WEEKLY WHINE

Not just collecting dust

It's time to rejoice now that Zvezda, the Service Module of the International Space Station, is now a part of the station. At 17:45 PDT TUE 25 JUL 2000, the ISS, at that time consisting of Zarya [Functional Cargo Block] and Unity [Node 1], docked with Zvezda to put the ISS program into turbo mode.

But please rejoice carefully. A Russian mission operations specialist drowned in the pool of an apartment complex that evening near Johnson Space Center. He was apparently celebrating Zvezda's docking with some friends, and alcohol probably played a role. This news dampened some of the celebrations on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.

Nonetheless, ISS assembly now gets more personal. A Progress cargo module will leave Kazakhstan for the ISS on SUN 06 AUG 2000. The next mission will be Assembly Flight 2A.2b, STS-106. The Atlantis orbiter, set to lift off on FRI 08 SEP 2000, will carry another SPACEHAB double module with additional equipment for Zvezda and the ISS's exterior. [2A refers to the second American flight. This mission was split into two components, 2A.1 and 2A.2, when Zvezda was first delayed. When it was delayed again, 2A.2 was split into 2A.2a and 2A.2b.]

2A.2b will be followed four weeks later by flight 3A, STS-92. Discovery will carry the Integrated Truss Structure Z1, the Pressurized Mating Adapter 3, and some communications and attitude control hardware. This will be the 100th mission in the Space Shuttle program.

Then, on MON 30 OCT 2000, it will be time for a crew. Expedition Crew 1 consists of Commander Bill Shepherd, Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko, and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev. Each has extensive space experience. Shepherd has flown on three Space Shuttle missions and served three years as the ISS's deputy manager. Gidzenko spent six months on Mir in 1995-6. Krikalev has been on Mir twice and on the Space Shuttle twice; he was the first cosmonaut in a Shuttle in 1994, and in 1998 he helped install Unity as a crewmember of STS-88. They are to lift off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on a Soyuz booster for a four month stay on the ISS.

A month into their stay, Endeavour will arrive for flight 4A, STS-97. It will install a set of photovoltaic arrays for additional power; the ISS's current power sources are the solar arrays on Zvezda and Zarya. Integrated Truss Structure P6 and a set of radiators will also be added.

The first flight of 2001 will bring the Destiny laboratory module on flight 5A, STS-98. Later, a Soyuz will carry Docking Compartment 1 and the Strela boom to the station on flight 4R. The next week, flight 5A.1, STS-102, will replace Shepherd, Gidzenko, and Krikalev with Expedition Crew 2: Commander Yury Usachev, Jim Voss, and Susan Helms.

Various other flights will outfit the components and add to the station's amenities. The ISS's next big milestone will then be flight 8A, set to launch in OCT 2001. It will carry Central Truss Segment S0 and the Mobile Transporter, which will allow the Canada arm to move along the length of the station's truss. Eight additional truss segments will be added as the assembly progresses.

Keep in mind, though, that this may change at any moment. The stuff listed here is revision E of the assembly sequence; stay up to date with the official assembly flight manifest at the ISS's site, http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/.

Here is a view of the ISS assembly sequence. Use the arrows to move forward or backward and the listbox to jump to a mission. Note that the graphics are for revision D of the assembly schedule, so they are no longer in the correct order. They're still useful, though. Special thanks to http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/ for the images, of course.