ISS: Expedition 4

Dec 15, 2001 - Jun 19, 2002

International

Launch, orbit & landing data:

Launch date - time 05 Dec 2001 - 22:19 UT
Launch spacecraft  STS-108
Flight Crew Onufriyenko, Yuri (CDR)
Walz, Carl (FE)
Bursch, Daniel (FE)
Backup crew 
Landing date - time 19 Jun 2002 - 17:58 UT
Landing spacecraft STS-111
Flight Duration (d:hr:min) 195:19:39
Nbr orbits 3081

Crew

No. Surname Given name Job Mission Duration Orbits
1  Onufriyenko  Yuri Ivanovich  ISS-Commander 195d 19h 39m  3081 
2  Walz  Carl Erwin  Flight Engineer 195d 19h 39m  3081 
3  Bursch  Daniel Wheeler  Flight Engineer 195d 19h 39m  3081 

Expedition Report

Launch from Cape Canaveral (KSC); landing on Edwards AFB; docking on the ISS; crew replaced the Expedition 3 crew; 27 scientific experiments including Cellular Biotechnology Operations Support System (CBOSS); first EVA by Onufriyenko and Walz on 14.01.2002 (6h 3m) to move a Strela cargo crane and install an amateur radio antenna; second EVA by Onufriyenko and Bursch on 25.01.2002 (5h 59m) to install six thruster deflectors at the rear of the Zvezda Service Module, retrieving and replacing a device to measure material from the thrusters and installing a ham radio antenna and its cabling; third EVA by Walz and Bursch on 20.02.2002 (5h 47m) to perform housekeeping chores and gather tools to prepare for the next station assembly mission, which will deliver the central section of the outpost's "backbone"; on April 20, 2002, Onufriyenko relocated the Soyuz TM-33 rescue capsule from the Zarya-module to the Pirs docking compartment (21 m).

Mission report:

  • Space Shuttle mission STS-108 (ISS mission UF-1) was launched on Dec 5, 2001 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)
  • Endeavour undocked from Station at 17:28 UTC on Dec 15 and landed on runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center at 17:55 UTC on Dec 17. The Expedition 3 crew of Culbertson, Dezhurov and Tyurin returned to Earth aboard Endeavour, leaving the Expedition 4 crew of Yury Onufrienko, Dan Bursch and Carl Walz in charge of the Station.
  • Walz and Onufrienko made a first space walk from the Pirs module on Jan 14, 2002. Depress was around 2050 UTC, with hatch open at 2059 UTC and egress around 2110 UTC. The astronauts moved the Strela-2 crane from PMA-1 to Pirs and installed it there; the Strela-1 crane was already functional on Pirs. They also installed an amateur radio antenna on Zvezda. On Jan 15 at about 0254 UTC the crew jettisoned two pairs of Orlan spacesuit gloves and a pair of towels used to wipe the spacesuits down, because of concerns about contamination from Zvezda thrusters. They reentered Pirs at 0255 UTC, with hatch close at 0302 UTC and repressurization above 50 mbar at about 0304 UTC.
  • A second spacewalk was made by Bursch and Onufrienko on Jan 25. They installed plume deflectors around the Zvezda thrusters and set up some exposure experiments. The Pirs airlock was depressurized probably about 1510 UTC, with hatch open at 1519 UTC; hatch close was at 2118 UTC and repressurization began at 2120 UTC. This space walk was about 6 hours.
  • The International Space Station lost attitude control on Feb 4 for several hours. After Zvezda computers developed communications problems and failed to transfer data to the US gyros on the Z1 module, the GNC MDM computer on the US side stopped stabilizing the station. The computer problems also prevented Z1 from handing over control to the backup thrusters system on Zvezda. At 13:18 UT the Station tumbled, in danger of losing electrical power, and experiments were shut down as systems were put in emergency mode. The crew were able to manually point the US solar arrays, preventing any loss of power. The station was restored to operation later in the day, with attitude control resuming at 18:43 UT on thrusters and 19:20 UT on gyros.
  • Carl Walz and Dan Bursch made a space walk on Feb 20 using the Station's Quest airlock. Depressurization was at around 1134 UTC and repressurization was at 1725 UTC. The space walk involved doing some preparatory work with cables and thermal covers in advance of the space walks planned for STS-110 and the installation of the S0 truss. It was also intended to check out proper functioning of the Quest airlock, which had some minor problems on its first use in Jul 2001. The last two Exp-4 space walks were made from the Russian Pirs airlock.
  • After finishing loading the Progress 256 (Progress M1-7) craft, it undocked from Zvezda’s aft port at 17:43 UT on Mar 19. The Kolibri-2000 micro satellite was ejected from the Progress cargo compartment at 22:28 UT; Progress fired its engines to deorbited over the Pacific at about 01:27 UT on Mar 20.
  • Atlantis undocked from ISS at 18:31 UT on Apr 17, 2002 and returned to Earth on Apr 19, with a de-orbit burn at 15:18 UT and landing on runway 33 at KSC at 16:26 UT.
  • At 09:16 UT on Apr 20, 2002 Soyuz TM-33 undocked from the Zarya nadir port carrying the Exp-4 crew. It redocked with the Pirs nadir port at 09:37 UT.
  • Soyuz TM-34 (ISS mission 4S) docked with the nadir port on the Zarya module at 07:55 UT on Apr 27, 2002. After a week aboard the station, the crew moved to the old Soyuz TM-33 ship. They undocked from Pirs at 00:31 UT on May 5, leaving the crew of Onufrienko, Walz and Bursch with the new Soyuz TM-34 as their rescue vehicle.
  • Endeavour (STS-111) was launched at 21:22 UT on Jun 5, 2002 and docked with the Station at 16:25 UT on Jun 7. The Leonardo MPLM module was attached to the Station on June 8.
  • On Jun 9, Chang-Diaz and Perrin made a space walk from the Quest airlock. The astronauts installed the PGDF grapple fixture on the P6 truss, stowed some space debris shields on the PMA-1 adapter, and prepared the Mobile Base System (MBS) in the Shuttle cargo bay. MBS was unberthed sometime around 22:20 UT and docked to the Mobile Transporter at 13:04 UT on Jun 10. On Jun 11 during a next EVA, Chang-Diaz and Perrin completed setting up the MBS system.
  • On Jun 19, Endeavour undocked from ISS and landed at 13:57 EDT on Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Mission duration was 13days 20hours 34minutes.
  • They bring back the Exp.-4 crew Onufrienko, Walz and Bursh which made a US record of 195days 16hours 33minutes in space.

    Astrophilately covers:

    Expedition 4

    Cosmic Mail??: Cover with special green flight cancels and bleu MKC6 eo-5 cancels, signed by the crew.

    Ref: #7(JR471-474,477), #16, #4?? - update: 02.02.19