TMA 5 docks with ISS under manual control after automated rendezvous glitch
NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency have reached agreement on a plan to continue using Soyuz TMA spacecraft for International Space Station (ISS) crew transfer missions until at least April 2006 under an undisclosed "barter arrangement". US law currently prevents NASA paying Russia for ISS hardware.
Crew size on the ISS could be increased to six by 2007 with the addition of a new docking module, said Russian officials after a meeting with NASA to agree the provision of further Soyuz TMA spacecraft.
Two TMAs at a time now dock at the ISS, the newer one for the emergency or planned return of the arriving crew and the older one for the returning crew. Russia has been pushing for year-long missions, but NASA prefers a limit of six months.
The Russian Soyuz TMA 5 spacecraft docked with the ISS on 16 October under the control of commander Salizhan Sharipov after a malfunction in the Kurs automatic rendezvous system caused the craft to approach the space station at too high a speed. Sharipov and NASA's Leroy Chiao will remain on the ISS while the third TMA 5 crewmember, Russia's Yuri Shargin, was due to return to Earth on 23 October on TMA 4 with the departing ISS crew Gennadi Padalka and Mike Fincke, who have been aboard since April.
Meanwhile, South Korea will select its first two astronauts in 2005 for the October 2007 Soyuz TMA mission to the ISS. The mission will cost $22.6 million, $20 million of which will be recovered through TV sponsorship deals.
The crew of Space Shuttle return-to-flight mission STS 114/Discovery has conducted its first full dress rehearsal at the Johnson Space Center for a flight to the ISS now scheduled for no earlier than May 2005, 28 months after the Columbia accident that grounded the Shuttle fleet.
During the 8h simulation the crew practised the pre-docking 360¼ pirouette manoeuvre that will allow the ISS crew to photograph the orbiter's thermal protection system.
TIM FURNISS / LONDON
Source: Flight International
