Landing of Soyuz TMA-3 descent vehicle

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
about the landing of Soyuz TMA-3 descent vehicle



April 30, 2004. Korolev, Moscow Region.

The Expedition 8 crew of the International Space Station (ISS) consisting of
Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri (Soyuz TMA-3 commander, ISS-8 flight
engineer, instructor-testing cosmonaut of RSC Energia), U.S. astronaut
Michael Foale (Soyuz TMA-3 flight engineer, ISS-8 commander, NASA) and
European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andre Kuipers, Soyuz TMA-3 flight
engineer, the sixth visiting crew (VC-6) flight engineer, citizen of the
Netherlands returned to Earth in Soyuz TMA-3 descent vehicle (DV).
The spacecraft undocked from the Pirs module of the Russian Segment on April
30, 2004 at 0:52 Moscow time on command from the Mission Control Center in
Moscow (MCC-M).
The spacecraft flight in a flyback phase was implemented in the automatic
controllable descent mode. The designed deorbit burn of the spacecraft
propulsion system, that was activated at 3:20, transferred the spacecraft to
a descent trajectory, in which at 3:45 the spacecraft was nominally
separated into the descent vehicle, habitation and instrumentation
compartments. At 3:48 DV made a reentry and at 4:12 landed in the prescribed
area located at a distance of about 60 km to the north-east of Arkalyk,
Republic of Kazakhstan (coordinates of the specified landing point: 50.38° N
and 67.20° E). The DV parachute descent and soft landing were implemented
according to the nominal operation program of the landing system.
The crew and DV were rapidly evacuated from the landing site according to
the regulations by using the search and rescue team personnel and means.
During the final flight operations of Soyuz-TMA-3 manned spacecraft MCC-M
was attended from the Russian party by A.N. Perminov, Director of Federal
Space Agency (FSA), N.F. Moiseev and V.A. Grin, Co-chairmen of the State
Board, Yu. P. Semenov, Technical Director of Russian Manned Space Programs,
General Designer of S.P. Korolev RSC Energia, Academician of the Russian
Academy of Sciences, V.V.Tsibliev, Director of Yu.A. Gagarin CTC RGNII, N.A.
Anfimov, General Director of TsNII of Machine-Building, Academician of RAS,
FSA representatives, leading specialists of RSC Energia, Russian enterprises
and organizations participating in the implementation of the ISS program;
from the US party by Sean O'Keefe, NASA Administrator; from the Europeans
partners involved in the ISS Project by Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director
General, and Jorg Feustel-Buechl, Director of Manned Spaceflight and
Microgravity, relatives and friends of Soyuz TMA-3 crewmembers.
The objectives of the ISS-8 expedition and VC-6 flight were successfully
fulfilled.
During a nine-day mission onboard the Space Station ESA astronaut Andre
Kuipers performed scientific experiments and investigations in the frame of
the Delta mission.
Before going down to the Earth, Soyuz TMA-3 crew stowed about 60 kg of
cargoes in the descent vehicle with the experiment results received under
the Russian, US, European and commercial programs, trained emergency escape
and descent operations. The crew also performed all necessary medical
investigations and physical exercises in preparation for the de-orbit.
Soyuz TMA-3 that was in orbit 195 days, of which 193 days it was used as a
crew rescue vehicle as part of the International Space Station, and was
replaced with Souz-TMA-4, that delivered the ISS 9 Expedition crew to the
Station, i.e. Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka (commander) and US astronaut
Michael Fincke (flight engineer).
Soyuz TMA spacecraft being a modification of Soyuz spacecraft for operation
in the frame of the ISS Project were developed by S.P. Korolev RSC Energia
staff in cooperation with the subcontractors of the Russian rocket and space
industry, and have been flying since November 2002.
Soyuz TMA-3 reentry flight was commanded by the Lead Operational Control
Team (LOCT) at MCC-M (Flight Director is Pilot-Cosmonaut V.A. Soloviev),
that worked in close cooperation with the specialists of the U.S. Mission
Control Center (Houston).
The ISS Orbital Complex is flying in a near-earth orbit with the following
parameters: maximum and minimum altitudes of 387.1 and 357.9 km,
respectively, period of 91.7 min, and inclination of 65.64°.
The ISS Orbital Complex of about 181.4 tons is operating in orbit in the
following configuration: Functional Cargo Block Zarya, Service Module
Zvezda, Docking Module/Compartment Pirs, manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-4,
cargo vehicle Progress M1-11 (Russian Segment), as well as modules Unity,
Destiny and airlock Quest and multi-link truss structure with the deployed
solar arrays (U.S. On-Orbit Segment).
The ISS-9 crew continues the flight program in-orbit activities.
Following the report about Soyuz TMA-3 DV landing and crew evacuation, a
briefing for all present journalists was held at MCC-M. The briefing was
attended by A.N. Perminov, Yu.P. Semenov, S. O'Keefe, J-J Dordain,
J.F.Buechl, V.V. Tsibliev, who congratulated all people, who were present
and participated in the mission implementation, on successful completion of
the ISS-8 and VC-6 flight programs, reported about the performed flight
activities and further prospects of the station assembly with regard to the
resumption of the Space Shuttle flights, and answered questions of the
journalists.




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Jacques :-)

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