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ISS Adventures: A Kerbalized Recreation of Missions to the International Space Station


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On 1/13/2022 at 4:14 AM, pTrevTrevs said:

Seriously thought this was real video footage for a second. Good job!

 

3 minutes ago, TruthfulGnome said:

Absolutely beautiful, thought it was real for a bit ;) how did you keep the station in prograde while time warping? did you just speed up normal footage?

Thank you!

The footage is sped up, but I also use a mod called BetterTimeWarp to tweak physical time warp speeds.

You can make your own speeds past 4x, all at your own risk! This was shot at 8x physical time warp with MechJeb set to Prograde. Much higher summons the Krakken but that should not stop you from trying :D

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2004

One year after the Columbia Disaster, the remaining three Space Shuttles - Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour - were still grounded in what would become the most challenging period in the history of the International Space Station program. By the end of 2004, a point that the station's partner agencies had originally planned to decide on the final configuration of modules, dramatic reductions in the scope of the project had to be made. Many ambitious modules and components were downgraded, delayed, or outright canceled. Components already built - such as the remaining Truss segments and solar wings - were reaching storage life limits and needed costly refurbishment. The program's total budget increases were in the order of billions of dollars.

During this period, Russia once again had to take on the entirety of ISS resupply and crew rotation missions. Without the Space Shuttle, only a very small fraction of the scientific equipment payloads were able to make it to the station. The vast majority of supplies brought to the ISS were bare necessities such as food, water, and oxygen.

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Russia launched six Soyuz-type rockets in 2004 in support of the ISS.

Progress M1-11   -   January 29th, 2004

This was the final resupply mission to Expedition 8 crew Michael Foale and Aleksandr Kaleri. It was also the last flight of a Progress M1 vehicle (which carried more spare fuel in exchange for less cargo space) for quite some time. The upgraded versions of these vehicles would eventually fly again in 2008.

Progress M1-11 replaced M-48 at the aft end of Zvezda on January 31st.

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Soyuz TMA-4/Expedition 9   -   April 19th, 2004

This flight continued the modified practice of manning the ISS with only two crew members: Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Mike Fincke. A third member, Dutch ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers, flew aboard this mission for a short stay during the crew overlap period, then returned to Earth with Expedition 8 nine days later.

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TMA-4 docked to the bottom of the Zarya module on April 21st, 2004. In Moscow, home to Roskosmos Mission Control, it was 8:00am on a Wednesday. 

Expedition 8 drew to a close after 194 days in charge of the station. 

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Progress M-49   -   May 25th, 2004

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Progress M-50   -   August 11th, 2004

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These two Progress missions distinguished themselves by being nominally unremarkable. They served through the middle of 2004 to provide Expedition 9 with vital supplies in support of their 185-day mission.

Soyuz TMA-5/Expedition 10   -   October 14th, 2004

Following the same formula as the prior Soyuz mission to the ISS, TMA-5 carried two crew members to serve on Expedition 10: Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov. The third member was Yuri Shargin, who became the first cosmonaut from the Russian Space Forces to fly. Being a military organization dedicated to long range missile defense and monitoring, it is unclear why a cosmonaut from the Space Forces was flown aboard the ISS, but some speculate this may have been for the purpose of systems reconnaissance. 

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During approach and docking on October 16th, the crew determined that the automatic docking system was going too fast, and Sharipov took manual control of the Soyuz.

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Once docked, the crew overlap period proceeded for just under 8 days, after which the Expedition 9 crew and cosmonaut Yuri Shargin boarded TMA-4 and returned to Earth.

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Progress M-51   -   December 24th, 2004

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Progress M-50 deorbits and burns up on December 22nd, 2004

The final spaceflight of 2004, Progress M-51 became the first resupply mission for Expedition 10. It docked to the aft port of Zvezda where Progress M-50 had been just a few days prior.

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Throughout 2004, a number of station EVAs were also conducted.
Coming up, EVA reports and final remarks on the year of 2004!
 

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Expedition 8 EVA 1   -   February 26th, 2004

The only EVA conducted by Expedition 8 was cut short due to technical issues with Commander Kaleri's suit coolant system. Still, after the end of the nearly 4-hour spacewalk, the pair completed a good chunk of the planned tasks. 

Throughout the course of the next year, astronauts onboard the International Space Station would be making preparations on the outside of the Zvezda service module to accommodate the European "Automated Transfer Vehicle," or ATV.  This new unmanned vehicle would be able to transport much larger payloads to the station and was expected to be operational by 2006. A combination of software problems and launcher delays pushed this to 2008, however.

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This EVA was conducted out of the Pirs airlock. Strela-2, one of the manually-operated extendable cranes, was used on these types of spacewalks to safely move astronauts up and down the length of the Russian Segment.

Expedition 9 EVA 1&2   -   June 24th/29th 2004

The hand full of scheduled EVAs set for Expedition 9 crew Mike Fincke and Gennadi Padalka was originally meant to be performed from the Quest Airlock, problems were discovered with the American EMU suits' cooling systems in May, and the spacewalks were moved to the Pirs Module.

Further problems arose at the very beginning of EVA 1, and the spacewalk was canceled and moved up a few days. The second attempt, EVA 2 was a success. The primary task was repairing a faulty Remote Power Control Module (RPCM) - located on the S1 Truss - that controlled one of the station's 4 reaction gyros.

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Expedition 9 EVA 3   -   August 3rd, 2004

Additional modifications were made to the aft end of Zvezda specially designed for the ATV, like antennas, reflectors, and docking targets. Also, externally mounted experiments were swapped out and collected for examination later.

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Expedition 9 EVA 4   -   September 3rd, 2004

The two-man Expedition 9 crew completed their final spacewalk by replacing several components on the Zarya module, as well as finishing up installing antennas and handrails to aid in future construction tasks. Manual labor and maintenance done by hand in microgravity is extremely challenging and time consuming. Astronauts and cosmonauts go through months of training and rehearsals to pull off these tasks that would likely take just a few minutes on Earth, but can take hours in space. 

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By the end of 2004, there was light at the end of the tunnel finally for the Space Shuttle fleet. The three remaining orbiters were nearing the end of their overhauls, and Discovery was first in the chute being prepped and loaded for launch on STS-114. In keeping with the Columbia Accident Investigation Board's findings and recommendations, every possible effort was being taken to fight the war on Shuttle ascent debris, and STS-114 would serve as a proving ground for this.

Scheduled for July 26th, 2005, STS-114s launch window was carefully selected to provide ground teams and the shuttle crew with the best possible sunlight conditions for viewing the ascent. But in the meantime, the ISS would see one more Expedition change-out, a pair of resupply missions, and more EVA work.

Coming next we enter the home stretch for Space Shuttle Return-to-Flight with ISS Operations of 2005!

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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H1 2005 Missions and Space Walks Coming Soon!

I made a mistake! Soyuz TMA-5 and TMA-6 were shot occupying the wrong docking ports. I'll be reshooting the relevant images over the next couple days. Sorry for the inconvenience :(!

Edited by Kuiper_Belt
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The International Space Station - H1 2005 - Preparation For Reunion

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For nearly 2 years the International Space Station hadn't seen a Shuttle. Roscosmos being the only lifeline for resupplies,  and crew rotations. The hiatus would come to an end in six months but before Discovery's liftoff , the ISS still needed to see launches for the crew and regularly scheduled maintenance. Kicking off 2005 would be Expedition 10s first EVA.

Expedition 10 EVA 1 - January 25th, 2005

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EVA-1 was conducted by both the crew of Expedition 10  Leroy Chaio and Salizhan Sharipov. After they separated the US and Russian Segments when they closed the hatches the EVA official began at 1:43 AM CST. Stepping out of the Pirs airlock, the crew began to knock out objectives, the first of which was to install a Universal Work Platform on Zvezda. Mounted on the said platform was Rokviss, a German experiment that tests robotic components for future use on the ISS. After initial installation, ground control noticed that the experiment had not turned on correctly but after unplugging and repluggin wires, the experiment was registered as working by ground control. 

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In addition, Chaio and Sharipov moved a commercial Japanese commercial micrometeorite experiment from one mounting point to another right next to its previous location. In addition, they went to investigate environmental systems vents on Zvezda. When they arrived the noted a brown oily substance took photos for ground and sent them for further analysis. 

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The EVA after lasting 5 hours and 28 minutes came to a close when Chaio and Sharipov entered Pirs at 7:11 AM CST.  After entering the station, the crew doffed their suits and reopened hatches between the US and Russian Segments. The crew began to prepare for departure of Progress-M51.

Undocking and Deorbit of Progress M-51 - February 27th, 2005

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Docked to the Zvezda's aft docking port since Christmas Day of 2004 Progress M-51s new gifts had been unloaded to the station and replaced with trash for Progress M-51 to dispose of. February 27th 2005 at 16:06:30 UTC, Progress unlatched from Zvezda and backed away from the complex ending its 64 day stay at the station.

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After 10 days of floating adrift, Progress M-51 ignited its engine for one more time to deorbit on March 9th 2005 at 17:03:11 UTC after its 77-day mission. Progress M-51 successor, Progress M-52 launched the day after M-51 was undocked. 

Expedition 10 EVA 1 - January 25th, 2005

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Progress M-52 was the first launch tot the ISS for 2005 and carried supplies such as experiments, food water, and oxygen for the crew. Standing atop the Soyuz U carrier rocket Progress M-52 lifted off from Site 1/5 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome for a rendezvous with the International Space Station at 00:09:18 local time.

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After spending two days in the stand rendezvous orbit, Progress M-52 docked to Zvezda's aft port on March 2nd, 2005 at 20:10:08 UTC. The crew opened the hatches and began unloading the supplies brought by Progress. After being situated. Expedition 10 prepared for their second EVA.

Expedition 10 EVA 2 - March 28th, 2005

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Two months after their first, Chaio and Sharipov of Expedition 10 once again donned their Orlan space suits and exited Pirs for the second EVA. After closing hatches again between the segments the EVA official began at 12:25 AM CST. Their objectives included new antennas to facilitate docking for the new European ATV. In addition Sharipov deployed an 11 pound Satellite from Pirs 2 hours after the EVA started. Finally the crew went to the back of Zvezda to install a GPS antenna.

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After a total of 4 hours and 30 minutes outside the Station, the crew reentered Pirs, at 4:55 AM CST. This would be the final EVA for the Expedition 10 crew members, their time outside totaling nearly 10 hours. With their mission slowly coming to a close, the crew of Expedition 10 prepared for the arrival of the next guests of the Station.

Launch and Docking of Soyuz TMA-6 and Expedition 11  - April 15th, 2005

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Standing by at Baikonur Cosmodrome's Site 1-5 was Soyuz TMA-6. Carrying a crew of three the rocket stood waiting for its early morning liftoff. Expedition 11s crew consisted of Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and Astronaut John Philips. In addition was ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori, who would return with Expedition 10 on Soyuz TMA-5. At 5:45:25 Soyuz TMA-6 lifted off and began the trip to the ISS. Once they reach orbit the crew will coast for two days until they close in on Pirs. 

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On April 17th, 2005 at 2:20 UTC the crew of Soyuz TMA-6 docked to Pirs and officially began joint Expedition 10 and Expedition 11 operations. The crew opened hatches, greeted one another, conducted handoff procedures, and prepared for Expedition 10 and Roberto Vittori's return home.

Undocking and Return of Soyuz TMA-5 and Expedition 10  - April 24th, 2005

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On April 24th, 2005, Salizhan Sharipov and Leroy Chaio of Expedtion 10 and Roberto Vittori of Soyuz TMA-6 climbed into their return ship and undocked from Zarya's nadir port at 18:44 UTC marking an end to the 193 day stay at the station. Soyuz TMA-5 backed away from the station and prepared for reentry and landing 4 hours later. The undocking was controlled manually to save power due to a faulty battery.

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Landing 56 miles north of Arkalyk, Soyuz TMA-6 and the crew landed safely in central Asia, ending the 25th crewed flight to the ISS. The Expedition 11 crew now alone conducting research in orbit, prepared to make Soyuz TMA-6 a little more lonely, to make space for their next resupply. 

Departure of Progress M-52  - June 15th, 2005

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Progress M-52 after being used to deliver Supplies to the ISS gets to participate in its next purpose as all other Progress have done before it, become a garbage truck. After fulfilling its first task the crew of Expedition 10 and 11 filled it up with garbage and sealed the hatch.  After spending 105 days docked to the Zvezda aft port, Progress M-52 undocked and baked away at 20:16:10 UTC on June 15th.

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After spending a few hours back off Progress M-15 fired its engines for the final time lowering its orbit to burn up over the pacific, disposing of all its cargo, and ending its 108-day mission. The crews on the ground now prepared its replacement and the Crew of Expedition 11 awaited its arrival.

Launch and Docking of Progress M-53  - June 16th, 2005

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Progress M-53 carried Food, Water, Oxygen and Science Experience for the crew to use on orbit.  Standing by at Site 1/5 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome on its Soyuz-U Progress M-53 lifted off at 04:09:34 local time on June 16th 2005.

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After reaching Orbit, Progress M-53 coasted for two days in the standard rendezvous orbit, reaching the ISS on the 19th. Once docking was initiated the KURS automatic docking system failed and resulted in the TORU manual docking system being used. Piloted by Sergei Krikalev Progress M-53 was brought into close proximity with Zvezda's aft port and docked on June 19th 2005 at 41:31 UTC. The crew unpacked Progress M-53 and attended and prepared for other activities. The crews slated EVA necessitated the moving of the Soyuz.

Port Relocation of Soyuz TMA-6  - July 19th 2005

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EVA's out of the Russian segment are unique because the airlock, Pirs, is also a docking compartment. It is standard procedure to have only Progress ship docked to a docking compartment while EVAs are conducted so that a lifeboat Soyuz isn't obstructed during an EVA. This is why Krikalev and Philips got into Soyuz TMA-6 and undocked from the ISS at 10:38 UTC. 

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After spending 30 minutes undocked, the crew docked to Zarya's nadir port at 11:08 UTC. The crew reentered the station and prepared for the Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery over the next couple of days.

Coming Up Next, The Return To Flight, STS-114!

Edited by Kuiper_Belt
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11 hours ago, pTrevTrevs said:

Why are the hatches between the USOS and ROS closed during EVAs? Just general safety precautions, I assume?

Yeah, that’s what I assume. In the NASA document I was looking at while writing about the EVAs they write that it was for the “unlikely event the crew could not return to the outpost”. I presume that if the Russian Segment was compromised they could return to the station get the Soyuz, close the hatch, pressurize it, and return home. Then later, a shuttle could come along with equipment and stage repairs from the US segment. NASA also wrote that other systems were put on automatic function. Whether that’s for the same reason as closing hatches or just the fact that the entirety of the crew is outside the station I don’t know but remember these are just babblings of a random KSP engineer. :P 

PS: Here are the documents if you’d like to see: one & two

Edited by Kuiper_Belt
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  • 2 weeks later...

STS-114 - The Return To Flight - July 26th, 2005

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907 days after the Columbia Disaster, thousands of man-hours of investigations, modifications, and preparations, Space Shuttle Discovery, now about to fly its second return to flight mission, sits at Launch Complex 39B, last graced by Atlantis for STS-112 in 2002.  The writing now on the wall for the Shuttle Program it's final objective was to complete the International Space Station. 

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STS-114 was originally slated to be a resupply mission and crew rotation mission, launching on March 1st, 2003 with the Raffaello MPLM.  Now in 2005, launching the External Stowage Platform 2 or ESP-2, the Raffaello MPLM with supplies such as food, water, oxygen, experiments, and a replacement Control Moment Gyroscope for the Z1 truss. In addition, the crew would conduct several tests of in-space repairs in the event that the Thermal Protection System is compromised.

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STS-114 also had a similar crew to its original counterpart, omitting and replacing those who were scheduled to take part in Expedition 7.  Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot James Kelly and Mission Specialists, Soichi Noguchi, Stephen Robinson, all were originally slated to fly on the original STS-114 with Andrew Thomas, Wendy Lawrence, and Charles Camarda replacing Yuri Malenchenko, Ed Lu, and Aleksandr Kaleri, of which Malenchenko and Lu would fly on a Soyuz to carry out Expedition 7.

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Being originally scheduled for launch on July 13th, Discovery experienced an anomaly with an LH2 fuel level sensor resulting in a scrub, NASA conducted meetings to discuss remedying the issue with the earliest liftoff date being placed on July 17th.  Eventually, NASA scheduled the launch for the 26th despite not solving the fuel sensor anomalies. the crew stood by at 39B for launch at 9:39 AM EDT.

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2.5 seconds into the flight, the External Tank struck a bird, but due to the low speed of collision and proximity to the orbiter, the collision was deemed a non-issue.  Further on, the orbiter shed a 1.5 inch of thermal tile on the front landing gear door. Shortly after SRB separation, a 36 by 11 by 6-inch piece of external tank foam (expected to weigh half as much as the debris that doomed Columbia) was shed from the ET but did not strike the Orbiter. 20 seconds after that, another smaller piece separated and struck the Orbiter's right wing but was estimated to deliver 1/10th of the energy that would pose damage to the TPS. 

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After reaching orbit, Discovery and the crew tweaked their course for a rendezvous with the ISS in two days' time. In the meantime, the crew would also be the first to use the Orbital Boom Sensor System.

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The Orbital Boom Sensor System or OBSS is a 50-foot boom arm carried by all Space Shuttles in response to the Columbia Disaster. Featuring a suite of imaging and analysis equipment, the OBSS is designed to observe the entire Thermal Protection System for damage. Constructed almost identically to the Canadarm, the OBSS had fixed joints so for it to be moved, it would be grappled by the Shuttle's Canadarm and maneuvered around to survey the TPS.

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The crew after completing the survey stow the OBSS and the ground begins to analyze the data. The aforementioned foam strikes are rendered non-issues but something else sticks out to the ground control. Two gap fillers installed into the Shuttle TPS are found to be protruding further out of the TPS surface than could pose a problem with airflow over the orbiter during reentry. This presents an opportunity for the crew to attempt new repair techniques on the backside of the TPS. (These gap fillers aren't integral for reentry. The purpose is to prevent heat stress damage of an orbiter over its lifetime. As a result, they can simply be removed while on orbit.) In addition, a loose thermal blanket was noted out the Commanders port window, but was rendered by the ground as a nonissue via wind tunnel analysis. The crew would continue to coast to the ISS where they would conduct the removal during an EVA. 

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Discovery approached the ISS differently than previous missions, by approaching from the bottom and then holding in that position.  This was another precaution born of the Columbia Disaster, the Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver (Otherwise known as the R-bar pitch maneuver or simply a backflip). Aboard the space station was Sergei Krikalev and John Phillips of Expedition 11, and with high zoom lenses, the crew would photograph the Orbiters TPS and send the images to the ground for analysis. The crew performs the Maneuver and then prepares to dock with the ISS via PMA-2 on Destiny.

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Authors Note: I have a personal soft spot for the RPM. Though born out of tragic circumstances, I believe its a testament to the beauty of space flight in general. It really embodies the dance in space that docking is with the jovial elegance of the flip. I feel that with the retirement of the Shuttle and by extension the RPM, that dance isn't as "Human" per se. I'd highly recommend checking out videos of it on Youtube. I'll get off my soap box now.

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Discovery docked with PMA-2 at 11:18UTC on July 18th, 2005 ending the two and a half year drought of visits from an orbiter. The first order of business would be to relocate Raffaello to the nadir port of Unity. It had been two and a half years since a Shuttle had last resupplied the station. In addition, the MPLM was the only way to return a substantial amount of cargo to Earth and as a result, the ISS had become quite full of various experiments and hardware that needed to be returned. 

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Now with the MPLM docked for processing. The crew began to prepare for the three scheduled EVAs. All conducted by Stephen Robinson and Souichi Noguchi, they first prepared for EVA-1, a 6 hour 50 minute EVA with the crew attaching mounting hardware for ESP-2 onto the Quest airlock and testing various repair methods for the TPS. 

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EVA-2 was conducted on August 1st, 2005, taking 7 hours and 14 minutes. The sole purpose of EVA-2 was the replacement of the failed Control Moment Gyro in the Station's Z1 truss. Used for Station orientation the Z1 truss has 4 CMGs 2 of which are needed for attitude and an additional two for redundancy. With only three functioning the failure of another would result in no active redundancy for attitude control apart from precious fuel stored in the Russian Segment.

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EVA-3 conducted on August 3rd, of 2005, had 2 main objectives, position the External Stowage Platform 2 on the side of the Quest airlock, and remove the two gap fillers on the belly of the Shuttle.  But to reach the far side of the orbiter, the Station's robotic arm would grapple, the OBSS and Stephen Robinson would ride it to the belly and remove the gap fillers.

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After EVA-3 had concluded and the mission objectives met, the crew prepared to remove Raffaello from Unity and prepare to depart.

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At 05:14 UTC the hatches between the ISS and Discovery were closed and then undocked at 07:24 UTC ending the 8 day 19-hour stay aboard the ISS. The crew backed away conducted a fly-around of the station and then backed away to prepare for reentry procedures.

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After being delayed by weather at the Cape and being waved off by mission control twice, the crew prepared for landing a Edwards Airforce base on August 9th aft being waved off another two times by the Cape. At 04:09 AM PDT Discovery began the 2 minute 42 second deorbit burn and began to feel the effects of the atmosphere 28 minutes after the burn completed. 

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At 5:08 Eileen Collins took Control of Discovery for final approach. Discovery Touched down at Edwards Runway 22 at 5:11 AM PDT and reported Wheels Stop 1 minute and 1 second later, about an hour before sunrise. The crew exited Discovery at 7:13 PDT. Discovery would flown back to the Cape via the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. 

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This mission took a really long time to make and I'm sorry for the delay but I had a heck of a time making it! A lot of things I had been working on changing and fixing. For example, I changed the Mobile Launch Platform Edwards, those new SRB Plumes from the Lemon_Cup himself! and the Visual Setup, which took a lot of troubleshooting, to this day Venus and Titan are mysterious voids! In addition, I had been trying to figure out what was causing my screenshots to be fuzzy, which happened to be KSP Anti Aliasing and Scatterer Anti Aliasing blending my screen :P. Then I had a continuity error where Canadarm 2 should have been on Destiny instead of the MBS so I had to reshoot the RPM and docking part of the mission.

Due to the foam shedding on ascent, NASA stated that the earliest a Shuttle could be launched after STS-114 would be on 22 of September of 2005 but would eventually launch on the 4th of July 2006. The blame of both the Columbia disaster and the foam shedding on STS-114 had been blamed on the workers at Michoud Assembly Facility but x-ray photographs discovered that thermal expansion and contraction during filling of the tank caused the problems, exonerating the Michoud workers. NASA officials apologized to the workers.  While the work continued on fixing the Shuttle External tank issues for STS-121, the ISS would continue to need resupplies and crew rotations from the Roscosmos. 

Coming Up: ISS Operation during H2 2005 

Edited by Kuiper_Belt
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1 hour ago, pTrevTrevs said:

I’m gonna need a link to whatever mod that is which gets Edwards AFB into KSRSS.

Here it is! I manually placed it and rescaled it to a position I thought was adequate for the KSRSS terrain. The texture up close is rather pixely but that's to be expected with stuff like this :P. Enjoy!

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1 hour ago, pTrevTrevs said:

I’m gonna need a link to whatever mod that is which gets Edwards AFB into KSRSS.

You and me both ...one might think I was in cahoots on this one... but, it seems Kuiper_Belt has been cooking up surprises for all :0.0:

*Trying to pick one picture from STS-114 for a highlight reel:*
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11 hours ago, Kuiper_Belt said:

Here it is! I manually placed it and rescaled it to a position I thought was adequate for the KSRSS terrain. The texture up close is rather pixely but that's to be expected with stuff like this :P. Enjoy!

Ah okay! I know about that mod, but didn't think it would be compatible with KSRSS. Would you be able to provide instructions for how to properly implement it? I have a sort of rough Edwards AFB set up for my own save, but it's nothing compared to this.

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On 2/22/2022 at 7:22 AM, pTrevTrevs said:

Would you be able to provide instructions for how to properly implement it?

Well I can give you instructions on how I did it but whether its properly implemented is up to the eye of the beholder:sticktongue:! Without further adieu:

  1.  Spawn in a craft and then open the cheat menu or hyper edit and set yourself to Edwards Airforce Base's Location 34.9240° N and 117.8912° W.
  2.  Open your Kerbal Konstructs Menu (CTRL+K) and navigate to find "Edwards Land" and spawn it in.
  3. Set the Scale to 15 (I decided this by eyeballing the runway scale with the a SOCK Shuttle's Wingspan) and then find a nice place to put it down and then put it down
  4. You now have your very own Edwards Airforce Base!
  5. You could go through and line up structure with the correct orientation so the runways actually line up with their correct headings but I haven't done that as if yet. I'm not sure if they're already lined up or not... 

You can now enjoy landing your Shuttles on the sweet lake beds of California. And for viewing pleasure, some pictures of an STS-114 landing I did before I realized they landed at night :P

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Hopefully this helps you out!

Edited by Kuiper_Belt
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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey everyone, real life keeps us all busy from time to time and I'm thankful so many peeps understand that.

We are definitely committed to seeing the ISS Project through to completion and are nearly at the point where Station Construction resumes in full force! In the meantime, Kuiper_Belt and I have both been working together to pause and consolidate our efforts, and have some pretty drastic overhauls coming for the Station and mission designs.

Looking ahead in the not-too-distant future, we have:
   -the Soyuz-Progress missions of late-2005 coming up next, followed by
   -another chunk of them in the beginning of 2006, then
   -STS-121 - which is the second and final "Return to Flight" mission conducted by Space Shuttle Discovery
   -STS-115, the first construction mission following the fleet grounding of 03/04. Construction resumes with the delivery of the P3/P4 Truss!

Here's a quick look at what's coming soon!
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  • 3 weeks later...

The X-38 Crew Return Vehicle - An ISS Blueprints Special

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The X-38 CRV was a component planned to be provided by the United States to act as an escape pod in the event of an emergency on the Station. I've documented its history and its planned mission and demise in Shuttle Adventures! You can find parts 1 and 2 below.

I am quite proud of these missions and I believe the CRVs significance to the ISS warrants them being linked here! Check them out if you’d like and I'll leave you with a nice picture of the ISS in the CRV timeline prior to the deliver of the CRV:

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Edited by Kuiper_Belt
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Returning to the Earth like the Return of this Thread!

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Hopefully the thread wont crash and burn like the Progress will)

H-2 2005 Missions Coming Next Week!

P.S. Go Starliner!TlBFYlz.jpg

Edited by Kuiper_Belt
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12 hours ago, Kuiper_Belt said:

Returning to the Earth like the Return of this Thread!

P5QTDDp.jpg

Hopefully the thread wont crash and burn like the Progress will)

H-2 2005 Missions Coming Next Week!

P.S. Go Starliner!TlBFYlz.jpg

Glad to have the thread back :) 

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The International Space Station - H-2 2005 - Back To Business

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After the visit from Space Shuttle Discovery, the Space Station now must be prepared for further assembly. After a drought of assembly missions due to the Columbia disaster and subsequent grounding of the shuttle fleet, the Space Station would need to be restocked with more supplies, but before this happens the crew of Expedition 11 would need to step outside.

Expedition 11 EVA-1 - August 18th, 2005

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Expedition 11's only EVA had -several objectives including but not limited to, the retrieval of the retired Matroska Experiment and one Biorisk experiment canister, removal of the Micro-Particles Capturerer and Space Environment Exposure Device Experiments, and installation of a docking camera for the European Automated Transfer Vehicle. The crew would begin the EVA at 19:02 on August 18th.

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After 4 hours 58 minutes of work outside the Station the crew would reenter the Pirs airlock at 00:00 August 19th , after completing all objectives. This EVA was originally going to be followed up by a second EVA but was cancelled.

Departure of Progress M-53 - September 7th, 2005

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Progress M-53 after spending 80 days docked to the orbital laboratory would undock from the Zvezda at 10:25 UTC, carrying garbage to be disposed of as well as making space for Progress M-54.

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Eighty three days after the Mission began, Progress M-53 deorbited and burned up over the Pacific Ocean, carrying garbage generated by the ISS crew. 

Launch of Progress M-54  - September 8th, 2005

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Twenty three hours after the pervious undocking, Progress M-54 lifted off from Site 1-5 at Baikonur Cosmodrome to replace Progress M-53 carrying fuel and supplies for the soon to be growing station.  After liftoff, Progress would be placed in a 2 day rendezvous orbit with the ISS for docking at 14:42 UTC, September 10th.

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Once docked the crew opened the hatch and revealed -among other things- a radio transmitter for a satellite that would be deployed from the ISS the following year called SuitSat. SuitSat would however not be deployed by  Expedition 11 but Expedition 12, which was next to launch.

Launch of Soyuz TMA-7 - Delivery of Expedition 12 - October 1st, 2005

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With lift off at 08:55 local time Commander Valery Tokarev, Flight Engineer William McArthur and Spaceflight Participant Gergory Olsen lifted off from Site 1-5 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome  with a docking 49 hours from liftoff after coasting for 2 days in a rendezvous orbit. This would be the last mission for all of the crew. 

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Soyuz TMA-7 approached and docked with Pirs at 05:27 UTC  on October 3rd beginning a one week joint stay with the crew of Soyuz TMA-6 before their eventual departure. This would also mark the beginning of Soyuz TMA-7's 46 day stay attached to Pirs.

Return of Soyuz TMA-6 - The Departure of Expedition 12 - October 10th, 2005

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After 83 days attached to Zarya and 176 days attached to the Station in total Soyuz TMA-6 was filled up with the crew of Expedition 11 and Gregory Olsen to make the return trip to Earth. Soyuz TMA-6 undocked from Zarya at 21:49 UTC on October 10th.

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On October 11th at 06:09 local time, Soyuz TMA-6 would touch down in Kazakhstan marking the end of Sergei Krikalevs legendary space flight career. Now with Zarya's nadir port clear, Soyuz TMA-7 could move to free Pirs for a resupply craft. Before this, the crew would need to step outside.

Expedition 12 EVA-1 - November 7th, 2005

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Following Expedition 11's EVA expedition 12's EVA had two primary objectives, the installation of a camera on the P1 Truss segment to aid in future Truss Segment installation, and to jettison the Floating Potential Probe. The FPP was an instrument designed to measure the Plasma surrounding the Space Station and compare the electric potentials but had failed. The EVA began at 15:32 UTC on November 7th.

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After 5 hours and 22 minutes outside the orbiting lab, the crew entered at 20:54 UTC completing all objectives. Expedition 12 had completed the first Quest based EVA since April of 2003.

Soyuz TMA-7 Port Relocation - November 18th, 2005

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For 19 minutes, the Expedition 12 crew were apart from the ISS in their Soyuz moving from Pirs to Zarya's nadir port to allow a Progress to dock to Pirs in the future. At 08:46 UTC Soyuz TMA-7 undocked from Pirs and at 09:05 they we now attached to Zarya.ypY6rC6.jpggQPfbFv.jpgdNkc6M9.jpg

Launch of Progress M-55 - December 21st, 2005

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Launching aboard a Soyuz-U Progress M-55 lifted off at 23:38 local time from Site 1-5 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. After launch Progress M-55 entered a 2 day rendezvous orbit.

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The docking of Progress M-55 to the orbital outpost marks the end of visits to the Space Station for 2005, specifically at 19:46 UTC, December 23rd, 2005. The next year would see ISS construction resume with many more flights, both from Russia and the United States.

Hope this is a good return to the series. The Station was treated by Lemon again and boy does it show! Absolutely stunning! This was rather refreshing considering what life has been throwing at me in as well as from having taken a break from KSP! Can't wait to work on the series more. Hopefully you are just as excited as I am for the next missions. 

Up Next, H1 of 2006!

PS: GOOD JOB STARLINER!!!!

Edited by Kuiper_Belt
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