM 6 to its targeted 295 x 90,000 km geosynchronous transfer orbit at 22.5 degrees inclination. The Falcon 9 launch vehicle performed as expected, meeting 100% of mission objectives.

Space Xhttp://www.spacex.com/

The SKYLON Spaceplane – The Future of Spaceflight

Thursday, 13 February 2014, 19:30 – 21:00

University of Worcester, EEG162, St Johns Campus, Worcester, WR2 6AJ: (Follow signs from Reception)

A Lecture by Dr Robert Bond, Corporate Programmes Director, Reaction Engines, Ltd

Free and open to all.

The SKYLON Spaceplane, powered by revolutionary SABRE rocket engines, has the potential to transform access to Space. This lecture will explore the prospects it offers for a single-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle with aircraft-like operation and will discuss

work currently underway in the UK and Europe to demonstrate the engine and vehicle technology.

Documents

Capcom 243