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The Mission




Mission: Expedition 9
Spacecraft: Soyuz TMA-4
Launch: April 19, 2004
Time: 0319 GMT (11:19 p.m. EDT on 18th)
Site: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
Satellite feed: AMC 9, Transponder 9, C-band

Launch events timeline

Flight Day 1 schedule

Flight Day 2 schedule

Flight Day 3 schedule

Expedition 9 science plan

European DELTA mission



The Crew




Russia's Gennady Padalka and NASA's Mike Fincke will live aboard the International Space Station for a half-year as Expedition 9 while Europe's Andre Kuipers will stay for a week before returning to Earth.

Exp. 9 commander Gennady Padalka

Exp. 9 science officer Mike Fincke

Visiting crewmember Andre Kuipers



The Launcher




The venerable Russian Soyuz rocket will deliver the Soyuz TMA-4 capsule into Earth orbit to dock with the International Space Station.

Rocket fact sheet

Soyuz spacecraft info



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NASA mulls new problem with station gyroscopes
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: April 22, 2004

NASA managers are discussing repair options for an eventual spacewalk to restart a space station gyroscope that shut down Wednesday when an electronic control module malfunctioned. The massive gyroscope itself is healthy, officials say, and spare control modules are available on board. But the remote power control module, or RPCM, in question is located on an exterior truss and a spacewalk will be needed to install a replacement.

The shutdown came at an inopportune time for the station crew, with Expedition 8 commander Michael Foale and flight engineer Alexander Kaleri preparing to return to Earth next week. They're in the process of handing over control to newly arrived Expedition 9 commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Michael Fincke.

NASA's mission management team discussed the gyro issue today and when a repair spacewalk might be mounted. "It's not a matter of whether, it's a matter of when," one official said.

Padalka and Fincke already planned to carry out two spacewalks during their six-month stay and officials said the gyro repair work might be wrapped into one of those excursions. But a variety of issues remain to be resolved.

The station uses four control moment gyroscopes to maintain the lab's orientation in space without having to tap into limited supplies of on-board rocket fuel. But one gyro, CMG-1, failed in 2002 and cannot be replaced until next year, during the first post-Columbia shuttle mission.

With the shutdown of CMG-2 Wednesday, the station is down to just two operational stabilizers and one of those, CMG-3, has shown subtle signs of unusual behavior in recent months due to presumed lubrication issues. Should one of the two remaining gyroscopes shut down for any reason before CMG-2 can be brought back on line, station crews would have to begin firing rocket thrusters to maintain the lab's orientation.

But enough fuel is available to support normal station operations for six months, Russian engineers say, and a NASA official said there's no immediate urgency to mount a CMG-2 repair spacewalk. But it will need to be done at some point in the near future.

"If you guys checked the caution-and-warning panel today, you'll see CMG-2 has failed," mission control radioed the station crew early Thursday. "What's happened is the RPC that's powering CMG-2 has tripped, multiple times in fact. ... Right now, we're in two-CMG attitude control and we plan to remain in two-CMG attitude control and we're going to continue troubleshooting this on the ground and figure out a plan of attack from here. We don't expect any changes to the plan for today, at least. But there could be some changes coming."

"We copy all," Foale replied. "And yes, we'll follow the plan with great interest."

"No doubt. We'll be busy down here for the next week, for sure, looking at this and we'll keep you guys informed."

Four spare remote power control units are available on the station, including one that is brand new. Among the issues being debated are which airlock to use for a repair spacewalk. Fincke does not yet have a properly sized NASA spacesuit to permit use of the U.S. Quest airlock module, which is located close to the S0 truss where the gyros are located. Suit components are scheduled for launch later aboard a Russian supply ship. Wearing Russian suits, Padalka and Fincke could work from the Russian Pirs airlock module, but it would be more difficult to reach the gyro work site from there.

Another wild card is the lack of a third crew member to operate the station's robot arm. Replacing a remote power control module normally would require use of the arm and new procedures likely will need to be developed.

Of more immediate concern to Fincke, Padalka, Foale and Kaleri is the completion of handover operations before the Expedition 8 crew departs next week. Foale and Kaleri are giving their replacements a crash course in station operations, sharing the insights that come with six months of daily life aboard the outpost.

"Just a few days ago, I was sitting on top of the Soyuz rocket to propel us into space and nine minutes later, I looked out the window and saw our beautiful planet Earth below us and I'll tell you what, that first view of the planet was just incredible," Fincke said. "As we were coming in close (to the station), I got to see how beautiful the space station is in person. It's just absolutely wonderful, it's a magnificent machine we've built together as human beings from the planet Earth. Living on board, Mike here has been teaching me the fundamentals of just day-to-day life and he has a lot to show me. I'm really glad he's here to show me what to do and how to do it."

In recent days, Russian managers have suggested extending station stays from six months to a full year. That would free up seats on regular Soyuz rotation missions for flights by space tourists and other paying customers, pumping needed cash into the Russian space program. NASA has ruled out such extended missions, at least until after shuttles resume flights next year, but Russian managers vow to press their case.

For his part, Foale said yearlong station stays are feasible, as long as the proper planning goes into them.

"I've used the word 'busy' a number of times," he said. "That is the key to doing a long-duration mission of any type, whether it's six months or a year. For a year in particular, you need activities that can break the time as it goes by. ... The key is to have a program that's useful and active and that will let the time go by just fine.

"If you told me today , out of the blue, you're not coming home for another year, I would be pretty daunted by it and I would have to go away and think very hard about what that meant and then discuss it with my family and discuss all the implications. Because it was a surprise. If you told me a year before I made the flight, Mike you're going to go for a year, that's quite a different issue because there you have time to prepare for it, everybody gets used to the idea of it, you figure out what you're going to do and how you're going to pace yourself through the mission and it's quite achievable.

"It doesn't matter whether it's three months, four months or six know where kind of your lull is going to be in that period of time, you know when you're going to start looking forward to coming home. As long as those expectations don't get damaged or changed, you can pace yourself just fine through the mission. So yes, I could do a year's mission if I was given the preparation ahead of it."

The issue of possible year-long station stays came up primarily because of the time it is taking to return the space shuttle to flight. The first post-Columbia mission is targeted for next March, although additional delays are possible. But Foale said he has no doubt the shuttle will, in fact, return to flight at some point.

"It's a huge concern for NASA, getting the space shuttle ready," he said. "We need the space shuttle to be ready and it will be made ready to fly to the space station again. Return to flight will take place.

"It's being done in a methodical and careful fashion and as a result, I don't have concerns it will not be done. It will be done. When it will be done is something I'm not in a position to know. I have faith in the management and I have faith in the teams that are working to get the shuttle back to flight. So to that extent, it's not a big issue to me."

Right now, one big issue is beer. And egg salad sandwiches. Asked what he was looking forward to after six months in space, Foale said fresh food was at the top of his list.

"I actually do like beer," he said. "I like tuna fish, for example, in sandwiches, and brown bread, and egg salad sandwiches, I think my wife Rhonda is going to make for me when I get back. That's what I'm looking forward to. So good egg sandwiches. Milk products, for example, that are fresh, I'm looking forward to."

Spaceflight Now Plus
Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: MISSION CONTROL BRIEFS CREW ON GYRO PROBLEM QT

VIDEO: SOYUZ CAPSULE DOCKS TO SPACE STATION QT
VIDEO: POST-DOCKING NEWS CONFERENCE (with translation) QT

VIDEO: SOYUZ ROCKET LAUNCHES EXPEDITION 9 QT
VIDEO: CREWMEMBERS DON THEIR LAUNCH SPACESUITS QT
VIDEO: CHECKS ARE CONDUCTED ON THE SUITS QT
VIDEO: CREW DEPARTS SUITUP BUILDING FOR LAUNCH PAD QT
VIDEO: CROWD WELCOMES CREW AT LAUNCH PAD QT
VIDEO: POST-LAUNCH COMMENTS BY NASA DEP. ADMINISTRATOR QT
VIDEO: POST-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH ISS PROGRAM MANAGER QT
VIDEO: POST-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH FINCKE'S FATHER QT
EXPEDITION 9 VIDEO COVERAGE
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