Mittwoch, 22. Juli 2015 - 23:15

Raumfahrt - Start von ISS-Crew 44 zur ISS

25.04.2015

Expedition 44 Crew Patch

ISS044-S-001 (February 2014) --- This is the insignia for the Expedition 44 mission. The International Space Station is positioned in the foreground poised to study Earth, the sun and cosmos that lie beyond. Two members of the Expedition 44 crew will spend a full year on the ISS – providing valuable experience for future long duration missions into deep space. The 12 Earths represent the planet’s position around the sun over the course of that year. Four of the Earths are silhouetted in sunlight representing the four month duration of Expedition 44. The nine stars in the background represent the nine individuals that will visit and work on the ISS during the course of the expedition, including the six-member crew, whose names are inscribed around the patch’s border, and the three-person Soyuz “taxi” crew. The use of ellipses and circles throughout the patch reflect a theme of “completion” or “return,” as investments made in this orbiting laboratory return benefit to the Earth and its inhabitants. The NASA insignia design for shuttle flights and station increments is reserved for use by the astronauts and for other official use as the NASA Administrator may authorize. Public availability has been approved only in the forms of illustrations by the various news media. When and if there is any change in this policy, which is not anticipated, the change will be publicly announced. Photo credit: NASA

Expedition 44 Crew Members Check Out Hardware for Spacewalk

JSC2014-E-063209 (1 July 2014) --- NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren (center) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui, both Expedition 44/45 flight engineers, participate in an extravehicular activity (EVA) hardware training session in the Partial Gravity Simulator (POGO) test area in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Crew instructor Scott Way (left) assists the crew members. Photo credit: NASA/James Blair

Future Space Station Crewmates Sample Space Food

NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren (left) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui, both Expedition 44/45 flight engineers, participate in a food tasting session in the Habitability and Environmental Factors Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Vickie Kloeris assisted the crew members.

Image above: Expedition 44 crew members take a break from training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to pose for a crew portrait. Pictured from the right are NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren; Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui; NASA astronaut Scott Kelly; Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, commander; and Mikhail Kornienko. Photo credit: NASA

Expedition 44 will begin in May 2015 with the departure of Soyuz 41. Three additional crew members will arrive later in May aboard Soyuz 43. An Expedition 45/46 crew member will arrive in October aboard Soyuz 44.

Quelle: NASA

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Update: 29.04.2015

Launch of Soyuz with new ISS crew onboard may be delayed because of Progress emergency

"Several elements of the Progress are similar to those of the manned Soyuz," a source at the Baikonur spaceport said

The launch of the Soyuz TMA-17M manned spacecraft scheduled for May 26 may be delayed because of contingency with the Progress M-27M, a source at the Baikonur spaceport told TASS on Wednesday.

"Several elements of the Progress are similar to those of the manned Soyuz. In particular, the close-up and docking navigation system Kurs is the same at both spacecraft. It is not ruled out that the launch of Soyuz with new ISS crew may be postponed," the source said.

A working group has been set up at Baikonur to investigate the reasons behind Progress’ emergency. "However, final conclusions about the reasons behind the unsuccessful launch will be made by specialists from Moscow," the source said. "According to preliminary reports, difficulties occurred during separation of the third stage of the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket," he added.

A Soyuz rocket carrying the Progress M-27M spacecraft blasted off from the Baikonur space site in Kazakhstan at on Tuesday morning. After its separation from the rocket, the Mission Control Centre said no telemetry was available. A source in the space industry told TASS that two antennas of Progress’s docking system Kurs had failed to unfold. Soon it turned out that the spacecraft itself had entered an undesignated orbit due to a mishap in one of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket’s stages.

Russia’s Mission Control Center failed to get telemetric data from the Progress M-27M cargo spacecraft during its first communication session on Wednesday, a rocket and space industry source told TASS. "The attempt was unsuccessful," the source said, adding that the centre would make other attempts to get telemetry from the spacecraft during the day.

TASS reported on Thursday that Russian specialists on Wednesday were expected to use a remote control mode of operation in order to stop the spacecraft’s erratic rotation.

The launch of Soyuz TMA-17M is scheduled May 26. The spacecraft will deliver new crew to the ISS, including Oleg Kononenko from Roscosmos, Kimiya Yui from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Kjell Lindgren from NASA.

Quelle: TASS

Update: 8.05.2015

Launch of manned spacecraft with next ISS crew postponed — source

The launch of the manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-17M with the crew of the next mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has been postponed till June 11, a source in the space rocket industry has told TASS.

"The launch has been moved from May 26 to June 11," the source said.

A session of an interdepartmental commission was scheduled at Star City outside Moscow for Friday to approve the main and backup crews. However, sources from the Cosmonaut Training Centre told Tass that the session and a pre-flight news conference had been postponed. The reasons were not specified.

The main crew of a new mission scheduled to go to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft comprises Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui and NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren.

The back-up crew consists of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, European Space Agency astronaut Timothy Peake (UK) and NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra.

Quelle: TASS

JAXA astronaut Yui takes final exam before trip to ISS

Astronauts (from left) American Kjell Lindgren, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui pose for pictures as they attend a preflight training session at the Gagarin Cosmonauts' Training Centre in Star City, outside Moscow, on Thursday. The crew is scheduled to blast off to the ISS from Baikonur at the end of May. |

MOSCOW – Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and his crewmates underwent a two-day final examination through Thursday ahead of their May 27 trip to the International Space Station.

Yui, a 45-year-old flight engineer, commander Oleg Kononenko from the Russian Federal Space Agency and another flight engineer, Kjell Lindgren of NASA, took the exam in a full-size ISS simulator at a training center in the suburbs of Moscow.

During the test, the three astronauts checked various kinds of operational procedures, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and other sources.

The crew is scheduled to blast off for the ISS on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in the early hours of May 27 local time from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and spend about six months on the ISS doing experiments.

However, the mission could be postponed in light of an unmanned cargo mission that failed on April 28, according to a report by Russian news agency Interfax.

“The flight program of the ISS expedition preparing for the mission may be adjusted depending on possible postponements of the dates of launches of cargo spacecraft and amendments to the ISS flight program,” Interfax quoted a press release circulated at the training center as saying.

An expert at the Russian space agency has recommended that the launch to the ISS be pushed back by up to two months to focus on the investigation into the failed launch of the Progress M-27M spacecraft, which is now expected to burn up as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, the report said.

Quelle: The Japan Times

Update: 13.05.2015

Next Soyuz spacecraft will be launched to ISS on July 24

The Soyuz launch, initially scheduled for May 26, will carry Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and US astronaut Kjell Lindgren

The launch of Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) is planned for July 24, a source at the Baikonur spaceport told TASS on Wednesday.

"According to launching schedule, the launch of Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft is planned on July 24," the source said.

The Soyuz launch will be the first manned flight to ISS after the loss of the Progress M-27M spacecraft, the source noted. The Soyuz launch, initially scheduled for May 26, will carry Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and US astronaut Kjell Lindgren.

Head of the Russian segment of the ISS Vladimir Solovyov said earlier that the program of launching spacecraft will be changed because of the Progress accident. He added that the Soyuz launch was planned for the end of June, but did not name the exact date.

Successive depressurization of the oxidizer and propellant tanks of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket’s third stage caused the loss of the cargo vehicle Progress M-27M, the head of the Russian space agency Igor Komarov said on Tuesday.

"In the 526.716th second of the flight the separation of the spacecraft from the rocket went wrong. As a result, the cargo vehicle was put in an orbit 40 km higher than expected (apogee), and the third stage, 20 km below the designated trajectory (apogee)," Komarov said.

The Progress M-27M cargo spacecraft was launched on April 28 from the Baikonur space center Russia leases from Kazakhstan on a Soyuz carrier rocket. The rocket took the spacecraft to a higher orbit than required to dock with ISS. After a few unsuccessful attempts to get control of the spacecraft, experts gave up the idea.

Quelle: TASS

Update: 10.06.2015

Next manned Soyuz to head to space station July 23-25 — Roscosmos

Earlier there were plans to launch the Soyuz toward the ISS on May 26, but the launch was delayed due to an accident involving a Progress cargo spacecraft

The launch of the Soyuz TMA-17M manned spacecraft with the crew of the next expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled for July 23-25 from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos told TASS Tuesday.

"The exact date of the launch will be determined later in connection with adjustment of the ISS orbit that took place June 8," the agency said.

Earlier there were plans to launch the Soyuz toward the ISS on May 26, but the launch was delayed due to an accident involving a Progress cargo spacecraft. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Japan’s Kimiya Yui and American Kjell Lindgren are to fly to the station.

Roscosmos said the Soyuz TMA-18M, the seat in which was given up by British singer Sarah Brightman, is to blast off September 1. This year’s final manned launch will be made December 15: the Soyuz TMA-19M will head toward the station.

The Progress M-27M cargo spacecraft was launched on April 28 from the Baikonur space center on a Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket. The rocket took the spacecraft to a higher orbit than required to dock with the ISS. After a few unsuccessful attempts to get control of the spacecraft, experts gave up the idea. The Progress was taking food, oxygen and other cargos to the ISS crew. It burned in dense atmosphere May 8.

Roscosmos concluded that the cause of the accident was "abnormal separation" of the Soyuz third stage and the Progress due to decompression of the rocket’s fuel tanks, caused by an unaccounted design property.

Quelle: TASS

Update: 25.06.2015

JAXA astronaut remains confident ahead of rescheduled July launch to ISS

JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui talks about his upcoming mission to the International Space Station during a TV conference from Houston on June 23. (Teru Okumura)

Astronaut Kimiya Yui is confident that the delay of his deployment to the International Space Station has given him more time to prepare for the mission, and he is eager to conduct his studies in space.

“Before, I was 100 percent prepared, but now I am 120 percent prepared due to the postponement,” Yui, 45, said from Houston during a June 23 TV conference interview with The Asahi Shimbun. “I am not anxious at all.”

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut is scheduled to stay aboard the ISS through December, where he and his colleagues will study the effects of a prolonged stay in space on the heart, among other things.

Yui and other astronauts are scheduled to be transported to the ISS aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on July 23.

The Soyuz was initially scheduled to take the astronauts into space in May. But the launch was delayed after an unmanned Russian cargo Progress spacecraft spun out of control after it was launched in April.

Yui said during the delay he has been training in Houston to maintain his skills, and has attended meetings of the ground crew that supports the astronauts on the ISS.

He also met with experts who designed the experiments in which he will participate.

“I was able to spend meaningful time since I built trust with the specialists and deepened my understanding of the scheduled experiments,” the JAXA astronaut said.

Although the Soyuz launch was postponed by two months, Yui’s stay aboard the ISS will be shortened by only one month.

“Arrangements were made to limit the fallout from the delay,” he said. “I will do my best in my mission to produce as many results as possible.”

Quelle: The Asahi Shimbun

Update: 29.06.2015

Crew Looks Ahead to Russian Resupply Mission

The ISS Progress 60 spacecraft is seen in its processing facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan being prepared for launch July 3. Credit: RSC-Energia

The Expedition 44 trio will not see the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft arrive Tuesday after the Falcon 9 rocket was lost about 139 seconds after launch Sunday morning. The crew now turns its attention to another resupply mission, ongoing science activities and routine orbital maintenance.

The International Space Station is well stocked with plenty of supplies and consumables through October. Meanwhile, a Russian resupply ship is getting ready for its launch Friday at 12:55 a.m. EDT. The ISS Progress 60 will deliver more than 3 tons of food, fuel and supplies to the crew and dock to the Pirs docking compartment after a two-day ride.

The three orbiting residents Commander Gennady Padalka and One-Year crew members Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko are also getting ready for another set of crew members due to arrive at the end of July. On the ground, Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko and Flight Engineers Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui are in Russia training ahead of their July 22 launch in a Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft.

Quelle: NASA

Update: 8.07.2015

Russia to approve new crew for International Space Station

The main crew is expected to comprise Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and US astronaut Kjell Norwood Lindgren

A Russian state commission is due to approve on Wednesday the makeup of the main and backup crews of a next mission to the International Space Station (ISS), the Cosmonauts' Training Centre outside Moscow has said.

Russia's Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with the manned Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft is due for lift off from the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan at 2103GMT on July 22.

It was initially planned that the crew would head to the ISS on May 26. However, the launch was postponed until late July after the April crash of the Progress M27-M cargo ship.

This will be the third flight for veteran Russian cosmonaut Kononenko, 51, who has a cumulative 391 days of experience in space and has conducted three spacewalks.

Japan’s Kimiya Yui is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF). This will be the first space flight for the 45-year-old astronaut. Lindgren, 42, is an aerospace medicine physician who also has no experience in space flights.

Quelle: TASS

Update: 11.07.2015

Ankunft von ISS Besatzung 44/45 in Baikonur

Quelle: Roscosmos

Update: 15.07.2015

New Crew at Launch Site, Cubesat Deployments Begin

jsc2015e071473 — Expedition 44 crew members Kjell Lindgren , Oleg Kononenko and Kimiya Yui pose with their Sokol launch and entry suits July 11 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center

A new trio of space station crew members arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Friday to complete mission preparations. In space, the orbital residents began a series of Cubesat deployments.

The Expedition 44/45 crew comprised of Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko and Flight Engineers Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui are wrapping up preflight training in Kazakhstan. They will launch July 22 aboard the Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft for a six-hour ride to the International Space Station.

On board the International Space Station, One-Year crew member Scott Kelly set up the Japanese Kibo airlock for Cubesat deployments this week. Kelly also explored fluid physics for the Capillary Beverage study. Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko studied liquid crystals and observed chemical reactions in the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Quelle: NASA

Update: 16.05.2015

Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft may cut flight time to ISS to 3 hours

The historical experience of the USSR and the US suggests it is possible to conduct spacecraft docking in the near-Earth orbit a few hours after the blast-off, a space industry source told TASS

Russia’s Soyuz manned spacecraft in the future will be able to cut the time of flight to the International Space Station (ISS) to just 1.5-3 hours, a space industry source told TASS on Wednesday.

"The historical experience of the Soviet Union and the United States suggests it is possible to conduct spacecraft docking in the near-Earth orbit a few hours after the blast-off. After regular flights to the space station started, this became impossible for a number of reasons, but modern technology will make it possible in the near future to cut the trip of the Soyuz spacecraft and a new manned spaceship to the ISS to just 1.5-3 hours of flight, that is, 1-2 orbits," said the source.

There is no specified timeframe yet for the testing of this flight scheme. "In any case, before its introduction for manned spacecraft, it will be several times tested on the Progress cargo spacecraft," he said.

Russia’s Mission Control Center (MCC) started to use a ‘fast track’ ISS rendezvous scheme with the duration of six hours (four orbits around the Earth) in 2012. Prior to that, and in some cases after that resupply vehicles and manned spacecraft were launched to the ISS under a two-day flight scheme.

The transfer to the short cut six-hour flight scheme to the orbiting outpost was necessitated by the location of Russian ground tracking stations. The rendezvous and docking manoeuvres over the Russian control centers required a four-orbit flight. Under this scheme, a spacecraft now makes manoeuvres almost immediately after orbit insertion, he said.

The forthcoming launch of Russia’s manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-17M from the Baikonur cosmodrome (Kazakhstan) will be carried out on July 23 at 00:03am, Moscow time. The spacecraft will perform a flight to the ISS under a six-hour scheme.

The main crew is expected to comprise Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and US astronaut Kjell Norwood Lindgren, while the backup crew will consist of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, US astronaut Timothy Kopra and European Space Agency astronaut Timothy Peake. It was initially planned that the crew would head to the ISS on May 26. However, the launch was postponed until late July after the April crash of the Progress M27-M cargo ship.

Quelle: TASS

Update: 20.07.2015

Expedition 44/45 prime crew members

At the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, Expedition 44/45 prime crew member Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (seated right), signs a ceremonial book in the Gagarin Museum July 8 alongside his crewmates, Kjell Lindgren of NASA (seated left) and Oleg Kononenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos, seated center). Standing and looking on from left to right are backup crew members Timothy Kopra of NASA, Timothy Peake of the European Space Agency and Yuri Malenchenko of Roscosmos. Lindgren, Kononenko and Yui will launch on their Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan July 23 for a five-month mission on the International Space Station..NASA/Seth Marcantel

Quelle: NASA

Update: 21.07.2015

Soyuz ferry craft rides rails to launch pad

A three-stage Soyuz booster rocket, capped by a three-person crew transport capsule, rolled out to a launch pad in Kazakhstan on Monday, two days before blasting off with new residents headed for the International Space Station.

The rocket emerged from its hangar just after sunrise Monday, traversed across the Kazakh steppe towed behind a train locomotive, then arrived at the historic Launch Pad No. 1 at Baikonur, the same facility used by Yuri Gagarin on the first human space mission in 1961.

Veteran Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko is set to command the Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft during Wednesday’s six-hour trip to the space station, which is set to begin with a fiery liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 2102 GMT (5:02 p.m. EDT), or 3:02 a.m. local time in Kazakhstan.

Making his third trip into space, Kononenko will occupy the center seat of the capsule for launch. Rookie Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, a former F-15 test pilot, will be board engineer in the left seat of the Soyuz spacecraft, and NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, also on his first spaceflight, will sit in the right seat.

After an expedited, four-orbit rendezvous, the radar-guided Soyuz spacecraft will dock with the International Space Station at 0246 GMT (10:46 p.m. EDT), joining three residents already living on the outpost more than 250 miles above Earth.

The trio is due to remain in space until Dec. 22.

Wednesday’s launch was supposed to go up May 26, but Russian officials delayed the flight in the wake of a Progress resupply mission failure in late April.