Kuipers

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19 April 2004 03:19 GMT. Landing Date: 2004-04-30 00:11:00. Flight Time: 10.87 days. Alternate Name: Soyuz TMA-4. Other Name: ISS EP-6. Flight Up: Soyuz TMA-4. Flight Back: Soyuz TMA-3. Crew: Kuipers. Program: ISS. European Space Agency / Netherlands space mission to the ISS. Kuipers rode to the space station with the EO-9 crew aboard Soyuz TMA-4, and returned seven days later with the EO-8 crew aboard Soyuz TMA-3.

The experimental program under the ESA Delta DSM Project included the experiments Flow, Kappa, Actin, Ice-First, Tubul, Circa, Sympatho-3, Muscle, Eye Tracking Device, Motion Perception, Suit, Sample, Promiss Eo-3, Arges, Heat, Mouse Telemeter, Lso-H, Video-3, Ariss Eo-3, Seeds, Graphobox, and Bug Energy.

• 2004 Apr 19 - Soyuz TMA-4  Crew: Fincke, Padalka, Kuipers. Spacecraft: Soyuz TMA. Payload: Soyuz TMA s/n 214. Mass: 7,250 kg (15,980 lb). Launch Site: Baikonur. Launch Vehicle: Soyuz. Duration: 187.89 days. Perigee: 359 km (223 mi). Apogee: 367 km (228 mi). Inclination: 51.60 deg. Period: 91.80 min.

  Soyuz TMA-4 was ISS transport mission ISS 8S and delivered the EO-9 caretaker crew of Gennadiy Padalka and Michael Fincke, together with the ESA/Netherlands Delta mission crewmember Andre Kuipers, to the Space Station. Soyuz TMA-4 docked with the nadir port on Zarya at 05:01 GMT on April 21 and the hatches to the ISS were opened at 06:30 GMT. Another gyro on the station had shut down prior to the docking and possibly would require a maintenance spacewalk to replace its failed electronics.

  After Soyuz TMA-5 docked with the ISS on October 16, the EO-9 crew handed activities over to the EO-10 crew.

• 2004 Apr 23 - International Space Station Status Report #04-22 

  New crewmembers aboard the International Space Station settled into a routine of handover briefings and scientific experiments after their arrival early Wednesday.

  Expedition 9's Commander Gennady Padalka and NASA ISS Science Officer Mike Fincke docked their ISS Soyuz 8 spacecraft to the nadir port of the Zarya Control Module at 12:01 a.m. CDT Wednesday. They opened hatches and boarded the station about an hour later, beginning a six-month stay.

  With them on the Soyuz was European Space Agency Astronaut Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands, who will spend nine days aboard the Station conducting scientific investigations. Kuipers will return to Earth with Expedition 8's Commander Michael Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri. Foale and Kaleri arrived on the Station last October 20.

  Their ISS Soyuz 7 capsule is scheduled to undock from the Station's Pirs Docking Compartment, where it has been during Expedition 8's stay on the Station, at 3:52 p.m. CDT April 29. The landing is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. CDT the same day on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

  Early Thursday, during their Daily Planning Conference, crewmembers were told that one of the Station's three operating Control Moment Gyroscopes, CMG 2, had gone off line at about 3:20 p.m. CDT on Wednesday. The CMGs use power from the solar arrays to control the Station's orientation. Flight controllers traced the problem to a Remote Power Controller Module (RPCM), a kind of remotely controlled circuit breaker, that had malfunctioned and cut off power to the gyroscope. The RPCM is mounted on the top of the Station's central truss segment, above the U.S. Laboratory Destiny.

  Two CMGs continue to operate well and are sufficient for controlling the Station's orientiation until the RPCM can be replaced. Flight controllers have begun planning a spacewalk that will likely be conducted sometime in the next month to replace the RPCM with a spare unit and restore operation of CMG-2. A spare RPCM is aboard the Station.

• 2004 Apr 29 - International Space Station Status Report #04-23 

  Completing more than six months in space, the International Space Station Expedition 8 crew, Commander Mike Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri, returned to Earth today, bringing with them European Space Agency Astronaut Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands, who had spent nine days aboard the complex conducting research.

  After a flawless descent aboard the ISS Soyuz 7 spacecraft, Foale, Kaleri and Kuipers landed on target in north-central Kazakstan, about 43 miles (70 kilometers) northwest of the town of Arkalyk, at 7:12 p.m. CDT. Recovery forces arrived at the site within moments of the touchdown.

  Foale and Kaleri spent 194 days, 18 hours and 35 minutes in space, the second longest expedition to be completed aboard the Station. They launched on Oct. 18, 2003, on the same Soyuz spacecraft that brought them home. In addition to scientific experiments aboard the Station, in February Foale and Kaleri conducted the first spacewalk ever performed from the complex by a two-person crew.

  With the completion of this flight, Foale has accumulated more time in space than any U.S. astronaut. On this mission, a 1997 flight to the Russian Mir Space Station, and four Space Shuttle missions, Foale has amassed a total of 374 days, 11 hours and 19 minutes in space.

  Foale, Kaleri and Kuipers will travel to Star City, Russia, where they will remain for mission debriefings and medical activities. Foale is expected to return to Houston in mid-May.

  Aboard the Station, the Expedition 9 crew, Commander Gennady Padalka and NASA Station Science Officer Mike Fincke, are beginning a six-month mission that will include three spacewalks. Expedition 9 is scheduled to return to Earth Oct. 21. Padalka and Fincke will have light duty for the next three days as they rest after completing the busy handover period of joint operations between the two crews.

• 2004 Apr 30 - Landing of Soyuz TMA-3 

  The ISS EO-8 crew of Kaleri and Foale, together with the ESA Delta mission astronaut Kuipers, undocked Soyuz TMA-3 from the International Space Station at 20:52 GMT on 29 April. There was minor concern due to a helium leak in the Soyuz engine pressurisation system. The Soyuz capsule made a soft landing at 00:11 GMT on 30 April near the city of Arkalyk. The recovery forces consisted of 160 people, eight helicopters, two aircraft and two all-terrain vehicles.The EO-9 crew of Fincke and Padalka remained aboard the ISS on a six-month caretaking mission.