ISS: Expedition 3

Launch, orbit & landing data: Launch date - time  10 Aug 2001 - 21:10 UT Launch spacecraft  STS-105 Flight Crew  Culbertson, Frank (CDR) Dezhurov, Vladimir (FE) Tyurin, Mikhail (FE) Backup crew   Landing date - time  17 Dec 2001 - 17:55 UT Landing spacecraft  STS-108 Flight Duration (d:hr:min)  128:20:45 Nbr orbits  2028

Crew

Summary:

Mission report:

• Discovery STS-105 docked at the Station's PMA-2 port at 1842 UTC on Aug 12, 2001. After some problems aligning the docking system, the docking ring was retracted and latched at 1905 UTC and the hatch was opened to ISS at 2042 UTC.
• Expedition 3 began on Aug 13, 2001 at 1915 UTC when the new crew's seat liners were installed on the Soyuz transport ship. The formal EX-2/EX-3 change-of-command ceremony was held on Aug 17 in Destiny.
• Discovery undocked at 1452 UTC on Aug 20, 2001 with the Expedition 2 crew aboard, leaving Expedition 3 on the Station.
• Astronauts Dezhurov and Tyurin made a spacewalk from the Pirs module on Station on Oct 8, 2001. The airlock was depressurized for the first time by around 1420 UTC and the hatch was opened at 1423 UTC. The crew installed the Strela crane on the outside of Pirs and jettisoned some thermal covers. After five minutes wrestling with the mechanism, the hatch was closed at 1921 UTC and repressurization began at 1926 UTC. Orlan-M spacesuits were used for the spacewalk; the 'official' time was counted from hatch open to hatch closed (Russian rules), inconsistent with the durations used for spacewalks from Quest, which are counted from battery power to repress (NASA rules).
• The same two astronauts made another spacewalk on Oct 15, 2001 with Culbertson again staying inside the station. At 0903 UTC the airlock was depressurized to about 20 mbar; the hatch began opening to full vaccuum at 0916 UTC with official hatch opening at 0917 UTC. Tyurin exited the airlock at 0925 UTC, with Dezhurov emerging a few minutes later. The astronauts attached the Kromka contamination experiment and two Japanese exposure experiments to the hull of the Zvezda module. The Russian flag on Zvezda was retrieved for an exposure study and replaced with a commercial logo. Dezhurov and Tyurin re-entered the airlock at 1445 UTC and after more hatch closing troubles, the hatch was latched at 1509 UTC and the airlock repressurization began around 1510 UTC.
• The Expedition 3 crew entered their Soyuz TM-32 on Oct 19, 2001 and undocked from the nadir port of Zarya at 10:48 UTC, flying it out and then sideways a few meters before approaching the station again to dock with the Pirs nadir port at 11:04 UTC. This frees up Zarya for the arrival of a new Soyuz. The docking port at the aft end of Zvezda is occupied by the Progress M-45 cargo ship.
• Soyuz TM-33 docked at Zarya's nadir docking port at 10:44 UTC on Oct 23, 2001 with the EP-2 visiting crew, and they joined the Ex-3 crew of Commander Frank Culbertson, Soyuz commander Dezhurov and flight engineer Tyurin aboard the station with hatch opening around 12:15 UTC.
• After 8 days, undocked the EP-2 crew - Afanas'ev, Haignere and Kozeyev - Soyuz TM-32 from the Pirs module at 01:38 UTC on Oct 31. Deorbit burn was at 04:04 UTC, with landing 180 km SE of Dzhezkazgan at 04:59 UTC. This leaves the Exp-3 crew of Culbertston, Dezhurov and Tyurin with a fresh Soyuz transport ship, Soyuz TM-33, docked with the Zarya module.
• On Nov 12, Culbertson and Dezhurov made a spacewalk from the Pirs module. It was depressurized past 50 mbar around 21:27 UTC, hatch opened at 21:41 UTC. The astronauts completed external connections for the Pirs module and finished setting up the Kurs rendezvous system. The hatch was closed at 02:45 UTC on Nov 13 and repressurization began at around 02:50 UTC for a duration of about 5 hr 23min.
• Progress M1-7 soft docked to the Zvezda module at 19:43 UTC on Nov 28, 2001. The docking probe was connected to Zvezda, but the vehicle was not firmly latched, preventing hatch opening and raising fears that vibration from a Shuttle docking could knock the spacecraft loose. A rubber seal left over from the previous occupant of the docking port, Progress M-45 was blocking the docking system and a spacewalk was required to clear it out of the way before a final seal could be made.
  This was very similar to the situation in April 1987 when astronauts had to make a spacewalk to fix an almost identical problem with the docking of the Kvant module to Mir.
• Dezhurov and Tyurin depressurized the Pirs airlock on Dec 3; by 13:06 UTC pressure passed 50 mbar. After a 5 minute leak check at 21 mbar, the spacesuits went to battery power, the pressure was brought down even lower to 14 mbar and the hatch was opened at 13:20 UTC. Dezhurov and Tyurin emerged at around 13:27 UTC and by 14:40 UTC were at the aft end of Zvezda. They identified the debris fouling the docking port as the rubber O-ring from the Progress M-45 docking system. At 14:53 UTC the debris was removed and a minute later ground controllers successfully commanded the Progress M1-7 to complete a firm docking. Dezhurov and Tyurin returned to Pirs at 15:59 UTC, closing the hatch at 16:06 and repressurizing at 16:09 for an EVA duration of 3hr3min (depress/repress), 2hr46min (hatch open/close, Russian rule) or 2hr 55min (NASA rule).
• Space Shuttle mission STS-108 (ISS mission UF-1) was launched on Dec 5 at 22:19 UTC. Endeavour docked with the Station at 20:03 UTC on Dec 7; problems aligning the vehicles delayed hard dock until 20:51 UTC, and the hatch was opened at 22:43 UTC.
• The crew of mission STS-108 consists of Dom Gorie (Commander), Mark E. Kelley (Pilot), Linda Godwin and Dan Tani (Mission Specialists); and also the Expedition 4 crew of Yuriy Onufrikeno (Commander), Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz (Flight Engineers)

External links:

• Wikipedia: Exp. descriptions
• Spacefacts: Exp. description