ISS: Expedition 46

Crew & expedition duration:

Exp 46 crew patch

Complet exp.46 crew

Backup Crew

Mission details

• Continuation One Year Crew mission with Kelly Scott and Korniyenko Mikhail.

  Kelly and Korniyenko One Year path

  Kelly and Korniyenko

  
  
  
• ISS Expedition 46 began with the undocking of spacecraft Soyuz TMA-17M on December 11, 2015 at 09:49:35 UTC. The Flight Engineers of the former Expedition 45 (Oleg Kononenko, Kimiya Yui and Kjell Lindgren) returned safely to Earth. Kelly, Korniyenko and Volkov remain on the station during the changeover.
• Soyuz TMA-19M, with crewmembers Yuriy Malenchenko, Tim Kopra, and Tim Peake, was launched on Dec 15, 2015.
  TMA-19M began its flyaround of ISS at 1700 UTC Dec 15. Final approach to the Rassvet module began 1708 UTC under computer control but was aborted at 1716 UTC at a distance of around 30m. Yuri Malenchenko manually docked the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft to the International Space Station's Rassvet module after an initial automated attempt was aborted. Yuri Malenchenko took control of the Soyuz, backed it away from the station to assess the Soyuz' systems, then re-approached the complex for the manual docking at 1729 UTC and docked at 1733 UTC.
  
  

  Soyuz TMA-19M arriving

  Mobile Transporter

  
  
• On Dec 17, 2015 the Mobile Transporter (the truck that the SSRMS Canadarm-2 robot arm rides on) got stuck just after leaving worksite 4, one of the stations on the truss railway. The MT has two CETA carts attached to it, and the brakes on one CETA were accidentally engaged - probably left in the wrong position on an earlier spacewalk.
• Since a stuck MT is considered a safety issue for dockings, astronauts Kelly and Kopra made an unplanned spacewalk on Dec 21, 2015 (3h 16m) to release the brake. The pair moved the station's mobile transporter rail car so it can be latched in place ahead of the docking of a Russian cargo resupply spacecraft on December 23, 2015. The mobile transporter - used to position the station's robotic Canadarm2 - stalled on December 16, 2015 just four inches (10 centimeters) from where it began its move, while flight controllers in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston were attempting to reposition it robotically. The cause of the stall still is being evaluated.
  They also completed some left-over cabling tasks. The Quest airlock was depressurized at about 1238 UTC and repressurized at 1601 UTC. Kelly and Kopra used EMU suits 3010 and 3011. The MT is now working fine.
• The Progress M-28M cargo ship undocked from Pirs at 0735 UTC Dec 19, 2015 and was deorbited over the South Pacific, with debris impact at 1128 UTC.
• On Dec 21, 2015 Russia launched the first Progress-MS cargo ship. Progress-MS is similar to previous Progress ships but with improved onboard systems. It docked with the Pirs module at 1027 UTC Dec 23.
  Progress MS transport cargo spacecraft is the new upgraded series of the Progress-type transport spacecraft that have replaced the Progress MM series. Progress MS differs from the previous series of transport spacecraft in that it has an additional external compartment. Each compartment on the outside surface of the spacecraft can hold four launch containers. The safety is enhanced due to a backup system of electric drivers of the docking mechanism and the connection airtightness mechanism, and due to additional anti-meteorite protection panels which ensure a higher resistance of the cargo compartment body against breaches from micro-meteorite particles.The functional capabilities of the spacecraft's on-board systems are enlarged due to the possibility to control the spacecraft and monitor its on-board systems outside the radio vision zones of the measuring stations in the territory of Russia by means of an on-board radio system through relay satellites, due to an uninterrupted update of the status vector on board the spacecraft by means of the satellite navigation equipment, which excludes the use of special ground-based orbit-defining means, due to the possibility to define the relative position of the spacecraft and the station through a data exchange by means of a board-to-board radio line, and due to a higher quality of the television image from the docking control TV camera, which is transmitted through a digital radio line. The Kvant V on-board radio system with antenna/feeder devices has been replaced with the new unified command telemetry system (UCTS). Instead of the Kurs A approach/docking equipment, the new Progress MS features the Kurs NA system.
• On Jan 15, 2016 astronauts Kopra and Peake made a spacewalk from the Quest airlock in EMU suits 3011 and 3008 (4h 43m). They replaced the Sequential Shunt Unit (SSU) electronics box at the base of the 1B solar array on the S6 truss segment. The replacement SSU was launched on STS-96 in 1999 and had been stored since then inside Unity and then PMA-3 until being unpacked in December for the spacewalk. The old SSU failed on Nov 13, shutting down power to the 1B solar array (one of eight on ISS). Full power has now been restored. The astronauts also continued cabling work for the IDA docking adapter and relocated a vent on the Tranquility module. The spacewalk was cut short when Kopra's suit developed a small water leak which accumulated in his helmet; this was the same suit that had a more serious leak during Luca Parmitano's spacewalk in Jul 2013, but it's not clear if the two problems are related. Kopra and Peake depressurized Quest at about 1243 UTC and ventured outside at 1300 UTC, returning with hatch closure at 1727 UTC and repressurization at 1731 UTC. Peake, who is a European Space Agency astronaut sponsored by the UK, made the first UK-flagged spacewalk, and the first spacewalk by a British citizen who is not also a dual-nationality US citizen.
  
  

  Preparing satellite launch

  Spacewalk Kopra

  
  
• The AggieSat-4 satellite was ejected from the ISS on Jan 29, 2016 using the Kibo JRMS arm and the SSIKLOPS deployer. The 55 kg AggieSat-4, developed by students at Texas A&M University, will eject the 3U cubesat Bevo-2 (from students at U. Texas-Austin) and perform formation flying experiments with it.
• On Feb 3, 2016 astronauts Malenchenko and Volkov carried out spacewalk VKD-42 (4h 45m) from the Pirs module. The hatch was opened at 1255 UTC and closed at 1740 UTC. They retrieved the EXPOSE-R2 and SKK 2-M2 materials exposure experiments and installed SKK 3-M2 and two Vinoslivost panels. They also jettisoned a small package consisting of a bag of towels attached to a commemorative flash drive with videos about World War II to celebrate the 70th anniversary of 'Victory Day'.
  
  

  Soyuz and Cygnus

  Cygnus departure

  
  
• After delivering more than 7,000 pounds (3,175 kg) of cargo to support dozens of science experiments from around the world, Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo spacecraft left the International Space Station on February 19, 2016. The freighter was filled with trash. The Canadarm-2 unberthed the Cygnus OA-4 cargo ship, SS Deke Slayton II, from the Unity node at 1040 UTC and released it into orbit at about 1227 UTC. The Cygnus was deorbited over the S Pacific at about 1600 UTC Feb 20.
• On Mar 2, 2016 at 0102 UTC Volkov, Kornienko and Kelly, aboard Soyuz TMA-18M, undocked from the Poisk module, concluding Expedition 46.
  Tim Kopra then became commander of Expedition 47, with flight engineers Yuriy Malenchenko and Tim Peake.
  With the landing of Soyuz TMA-18M twoandhalf hours later the 11-months-mission in space of Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko ended.

External links:

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

Astrophilately covers:

Docking & undocking cancel TMA-18M, ISS board cancel, signed by the crew.

Kelly & Korniyenko 1 year long stay in space, cancel undocking, ISS board cancel, signed by the crew ISS43-46.