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Station crew interview
Expedition 10 commander Leroy Chiao and Expedition 9 flight engineer Michael Fincke answer questions from a reporter with KPIX television in San Francisco. (8min 52sec file)
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CBS Radio interview
CBS Radio's Peter King and Bill Harwood chat with space station astronauts Leroy Chiao and Michael Fincke during the handover activities between Expedition crews. (11min 06sec file)
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Expedition 9 review
This narrated movie provides a look back at the six-month Expedition 9 mission aboard the International Space Station with commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Michael Fincke. (8min 24sec file)
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Soyuz docking
The Russian Soyuz TMA-5 capsule successfully docks to the International Space Station, delivering the Expedition 10 crew for its half-year mission. (3min 21sec file)
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Docking in full
This longer-length broadband clip follows the Soyuz TMA-5 capsule's approach and docking to the station's Pirs module. (8min 47sec file)
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Post-docking news conference
Russian and U.S. space officials hold a post-docking press conference from the mission control center outside Moscow. (23min 04sec file)
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Launch of Expedition 10
The Russian Soyuz rocket blasts off from Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying the Expedition 10 crew International Space Station for a six-month mission. (2min 25sec file)
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Launch in full
This longer-length broadband clip follows the launch of Expedition 10 from the final minute of the countdown through deployment of the Soyuz capsule from the third stage. (10min 15sec file)
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The State Commission
The State Commission hears from senior Russian and American officials before giving final approval to launch Expedition 10 to the International Space Station. (13min 46sec file)
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Space shuttle movers get new shoes
NASA-KSC NEWS RELEASE
Posted: October 19, 2004

NASA's two crawler transporter vehicles soon will sport new "shoes." A $10 million project to replace the 456 tread belt shoes, weighing more than one ton each, on both crawlers at Kennedy Space Center begins mid-October.


A tractor-trailer arrives at the Crawler Transporter area with a new shipment of crawler shoes. In the background is the Vehicle Assembly Building. Credit: NASA
 
The shoes are critical for safely transporting the Space Shuttle to the launch pad. Cracks on old shoes can prevent the cleats from moving along the crawlerway and can compromise the structural integrity of the shoes.

Each of the vehicles has eight belts, and each belt has 57 shoes. Most shoes on the crawlers date back to 1965, when the vehicles were built and first put into service for Apollo launches.

Inspections in late 2003 revealed fatigue cracks in many of the shoes, leading to complete replacement of shoes on both crawlers. Crawler transporter No. 2, designated for Discovery's Return to Flight mission to the International Space Station, will receive its new shoes first.

"The crawler transporters are going to be in great shape for Return to Flight and the crawler team is delivering," said Mark Hamilton, NASA crawler transporter systems engineer. "This is by far the most active maintenance period in the history of the crawlers, requiring continuous heavy equipment crane support and the use of custom rigging and tooling."


A closeup of some of the new crawler shoes that arrived from Minnesota. The new shoes were manufactured by ME Global in Duluth. Credit: NASA
 
NASA and United Space Alliance (USA) crawler transporter systems engineers and USA technicians are repairing the sprockets and rollers on each belt before the new shoes are installed. Welding repair and inspection of some of the sprockets and manufacture of some of the rollers also is being performed at KSC.

The new shoes, each 7.5 feet long and 1.5 feet wide, are being made by ME Global Manufacturing of Duluth, Minn. They arrive at KSC in truckloads of 20 to comply with shipping load limits.

Other upgrades or modifications recently completed on crawler No. 2 include complete electrical rewiring of the motor control center and installation of new driver cabs, mufflers, radiators and ventilation systems. The same work is now under way on crawler No. 1.

Hamilton noted the majority of mechanical crawler parts are unique to the vehicle and are specially manufactured. "We are fortunate that the massive precision components, such as the large drive gear sets and gear shaft bearings, still look new."