General Designer’s Review Held In Moscow

The General Designer’s Review on the International Space
Station Russian Segment was held (led by the Review Chairman,
Technical Director of the Russian Manned Programs, General
Designer, the RAS academician Yu.P. Semenov).

The Review’s meeting held at S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space
Corporation Energia considered the progress reports on the
International Space Station (ISS) effort from October 2003
through March 2004, as well as on their readiness for implementing
the Program next stage.

Yu. J. Grigoriev, Deputy General Designer of S.P. Korolev
RSC Energia, briefed on the main accomplishments reached
during Expeditions 7 and 8 (ISS-7 and ISS-8) to the International
Space Station, the proposals for the Mission Program associated
with Expedition 9 (ISS-9) and Visiting Crew 6 (VC-6); dwelt
upon the current technical state of the station and the
progress in prelaunch processing of the Soyuz TMA-4 manned
spacecraft.

Among those delivering reports were also the following persons:

• General Designers, responsible representatives from
  the enterprises developing and manufacturing the systems,
  who focused on the issues of operational readiness of
  the spacecraft, launch vehicle and Launch Complex for
  launch;
• V.V. Tsibliev (Head of RGNII’s CTC after Yu.A. Gagarin),
  who focused on the flight readiness of ISS-9 and VC-6
  Expedition Crews;
• V.V. Bogomolov (Deputy Director of the Institute for
  Medical-Biological Problems), who concentrated on the
  health state of the ISS-8, ISS-9 and VC-6 crews;
• V.A. Soloviev (Manager of Lead Operational Control Team
  (LOCT); Head of Division at S.P. Korolev RSC Energia,
  Pilot-Cosmonaut), who dwelt upon the ISS flight progress,
  Mission Control documentation readiness, the LOCT personnel
  and crews readiness for the Soyuz TMA-4/ISS docking operations
  to be performed;
• A.T. Goryachenkov (Deputy General Director of TsNII
  of Machinebuilding), who spoke about the Conclusion drawn
  by this organization at Federal Space Agency (FSA) on
  the ISS technical state and launch readiness of the Soyuz
  TMA-4 spacecraft.

The Launch preparations are under way in the ISS-9 prime
crew involving the following persons: Russian Cosmonaut
Gennady Padalka (Spacecraft Commander, ISS-9 Commander)
and American Astronaut Michael Fink (ISS-9 Flight Engineer,
Spacecraft Flight Engineer-2). The spacecraft crewmembers
also include the citizen of Netherlands, the European Space
Agency’s (ESA) astronaut Andre Kuipers (Spacecraft Flight
Engineer-1). He will be working under VC-6 Program (Delta
Project) at the station and return to Earth together with
ISS-8 crewmembers by the Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft.
Flight tasks set to ISS-9 crew:

• support the operations to undock the Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft,
  Progress M1-11 cargo space vehicle; to dock and undock
  the Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft; to dock, unload and undock
  the Progress M-49 cargo space vehicle, to dock (including
  unloading) the Progress M-50 cargo space vehicle, to dock
  the Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft;
• maintain the station functionality;
• perform two space walks into open space;
• implement the program of scientific and applied research;
• return to Earth by the Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft.

The Program of scientific and applied research in the ISS-9
stage involves conduct of 42 experiments, of which 39 experiments
are to be carried out under the Russian Program. A total
of 191 sessions will be conducted with the scheduled time
of 132 hours allotted for them.
The experiments program to be carried out by the astronaut
of Dutch nationality includes conduct of 58 sessions relating
to 24 experiments.
The General Designer’s Review having considered the ISS
technical state, state of flight readiness of the Soyuz
TMA-4, progress of the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle and Launch
Complex prelaunch processing, personnel readiness of the
Russian and American ground processing aids and mission
control services, crew readiness for implementing the station
and spacecraft Mission Program, as well as taking into account
positive conclusions on operations readiness of the spacecraft
and the International station as a whole, has resolved to
approve the following:

• ISS Program effort accomplishments from October 2003
  through March 2004;
• the test results and the forthcoming work plan for the
  Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft prelaunch processing for the scheduled
  replacement of the Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft at the station
  and VC-6 Expedition implementation with return to the
  ground of Russian cosmonaut Alexandr Kalery (Commander
  of the Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft, ISS-8 Flight Engineer),
  NASA astronaut Michael Foale (Flight Engineer of the Soyuz
  TMA-3 spacecraft, ISS-8 Commander) and the citizen of
  Netherlands, ESA’s astronaut Andre Kuipers;
• Research and Experiments Program during Expedition ISS-9
  scheduled to last 183 days, whose crewmembers are expected
  to involve two persons: Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka
  and NASA astronaut Michael Fink;
• 11-day VC-6 Expedition Program envisaging flight of
  ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers with the aim to conduct the
  experiments and studies developed by the Russian scientists
  and ESA member countries, including those within the Delta
  Project.

The Review meeting was attended by the representatives of
FSA, NASA, ESA, the industry-wide enterprises and organizations
involved in the Project implementation.

The Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft is slated to be launched on April
19, 2004 at 7 hours 18 minutes Moscow Time.