your window to space
CapCom Volume 25 Number 1 September/October 2014
Mission Principia: Tim Peake picks name for his 6-month mission to ISS
When ESA astronaut Tim Peake sets off for his six-month space journey next year, he will be flying under the mission name of Principia. More than 4000 people replied to the call for a mission name earlier this year and Principia was suggested 20 times. One of those entries was made by MSS Member Nick Deakin, pictured right (see Nick’s report on page 2). The name refers to Isaac Newton’s world-changing three-part text on physics, Naturalis Principia Mathematica, describing the principal laws of motion and gravity.
Famously pondering why apples fall from trees, Newton wrote down the laws of gravity and laid the basis for working with it, a requirement for spaceflight. Tim Peake will spend six months living in weightlessness, the first time an ESA astronaut from the UK will visit the International Space Station. UK Space Agency www.gov.uk
Image by David Wallbank
CapCom is published by Midlands Spaceflight Society www.midspace.org.uk Editor: Mike Bryce | President: David J Shayler | Secretary: Dave Evetts Honorary Member: Helen Sharman OBE
Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 25 No 1 September/October 2014
space news roundup Galileo Satellites are Go
Principia
by Nick Deakin The first two full operating capability Galileo satellites have been launched on a Soyuz rocket from the Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana. On the 16th July with only one day’s notice, my wife and I were invited to a champagne These were to be the 5th and 6th satellites to join the EU’s growing GNSS constellation, reception in London for the 17th July. We but unfortunately the satellites did not reach the correct orbit. Galileo is Europe’s global attended the event at the Royal Society for navigation satellite system currently in development, owned by the European Commission the official mission naming ceremony. (EC). The EC has requested the full details of the launch incident, together with a schedule and an action plan to rectify the problem.
The UK has played a vital role in both the policy and the technical development of Europe’s global navigation satellite system. Galileo is owned by the EC with the European Space Agency (ESA) acting in partnership as the technical design and procurement authority. Galileo’s key differentiator from other similar systems is that it is a civil system under civil control. Designed to be inter-operable with GPS, the US global satellite navigation system, receivers that are equipped with the right chipsets will, in future, be able to utilise signals from both systems to provide a more accurate and reliable global positioning service than by using GPS or Galileo alone.
I had entered the naming competition with Principia as my suggestion out of over 4000 entries... As it turned out 19 others had also done so. The name refers to Isaac Newton’s world-changing three-part text on physics, Naturalis Principia Mathematica, describing the principal laws of motion and gravity. Some ten winners were able to attend the event, we met Tim Peake and had a chat, posed with him for some photos. A BBC camera crew were in attendance too.
The first stages of the Galileo Programme’s capability hopes to be demonstrated in 2015 but as the constellation is built-up, new services will be tested and made available to reach Full Operational Capability (FOC). UK Space Agency Tim promised we would all receive a signed www.gov.uk mission insignia from the ISS upon his return. I recently received a personally autographed photo from Tim and a U.K. space agency mug and t-shirt. (I’ll hold him to my space flown insignia).
Sparks Fly as NASA Pushes the Limits of 3-D Printing Technology NASA has successfully tested the most complex rocket engine parts ever designed by the agency and printed with additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing, on a test stand at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
NASA engineers pushed the limits of technology by designing a rocket engine injector --a highly complex part that sends propellant into the engine -- with design features that took advantage of 3-D printing. To make the parts, the design was entered into the 3-D printer’s computer. The printer then built each part by layering metal powder and fusing it together with a laser, a process known as selective laser melting. The additive manufacturing process allowed rocket designers to create an injector with 40 individual spray elements, all printed as a single component rather than manufactured individually. The part was similar in size to injectors that power small rocket engines and similar in design to injectors for large engines, such as the RS-25 engine that will power NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the heavy-lift, exploration class rocket under development to take humans beyond Earth orbit and to Mars.
During the visit we also managed to get close up to a display of some of the original notes and letters handwritten by Sir Isaac Newton to create the Principia. An original telescope, Newton’s death mask and some space flown apple tree wood taken up on a shuttle mission. We were sworn to secrecy as the name was to be officially released at the Farnborough Air Show the following evening, however events that occurred in the skies above Ukraine quite rightly took precedence. Nick Deakin Spaceboosters and MSS Member http://www.space-boosters.co.uk/
Blue Peter mission patch competition
Marshall engineers have tested increasingly complex injectors, rocket nozzles and other components with the goal of reducing the manufacturing complexity and the time and cost of building and assembling future engines. Additive manufacturing is a key technology for enhancing rocket designs and enabling missions into deep space. NASA http://www.nasa.gov The European Space Agency (ESA) and the UK Space Agency have teamed up with CBBC programme Blue Peter to launch a competition for UK children to design the mission patch that British ESA astronaut In the presence of media, invited dignitaries, former astronauts, ESA’s Director General and Tim Peake will wear when he travels to the colleagues past and present, the workforce at ESOC celebrated 50 years of European cooperation International Space Station in November in space today. 2015. They will be looking for creative, imaginative designs inspired by Tim, his In 1964, the Conventions of ELDO (launchers) and ESRO (science and later applications) entered mission to the ISS and space exploration. into force. A decade later, a single European Space Agency was established, taking over from these two organisations. The competition was launched on Blue Peter on Thursday 4 September and will close For 50 years, ESA and its precursor organisations together with partners in the 20 Member States, on 26 September, with the winning design space industry and the scientific community have served European cooperation and innovation being revealed on 20 November. in space based on competence, cooperation, continuity and integration. UK Space Agency ESA https://www.gov.uk/government/ http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/ESA_history/Highlights/The_first_50_years organisations/uk-space-agency
Celebrating 50 Years at ESOC
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Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 25 No 1 September/October 2014
NASA’s Orion Spacecraft Nears Completion, Ready for Fueling NASA is making steady progress on its Orion spacecraft, completing several milestones this week at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for the capsule’s first trip to space in December. Engineers finished building the Orion crew module, attached it and the alreadycompleted service module to the adapter that will join Orion to its rocket and transported the spacecraft to a new facility for fueling. “Nothing about building the first of a brand new space transportation system is easy,” said Mark Geyer, Orion Program manager. “But the crew module is undoubtedly the most complex component that will fly in December. The pressure vessel, the heat shield, parachute system, avionics -- piecing all of that together into a working spacecraft is an accomplishment. Seeing it fly in three months is going to be amazing.” Finishing the Orion crew module marks
the completion of all major components of the spacecraft. The other two major elements -- the inert service module and the launch abort system -- were completed in January and December, respectively. The crew module was attached to the service module in June to allow for testing before the finishing touches were put on the crew module. The adapter that will connect Orion to the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy rocket was built by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. It is being tested for use on the agency’s Space Launch System rocket for future deep space missions. NASA, Orion’s prime contractor Lockheed Martin, and ULA managers oversaw the move of the spacecraft Thursday from the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at Kennedy, where it will be fueled with ammonia and hyper-propellants for
The Orion crew module, right, stacked atop its service module, moved out of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept 11. Orion was transported to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at Kennedy where it will be fueled ahead of its December flight test. During the flight, Orion will travel 3,600 miles into space to test the spacecraft systems before humans begin traveling in Orion on future missions. Image Credit: NASA/Dan Casper
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its flight test. Once fueling is complete, the launch abort system will be attached. At that point, the spacecraft will be complete and ready to stack on the Delta IV Heavy. Orion is being built to send humans farther than ever before, including to an asteroid and Mars. Although the spacecraft will be uncrewed during its December flight test, the crew module will be used to transport astronauts safely to and from space on future missions. Orion will provide living quarters for up to 21 days, while longer missions will incorporate an additional habitat to provide extra space. Many of Orion’s critical safety systems will be evaluated during December’s mission, designated Exploration Flight Test-1, when the spacecraft travels about 3,600 miles into space.
NASA http://www.nasa.gov/orion
Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 25 No 1 September/October 2014
ISS Crewing Updates ISS Expeditions 43/44
In the September/October 2013 edition of CapCom I reported that Yuri Lonchakov, who was assigned to Expeditions 43/44, had resigned from the Russian cosmonaut squad and the word out of Russia was that his replacement would be Gennady Padalka. There was no official confirmation of this until 20 January 2014 when Padalka was mentioned in a news release from the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre about winter survival training. He was shown in a crew that included Mikhail Kornienko and Scott Kelly who are due to be launched at the same time. At some point the training centre’s official list of upcoming crews was also updated to show Padalka (I am not sure when this was done). He is one of Russia’s most experienced cosmonauts and has already flown four long-duration spaceflights accumulating over 710 days in space. With his fifth flight he should take the record for the most time spent in space from Sergei Krikalyov. Padalka has flown once to the Mir space station (1998/1999) and three times to the ISS (2004, 2009 and 2012) on missions lasting between 124 days and 198 days. He was born in Krasnodar, Russia, on 21 June 1958. After service in the Soviet air force as a fighter-pilot he was accepted for cosmonaut training in 1989.
ISS Expeditions 46/47
On 22 April 2014 the Chief Medical Commission met to consider the status of a number of cosmonauts. The news broke several days later that Sergei Zalyotin had been assessed as not fit to continue spaceflight training. There was no life threatening problem, it was just that he failed to meet the medical standards required for spaceflight. Zalyotin had been in training for ISS Expeditions 46/47 due for launch on Soyuz TMA-19M in November 2015. Almost immediately, the veteran cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko was indicated as the likely replacement. His last flight was in 2012 and that was his fifth time in space. He has accumulated over 640 days in orbit. His spaceflight time started with a 125 day mission to Mir (1994). This was followed by four visits to the ISS, initially as a mission specialist on the US Space Shuttle (2000) followed by three ISS Expeditions (2003, 2007/2008 and 2012). Malenchenko was born in Svitlovodsk, Kirovograd Oblast, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Ukraine), on 22 December 1961. After service in the Soviet air force as a fighter-pilot he was accepted for cosmonaut training in 1987. He holds a unique record in that he is the only human to get married whilst in space. On 10 August 2003 he was on the ISS and his bride was in Houston. Fortunately, the State of Texas allows wedding ceremonies in the absence of one of the partners. On 1 May 2014 the Chief of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Yuri Lonchakov, confirmed that Zalyotin was no longer an active cosmonaut (or test cosmonaut as they are called in Russia). It was reported that he would take up a management role at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre. But, to date (8 August 2014), there is no official or semi-official confirmation that Malenchenko has replaced him.
ISS Expeditions 48/49
On 29 November 2013, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced Takuya Onishi as their seventh ISS residency crewmember (see January/February 2014 CapCom). He would fly as part of ISS Expeditions 48/49. In March 2014 information came out of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre that Anatoly Ivanyshyn was the Russian selectee for that mission due for launch in May 2016.
The same month Russian sources indicated that NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins was the third member of the crew. This was confirmed on 17 June 2014 when the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre reported that she had arrived there to commence her training. On 23 June 2014 the training centre reported that the three, Ivanyshyn, Onishi and Rubins were due to start their water survival training at the water training area of the EMERCOM 179th Rescue Operation Centre in Noginsk. Ivanyshyn made his first spaceflight in 2011/2012 (ISS Expeditions 29/30). He is the only member of the crew to have previous spaceflight experience. Ivanyshyn was born in Irkutsk, Russia, on 15 January 1969. After service as a Russian air force fighter-pilot he was accepted for cosmonaut training in 2003. This was not his first attempt to become a cosmonaut. Six years earlier he had been rejected because he was too tall to fit in the Soyuz. Later design changes to Soyuz meant that this was no longer a problem and gave him a second chance. Onishi was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1975. He holds a degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics. Prior to becoming an astronaut he was an airline-pilot. He was selected as a Japanese astronaut in 2009 and joined NASA’s Group 20 astronauts of the same year for astronaut candidate training. He participated in NEEMO 15, NASA’s underwater mission of 2006. Rubins was born in Farmington, Connecticut, USA, on 10 October 1978. She holds a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from Stanford University. She was selected as an astronaut in 2009 (NASA Group 20). Prior to selection she worked as a Principal Investigator and Fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). She took part in NASA’s SEATEST 2 underwater mission in 2013. But the story does not end there. In July 2014, Ivanyshyn’s position in the crew was put in doubt by reports that due to delays with the new Soyuz variant, Soyuz MS, he might be replaced by four time spaceflight veteran Fyodor Yurchikhin. Yurchikhin had already conducted some training on the Soyuz MS whilst Ivanyshyn had been training to fly the Soyuz TMA-M version. The Soyuz MS was originally due to make its debut with the ISS Expeditions 47/48 launch followed by a Soyuz TMA-M for ISS Expeditions 48/49. The Soyuz MS would then take over the launch of crews full time. It now seems that the first Soyuz MS has dropped down by one launch and will make its debut with the ISS Expeditions 48/49 mission. This possibly means that ISS Expeditions 49/50 will use a Soyuz TMA-M. In that scenario Ivanyshyn could take over a position on that crew (but that is speculation on my part. There is also plenty of time for further delays to the Soyuz MS). Yurchikhin has flown to the ISS four times, initially as a mission specialist on the US Space Shuttle (2002) followed by three ISS Expeditions (2007, 2010 and 2013), accumulating over 537 days in space. He was born in Batumi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Georgia), on 3 January 1959. He was accepted for cosmonaut training in 1997. Prior to selection as a cosmonaut he worked for the S P Korolyov Rocket and Space Corporation Energiya.
ISS Expeditions ??
In an interview given on 4 October 2013, the 56th anniversary of the launch of the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1, Oleg Novitskiy said that if everything goes well he will fly again in 2017. He made his first spaceflight in 2012/2013 (ISS Expeditions 33/34). He was born in Cherven, Minsk Oblast, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (now the Republic of Belarus), on 12 October 1971. After service as a Russian air force fighter-pilot he was accepted for cosmonaut training in 2006.
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Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 25 No 1 September/October 2014
Kazakh Cosmonaut Update
Aymakhanov applied to join the 2012 cosmonaut selection but he was not amongst the eight finalists named on 8 October 2012. At some point in 2012 he did receive Russian citizenship. Then in mid-December 2013, the Novosti news agency related the story that Aymakhanov was soon to be admitted to the Russian Cosmonaut Team.
In the March/April 2014 edition of CapCom I reported that Mukhtar Aymakhanov, one of two Kazakh candidates who were selected in 2002, was to be admitted to the Russian Cosmonaut Team as a full time cosmonaut. Part of the story was that on 27 January 2014, the State Interdepartmental Committee of the Russian Federal Space Agency for the selection of cosmonauts and appointment of crews recommended his inclusion as a cosmonaut candidate. He was due to undergo an individual training programme and sit the cosmonaut examination finals in the summer of 2014 along with the 2012 Russian candidates. On 20 February 2014 he passed the Chief Medical Commission (not for the first time) for fitness to proceed to cosmonaut training. Then the trail went cold. As far as I can tell he did not sit the exams and was not called before the Interdepartmental Qualification Commission on 16 June 2014. Then, it was suddenly announced that Aymakhanov had been appointed a ‘Test Cosmonaut’ on the orders of the Chief of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Yuri Lonchakov, on 14 August 2014. The status of ‘Test Cosmonaut’ makes him eligible for advanced training, taking on ground positions associated with actual space missions and eventual assignment to a space crew. This process normally means a long wait for a first spaceflight but in view of his past history it will be interesting to see how quickly he is appointed to a crew. And, there are no guarantees. He could become one of the many who do not progress to a spaceflight.
Mukhtar Rabatovich Aymakhanov was born in Dzhusaly, Kyzylorda Oblast, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (now Kazakhstan), on 1 January 1967. He qualified as a pilot through the Almaty Flying Club in Kazakhstan. He then attended the Chernigov Higher Military Aviation School in the Ukraine graduating as a pilot-engineer in 1988. He served in the Soviet Air Force and following independence on 16 December 1991 the Republic of Kazakhstan Air Force. In 1993 he transferred to the reserves and entered private business, initially in the Kazakhstan Stock Market and later as part of a law consultancy company. In 2002 he graduated from the Adilet Higher School of Law, Almaty, Kazakhstan, with a law degree. In 2002 he was selected as a cosmonaut of the Republic of Kazakhstan. He passed the Chief Medical Commission for the first time on 17 December 2002. He started his basic training in Russia in 2003. He successfully completed training and was given the designation ‘Test Cosmonaut’ on 5 July 2005. Between 2005 and 2009 he conducted some training for a possible ISS mission.
To quickly recap the basic history of Kazakh cosmonauts, in 1991 Toktar Aubakirov became the first ethnic Kazakh in space. His back-up, Talgat Musabayev, was formerly inducted into the Russian Air Force Cosmonaut Squad and made three spaceflights between 1994 and 2001 involving the Mir and ISS space stations. Although Musabayev was technically a Russian cosmonaut he was also awarded the title of ‘Cosmonaut Number 2’ of the Kazakhstan Republic. In November 2002 the National Space Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan (KazCosmos) named two further cosmonaut candidates, Aydyn Aimbetov and Mukhtar Aymakhanov, who would train for potential future spaceflight opportunities.
In 2010 he graduated from the Russian Presidential Academy of the National Economy and Public Administration in Moscow. In 2012 he became a research fellow at the S I Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology, part of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. During his time at the institute he had also been working on his thesis for a Candidate of Economic Sciences. On 26 September 2012 he again passed the Chief Medical Commission.
Ex-Astronaut Movements in the Private and Other Public Sector Areas
In 2008 discussions took place for the inclusion of a Kazakh cosmonaut on Soyuz TMA-16 for a 10 day flight to the ISS, which was due in the final third of 2009. However, in late March 2009 Kazakhstan’s Budget Commission did not allocate funds for the flight and it was cancelled. In July 2011 the head of KazCosmos, none other than ‘Cosmonaut Number 2’ Talgat Musabayev who was appointed to that position in March 2007, said that they still hoped to fly another cosmonaut. In September 2011 he commented that Kazakhstan has the financial means to pay for the flight but the problem was now the lack of available opportunities. On 12 October 2012 the Government of Kazakhstan conferred the status of Cosmonaut of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Aydyn Aimbetov. Early in 2013, I speculated that the announcement of a year-long flight to the ISS had opened up positions for two possible 10-day visits to the ISS and wondered whether Kazakhstan might get one of them. In the end, one was taken by ‘Spaceflight Participant’ Sarah Brightman and the other by ESA’s Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen. There is also the possibility of co-operation with China. At the International Astronautical Congress in China in September 2013, Talgat Musabayev and Ma Xinrui (a senior official in the China National Space Administration) discussed the subject of human spaceflight. Ma said that co-operation was not a problem and talked about their space station, due in about five years, which would open up the possibility for foreign astronauts. He added that there was no impediment to starting talks immediately. To take the story back a little, it appears that Aymakhanov, following the loss of the flight opportunity back in 2009, decided to take the Musabayev route to space. He applied to become a full time member of the Russian Cosmonaut Team. The Russian Federal Space Agency was supportive to his request but said he had to be a Russian Citizen.
On 11 February 2014, Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics Director Aleksandr Lazutkin was removed from his position. Lazutkin flew a six-month mission to the Mir space station in 1997. He was selected as a cosmonaut in 1992. In 2005 whilst training for a flight to the ISS he suffered a heart attack. This effectively ended his cosmonaut career which became official in 2007. Bigalow Aerospace have hired two former NASA pilot astronauts, Kenneth Ham and George Zamka, to aid the company’s plans to operate inflatable space habitats it plans to launch sometime after 2017. Zamka will work out of Washington to aid the company’s business development efforts with the US and other governments and Ham will begin development of a training programme for the company astronauts Bigalow is planning to hire. Both Ham and Zamka flew two shuttle missions initially as a pilot and then as commander.
Obituary Notes Dumitru Dediu 1942-2013
Thanks to a Colin Burgess post on Collect Space, the news broke in the English language world that Romanian back-up cosmonaut Dumitru Dediu had died in 2013. This news was noted in Russian language media outlets in October 2013. They reported that he had died in early July 2013 following a long struggle with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. His funeral took place on 11 July 2013. Dediu was selected to train as an Intercosmos cosmonaut in 1978 and was the back-up to Dumitru Prunariu when he flew his mission in 1981. The Intercosmos Programme originally started as unmanned international satellite research missions but in 1976 the Soviets opened it up for manned flights involving other communist countries.
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Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 25 No 1 September/October 2014 It is interesting to note that of the ten Intercosmos candidates chosen in 1978, two of them changed their names at the request of the Soviets. One of the two Bulgarian candidates, Georgi Ivanov, was originally Georgi Kakalov. His surname had a not very pleasant translation into Russian according to some sources. Dediu was given a first name of Mitică at birth but this was considered too Russian. Mitică is a diminutive of the name Dumitru so there was logic in using the later name.
also considered such undisciplined behaviour unbecoming for a would-be cosmonaut. In May 1980 he was dismissed from cosmonaut training. This Tupolev story is the one normally told but in the Praxis book on Buran it is additionally noted that Sattorov denies the roll ended his cosmonaut career but that he himself requested a change in assignment back to full time test work. This was because he considered his flying career was going nowhere as part of the Buran programme.
Dumitru Dediu (Commander, Romanian Air Force, Ret.) was born in Glati, Romania, on 12 May 1942. He attended the Traian Vuia Military Aviation School in Brasov before studying at the Military Technical Academy in Bucharest from where he graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He then served as an engineer in the Romanian Air Force.
Nail Sattorov (Colonel, Russian Air Force, Ret.) was born in Kabakovo, Karmaskalinsky Oblast, Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (now the Republic of Bashkortostan which is part of the Russian Federation). He joined the Soviet military in 1961 and in 1965 graduated from the Orenburg Higher Military Aviation School. Soon after he returned to the school as an instructor-pilot and stayed there until 1969 when he started his test pilot training.
The Soviet Union directed the Romanian military to source out potential candidates for cosmonaut training. About 150 were identified and over subsequent months this number was narrowed down. By December 1977 there were five remaining; Andrei Cristescu, Mitică Dediu, Constantin Guran, Ioan Ludoshan and Dumitru Prunariu. They were examined in Romania by a group of Soviet military medical personnel. Three passed; Dediu, Guran and Prunariu and in January 1978 they were sent to Moscow for further consideration. Guran was eliminated due to a potential Vestibular system problem but remained a reserve candidate in case of a problem with one of the two main candidates. On 20 March 1978 Dediu and Prunariu began training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre. There were theoretical lessons, work in flight simulators, fitness sessions and many hours spent flying in the Russian Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG15 jet fighter aircraft (in its two-seat dual-control trainer version, the MiG-15UTI). Apparently, it was only a few days before the Romanian spaceflight was due to start that Dediu found out he was to be the back-up. He later commented that this was on his birthday, 12 May, “It was not easy but I knew from the beginning that only one of us will fly.” The State Commission formerly confirmed this the next day (13 May 1981). On 14 May 1981 Soyuz 40 was launched with Prunariu aboard in the role of cosmonaut-researcher. Following docking with the Salyut 6 space station Prunariu spent six days carrying out experiments before he returned to Earth on 22 May 1981. During the mission Dediu carried out support operations at the Mission Control Centre near Moscow. Dediu returned to Romania shortly after the flight and continued with his active service in the Romanian Air Force including time as a staff officer. Following the 1989 collapse of Communism in Romania he joined Romavia. This was an aviation company founded in 1990 and owned by the Romanian Ministry of National Defence. He retired in 1997. He is survived by his wife Veronica.
Nail Sharipovich Sattorov 1941-2014
Nail Sattorov was one of a significant number of candidate cosmonauts selected from 1976 to 1989 to work on the Soviet Space Shuttle, Buran. Although it flew an unmanned spaceflight in 1988 it never carried cosmonauts into space before the programme closed in 1993. There was no official cancellation date, it just slowed down and then stopped. Some of the cosmonauts transferred to Soyuz and space station programmes but many, including Sattorov, never flew in space. He died on 15 April 2014. For Sattorov Buran’s cancellation was well into the future. He was still going through basic cosmonaut training. As this was not full time he continued test flying for the Russian Air Force. In April 1980 he was piloting a Tupolev Tu-134, a twin-engine medium-size airliner, out of the Akhtubinsk test centre when he carried out a barrel roll manoeuvre. This violated regulations. Most test pilots will admit privately to having done it but Sattorov was unlucky enough to commit the ultimate sin of being caught out. He was reprimanded and grounded for a short period. His superiors
He qualified as a test pilot and worked at the V P Chkalov State Flight Test Centre at Akhtubinsk. In 1977 he received a Test Pilot 1st Class rating (the highest grade for a Soviet test pilot). In 1978 he was one of six test pilots who formed the test centre’s first group of candidate cosmonauts for Buran. In July 1980 he returned to full time test flying at Akhtubinsk which remained his home base until he retired from the air force in 1993. He joined the Tupolev Design Bureau as a civilian test pilot from July 1993. In 1999 he was recorded as a senior engineer at the company. He has flown many aircraft during his career, including various IIyushin, Mikoyan Gurevich, Sukhoi, Tupolev and Yakovlev designs and variants. One of his aircraft was the Yak-28RR radiation intelligence aircraft which in October 1973 he flew during nuclear bomb tests at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan. This involved taking samples of radioactive cloud by flying through them.
Wubbo Johannes Ockels 1946-2014
Wubbo Ockels was the first Dutch astronaut in space when he flew on the Space Shuttle in 1985. He was an Inventor, a physicist, an astronaut, a rower, an educator, an advocate for Green issues (he spent many years working on sustainable energy projects) and so much more. He was 22 years of age when he applied for his first patent but this did not really give any clues as to what the future held for him. His invention? A very down to Earth bicycle chain-cleaner. He had already recovered from a severe heart attack in 2005 when a renal tumour was discovered in 2008. This was successfully removed but in May 2013 he reported that the renal cancer had returned and had metastasised to his lungs. He commented that his medical specialists had given him a terminal prognosis. He said “They give me one to two years, but then the cancer is responding to treatment. This is not funny. My perspective is completely different.” Sadly, the year prognosis did prove accurate. Dr Ockels died on 18 May 2014 at the Antonie van Leeuwenhoek hospital in Amsterdam as a result of complications resulting from his cancer. He was buried at the Zorgvlied cemetery in Amsterdam on 26 May 2014. The cemetery was just off the river Amstel. He loved rowing and the water, and so was transported by river to his final resting place accompanied by rowers from the Willem III Rowing Club that he was a member. Wubbo Ockels was born in Almelo, Netherlands, on 28 March 1946. He received a Master of Science degree cum laude in Physics and Mathematics in 1973 and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Nuclear Physics in 1978, both from the University of Groningen. His Ph.D. thesis was based on experimental work he carried out at the Nuclear Physics Accelerator Institute (KVI) which is part of the Campus of the University of Groningen. From 1973 to 1978, he worked at the KVI. He also supervised the practical work of first-year physics students. The chance for Europe to have its own astronauts came from an agreement in 1973 in which ESA was to supply NASA with Spacelab (a reusable science laboratory) which would fly in the payload bay of the US Space Shuttle. In return, NASA would provide flight opportunities for European astronauts. On 28 March 1977 ESA announced that its first astronaut selection was open. Dr Ockels saw a newspaper advert pinned on the notice board in
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Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 25 No 1 September/October 2014 the hall at the KVI. It was ESA’s call for science astronauts. His interest was piqued and he read further. Some of his colleagues had written jokes on the advert but he thought he would write to ESA for further details. In a 2010 ESA interview he said “I remember when I got the information, I thought, ‘This is my job.’ It was just so perfect that it was exactly what I wanted to do so I applied.” On 22 December 1977 from over 2,000 applicants ESA named four physicists as astronaut candidates: Franco Malerba from Italy, Ulf Merbold from Germany, Claude Nicollier from Switzerland and Wubbo Ockels representing the Netherlands. In May 1978 three of them, Merbold, Nicollier and Ockels, were named as candidates for the first Shuttle/Spacelab flight with Malerba remaining in reserve. At this time they were called Payload Specialists by NASA. This was because they were selected for a specific Space Shuttle mission/ payload and were chosen outside the normal NASA astronaut selection process. NASA considered them part-time astronauts who could not be assigned to any other missions. ESA considered them full-time astronauts and wanted more. In 1980 Nicollier and Dr Ockels joined NASA’s Group 9 astronauts for mission specialist training. NASA agreed to this in recognition of the substantial contribution ESA had made to the Space Shuttle Programme with their funding of Spacelab. However, ESA did have to pay for their training. Merbold was not selected due to a minor medical consideration although this did not stop him training for Spacelab 1 and it did not have a significant effect on his astronaut career as he made three spaceflight from 1983 to 1994.
taped that bag of gouda up in the tunnel. Well, it was so convenient. Anybody that went back there, on the way back and forth, you reached in. About the second or third day, ‘Who’s been eating my cheese?’ He was upset because about two-thirds of his cheese was already gone. ‘That’s good stuff, Wubbo.’” The flight of STS-61A/Spacelab D-1 came to an end on 6 November 1985 at Edwards Air Force Base. The mission duration was 7 days, 0 hours, 44 minutes and 51 seconds. This was the first spaceflight to carry more than one European astronaut (if we exclude Russian cosmonauts). As well as Dr Ockels there were two West German astronauts, Ernst Messerschmid and Reinhard Furrer. Although he was the first Dutch astronaut, Dr Ockels was not the first Dutch born to go into space. Lodewijk van den Berg had flown on the Space Shuttle a few months earlier. He had also been born in the Netherlands but had become a naturalized American in 1975 and so flew as a US payload specialist on STS-51B which launched on 29 April 1985. With the success of his first mission behind him Dr Ockels could look forward to his next. There was another German Spacelab mission planned for 1988 and several other Spacelab flights with European involvement. Already in 1985 ESA had nominated him as their second candidate for the first Space Shuttle International Microgravity Laboratory flight (IML-1). With Merbold as ESA’s first choice for IML-1 it was considered almost a certainty that Dr Ockels would get a payload specialist spot on Spacelab D-2. Then Challenger exploded. NASA decided that they would limit payload specialist involvement in future flights and limit crew size to no more than seven. This effectively ruled Dr Ockels out of the second German flight. The IML-1 mission took place in 1992 and Spacelab D-2 in 1993.
Nicollier and Dr Ockels successfully completed mission specialist training in August 1981. Dr Ockels returned to continue working with Merbold on Spacelab 1 whilst Nicollier would continue his mission specialist work for a possible upcoming Spacelab flight. In 1982 Merbold was named as the prime Payload Specialist with Dr Ockels as his back-up. It soon became known that they would reverse their roles for a later Spacelab mission. STS-9/Spacelab-1 flew in 1983. Dr Ockels served as a CapCom and liaison-scientist for the crew of the Columbia shuttle. Following this the two astronauts exchanged roles and Dr Ockels prepared for his spaceflight. The mission would be flown by the Challenger Space Shuttle and it was its last successful mission before it exploded shortly after lift-off on 28 January 1986. Called the Spacelab D-1 mission, it was the first to have scientific operations controlled from the German Space Operations Centre at Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich. Normal orbiter control would however remain with the Johnson Space Center. The D in the mission designation stood for Deutschland and it was West Germany that was paying most of the costs. There was also a not insignificant contribution from ESA as payment for the inclusion of one of its astronauts in the flight. Lift-off came via Pad 39B at Cape Canaveral on 30 October 1985. Designated STS-61A/Spacelab D-1 it carried 75 numbered experiments that included basic and applied microgravity research in fields of materials science, life sciences, technology, communications and navigation. In order to maximise the experiment time the crew worked in different shifts as two teams of three with Henry Hartsfield (the crew commander) and Dr Ockels in floating roles. Dr Ockels had general responsibility for the scientific experiments. Dr Ockels spent time covering both shifts. Because his work responsibilities were so fluid Oberpfaffenhofen had to remind him to get some sleep. He had with him a sleeping bag that he had designed himself and taken out a patent. He had also brought with him a Dutch delicacy and here I hand over to Hartsfield who told the story in an interview given to the Johnson Space Center’s Oral History Project. “On the flight, Wubbo brought on board with him, with approval, of course, a big bag of gouda cheese, individually wrapped gouda. The coolest place in the vehicle was in the tunnel that went from the orbiter mid-deck back to the lab. So he just took some tape and
There were still other flight opportunities. In 1992 he was considered for a payload specialist spot on IML-2 and in 1993 he was named as one of six candidates for ESA’s Euro/Mir flights with the Russians. IML-2 flew in 1994 and the two Euro/Mir flights in 1994 and 1995/1996. Dr Ockels was on neither. He was not selected for IML-2 and a minor medical issue ruled him out of the Euro/Mir flights. From 1986 he had been assigned to ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, where he supported human spaceflight activities and other space research in science and technology. He took up a part time professorship at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in 1993 and was assigned concurrently as Senior Technical Assistant to the Department of Automation and Informatics at ESTEC. It is not clear when Dr Ockels stood down from ESA’s astronaut team. ESA do not give a retirement date in his official biography and I can find no reference to it in any of their publications. He was still active in 1993 but was not in March 1998 when an ESA news release named the then current team and it did not include Dr Ockels. It seems likely that he retired in the 1993/1994 period after his rejection for the Euro/Mir missions but this cannot be stated with any certainty. From 1998 until 2003 he was the Head of ESA’s Education and Outreach Office in Noordwijk whilst continuing his part-time professorship at TU Delft. In 2003 he became a full-time professor of Aerospace for Sustainable Engineering and Technology at TU Delft. From 2004 until 2010 he also took up a part-time professorship at the University of Groningen in addition to his duties at TU Delft. One of his many sustainable energy projects was as team leader for the Nuna solar-powered car and his team won the World Solar Challenge in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2013 racing over 3000 km across Australia. In 2010 his daughter Gean Ockels wrote a biography titled De zeven levens van Wubbo Ockels (The Seven Lives of Wubbo Ockels). As Dr Ockels explained in an interview for his ‘Profile of a Prof’ at TU Delft, “It’s partly biographical and recounts the five times I very narrowly
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Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 25 No 1 September/October 2014 escaped death. Starting with a life-threatening tropical illness (1982), a collision with an Airbus at Lille airport (1989), a cardiac arrest in 2005 and finally a kidney tumour (2008). I’m in my sixth life, so only one left to go.” He considered his spaceflight was the high point of his career but said the best overall period was the work he was conducting in the field of sustainability. He is survived by his wife Joos, two children and two grandchildren. I will leave the last word to Dr Ockels who said shortly before his death, “I have had a great life, a super life”.
UK Astronaut Sightings
1/ NASA Administrator Chares Bolden and Thomas Reiter, Director of Human Spaceflight and Operations for ESA are due to attend the Royal Aeronautical Society’s ‘The Strategic Choices for Space’ conference due to take place over 8 to 9 October 2014. Both Bolden and Reiter are former astronauts with six spaceflights between them and will be attending on 8 October 2014. Further details are available at - http://aerosociety.com/ the Royal Aeronautical Society’s website. Check out ‘Events’ but beware, this conference is not cheap. 2/ Apollo 13’s Fred Haise is the next guest of Ken Willoughby with a dinner and lecture over 24 to 25 October 2014. Dinner is at Wentbridge House Hotel, The Great North Road, Wentbridge, West Yorkshire. WF8 3JJ on 24 October. The public lecture is on 25 October 2014 at Carleton Community High School. Carleton Green, Carleton Road, Pontefract, West Yorkshire. WF8 3NW. Ticket and further event information is available at:- http://space-lectures.com/ or for urgent enquiries telephone 01977 795535. 3/ Apollo EECOM Sy Liebergot will be attending ‘A Night to Remember’ – Apollo 13 Special Event, at the Kielder Observatory, Northumberland, on 6 November 2014. Ticket and further event information is available at:- http://kielderobservatory.org/ 4/ Following on from Ed Mitchell’s postponement of his Autographica appearance in September 2014, it has been announced that he will appear at the Autographica show in the Radisson Edwardian Hotel, London, over 17 to 19 April 2015.
3/ On 10 August 2014 the US Navy christened a research ship after the late astronaut Sally Ride. Tam O’Shaughnessy, Ride’s life partner, broke the traditional champagne bottle across the bow of the Auxiliary General Oceanographic Research Vessel Sally Ride during the naming ceremony. This type of research ship are named for nationally recognised leaders in exploration and science.
UPCOMING IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF ASTRONAUT NEWS There were plenty of items for this issue of Astronaut News. In fact so many that time and space requires me to hold some for the next issue. I did indicate that in this issue I would no doubt have a ubiquitous item about a NASA astronaut retiring. Indeed before the ink had dried I received news that Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger (June 2014) had left after 10 years as an astronaut. Since then Mike Massimino (July 2014) has also ended his time with NASA. More on these stories in the next issue. There is more sad news than is covered in this issue with the recent deaths of two more astronauts who flew with Dr Ockels on STS-61A/ Spacelab D-1. Henry ‘Hank’ Hartsfield (17 July 2014) and Steven Nagel (21 August 2014). I will try and do justice to their space careers in the next issue.
Acknowledgements and sources:
5/ A new event has appeared on the calendar. Cosmic-Con is a space convention covering spaceflight and astronomy. It is to take place at the Hilton Manchester Airport Hotel over 5 to 7 June 2015. There have been similar events in the USA under the Spacefest banner. Astronaut Guests announced so far are Apollo 7’s Walt Cunningham and two astronauts who flew the final Skylab mission, Jerry Carr and Ed Gibson. Further details are available at - http://www.cosmiccon. co.uk/ NB: If anyone wants to know more about these or other sightings and they do not have access to the Collect Space Sightings pages on the Internet please contact me by email at - RobandJill@ blueyonder.co.uk - I often find out about visits at too short notice to put in CapCom. But, a word of warning. It is always best to check in advance of travelling that an event is taking place as planned. I travelled all the way to London a number of years ago to meet a cosmonaut only to discover he had cancelled because of work commitments. I had not phoned before travelling. I have no involvement in the organisation of the above astronaut events and therefore no liability is accepted for any changes that occur in the details shown.
Algemeen Dagblad ( a Dutch daily newspaper; Astronaut.ru; Autographica; CapCom (previous issues); Collect Space; Corp Russia (Russian business directory); Cosmic-Con; Delft University of Technology; Energiya-Buran The Soviet Space Shuttle ©2006 by Bart Hendrickx and Bert Vis; ESA; Gg.ca (Governor General of Canada’s website); Google; Izvestia; Le Forum de la Conquete Spatiale; NASA; NASASpaceflight.com; Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (Netherlands Broadcasting Foundation); Novosti Kosmonavtika; The Observer’s Book of Manned Spaceflight ©1978 by Reginald Turnill; RIA Novosti; Romanian Air Force (website); Russian Federal Space Agency; The Shuttlenauts 1981-1992: The First 50 Missions. Volumes 2: STS Flight Crew Assignments ©1992/1993 by D J Shayler Astro Info Service Publications; The Shuttlenauts 1981-1992: The First 50 Missions. Volume 3: Flown Crew Biographies ©1996 by D J Shayler Astro Info Service Publications; Sovetskaya Belorussiya newspaper; Spacefacts; Space Lectures; Space News; Space Shuttle Challenger ©2007 by Ben Evans; University of Groningen; viata-libera.ro; Who’s Who in Space ©1999 by Michael Cassutt; Wikipedia; Wubbo-ockels. nl/ (a Dutch website dedicated to Wubbo Ockels); Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre.
Bits & Pieces
1/ On 30 June 2014 the Governor General of Canada announced the appointment of former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield as an Officer of the Order of Canada. This is one of Canada’s highest civilian honours. The citation for the order read ‘For his commitment to promoting scientific discovery and for sharing the wonders of space exploration with the world’. 2/ On 31 July 2014, at a ceremony at the Kremlin, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin presented cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy, Sergei Revin and Evgeniy Tarelkin with their Gold Star medal Hero of the Russian Federation awards. The award is the highest honour awarded by Russia.
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Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 25 No 1 September/October 2014
‘J’ marks the spot for UK Government consults on essential criteria for location to launch commercial Rosetta’s lander space flights from 2018 Rosetta’s lander Philae will target Site J, an intriguing region on Comet 67P/ Churyumov–Gerasimenko (or Comet 67P/ CG for short) that offers unique scientific potential, with hints of activity nearby, and minimum risk to the lander compared to the other candidate sites. Site J is on the ‘head’ of the comet, an irregular shaped world that is just over 4 km across at its widest point. The decision to select Site J as the primary site was unanimous. The backup, Site C, is located on the ‘body’ of the comet. The 100 kg lander is planned to reach the surface on 11 November, where it will perform indepth measurements to characterise the nucleus in situ, in a totally unprecedented way. The race to find the landing site could only begin once Rosetta arrived at the comet on 6 August, when the comet was seen close-up for the first time. By 24 August, using data collected when Rosetta was still about 100 km from the comet five candidate regions had been identified for further analysis. Since then, the spacecraft has moved to within 30 km of the comet, affording more detailed scientific measurements of the candidate sites. In parallel, the operations and flight dynamics teams have been exploring options for delivering the lander to all five candidate landing sites.
The UK’s bid to become Europe’s leading space nation took a giant leap forward on 15 July 2014 as government revealed the 8 locations now under consideration to base Britain’s first spaceport. Speaking at Farnborough Air Show’s ‘Space Day’, Aviation Minister Robert Goodwill and Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency Dr David Parker unveiled the findings of a recent Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) report highlighting 8 possible airfields that could host a spaceport and the economic opportunities it could open up for the UK. Government’s ambition is for a UK spaceport to open in 2018 – providing a focus for regional and international investment for growth and establishing the UK as a leader in the rapidlyexpanding space market.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said:
“Space is big business for the UK. It already contributes £11.3 billion to the economy each year, supporting nearly 35,000 jobs. That’s why it’s important for us to prepare the UK for new launcher technology and take steps towards meeting our ambition of establishing the first British spaceport by 2018.” “Exploring the opportunities that commercial spaceflight presents, and potentially making strategic investments in this area, will support the growth of this thriving industry and underpin the economy of tomorrow, making the UK the place for space.”
Aviation Minister Robert Goodwill said:
“In order to lead the way on commercial spaceflight, we will need to establish a spaceport that enables us to operate regular flights.” “The work published today has got the ball rolling – now we want to work with others to take forward this exciting project and have Britain’s first spaceport up and running by 2018.”
The 8 coastal locations that could be used for a spaceport include:
Campbeltown Airport (Scotland); Glasgow Prestwick Airport (Scotland); Llanbedr Airport (Wales); Newquay Cornwall Airport (England); Kinloss Barracks (Scotland); RAF Leuchars (Scotland); RAF Lossiemouth (Scotland); Stornoway Airport (Scotland)
Over the weekend,of 13th - 14th September, the Landing Site Selection Group of The Department for Transport will consult on the criteria the CAA has identified that will engineers and scientists from Philae’s make a location suitable for a spaceport. In addition to meteorological, environmental and Science, Operations and Navigation Centre economic factors, these include: at France’s CNES space agency, the Lander Control Centre at DLR, scientists representing an existing runway which is, or is capable of being extended to, over 3000 metres in length; the Philae Lander instruments and ESA’s the ability to accommodate dedicated segregated airspace to manage spaceflights safely; Rosetta team met at CNES, Toulouse, France, a reasonable distance from densely populated areas in order to minimise impact on the to consider the available data and to choose uninvolved general public the primary and backup sites. Following the consultation further work will be done to develop locations which remain on A number of critical aspects had to be the shortlist. considered, not least that it had to be possible to identify a safe trajectory for This would include seeking the views of local people and other stakeholders before any deploying Philae to the surface and that the decisions are taken to proceed with any planned spaceport. density of visible hazards in the landing zone should be minimal. Once on the surface, UK Government other factors come into play, including the https://www.gov.uk/ balance of daylight and nighttime hours, and the frequency of communications passes with the orbiter. The descent to the comet is passive and it is only possible to predict that the landing point will place within a ‘landing ellipse’ typically a few hundred metres in size. More on this article can be found on the ESA web site. ESA http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_ Science/Rosetta
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Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 25 No 1 September/October 2014
Expedition Forty is into its third month of its mission. The orbiting outpost is commanded by US astronaut Steve Swanson and his crew of US Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman, Russian Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov, Oleg Artemyev and Maxim Surayev and Germany’s ESA crewmember Alexander Gerst.
Janice Voss, Cygnus was grappled by the Station’s Canadarm2 at 1136 BST on 16th July and berthed on to the Earth facing port of the Harmony Module over two hours later at 1353 BST. Cygnus delivered 3,669 pounds of supplies for the Station’s crew who began unloading its cargo the following day.
The mission’s first EVA began at 1510 BST on 19th June, when Skvortsov and Artemyev left the Pirs airlock. They installed a communications system antenna and relocated an experiment outside the Zvezda Module. The cosmonauts also jettisoned an orbital debris and a materials exposure experiment and finally relocated a cargo boom on Zvezda. The spacewalk ended after 7 hours 23 minutes at 2233 BST. It was the 180th EVA dedicated to ISS assembly and maintenance, totalling 47.1 days of EVA time.
Progress M-23M/55P was undocked from the Station’s Pirs Module at 2244 BST on 21st July and following several days of engineering tests was sent to a destructive re-entry on 31st July over the Pacific Ocean.
All six crewmembers had a vested interest in this year’s football World Cup, which included by coincidence Germany playing the US. Swanson and Wiseman lost a bet to Gerst following Germany’s 1-0 victory on 26th June, which had them shaving off all their hair to resemble their German colleague! No such fate befell the three Russian cosmonauts after their team’s early elimination from the tournament. Gerst had good reason to rejoice in his country’s victory on 13 July when Germany became World Champions, he Tweeted that he “would love to spend just a few hours in a German city” to be part of the celebrations. At 1752 BST (1252 local time) on 13th July, Orbital Sciences successfully launched the Cygnus unmanned commercial cargo vehicle from Wallops in Virginia. Named in honour of astronaut
The next cargo vehicle, Progress M-24M/56P was launched two days later from Baikonur and docked at the vacated Pirs port after six hours at 0431 BST on 24th July, delivering 45 snails for medical experiments amongst its over 5,000 pounds of supplies. Europe’s fifth and final Automated Transfer Vehicle-5 (ATV-5) named in honour of the Belgian cosmologist Georges Lemaitre was launched from Kourou, French Guiana atop an Ariane 5 rocket 0047 BST on 30th July (2047 local time 29th July). ATV-5 carried 7.3 tons of food, fuel and supplies and was scheduled to dock to the Station’s Zvezda Module on 12th August. As of 8th August, Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev have been in orbit for 136 days, whilst Surayev, Wiseman and Gerst have logged 73 days in space.
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Decision Time For Russian Cosmonaut Selection BY ROB WOOD
On 5 and 6 June 2014 the eight cosmonaut-candidates who were selected in 2012 sat their state examinations at the end of their basic training period. They all passed their exams but then something odd happened. On 16 June 2014 the Interdepartmental Qualification Commission admitted only six of them to the position of ‘Test Cosmonaut’. It was back in October 2010 when the decision was made to have an open recruitment for the selection of cosmonauts. It took some time to work out the requirements and logistics for the process and it was not until 27 January 2012 that the Russian Federal Space Agency and the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre officially announced the call for cosmonauts using the new procedures. In the past cosmonaut recruitment was normally through the Soviet/Russian armed forces or civilian engineers working for the S P Korolyov Rocket and Space Corporation Energiya (the builders of the spacecraft they would ultimately get to fly into space). There were exceptions but these were not a good way of actually getting into space. In the 1960’s the Chelomey Design Bureau developed a rival to Energiya’s Soyuz spacecraft. It is known by its Russian acronym, TKS. In English it would come out in full as ‘Transport Supply Spacecraft’. This design bureau selected its own cosmonaut team between the late 1960’s and early 1980’s. A total of 16 individuals were chosen and they all had one thing in common. None of them made it into space. A medical team did have a little better luck. The Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Bio-Medical Problems (IMBP) selected fifteen cosmonaut candidates between 1972 and 2003. Only three of them made it into space (or 4 out of 20 if we count the special Voskhod nominees in the mid 1960’s) but that was still a lot better than the Chelomey team achieved. The various organisations cosmonauts were separate teams. They only came together with those from other organisations when selected to train for a specific space mission. They would then train at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre and in other places as required. At the end of their spaceflight or if the mission was cancelled the cosmonauts would then return to their separate teams to await a new call. Even before the 2012 selection changes had started to occur, albeit slowly. For the last few selections direct employees of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre had been allowed to apply. But for the latest group, it was a general call for applicants. The criteria for selection were given by the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre. A candidate had to be a citizen of the Russian Federation, have certain education qualifications, a level of work experience and although this did not have to be in the aviation and aerospace industry they would be given priority. Some English language skills were also required but an applicant did not have to be fluent. The applicant should not exceed the age of 33 (but this was not adhered to as can be seen by two of the selectees having been born in 1978). There were also medical and physical requirements. Physical considerations included endurance, strength, speed, agility, flexibility and anthropometric measurements. Examples include the ability to run one kilometre in no less than 3 minutes and 35 seconds and a height measurement from 150 to 190 centimetres.
Medical areas for study included, internal organs, odontology (dentistry), ophthalmology (eyes), otorhinolaryngology (ears, nose and throat), psychiatric, surgical history and for female candidates gynaecological considerations. Applications were to be sent to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre and those that passed the initial sift would be passed to the Competition Commission for further consideration of the paper documents. The Competition Commission was made up of representatives of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Energiya and the IMBP. The end date for applicants was given as 15 March 2012 although this was later extended to 30 April 2012. It was not stated but this was possibly because not enough applications were received by the initial date. At the end, 304 applications had been received, including 50 from the Russian space industry and 24 military personnel (4 of whom were already working in the space industry). There were 43 female candidates including 4 from the space sector. There were applicants from unexpected areas. Fyodor Girusov was a law graduate and a TV actor. Nikolay Dzis-Voynarovskiy did have an academic background in engineering and physics but took up journalism as a career. Girusov did well and made it down to the final ten candidates but was ultimately unsuccessful. The Competition Commission reviewed 261of the applications and 50 were accepted for further consideration. Over several months the numbers were narrowed further. On 5 September 2012 the Competition Commission held its final meeting and considered the candidatures of the remaining ten applicants. They had all passed the Chief Medical Commission, which by itself is a significant hurdle in the path of aspiring cosmonauts. The Competition Commission decided to recommend eight to the State Interdepartmental Commission who would make the final decision on how many would be selected for cosmonaut training. The State Interdepartmental Commission met on 8 October 2012 and accepted all eight of those recommended by the Competition Commission: Oleg Blinov, Nikolay Chub, Pyotr Dubrov, Andrey Fedyaev, Ignat Ignatov, Anna Kikina, Sergey Korsakov and Dmitry Petelin. Unusually, not one of them was an employee of Energiya and only one was a pilot in the Russian Air Forces. Two of the candidates were already employed by the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre but the remaining five were from outside the normal recruitment area for cosmonauts. Kikina was the only female. On 29 October 2012 they were presented at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre. The following day was their official start of basic training and they were all in for a treat. They were flown to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan where they would not only familiarise themselves with the site of manned launches but they would also get to see the launch of Progress M-17M on its resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). For now the eight would be known as ‘Candidate Cosmonauts’. Successful completion of basic training would see them awarded the status of ‘Test Cosmonaut’ and make them eligible for advanced training, taking on ground positions associated with actual space missions and eventual assignment to a space crew. This process normally means a long wait for a first spaceflight. There are six active cosmonauts from the 2006 selection and two
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Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 25 No 1 September/October 2014 are still awaiting a first spaceflight. The five active from the 2010 selection are all awaiting a first trip into space. None of these seven are even assigned to a mission and we are aware of crews through to mid-2016. For the new ‘Cosmonaut Candidates’, basic training would last for about a year and a half and include technical training on on-board systems and equipment of manned spacecraft, preparations for and implementation of work to be carried out in space, general training on spacewalks, and launch and recovery operations such as survival training for emergency situations. This period would end with them sitting state examinations at the training centre. From 4 February 2013 to 13 February 2013 the candidates successfully completed a winter survival training programme by undergoing a two day simulation of landing and surviving in a forest-swamp area during wintry weather conditions. From 19 February 2013 they commenced their weightless familiarisation with flights on an Ilyushin IL-76. This four-engine strategic airlifter had been adapted for microgravity experiments and cosmonaut training flights. The aircraft would fly a parabolic arc i.e. first climbing and then going into a dive. As it climbs the aircraft gradually reaches an angle of 45°. The pilot then pulls the engines back to idle and the aircraft drifts up and over in an arc and starts to descend. As it descends the engines are pulled forward again. It is during the arc that the passengers on the aircraft experience a short period of weightlessness, typically lasting about 20 to 25 seconds. The candidate cosmonauts learn to: move in microgravity, conduct tasks such as dressing (including getting into spacesuits) and drinking, use tools, and conduct experiments. July 2013 was a busy month for the candidates. Early in the month they conducted water survival training where they carried out a simulated landing in water of the Soyuz descent module in the water training area of the EMERCOM 179th Rescue Operation Centre in Noginsk, near Moscow. Using a full scale mock-up of the descent module the would be cosmonauts learned: how to remove their Sokol training suits, don survival clothing, exit the Soyuz into water carrying required equipment, establish a trilateral formation on water and work with their survival kit. One of the water exercises carried out is the ‘Short Workout’ where the cosmonauts discover a leak and have to evacuate their spacecraft. This training section lasts for no more than 30 minutes hence its title. As the month of July progressed the candidates started their ‘Neutral Buoyancy’ training in the large water tank at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre. In the second half of the month they also commenced their parachute training. August 2013 saw them continue with parachute and neutral buoyancy work. As the year progressed the candidates began their flight training at the Chkalovsky Airfield near Moscow. It was from here on 27 March 1968 that Yuri Gagarin took off on his fatal training flight. The flight training would continue into 2014 and would see them fly as a passenger on the Aero L-39 Albatross high performance jet trainer aircraft. The aircraft was originally developed by Czechoslovakia and can also be used as a light ground-attack aircraft. As their training progressed they flew the aircraft as the second pilot. In February 2014 they commenced psychological elements of their training which included spending long periods in an isolation chamber. On 11 February 2014 Oleg Blinov was the first to enter the isolation chamber for the 64-hour test. This part of the training continued into April 2014. June 2014 was a big month for the would be cosmonauts. Over 5 to 6 June they sat their state examinations. Four would take the examinations each day. On 5 June 2014 Chub (scoring 4.9 out of 5), Dubrov (4.9), Kikina (4.5) and Korsakov (4.8) passed and the remaining four, Blinov (4.0), Fedyaev (4.2), Ignatov (4.0) and Petelin (4.8), being successful the following day. The next stage was the Interdepartmental Qualification Commission which was due to meet on 16 June 2014 but there was already a
problem for one of the candidates. On 22 April 2014 Ignatov had failed a check by the Chief Medical Commission. The Chief Medical Commission does not decide on the expulsion of a cosmonaut from a team. That decision can only be taken by the State Interdepartmental Commission. Until then Ignatov was given special permission to continue his training and take the final exams. However, in the event, the Interdepartmental Qualification Commission only considered seven candidates. Ignatov was not one of them. The Commission accepted six as ‘Test Cosmonauts’ and Blinov, Chub, Dubrov, Fedyaev, Korsakov and Petelin were presented with their identification cards as ‘Test Cosmonauts’ by Alexander Kaleri (a veteran of five spaceflights). Kikina was not successful. No official reason was given for Kikina’s failure to make the cut but Kaleri talked about the decision at Russia’s Mission Control Centre on 19 June 2014. He said the decision was made by secret ballot of the members of the Interdepartmental Qualification Commission following careful consideration and it was a majority vote. It was not just the exam results that were taken into consideration but they looked at how the candidates had progressed through all the basic training, taking into account the opinion of many instructors. The Commission also interviewed each candidate. Kaleri did not give any specific reason for her non-selection but he did note that more candidates were trained than originally planned. Five candidates were supposed to be selected for training but eight were chosen instead. Kaleri said that all eight candidates had been warned at the beginning of their training that eliminations were likely. There was some talk on Russian Internet message boards that the decision was born out of old fashioned Russian male chauvinism. Changes in the space leadership of the Russian Federal Space Agency and the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre leading to changes in views and priorities were also cited with some link to the chauvinism idea included. I find it unlikely that the ‘old fashioned Russian male chauvinism’ idea has much credence, not because it does not exist in Russian society (I am sure it still does) but the number of instructors and commission members involved would dilute a chauvinistic viewpoint. Many of these are of a younger Russian generation who I am sure would mostly not be biased by the sex of a candidate. There have been a lot of foreign female candidates through the training process so these people are used to capable female participants. It has been mentioned that her background (education and employment) did not make her an obvious contender to become a cosmonaut and this might have held her back in training leading to the decision given. I find this a more plausible explanation but I am not totally convinced. Neither Chub nor Dubrov look like your average Russian cosmonaut yet they achieved high marks in the exams and were passed by the commission. We should remember this was an open competition selection, so I would expect its make-up to look different. The candidates appear more like an US astronaut selection with a mixture of pilot, engineer and mission specialist types. Further clues will come with how the Russians proceed with their next selection and how successful the space careers of this group are. Is this the end for Kikina and indeed Ignatov whom we should not forget just because he is only a male candidate (tongue firmly planted in cheek). No, not quite. The Interdepartmental Qualification Commission is not the highest authority. Only the State Interdepartmental Commission can make the final decision to dismiss a cosmonaut, or at least that was what we thought. And yes, there are a lot of commissions involved in Russian space programmes. Then on 25 June 2014 came the news that Kikina had received a reprieve. The Russian news agency Interfax reported that a source in the space industry had told them she will undertake a further year of remedial training. At this time the plan still apparently needed the approval of the State Interdepartmental Commission which was due to meet on 10 or 11 July 2014. It was stated by another source that
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Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 25 No 1 September/October 2014 after a period of training lasting 6 months to one year she would again appear before an Interdepartmental Qualification Commission for approval as a ‘Test Cosmonaut’.
over 500 jumps and has jumped in competitive competition. The Chief Medical Commission approved his application for cosmonaut training on 18 July 2012.
It is not known why but the State Interdepartmental Commission did not meet on 10 or 11 July 2014. Then, on 15 July 2014 came the news that a State Interdepartmental Commission decision was not needed and the Chief of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Yuri Lonchakov, had confirmed the appointments of six ‘Test Cosmonauts’. He also approved Kikina to continue as a candidate cosmonaut. However, the prospects for Ignatov did not look good as the silence on his future was deafening.
Andrey Valeryevich Fedyaev (Major, Russian Air Force, Ret.) was born in Serov, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, on 26 February 1981. He graduated from the Krasnodar Military Aviation Institute in 2004 as an engineer-pilot. Prior to cosmonaut training he served with the 317th Aviation Regiment in the Kamchatka Peninsula. Hobbies include acting. The Chief Medical Commission approved his application for cosmonaut training on 5 April 2012. In April 2013 he retired from the Russian Air Force.
Whilst all this was going on the 2012 candidate cosmonauts had some holiday time. On their return it was off to EMERCOM’s Noginsk centre where they joined ‘Test Cosmonauts’ from the 2010 selection to conduct helicopter training. Over 8 to 9 July 2014 they familiarised themselves with helicopter flight, helicopter systems and various modes of ingress and egress whilst the helicopter was hovering over land and water. Ignatov did not attend the helicopter training but Kikina joined the six who had received their ‘Test Cosmonaut’ certificates and conducted the same training.
Ignat Nikolayevich Ignatov was born in Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Ukraine), on 20 March 1982. In 2004 he graduated from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy with specialties in Aircraft Electrical Systems and Navigation. Prior to cosmonaut training he worked in the neutral buoyancy facility at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre and had logged over 500 hours of underwater operations. The Chief Medical Commission approved his application for cosmonaut training on 7 June 2012. He holds the military rank of Major but is presumably now retired.
Next up was survival training in desert or semi-desert conditions. Following Lonchakov’s decision, the six males were now officially referred to as test cosmonauts but Kikina remained referenced as a candidate cosmonaut. For the desert training the seven would separate into three crews, interestingly Kikina was teamed with two instructors whilst the six test cosmonauts formed two crews of three. From 18 July 2014 to 24 July 2014 each crew spent two days setting up a camp and learning how to survive in the extreme conditions. As I end this early phase of the story of the 2012 selection the remaining seven commence three weeks of further parachute training. Starting on 4 August 2014 it is expected to last until 25 August 2014. We are still awaiting the final word on Ignatov but the expectation is that the next time the State Interdepartmental Commission meets, possibly towards the end of September 2014; he will be dismissed from cosmonaut training and offered the opportunity to return to his old job at the neutral buoyancy facility of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre.
Oleg Vladimirovich Blinov was born in Kirov-Tatars, Chepetsk, Kirov Oblast, Russia on 17 August 1978. In 1998 he graduated from the Kirov Military Aviation Technical School as an Aircraft Engineer. From 1998 he worked as a vehicle-mechanic whilst studying at the Vyatka State Agricultural Academy, Kirov, from where he graduated as a Mechanical Engineer in 2001. From 2002 he worked as an engineer and instructor in the EVA branch at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre. He previously applied for cosmonaut training in 2006 and 2010 but was rejected on medical grounds. The Chief Medical Commission approved his application for cosmonaut training on 7 June 2012. He holds the military rank of Lieutenant Colonel but is presumably now retired. Nikolay Aleksandrovich Chub was born in Novocherkassk, Rostov Oblast, Russia, on 10 June 1984. In 2006 he was an engineering graduate of the South-Russian State Technical University with a degree in Computer Sciences. He also has a degree in Economics. Prior to cosmonaut training he was working for a wholesale trade company based in Moscow. His hobbies include skydiving and he has made more than 200 jumps. He achieved Russian and European parachuting records in 2011. The Chief Medical Commission approved his application for cosmonaut training on 4 September 2012. Pyotr Valeryevich Dubrov was born in Khabarovsk, Russia, on 30 September 1978. In 1999 he graduated from the Institute of Information Technologies of the Khabarovsk State Technical University with a specialty in Software Engineering. Prior to cosmonaut training he worked as a senior software engineer with CBOSS Development International, a software development company, in Moscow. Hobbies include skydiving. He has completed
Anna Yuryevna Kikina was born in Novosibirsk, Russia, on 27 August 1984. In 2006 she was an engineering graduate from the Novosibirsk State Academy of Water Transport. Two years later she obtained a further degree from the same academy as an Economist-Manager. Prior to cosmonaut training she was working as a programme director at Radio-Siberia Altai. Her hobbies include skiing and rafting. The Chief Medical Commission approved her application for cosmonaut training on 4 September 2012. Sergey Vladimirovich Korsakov was born in Frunze, Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic (now Kyrgyzstan), on 1 September 1984. In 2006 he was an engineering graduate of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University with a specialty in Rocket Engines. Prior to cosmonaut training he was employed by a private company, ‘Info Capital Group’. The Chief Medical Commission approved his application for cosmonaut training on 18 July 2012. Dmitry Alexandrovich Petelin was born in Kustanai, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (now Kazakhstan), on 10 July 1983. In 2006 he was an aerospace-engineering graduate of the South Ural State University. Prior to cosmonaut training he was working as a design engineer for NIK Ltd (Research Engineering Company) in the aerospace industry based at Zhukovsky, Moscow Oblast. NIK was founded in 1997 by a group of engineers from the Myasishchev Design Bureau. Incidentally, the Myasishchev Design Bureau had worked on the cockpit design of the Buran Space Shuttle. The Chief Medical Commission approved his application for cosmonaut training on 4 September 2012.
Acknowledgements and sources:
AgroWeb Russian Federation; Astronaut.ru; CapCom (previous issues); Collect Space; EMERCOM; Google; Gozerog.com; Hoovers. com; How Stuff Works; JAXA; Linkedin; NASA; NIK Ltd; Novosti Kosmonavtika; Parabolic Arc; Russian Federal Space Agency; Russia’s Cosmonauts ©2005 by Rex D Hall, David J Shayler and Bert Vis; Spacefacts; S P Korolyov Rocket-Space Corporation Energiya; Who’s Who in Space ©1999 by Michael Cassutt; Wikipedia; Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre; Zerogaerogel.com.
________________________ Next Issue Returning Human Missions to the ISS to US Soil through NASA’s Commercial Crew Programme.
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Midlands Spaceflight Society: CapCom: Volume 25 No 1 September/October 2014
Carolian Astronomy Society Presents:
Ben Evans Spaceflight Author On Wednesday 10 December at 7:30 pm spaceflight author Ben Evans will present at talk to the Carolian Astronomy Society in Kidderminster entitled:
Apollo 12 45th Anniversary All are welcome
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Friday 10 October 2014