ISSCOM.040 – Internation al Space Station Communications

Communications during the first 2 days of the flight of the Soyuz-TMA3:

For almost a week the news of the flight of the Chinese Yang-Liwei fully superseded the attention of space flight professionals and hobbyists for the upcoming S-TMA3 flight to the ISS.  For us in the Netherlands this flight has an extra dimension for ESA cosmonaut, the Dutchman André Kuipers is the second man in the stand-in crew.

He accompanied his Spanish colleague Pedro Duque. There had been the possibility that André and his crew had to make this flight. Fortunately  Pedro and his crew were fit and well and so André remained stand-in, but nevertheless André is very much involved in this mission. He morally supported his colleague Pedro until the start and will assist him as Capcom at TsUP-Moscow. 

So for me as a kind of ‘space flight elder’ the Saturday morning of the 18th of October was double exciting. In accordance with our long experience with Russian launches  this one also took place precisely at the planned time: 05.38.03UTC.

Radio communications started this day with a contact of the ISS with TsUP-M. TsUP gave Malenchenko information about the S-TMA3 and Malenchenko stated that he and Lu were very satisfied and that they impatiently waited for the relief crew and Pedro.

During the 3rd pass (at about 0838UTC) Kaleri told TsUP that they had entered the BO (life compartment) and that they had taken off their space suits.

The ISS came in range at 0859UTC during orbit 28025. Malenchenko underwent a medical test by a lady at TsUP. The channels used were 130.165 and 143.625 mc and this caused the well known cross-modulation and interference from an air traffic control channel.

In orbit 4 of the S-TMA3 Kaleri reported the good results of 2 orbit corrections and he mentioned a problem with a ventilator in the BO.

In orbit 5 TsUP-M gave Kaleri a schedule for communication sessions and eventual orbit corrections by the SKD (Engine system for corrections).

On the second day of the flight, 19.10.2003, when S-TMA3 came in range for the 1st time, TsUP spoke about a ship. Kaleri asked where this ship was. (Here for me it was not yet clear which ship was involved,)

During the next orbit (orbit 19)  traffic started with a contact between Kaleri and the tracking ship Kosmonavt Georgiy Dobrovolskiy. The quality of the communications varied a lot but at last there was a short conversation. The KGD congratulated the crew of Kaleri with the successful launch. The conversation revealed that the KGD in the future could be used in the tracking infrastructure, but thus far the ship was still lying in the harbour (whether this was Kaliningrad or St. Peterburg was not clear).

After this conversation Kaleri spoke with TsUP about the replacement of a purification cartridge.  The new one functioned flawlessly. 

Estimated arrival of the S-TMA3 at the ISS:

The soft mate of the S-TMA3 at the Pirs docking compartment is on schedule for 20.10.03 at 0720UTC.

The first pass of both objects for the Netherlands is during ISS orbit 28054 between 0701 and 0708UTC so possibly the radio traffic about the approach can be monitored here.

Chris van den Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.