Launch News Soyuz TMA-18 atop Soyuz-FG on April 2, 2010

[SiberianTiger]

Not being familiar with the Soyuz spacecraft, how does the crew board the vehicle once it's in the fairing? There must be a hatch through the fairing, obviously, but does anyone have a photo that shows ingress? I'm very curious since I've been launching Soyuz TMA in orbiter.

Soyuz has two hatches, ∅800 mm at the docking node and ∅660 mm inression hatch, both located on the Orbital Module.

I never saw a pic of an actual ingress, but here is a picture of the ingression hatch, you can see it in the upper part of the OM, half-opened here:

When the ship is incapsulated, the ingress fairing door is located on top of the hatch. Visible here:

About the today's launch again...

Some more pre-launch and launch hi-res photos:

And NASA TV footage of the launch, for those who missed it.

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oboXn_Pi08"]YouTube- NASA Astronaut Travels to Space Station with Russian Crewmates[/nomedia]

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Soyuz has two hatches, ∅800 mm at the docking node and ∅660 mm inression hatch, both located on the Orbital Module.

I never saw a pic of an actual ingress, but here is a picture of the ingression hatch, you can see it in the upper part of the OM, half-opened here:

That isn't the OM/BO ingression hatch, that is the protruding volume that enables crew members to access the forward facing OM/BO window.

The ingression hatch is visible at the bottom of the OM/BO is this photo.

Hi-res: www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-20/hires/iss020e010559.jpg

---------- Post added at 11:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:43 PM ----------

Some great, hi-res photos of the launch are here:

www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/sets/72157623616303955

 

[Submariner]

Thanks for the photos! I'm very impressed by this vehicle. The launch was awesome, first time I've watched the Soyuz liftoff.

 

[SiberianTiger]

That isn't the OM/BO ingression hatch, that is the protruding volume that enables crew members to access the forward facing OM/BO window.

My bad, I didn't even know such a window was there. I thought the only means of looking ahead was the periscope. But on the second thought, it should be the window they used for hand lidar distance measurements.

 

[Suzy]

Is the callsign of the Soyuz crew known? (Skvortsov's, I guess?)

 

[SiberianTiger]

Is the callsign of the Soyuz crew known? (Skvortsov's, I guess?)

Yes, please see that in my 1st post in this thread:

Crew Commander's Callsign: Утёс (oo'tyoss, meaning Cliff)

---------- Post added at 11:52 ---------- Previous post was at 11:47 ----------

And here is the TMA-18 Crew poster, devoted to Skvortsov's past experience of service in Russian Militia (Police) in early 90's :thumbup::

And here is a very good and unusual launch video:

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4S3xp_j0uQ"]YouTube- In HD: NASA Astronaut Travels to Space Station with Russian Crewmates[/nomedia]

 

[thelastwaltz]

Soyuz has docked to the ISS successfully.

 

[orbiterguy]

Soyuz expedition 23 updates

The russian expedition 23 soyuz has just docked to iss and are opening the airlocks. I'm listening to mission coverage now sounds good, no problems. Checking pressure right now. If you check the http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.htmlhttp://www.nasa.gov.com select multimedia and nasa tv, public channel you can hear them talking in iss I also think the iss crew might be filming them comin in.
L

 

[DaveS]

The russian expedition 23 soyuz has just docked to iss and are opening the airlocks. I'm listening to mission coverage now sounds good, no problems. Checking pressure right now. If you check the http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html select multimedia and nasa tv, public channel you can hear them talking in iss I also think the iss crew might be filming them comin in.
L

That's a replay for earlier this morning! Capture was at 1:25 am EDT with hatch opening at 3:19 am EDT.

The only thing live on NASA TV right now is the sporadic views of Discovery at pad A.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Very smooth beginning of a mission!

The docking video:
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37Ytid4_XIA"]YouTube- expedition 23/24 docking[/nomedia]

 

[orbiterguy]

sorry didn't know that its just they claimed it was live

 

[DaveS]

sorry didn't know that its just they claimed it was live

That's because it's a raw recording of the event as it aired. Next time, check the various space news sites first.

 

[orbiterguy]

I'm sorry but its still good news

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Here's the hatch opening & welcome ceremony video:
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-daDU6xe7Ks"]YouTube- Hatch Opens To Complete Station Crew[/nomedia]


And here's some great high-res docking & hatch opening images (see pages 2, 3 & 4):
www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-23/inflight/ndxpage2.html

 

[orb]

Soyuz TMA-18 will undock from ISS tonight, and land on the morning in Kazakhstan at 10:55:44 a.m. local time.

Here's calendar event with a few timers counting time to/since major events of undocking & landing, and here you can request a reminder, that will be sent before this event, i.e. before TMA-18 hatch closure, which is set as the starting time of that calendar event.

Timeline of TMA-18 undocking/deorbit/landing quoted from ISS UPDATES thread:

• Undock command --- 1:32 AM.
• Separation springs action/physical sep (delta-V ~0.12 m/sec) --- 1:35 AM.
• Separation burn #1 (15 sec, ~0.63 m/sec) --- 1:38 AM.
• ISS maneuvers to Relaxation experiment attitude --- 3:48 AM.
• Deorbit Burn start (delta-V 115.2 m/sec) --- 4:04:23 AM.
• Deorbit Burn complete --- 4:09:44 AM.
• Tri-Module separation (140 km alt) --- 4:29:15 AM.
• ISS maneuvers to duty attitude --- 4:32 AM.
• Atmospheric entry (99.5 km alt, with ~170 m/sec) --- 4:32:22 AM.
• Entry Guidance start (80.5 km alt) --- 4:33:57 AM.
• Max G-load (34.5 km alt) --- 4:38:49 AM.
• Parachute deploy command (10.8 km alt) --- 4:40:44 AM.
• 22S Landing (DO1) --- 4:55:44 AM GMT; 7:55:44 AM Moscow DMT; 10:55:44 AM local Kazakhstan; (loc. 47deg 22min N, 69deg 35min E).

---------- Post added at 22:36 ---------- Previous post was at 11:57 ----------

A different quote from originally posted at ISS UPDATES thread linked articles:

CBS NEWS: Change of command ceremony sets stage for Soyuz landing Friday / Spaceflight Now: Soyuz to ferry three station residents back to Earth:

Undocking from the Poisk compartment atop the Zvezda command module is targeted for 9:35 p.m. Thursday. After moving a safe distance away from the space station, Soyuz commander Skvortsov, assisted by Kornienko, plans to fire the spacecraft's braking rocket for four minutes and 21 seconds, starting at 12:04:23 a.m. Friday, to slow the Soyuz by about 258 mph and begin the descent to Earth.

Just before falling into the discernible atmosphere at 12:32 a.m., the three modules making up the Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft will separate and the crew will continue the descent in the central control module.

Atmospheric entry will occur at an altitude of about 61.8 miles. A few seconds later, entry guidance will begin to maintain the proper trajectory to the planned landing site 90 miles from Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. Touchdown is expected around 12:55:44 a.m. (10:55:44 a.m. local time).

Timeline for TMA-18 undocking/landing from the above articles, converted to UTC time:

 |{colsp=4}

MET​

|

DATE​

UTC time  |DDD  |HH  |MM |SS  |EVENT

{colsp=6}

2010-09-23​

23:56:00|174|19|51|26|Russian thrusters disabled

{colsp=6}

2010-09-24​

00:12:00|174|20|07|26|Russian thrusters enabled

00:30:00|174|20|25|26|US to Russian attitude control handover

01:01:00|174|20|56|26|ISS maneuvers to undocking attitude

01:11:53|174|21|07|19|Sunrise

01:17:00|174|21|12|26|Sunrise at Landing Site

01:29:37|174|21|25|03|Daily Orbit 14 Russian ground station AOS

01:31:00|174|21|26|26|ISS to free drift

01:32:00|174|21|27|26|Undocking command

01:35:00|174|21|30|26|Physical separation

01:38:00|174|21|33|26|Soyuz separation burn (15 sec, 1.4 mph)

01:40:00|174|21|35|26|ISS maneuvers to duty attitude

01:47:08|174|21|42|34|Daily Orbit 14 Russian ground station LOS

02:13:58|174|22|09|24|Sunset

03:48:00|174|23|43|26|ISS maneuvers to relaxation attitude

04:04:23|174|23|59|49|Soyuz deorbit burn starts (257.7 mph)

04:08:44|175|00|04|10|Deorbit burn complete

04:09:00|175|00|04|26|ISS maneuvers to Soyuz comm attitude

04:23:18|175|00|18|44|Terminator rise

04:29:15|175|00|24|41|Module separation

04:32:00|175|00|27|26|ISS maneuvers to duty attitude

04:32:22|175|00|27|48|Atmospheric entry (61.8 miles altitude)

04:33:57|175|00|29|23|Entry guidance begins (50 miles altitude)

04:38:49|175|00|34|15|Maximum G-load (21.4 miles altitude)

04:40:44|175|00|36|10|Open parachute command (6.7 miles altitude)

04:55:44|175|00|51|10|Landing

05:10:00|175|01|05|26|Russian to US attitude control handover

13:11:00|175|09|06|26|Sunset at landing site

 

[tblaxland]

Undocking is presently delayed due to an issue with the Poisk hooks:

The scheduled undocking of Soyuz TMA-18 from the International Space Station was supposed to occur right now. But the departure is on hold because of the inability to command the structural hooks on the Poisk module's side of the docking interface to open up.
...
Russian flight controllers are instructing Fyodor Yurchikhin to float next to the Poisk hatch and listen for any sounds coming from the hook drive mechanism. Engineers say the system is not responding to commands being issued to open those hooks that hold the Soyuz and station tightly together.
...
Those hooks had been opened temporarily earlier tonight, then closed. But when the crew attempts to disengage them for undocking, they were unable.

 

[DaveS]

They're going for the last undocking opportunity of the day, so ISS is being moved back to the nominal attitude for the time being. So the new de-orbit burn time would be 3:10 am EDT with landing at 4:06 am EDT.

Undocking would be at 12:35 am EDT.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Copying this here from the "ISS UPDATES" thread (obviously the times specified are now incorrect).


From ISS On-Orbit Status Report for 23/09/2010:

Crew Sleep Cycle Shift:
To accommodate tomorrow morning's Soyuz TMA-18/22S undocking (1:34 AM GMT), crew workday began at 1:30 PM GMT (shifted 7.5 hours) and ends with sleep at 6:30 AM GMT tomorrow morning. Wakeup on 24/09: 2:30 PM GMT, sleep: 9:30 PM GMT, returning to normal.

Preparations for the Soyuz TMA-18/22S undocking began at ~9:20 PM GMT, with the activation of the Soyuz spacecraft by FE-1 Alexander Skvortsov.

Before ingress, FE-3 Mikhail Kornienko switches the Russian STTS comm. system to "undocking" mode and verifies that the onboard amateur radio stations in the SM and FGB are deactivated, to prevent RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) with the departing spacecraft.

Mikhail & FE-2 Tracy Caldwell-Dyson then enter the Descent Module, while Alexander performs the regular communications check from TMA-18.

Next, Mikhail activates the spacecraft's GA gas analyzer, after which Alexander inside and Doug outside will close the Soyuz & MRM-2 hatches. The departing Soyuz crew then starts the standard one-hour leak check on the Soyuz to MRM-2 vestibule.

After attitude control authority has been handed over to the RS MCS (Motion Control System) at ~12:20 AM GMT, the ISS will go into Free Drift at 1:30 AM to 1:39 AM GMT for MRM-2 hooks opening and Soyuz undocking at 1:37 AM. Attitude control will return to US Momentum Management with CMGs (Control Moment Gyroscopes) at ~4:40 AM GMT.

---------- Post added at 05:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:43 AM ----------

Undocking delayed at least 24 hours as they can't send the signal to disengage the latches on MRM-2!
Now re-opening the hatches.

Bad news for the TMA-18 crew - they said their goodbyes, packed up their stuff, and mentally left the ISS and started to think about Earth. Now they've gotta unpack and go though the whole cycle again.

NASASpaceFlight: "Soyuz TMA-18 undocking cancelled due to MRM-2 latch issue".

SPACE.com: "Stuck Hooks Delay Space Station Crew's Landing".

 

[orb]

The calendar event is updated.

Undocking: 02:02 UTC on 25th / 10:02 p.m. EDT on 24th
Deorbit burn ignition: 04:32 UTC on 25th / 12:32 a.m. EDT on 25th
Landing: 05:21 UTC on 25th / 1:21 a.m. EDT on 25th​

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

From ISS On-Orbit Status Report for 24/09/2010:

Crew Sleep Cycle Shift:
To accommodate tonight's second attempt at Soyuz TMA-18/22S undocking, crew workday began at 6:00 PM GMT, after a long sleep (from 6:30 AM GMT) and ends with sleep at 5:35 AM GMT tomorrow morning. After a "sleepy" Saturday, wakeup on Sunday (26/09): 6:00 AM GMT, returning to normal.

Soyuz TMA-18/22S Undock Slip:
Last night, during the 22S undock attempt, the MRM-2 hooks failed to open, causing deferral of the departure to tonight after a number of troubleshooting attempts. New times are: Undocking – 1:59 PM GMT; Landing – 5:31 AM GMT. Descent timeline will change commensurably (see yesterday's status report).

• Background: Because of an issue with a TVU/Terminal Computing Device in MRM-2, hook opening for undocking was to be commanded manually by FE-1 Alexander Skvortsov in lieu of via computer (and PPL (Pre Positioned Load)). During MRM-2 hatch closure by the crew, the signal for "hatch closure" was received, but the indication of "hatch locked" (i.e. sealed) was not. FE-5 Fyodor Yurchikhin reopened & reclosed the hatch and moved the ratchet to the emergency position. Vestibule depressurization thereafter did not yield the same vacuum measurements from the pressure sensors in Soyuz and in MRM-2. After analysis, TsUP-Moscow gave the Go for the Soyuz crew to drive the hooks. But because the "hatch locked" indication was absent, hook opening did not happen. While waiting for a second attempt, Fyodor discovered a 7-toothed sprocket with 2 teeth missing floating behind the hatch inside the docking mechanism. It turns out that the dislodgment of the sprocket, with its rod sheared, prevented the "hatch locked" sensor from passing on its status – which in turn kept the hooks from opening.
• As a "workaround", by wiring 6 electrical jumpers appropriately with a pin-out board to mask the absence of the signal, the signal was emulated (faked), thus mimicking the "sealed" condition. As a result: the hooks opened, rendering the 22S spacecraft ready for departure tonight. All that's needed is to remove the QD (Quick Disconnect) clamps (manually) and release the Soyuz side hooks.
• The jumper configuration will be left in place until the next Soyuz docking – which will deliver a new jumper, to be installed instead. A NASA/Moscow ISS Management Meeting reviewed the situation this morning in detail, and there are no objections to tonight's undocking or the 08/10 launch date of Soyuz TMA-01M/24S.
• Message from Flight Control to the crew this morning: "Great training run yesterday! We also owe a huge thanks to Fyodor and the team for working late to get those MRM-2 hooks open! "This was another "First" for the ISS Program."

After wake-up at ~6:00 PM GMT, Alexander began going through the standard pre-undocking steps:

• Working with Fyodor & FE-3 Mikhail Kornienko on moving the Russian payloads back to Soyuz for stowage which had to be transferred overnight to the RS for preservation in the refrigerated containers (i.e., BTKh-6/ARIL, BTKh-7/OChB, BTKh-10/KONYUGATSIYA, BTKh-27/ASTROVAKTSINA & BIO-1/POLIGENE).
• Activating the Soyuz at ~9:10 PM to 10:10 PM GMT.
• Downlinking the standard report on the finished loading operations (~10:10 PM GMT).
• Removing the ZVB quick-release screw clamps on the SSVP docking mechanism between the MRM-2 & 22S which had to be put back in last night to rigidize the connection.

Wheels also will close the external protective window shutters of the Lab, JPM and Cupola in preparation for the undocking.

Mikhail & FE-2 Tracy Caldwell-Dyson are to join Alexander in the Descent Module, while Alexander performs the regular communications check from 22S.

Hatches will be closed by Alexander (in Soyuz) and Fyodor (in MRM-2) at ~10:30 PM to 10:50 PM GMT. The hatch closing will be covered live by photo/video as a PAO event, with FE-6 Shannon Walker in charge of video camera activation and deactivation after the event.

The departing Soyuz crew then starts the standard one-hour leak checks on the Soyuz to MRM-2 vestibule and their Sokol suits.

Later, Fyodor activates & verifies proper operation of the Russian TEKh-15/DAKON-M IZGIB ("Bend") experiment in the SM (Service Module) for taking structural dynamics data during the Soyuz spacecraft undocking. [IZGIB has the objective to help update mathematical models of the ISS gravitation environment, using accelerometers of the Russian SBI Onboard Measurement System, the GIVUS high-accuracy angular rate vector gyrometer of the SUDN Motion Control & Navigation System and other accelerometers for unattended measurement of micro-accelerations at science hardware accommodation locations - (1) in operation of onboard equipment having rotating parts (gyrodynes, fans), (2) when establishing and keeping various ISS attitude modes, and (3) when performing crew egresses into space and physical exercises.]

Structural dynamics measurements of the undocking will also be taken with the US IWIS (Internal Wireless Instrumentation System).

After the undocking, Fyodor will:

• Manually close the MRM2 KVD/PEV (Pressure Equalization Valve).
• Reconfigure the Russian STTS onboard comm system to its "undocked" mode, and later, after the Soyuz landing in Kazakhstan, reset it to nominal mode.
• Conduct the regular daily check of the aerosol filters at the Russian Elektron O2 (oxygen) generator, installed by Maxim Suraev on 19/10/09 in gaps between the BZh Liquid Unit and the oxygen outlet pipe (filter FA-K) plus hydrogen outlet pipe (filter FA-V) [the filters will be inspected again later today].
• Downlink the TEKh-15/DAKON-M IZGIB measurement data and the photo/video footage of the hatch closure event to the ground.
• Support the ground-commanded reactivation of the Elektron O2 generator by monitoring the external temperature of its secondary purification unit (BD) for the first 10 minutes of operations to ensure that there was no overheating.

After attitude control authority has been handed over to the RS MCS (Motion Control System) at ~1:00 AM GMT, the ISS will go into Free Drift at 1:58 PM to 2:07 PM GMT for MRM-2 hooks opening and Soyuz undocking at ~2:02 PM GMT. Attitude control will return to US CMG (Control Moment Gyroscopes) Momentum Management at ~3:00 AM GMT.

After 22S departure, CDR Doug Wheelock will remove the 4 protective alignment guides on the T2 COLBERT treadmill.