The real ISS Soyuz short term visiting crew report!
For the first time in 6 years, a short term Soyuz crew is going to visit the ISS!
Of course this flight has been given lots of interest from the public already, although the main reason is with one person that (sadly) has given up the seat this time. :lol:
This short term flight arises because of the one year crew (Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko), which eliminated 2 long term crew seats, but with the 3rd crew member on the same batch and the Soyuz spacecraft needing to be replaced, this opens up 2 seats for a 10 day short trip to the ISS - the first one since Soyuz TMA-16 in September 2009.
We all knew that opera singer Sarah Brightman was to fly on this flight via the "space tourist company" Space Adventures - which would have make this flight a rather fun adventure worth our eyeballs and ears to follow. Alas, she pulled out earlier this year ("family reasons" was the official explanation, although many people guessed that she simply ran out of money at this point).
But this is not the end for interesting things that will happen over the next 2 days! For the first time since Roberto Vittori's 2nd flight in April 2005, an ESA astronaut is dispatched on a short term flight that doesn't use the Space Shuttle. Denmark's first astronaut Andreas Mogensen is very excited to get his first flight to space - even if his first flight is much shorter than all of his fellow astronauts of the same class (and this is not a representation that he is given a worse flight than others - I'll explain later). During his 10 days in space,
he will get the chance to work on many experiments on the ISS (with a much larger choice of equipment that he can use than similar science laboratory flights on the Space Shuttle, with a similar flight duration!). I'm sure that he will have a memorable first trip to space! :thumbup:
Replacing Brightman on the second visitor seat is another person that will set another record. After mulling for various options, Roscosmos eventually settled on (post-independence) Kazakhstan's first fully trained cosmonaut to fill in the seat. And Aydyn Aimbertov (a test pilot of Kazakhstan's air force) certainly has reasons to look upon his flight - he was chosen as a cosmonaut way back in 2003 when Russia and Kazakhstan plans to have a Kazak cosmonaut to fly to the ISS as an exchange for supporting Russia's use of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. However the flight was pushed back several times before disappearing around 2009 when Soyuz short term flight seats dried up. He really get lucky to get a seat to space this time as a substitute, or else who knows when he can fly! His flight will focus on some bio-medical research and earth observation work that will certainly be useful for researchers of his country and others. :tiphat:
And don't forget our new ISS crew member Sergei Volkov! The veteran cosmonaut is flying his 3rd expedition to the ISS after 2 previous ones in 2008 and 2011 - which will mean he will now get as many space station flights as his father Aleksandr Volkov, who spent more than a year on Salyut 7 and Mir! He will replace Gennady Padalka for the second half of the stay of the one year crew.
Note that due to earlier debris avoidance burns of the ISS that knocked its orbit phase angle (DTmin
) way off phase, this flight is the first Soyuz flight since late 2012 that uses the standard 2 day flight to the ISS right off the bat.
Have a good trip guys!
Launch location:
Baikonur Launch pad no. 1/5 45°55'12.85"N, 63°20'32.27"E
Launch dates and times:
{colsp=6}Launch times
Time Zone
|
Australia - Sydney/AEST (UTC+10)
|
Baikonur / UTC+6
|
Moscow / MSKS (UTC+3)
|
Universal / UTC
|
Washington / EDT (UTC-4)
Launch time (Primary):
|
14:37:43
|
10:37:43
|
07:37:43
|
04:37:43
|
00:37:43
on:
|
Sep. 2, 2015
|
Sep. 2, 2015
|
Sep. 2, 2015
|
Sep. 2, 2015
|
Sep. 2, 2015
Launch time (Backup):
|
13:49:28
|
09:49:28
|
06:49:28
|
03:49:28
|
23:49:28
on:
|
Sep. 4, 2015
|
Sep. 4, 2015
|
Sep. 4, 2015
|
Sep. 4, 2015
|
Sep. 3, 2015
{colsp=6}
[highlight][eventTimer]2015-09-02 04:37:43?before|after;%dd% Days %hh% Hours %mm% Minutes %ss% Seconds %c%[/eventTimer] Soyuz TMA-18M Launch[/highlight]
{colsp=5}Docking times
Time Zone
|
Australia - Sydney/AEST (UTC+10)
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Moscow / MSKS (UTC+3)/
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Universal / UTC
|
Washington / EDT (UTC-4)
Docking time (Primary):
|
17:42 +-3 min
|
10:42 +-3 min
|
07:42 +-3 min
|
03:42 +-3 min
on:
|
Sep. 4, 2015
|
Sep. 4, 2015
|
Sep. 4, 2015
|
Sep. 4, 2015
Docking time (Backup):
|
09:20 +-3 min
|
08:55 +-3 min
|
05:55 +-3 min
|
01:55 +-3 min
on:
|
Sep. 6, 2015
|
Sep. 6, 2015
|
Sep. 6, 2015
|
Sep. 6, 2015
{colsp=5}
[highlight][eventTimer]2015-09-04 07:42:00?before|after;%dd% Days %hh% Hours %mm% Minutes %ss% Seconds %c%[/eventTimer] Soyuz TMA-18M docking to ISS[/highlight]
Live Coverage Of The Launch:
Soyuz TMA-18M (industry id 11F747 #718, NASA id Soyuz 44S) manned spaceship
The crew:
|
|
Commander Sergei Volkov, Roscosmos (previous flight experience: Soyuz TMA-12 / ISS Exp. 17, Soyuz TMA-02M / ISS Exp. 28/29)
|
Flight Engineer Andreas Mogensen, ESA(previous flight experience: /)
|
Flight Engineer Aydyn Aimbertov, KazCosmos (previous flight experience: /)
The mission patch:
Mission Profile
Ascent Chart:
1. Approach and Docking Chart:
The times below are Moscow Time (UTC+3), commas separate fractional part of numbers:
Expected time of spacecraft separation: 07:46:31.26
2. Orbital Parameters of Soyuz TMA-18M and the ISS
Parameter|Designation|Soyuz TMA-18M at 02/09|ISS at 04/09
Orbital Period|T, min|88.64 +-0.367|92.50
Inclination|i, degrees|51.67 +-0.058|51.65
Min altitude|h, km|200 +7 -22|399.68
Max altitude|H, km|242 +-42|418.34
Phase angle between the space ship and the ISS is about 382.1 degrees.
Projected life duration of the space ship staying at the nominal orbit is no less than 20 orbits (~30 hrs).
3. Transfer maneuvers
(two days long approach scheme applied)
* Nominal two-burn manoeuvre forming a phasing orbit
Date|Burn at|Orbit #|Delta V, m/s|Burn duration, s|post-burn T,min|post-burn i,deg|post-burn h,km|post-burn H,km
02.09.15|11:12:48|3|20.44|51.3|89.33|51.66|215.78|276.48
02.09.15|12:06:14|4|8.81|22.8|89.63|51.64|235.54|295.46
* The 2nd day's one-burn correction
Date|Burn at|Orbit #|Delta V, m/s|Burn duration, s|post-burn T,min|post-burn i,deg|post-burn h,km|post-burn H,km
03.09.15|08:40:26|17|2.00|29.1|89.68|51.66|241.48|294.08
Autonomous approach program is initiated at 08:15:05.
4. Approach at the Close range
Fly-around, station keeping and docking will be initiated at 10:13:48 on September 4, 2015.
5. Docking
Contact and capture is planned on September 4, 2015 at 10:42 +-3 min.
Docking is performed to MRM-2 Poisk +Y docking node
Launch Vehicle:
{colsp=2}Characteristics
|
{colsp=2}
Soyuz-FG
Prime contractor:
|
- Samara Space Sentre (Energia Holding enterprise)
GRAU Index:
|
Height:
| 51.1 m
Diameter:
| max 10.3 m
Liftoff mass:
| 313 metric tonnes
Payload mass:
| 6.95 tonnes at ISS orbit from Baikonur
1st stage (boosters B, V, G, D):
|
- 4 X RD-107A engines
- Propellants (T-1 Kerosene and LOX)
- Thrust/ISP in vacuum - / 316 s
- Thrust/ISP at sea level 79.4 tonnes / 253 s
- Total 1st stage's thrust at sea level: 411.1 tonnes
2nd stage (core A):
|
- 1 X RD-108A engine
- Propellants (T-1 Kerosene and LOX)
- Thrust/ISP in vacuum 102 tonnes / 314 s
- Thrust/ISP at sea level 83.5 tonnes / 257 s
3rd stage (block I):
|
- 1 X RD-0110 engine
- Propellants (T-1 Kerosene and LOX)
- Thrust/ISP in vacuum 30.38 tonnes / 359 s
The vehicle's
reliability statistics according to
http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/log2015.html#rate:
Code:
================================================================
Vehicle Successes/Tries Realzd Pred Consc. Last Dates
Rate Rate* Succes Fail
================================================================
Soyuz-FG 42 42 1.00 .98 42 None 2001-
Weather forecast for Baikonur, Kazakhstan on September 2, 2015 (11 a.m.)
Overcast with rain showers at times. High 22C. Winds W at 15 to 25 km/h. Chance of rain 40%.
Time|Temps|Dew Point|Relative Humidity|Precip|Snow|Cloud cover|Pressure|Wind|Weather
11 AM|18°C|11°C|64%|23%|0%|74%|1009 hPa|6 km/h W|
Mostly Cloudy
References
http://www.mcc.rsa.ru/sojuztma_18m/start.htm
http://www.federalspace.ru
http://tvroscosmos.ru
http://www.tsenki.com
http://www.samspace.ru
http://www.npoenergomash.ru/engines/
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru
http://www.spacelaunchreport.com
http://english.wunderground.com/q/locid:KZXX0055
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/iriss