Expedition 23 and 24 Science for Six
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration PRESS KIT/APRIL 2010 Expedition 23 and 24 Science for Six www.nasa.gov This Page Intentionally Blank TABLE OF CONTENTS Section Page MISSION OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................... 1 EXPEDITION 23 & 24 CREW ................................................................................................... 11 EXPEDITION 23/24 MAJOR MILESTONES............................................................................... 25 EXPEDITION 23/24 SPACEWALKS ......................................................................................... 27 RUSSIAN SOYUZ TMA ............................................................................................................. 29 SOYUZ BOOSTER ROCKET CHARACTERISTICS .................................................................................... 34 PRELAUNCH COUNTDOWN TIMELINE ................................................................................................... 35 ASCENT/INSERTION TIMELINE ............................................................................................................ 36 ORBITAL INSERTION TO DOCKING TIMELINE ...................................................................................... 37 KEY TIMES FOR EXPEDITION 23 LAUNCH EVENTS ............................................................................... 42 SOYUZ LANDING .................................................................................................................................. 43 INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: EXPEDITION 23/24 SCIENCE OVERVIEW ...................... 53 DIGITAL NASA TELEVISION .................................................................................................... 97 EXPEDITION 23/24 PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICERS (PAO) CONTACTS ...................................... 99 APRIL 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS i This page intentionally blank ii TABLE OF CONTENTS APRIL 2010 Mission Overview Expeditions 23 and 24 Backdropped by a blue and white part of Earth, the International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by an STS-130 crew member on space shuttle Endeavour after the station and shuttle began their post-undocking relative separation. An American and two Russians will The Expedition 23 and 24 crews, restore the International Space Station’s comprising a total of nine residents over a Expedition 23 crew to six when they join the span of eight months, will continue to usher Russian, American and Japanese crew in a new era of scientific research, with members who have been onboard since some 130 ongoing experiments in human December. Once united, the first crew to research, biology and biotechnology, include three Russians at once will continue physical and materials sciences, technology outfitting the newest modules of the nearly development, and Earth and space completed outpost, and welcome the last sciences. planned shuttle flights and a new docking port. APRIL 2010 MISSION OVERVIEW 1 In addition to welcoming Discovery, Atlantis Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov accepted and Endeavour and their cargoes of command of Expedition 23 on March 17, supplies, the long-duration crew will see the taking over for NASA’s Jeff Williams, who arrival of a Russian docking module, the landed with Flight Engineer Max Suraev in Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) Kazakhstan on March 18. NASA’s and four Progress resupply ships. T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi, of the Expeditions 23 and 24 also will conduct two Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, spacewalks and may see the first continue to circle the globe with Kotov until demonstration flights of a commercial June, maintaining the station and resupply ship. conducting microgravity research in a number of disciplines. NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer (foreground) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi (left), both Expedition 22/23 flight engineers; along with cosmonaut Oleg Kotov (center background), Expedition 22 flight engineer and Expedition 23 commander, participate in an emergency procedure training session in an International Space Station mock-up/trainer in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. 2 MISSION OVERVIEW APRIL 2010 The rest of the Expedition 23 crew will Expedition 24 flight engineers, and the trio launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in will be joined by NASA’s Doug Wheelock Kazakhstan on April 2, and dock their and Shannon Walker, and Russia’s Fyodor Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft to the station’s Yurchikhin in mid-June. Poisk docking compartment on April 4. Russian Flight Engineers Alexander Creamer, 50, a U.S. Army colonel from Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko, and Upper Marlboro, Md., is making his first NASA’s Tracy Caldwell Dyson will become spaceflight. Assigned to NASA’s Johnson a part of the Expedition 23 crew when they Space Center in 1995 as a space shuttle arrive. vehicle integration test engineer, he supported eight shuttle missions as a Skvortsov will become Expedition 24 vehicle integration test team lead and commander when Kotov, Creamer, and specialized in coordinating the information Noguchi depart the station after 163 days in technologies for the Astronaut Office. space and 161 days aboard the outpost. Selected as an astronaut in 1998, Creamer Dyson and Kornienko will remain as worked with hardware integration and robotics, and was a support astronaut for Expedition 12. NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson (foreground), Expedition 23/24 flight engineer, participates in a training session in an International Space Station mock-up/trainer in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. APRIL 2010 MISSION OVERVIEW 3 Noguchi, 45, an aeronautical engineer from spent two years in Russia training to fly the Chigasaki, Kanagawa, Japan, is making his Soyuz from launch through landing, and is second spaceflight. He was selected as a fully qualified in both automatic and manual National Space Development Agency of modes. Japan (NASDA), now JAXA, astronaut candidate in 1996 and trained at An Army colonel and West Point graduate, Johnson Space Center. After completing Wheelock, 50, entered flight school in 1984 his astronaut training, he supported and graduated at the top of his flight class development and integration of the station’s as an Army aviator. He attended the U.S. Japanese Kibo experiment module. Naval Test Pilot School and served as an Noguchi flew on the STS-114 return-to- experimental test pilot with the Army flight mission of Discovery in 2005. He has Aviation Technical Test Center. In 2004, logged nearly 14 days in space, including Wheelock completed training in the more than 20 hours of spacewalks to test NASA Extreme Environments Mission new procedures for shuttle inspection and Operations (NEEMO) program, during a repair techniques. 10-day undersea mission aboard the National Undersea Research Center’s Dyson, 40, will be making her second trip to Aquarius habitat. During his first space space. Selected for astronaut training by mission, STS-120, he participated in NASA in 1998, she worked in Mission three spacewalks, totaling 20 hours and Control as spacecraft communicator for 41 minutes. both space shuttle and station operations, and supported shuttle launch and landing Kotov, 44, a physician and Russian Air operations at NASA’s Kennedy Space Force colonel, is making his second Center. She flew on STS-118 as a mission spaceflight and serving his second tour specialist, serving as the mission’s aboard the station. Selected as a intravehicular spacewalk coordinator and cosmonaut in 1996, he trained as a primary shuttle robotic arm operator. cosmonaut researcher for a flight on the Soyuz and as a backup crew member to Houston’s first and only native astronaut, the Mir-26 mission. A former lead test Shannon Walker, 44, will be making her doctor at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training first trip into space as a flight engineer on Center, he served as a flight engineer and the Soyuz for Expedition 24. In 1995, Soyuz commander on the Expedition 15 Walker joined NASA’s Johnson Space mission in 2007. He will be a flight Center to work with international partners in engineer for Expedition 22, and assume the the design and construction of the space duties of Expedition 23 commander when station robotics equipment. Four years Williams departs in March 2010. later, she moved to Moscow to work with Roscosmos in the areas of avionics This will be the first spaceflight for both integration and integrated problem solving. Skvortsov and Kornienko. Skvortsov, 44, is Upon returning to Houston, she became a Russian Air Force colonel and second- technical lead for the space station mission generation cosmonaut. He has logged evaluation room and the deputy manager of about 1,000 hours of flight time on various the On-Orbit Engineering Office. Walker Russian aircraft. He began his basic space 4 MISSION OVERVIEW APRIL 2010 training in 1998, qualifying as a test Yurchikhin, 51, graduated from the cosmonaut in 1999 and starting space S. Ordzhonikidze Moscow Aviation Institute, station training in 2000. Kornienko worked and worked at Energia. He began working in the Baikonur Launch Facility as a launch as a controller in the Russian Mission Con- equipment specialist, and as a cosmonaut trol Center and held the positions of engi- training engineer for the Russian Space neer, senior engineer, and lead engineer, Corp., Energia. Kornienko, 50, was eventually becoming a lead engineer for selected as a