The 'problem child' ISS receives new crew
July 22, 2015
The commander of the Russian spaceship Soyuz TMA-17M, Oleg Kononenko, his astronaut-colleague Kjell Lindgren from NASA and Kimiya Yu from the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) are finishing their final preparations at the Kazakh spaceport for their flight to the International Space Station. The team is set to depart on July 23 at precisely 3:02 a.m. local time, which means 11:02 p.m. in central Europe and 5:02 p.m. on the east coast of the USA.
This operation has been overshadowed by mishaps that have severely hampered the supply of the space station. A series of accidents began last year, as the private Cygnus-space transporter exploded, which should have transported cargo to the ISS on NASA's orders. On October 28, 2014, the rocket Antares, manufactured by Orbital Sciences, exploded six seconds after liftoff.
In the months that followed, two private spacecraft "Dragon" - as well as the Russian cargo spacecraft "Progress" - managed to reach the ISS. Everything seemed to be under control.
Two transporter failures within two months
However, the delivery from Progress failed, after one stage of the rocket did not fire correctly during its start on April 28, 2015. As a result, the transport capsule did not reach their planned orbit. On May 8, the seven-ton transporter burned in the aerosphere.
As a replacement, a Dragon space capsule was to be sent on June 28. However, it exploded shortly after takeoff. Elon Musk, the chief executive from Space-X had not explained until this Tuesday that the accident have been caused by a faulty component. A steel strut where a helium vessel was mounted was said to be broken. It was the seventh flight of the Dragon transporters, and the six previous flights were flawless.
Inspite of the breakdowns, the manned flights to and from the ISS during this period had taken place without incident. On November 10, 2014, Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surajew, American astronaut Gregory Wiseman and German astronaut Alexander Gerst returned to earth. On March 11, 2015, Alexander Samokutajew and Jelena Serova from Russia, together with Barry Wilmore from the US, also landed safely.
Late return from space
However, the mishaps did affect the plan of Expedition 42. The Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, Anton Shkaplerov from Russia and US astronaut Terry Virts were sent to the ISS on November 23, 2014. The return flight was delayed by a month due to the series of breakdowns.
The engineers wanted to probe the cause of breakdown of the Soyuz rocket, before a replacement team of the three was allowed to fly to the ISS. Therefore, the space agencies were forced to stretch their schedules. On June 11, 2015, the three finally came back to earth.
The upcoming flight was the first manned Soyuz flight since the mishap in April. Before that, a Progress transporter already reached the ISS with a Soyuz rocket. On July 5, it was successfully docked to the ISS.
The person who is currently in command of the ISS is Gennady Padalka from Russia, who was flown by his compatriot Mikhail Korniyenko and American Scott Kelly on March 27, shortly before the Soyuz-breakdown. He will stay until September, while his two companions will remain at the ISS until a year later.