Trans. JSASS Space Tech. Japan Vol. 7, No. ists26, pp. Tg_11-Tg_20, 2009 Non-U.S. Human Space Transportation Failures By I-Shih CHANG and E. Joe TOMEI The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, California, U.S.A. (Received April 17th, 2008) Non-U.S. human space transportation history from 1961 through 2007 is reviewed. Past and present non-U.S. human space programs and human space launch vehicles and spacecraft are briefly discussed. Category and chronological list of non-U.S. human space missions are presented. The emphasis of the study is on the investigation of mission failures and major anomalies encountered in non-U.S. human space transportation history. Failures and major anomalies by part, root cause, element, function, domain, and component are analyzed. Failure outcome, failure mode, time of failure, and mission reliability relevant to flight safety analysis are examined. Findings and failure mitigation strategy are summarized. Key Words: Space Launch, Human Space Flight, Failure and Anomaly 1. Introduction human space flights have ever been conducted outside the U.S. Therefore, only orbital human space launch systems To expand human presence, activity, and habitation (Vostok, Voskhod, and Soyuz in Russia/USSR, and beyond Earth orbit, new launch vehicles and crew CZ-2F in China) and their associated space flight systems exploration vehicles are being developed by several (Vostok, Voskhod, and Soyuz in Russia/USSR, and space-fairing nations for human space transportation. The Shenzhou in China) are considered in the study. new vehicles will incorporate modern space technologies Human space flight requires an expansion of space to meet stringent requirements for crew safety in space transportation systems. For purposes of this study human launch operation and space flight environment. space flight can be categorized into several transportation Anticipated expansion in space tourism to low Earth orbit phases. They are the launch phase, earth and lunar would also contribute to increased demand for reliable on-orbit phases, lunar transfer and return phases, surface human space transportation systems. Human space launch exploration phase, entry and landing phases, and lunar and flight are dangerous, expensive, and technically ascent phase. Human space flight also includes static, challenging. The success of this new endeavor relies upon in-situ habitation phases both on the lunar surface and on the application of knowledge and experience gained from board space stations. There are also a variety of related prior human space programs. topics worthy of investigation, including uncrewed flights The study is concerned with all non-U.S. human space in support of human space flights (developmental, missions and is a portion of a continuing effort 1)-14) to logistics, etc.), animal space flights, and human satellite investigate the failure causes and corrective actions of the deployment. All of these are to be addressed by the larger world space launch and flight systems and to provide project being undertaken. This paper will limit its lessons learned from the past in order to mitigate space discussion to the primary transportation phases. Several mission failures in the future. The prior work has been additional papers would be needed to contain all of the concentrated on launch vehicle failures. The current collected material. project is intended to examine the failure history of all The paper starts with a brief description of non-U.S. human space flights focusing on transportation and is a human space transportation history, followed by category subset of overall space missions. and chronological list of non-U.S. human space missions The focus of the study is on human space mission and identification of space mission failures and major failures and major anomalies in order to better understand anomalies. Analysis of mission failures and anomalies by the ramifications of the human space transportation record part, root cause, element, function, domain, and on the new human space programs. The objective of the component are presented. Failure outcome, failure mode, study is to apply knowledge and experience gained from time of failure, and mission reliability relevant to flight prior non-U.S. human space programs to the development safety analysis are examined. Findings and failure of reliable human space launch vehicles and spacecraft in mitigation strategy are summarized at end of the paper. the future. 3. Non-U.S. Human Space Transportation History 2. Overview Human space flight started when the USSR launched a This paper summarizes the history of non-U.S. human Vostok vehicle carrying Yuri Gagarin to a low-earth orbit space transportation failures since the inception of the on 1961-04-12. Shortly afterwards, the U.S. launched a first human space flight in 1961. Past and present non-U.S. Redstone vehicle carrying Alan Shepard in a Mercury human space launch systems and their associated space capsule for a suborbital flight on 1961-05-05 and an Atlas flight systems are considered. No suborbital or lunar LV-3B carrying John Glenn for an orbital flight on Copyright© 2009 by the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences and ISTS. All rights reserved. Tg_11 Trans. JSASS Space Tech. Japan Vol. 7, No. ists26 (2009) 1962-02-20. Some 42 years after the first human space (1971-1982), Mir (1976-2001), and International Space flight, China launched a CZ-2F vehicle carrying Yang Station (1993-present) are part of the overall project, but Liwei for an orbital flight on 2003-10-15. Currently, will not be considered in this paper. Russia/USSR, the U.S., and China are the only three Fig. 1 shows non-U.S. human space launch vehicles and human space-faring countries in the world. spacecraft. The Russia/USSR launch vehicles usually bore Non-U.S. human orbital space programs include Vostok, the same names as their first spacecraft. The Vostok is the Voskhod, and Soyuz in Russia/USSR and Shenzhou in world first spacecraft carrying humankind to space. The China. In Russia/USSR, the Vostok program started in Voskhod spacecraft completed the missions with the first late 1956. The first human orbital mission with a Vostok human spacewalk and the first multi-person crew in space. was carried out in 1961, and the last occurred in 1963. The Soyuz spacecraft is the workhorse for carrying The Voskhod program started in the early 1960s, humans to space stations including Almaz OPS, Salyut, following the cancellation of the Vostok program. The Mir, and International Space Station. The Chinese first Voskhod human orbital mission was carried out in Shenzhou spacecraft resembles a larger version of the 1964; and the last occurred in 1965. The Soyuz program Soyuz, but contains a powered orbital module for started in 1963 and was originally a part of the continuous flight in space for earth observations after unsuccessful USSR Moon landing project. The first crewed-capsule reentry. human orbital mission with a Soyuz was carried out in 1967. The Soyuz spacecraft has gone through several 4. Non-U.S. Human Space Missions revisions and enhancements in the last four decades and is still in use today. In China, the human space program As of 2007-12-31, Russia/USSR human space started in 1992 and the first human orbital mission was exploration mission count is 105, which includes 6 Vostok, carried out with the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft in 2003. 2 Voskhod, and 97 Soyuz orbital missions; China human Other than the successful programs mentioned in the space exploration mission count is 2, both performed by previous paragraph, there were also cancelled human CZ-2F/Shenzhou missions. Table 1 lists all non-U.S. space programs: L1 circumlunar (1960-1970), L3 lunar human space missions. The human-cost of access to space lander (1964-1974), TKS ferry (1965-1978), Spiral for Russia/USSR includes one Soyuz crewmember during spaceplane (1965-1976), LKS spaceplane (1975-1983), reentry in 1967 and two Soyuz crewmembers during and Buran spaceplane (1976-1993) in USSR; Shuquang reentry in 1971. One (1968-1872) and Piloted FSW (1978-1980) in China. A comprehensive database has been developed at The Other cancelled human space flight programs include Aerospace Corporation to log the entire space launch and Japan’s HOPE (1980s-2003), Europe’s Hopper/Phoenix flight history. Data is collected from multiple sources and Hermes (1987-1993). Currently, there are new human including journal papers, public access sites, publications space transportation systems being developed: Crew and an assortment of other historical data references Space Transportation System (CSTS) started in 2006 published by The Aerospace Corporation and other jointly by Russia, Europe, and Japan; Space Jet (started in organizations 15)-24). A significant part of the database 2007) by Europe; Human Spaceflight System (started in compilation process consists of reviewing and comparing 2006) by India; and Virgin Galactic (U.K.) sponsored the various sources, identifying conflicts and resolving SpaceShipTwo project. The space habitation programs inconsistencies. The data entries have been populated for involving Almaz orbital piloted stations (OPS), Salyut the small launch vehicles 9)-10), heavy launch vehicles 13), Fig. 1. Russia/U SSR human space launch vehicles, spacecraft, lunar module, and rover (drawings reprinted courtesy of NASA) Tg_12 I-S. CHANG and E. J. TOMEIT: Non-U.S. Human Space Transportation Failures Table 1. Non-U.S. human space launch log No. Launch Date LV SC No. Launch Date LV SC No. Launch Date