Steps of ISS assembly
The Progress Ml-7 transport cargo vehicle was launched
on November 26, 2001 from the Baikonur cosmodrome. The launch
objective was the station transport and logistics support.
The vehicle was docked to the axial docking port of the
Russian Zvezda Service Module, on November 28, however,
at the final phase of mating the active Docking Assembly
(DA) with the passive docking assembly of the Zvezda Module
an Off-Nominal Situation occurred. This situation did not
allow to complete nominal docking timeline. To recover from
it the crew of ISS-3 performed an EVA on December 3, 2001.
During the EVA performed from the Russian docking compartment
- Pirs module, cosmonauts M. Turin and V. Dezhurov removed
a foreign object from DA of the Zvezda Module. This object
turned out to be a sealing rubber ring of the active docking
assembly of the Progress M-45 vehicle, which had remained
their since undocking on November 22, 2001. As a result
of this EVA, the vehicle docking with the ISS was finally
completed. The vehicle delivered the following to the ISS:
about 2.4 tones of cargoes including propellant for refueling
the Service Module united propulsion system. Among the delivered
cargoes there were food rations, fresh fruit, potable water,
equipment intended for the orbital station systems, scientific
equipment, flight documentation, parcels for the crew members
and many others.
On March 19, 2002, undocking of the Progress M1-7 vehicle
from the Russian Zvezda Service Module was performed. On
March 20, following the vehicle retreat to a safe distance,
Russian-Australian Kolibri
science-educational micro-satellite was launched from
it, and the TCV was deorbited along a descent trajectory
to the specified area of the World Ocean.
The U.S. Shuttle Orbiter Endeavour was launched on December 6, 2001 (DMT) and during mission STS-108 (the ISS assembly program, flight number: UF-1) it docked with the ISS. The
crew members were Dominic Gorie (commander). Mark Kelly
(pilot), Linda Godwin, Daniel Tani, Yuri Onufrienko, Carl
Walz and Daniel Bursch (mission specialists).
The mission objective was delivery of Expedition
Four crew (ISS-4) consisting of Yuri Onufrienko, Carl
Walz and Daniel Bursch to the ISS and return of Expedition
Three crew (ISS-3) consisting of Frank Culbertson, Vladimir
Dezhurov, Mikhail Turin who had been operating onboard the
Orbital Complex since August 12, 2001, to the Earth and
also delivery of cargoes in the Italian Rafaello pressurized
module. In the course of the joint flight of the Orbiter
and the Station the U.S. astronauts performed an EVA during
which operations on thermal insulation of solar array actuators
were implemented on the U.S. Segment. Four orbital reboost
maneuvers of the ISS were performed using the Orbiter thrusters.
The Endeavour crew performed undocking on December 15 and
landing to the Earth on December 17.
On March 21, 2002, the Soyuz-U LV with the Progress M1-8 transport cargo vehicle was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome;
on March 24 the Progress TCV was docked in an automatic
mode to the Zvezda Service Module propulsion compartment.
The objective of the launch is to provide ISS maintenance
including delivery of about 2.4 t of different cargoes to
the station; the cargo includes more than 780 kg of fuel
to support life and operation of the Prime Expedition Four
crew and forthcoming Russian Visiting Expedition Three.
On June 25, 2002, the Progress M1-8 TCV was undocked from
the ISS and following a retroburn it was deorbited along
a descent trajectory to the specified area of the Pacific
Ocean.
On April 8, 2002, the U.S. Shuttle Atlantis STS-110 was launched (the ISS deployment program, the mission number
is 8A) that was docked to the ISS on April 10. The crew
included NASA astronauts Michael Bloomfield (commander),
Stephen Frick (mission's pilot), Rex Walheim, Ellen Ochoa,
Lee Morin, Jerry Ross and Steve Smith (mission specialists).
The mission objective is to deliver and install onto the
station the center segment of the ISS Main Truss (section
S0) with a Mobile Transporter installed on it and designed
for moving of astronauts and cargoes along the Main Truss
by special rails, as well as telescopic ladder to make easier
astronauts and cosmonauts travel during EVA. During the
joint flight the U.S. astronauts performed four spacewalks.
The Atlantis engines performed three corrections of the
ISS orbit. On April 17 the Atlantis crew implemented the
Shuttle undocking and on April 19 the landing was performed.
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