On board a Russian "Soyuz" spacecraft, a team was launched into space to replace the Russian-American duo that has been on the International Space Station for six months. The Dutch team member is accompanying him on the trip only for the purpose of performing several experiments, but he did not forget to take a comic book and cheese with him
Avi Blizovsky
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The Soyuz space shuttle has arrived at the International Space Station
21/4/04
The Russian space shuttle "Soyuz" arrived at the International Space Station with three astronauts on board.
The three are the Dutch Andre Kuipers, the American Edward Michael Fink and the Russian Gennady Padalka.
The members of the ninth crew took off this morning from Kazakhstan to the International Space Station
19/4/04
An American, a Russian and a Dutchman took off into space from Kazakhstan
On board a "Soyuz" spacecraft, three astronauts - a Russian, an American and a Dutchman - took off into space this morning (Sunday) on their way to the International Space Station. This is what the news agencies report and the YNET website reports.
The launch, from the Baikonur space base in Kazakhstan, went without a hitch and if there are no unusual events, the three are expected to reach their destination in two days.
The Russian Gennady Padalka and the American Edward "Mike" Finkel, are intended to replace the Russian-American duo that has been on the space station since October. They will remain aboard the station for the next six months. Dutch crew member Andre Kuipers is expected to return to Earth in 11 days with the old crew, not before carrying out a number of scientific experiments aboard the station.
The Russians bear the burden of changing teams
The exchange of crews at the International Space Station has been carried out for two years on spacecraft and launch rockets of the Russian Space Agency, since the American space agency NASA grounded its manned flights into space following the disaster of the Columbia shuttle crash.
Another constraint resulting from the crash was the reduction of the staff staying at the station to only two, instead of three staff members in the previous years.
Moreover, for the duration of your stay on the station, a "Soyuz" spacecraft is docked next to the station, to be used to rescue the crew in an emergency. This spacecraft also changes every six months and therefore the spacecraft that was launched this morning will remain in space, and the American and the Russian, with the Dutch escort, will return to Earth aboard the spacecraft that brought them there.
The replacement of the crews is a heavy financial burden on the Russian space agency, which suffers from budget difficulties and equipment obsolescence. Therefore, they are considering extending the crews' stay in space from six months to a year. This will make it possible to launch four "space tourists" a year for eight-day flights in the window of time that will open. These tourists pay 20 million dollars for the experience, an amount equal to the price of a "Soyuz" spacecraft.
The Dutchman did not forget the cheese
By the way, the American Finkel was selected for the mission only three months ago, after the original NASA crew member fell ill. Being a veteran engineer who knows the space station well and speaks Russian, he was the natural candidate, even if he didn't necessarily plan to be in space when his wife gave birth to their second child in June.
Kuipers is the second Dutchman to go into space. Despite this, at the press conference before the launch he seemed relaxed and said that he sees the mission as "going on a picnic with friends and staying in a crowded tent". He noted that he did not forget to take with him a comic book, fine Dutch cheese and also a photo of the seven astronauts who perished on board Columbia, some of whom he was friends with.
Meanwhile, China launched two small experimental satellites into space last night. One of the satellites is a "micro-satellite" weighing only 25 kg, defined by experts as a scientific breakthrough.
The ninth crew of the space station is ready for launch and arrival at the station on April 21
12/4/04
The space station's ninth crew is ready for launch on April 21. Meanwhile, NASA has confirmed the suitability of the Soyuz spacecraft in which the members of the ninth crew will fly, the replacements for the two astronauts on board the space station.
This is cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and astronaut Michael Fincke. "We will continue the exchange of crews and continue to fly to the space station," said Bill Gerstenmaier, Gerstenmaier, director of the space station program on behalf of NASA, at a press conference held on Friday, April 9.
Padalka will serve as commander of both Crew 8 and the Soyuz spacecraft en route to the station while Fink will serve as flight engineer and in charge of experiments on behalf of NASA during the mission. Andre Kuipers, a Dutch astronaut from the European Space Agency will fly with them but will return a week later with two members of Team #8.
The two, Michael Powell and Alexander Clary have been at the station since October 2003.
According to Gerstenmeier, the new team faces several problems, including issues of water and spare parts. Water is a critical resource aboard the space station, especially since oversized cargo cannot be brought to the station since shuttle service to it was suspended following the Columbia disaster. The two used the Electron component - a Russian-made component that separates the hydrogen and oxygen from the water - to repair a recently broken unit and will therefore send a spare part on the next unmanned service flight. By the way, during the stay of Team 9 members, two supply spacecraft that are currently under construction will be launched to the station: Progress 14 and Progress 15.
They will also perform two spacewalks - one on July 22 and the other on August 24 - to install a railing on the outside of the station and prepare the station to receive the European Space Agency's ATV (Autonomous Transfer Vehicle) in 2005. The spacewalk will also include missions that were not completed during Team 8's spacewalks that were cut short due to a malfunction in Clary's spacesuit.
scientific goals
Although most of the two's time will be devoted to the maintenance of the station, Padalka and Fink will spend about 200 hours in planned scientific activities, including the use of an ultrasound device for diagnosis with which the scientists will examine how the internal organs of the human body move in the absence of the Earth's pull. The mission is to document everything an ultrasound device can see in orbit, as well as what normal health looks like in space, said Janice Voss, Science Director for Team 9.
The data, as well as other studies, will also be used to test the effect of radiation on human chromosomes as well as the effect on muscle loss in long-term space flights, to prepare for flights to the other planets. Vos emphasizes, however, that all these experiments were already planned when President Bush announced his plan to return to the moon and send humans to Mars as well.
Better training in repairs
Space station managers say the malfunctions experienced by Crew 8 members over the past six months have led to the need for better equipment so that malfunctions can be repaired by the astronauts in flight and on longer missions, such as stays on the moon and flights to Mars.
Over the past few months, Powell and Clary not only performed preventive maintenance of the station but also repaired the broken electron unit, followed an air escape path from one of the station's windows (which caused a drop in air pressure) and repaired the fault as well as replaced damaged parts in the fitness equipment designed to maintain the strength of their muscles and bones to prevent problems back in Israel. However, according to Gerstenmeier, the eighth crew had never been trained to replace this hardware before, we learned thanks to them to work and function better in space.
Yadan International Space Station
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