ISSCOM.026 25 April 2002
Soyuz-TM34: This transport ship was launched
from Baykonur on 25.04.02 at 06.26.25UTC. A good 8 minutes later the cosmonauts,
Gidzenko (commander) and the 2 semi-trained astronauts, the South African
millionaire Shuttleworth and the Italian Vittori reached space. Their call signs
are Uran-1, 3 and 2, resp.
But as expected everything went flawlessly and after four and a half
hours after the launch the radio traffic could be monitored in the Netherlands.
Marco
Polo: The taxi crew, that will stay on board of the ISS for a short period is
named “Marco Polo crew”.
Communications:
During
the pass in orbit 3 the S-TM34 came within range of the Netherlands between
09.29.41 and approx. 09.31.50UTC.
Gidzenko,
a cosmonaut with a great experience, reported that the crew was about to
transfer to the BO (life compartment). The crew had taken off the space suits
and checked the air tightness of the ship. The crew was still in the SA (landing
apparatus) for the execution of the 1st orbit correction.
During
the pass over the Netherlands in orbit 4 (1102-1105UTC) Gidzenko reported the
correct execution of the 2 impulse manoeuvres. The rotation of the ship was just
going on. About the correction
impulses Gidzenko also said that the deviations were less than one
hundredth.
The last
pass over the Netherlands in which radio traffic could be heard today was number 5 (1235-1238UTC). Apart from telemetry in the 166 mc band,
voice could be monitored via 121.750 mc. Gidzenko asked TsUP-M to give a
schedule about communication windows during the night. During those reported periods the S-TM34 will be out
of range of the Netherlands.
TsUP-M told Gidzenko that the test and experiment with the RO (manual
orientation) will be cancelled. Gidzenko said that he did not understand why and
added that they can use that time among other activities to dry their space
suits.
Estimated
time of arrival of the S-TM34 at
the ISS:
27.04.02
at 0757UTC plus or minus 3 minutes. (ESA gave 0752UTC).
If there
might be a failure with the
automatic approach Gidzenko will take over manually, for which we can trust him
for 100%.
During the first pass of the complex over the
Netherlands that day during
ISS-orbit number 19609 (0740-0747UTC) voice communications about the approach
operation can be heard via 3 channels:
Onufrienko via 143.625 mc and Gidzenko via
121.750 and/or 130.165 mc.
The hatches between ISS and the S-TM34 will be
opened at about 0925UTC. So also during the 2nd pass for the
Netherlands during ISS orbit number 19610 (0914-0924UTC) traffic is
also still possible on the above
mentioned channels.
If the Marco Polo expedition will be
executed according to plan, its crew will return to earth with the S-TM33
on 5.05.02 and land in Kazakhstan at about 0400UTC.
Chris van den Berg,
NL-9165/A-UK3202.
