March 31
STS-76/Atlantis (Shuttle-Mir 3) landing
May 19-29
STS-77/Endeavour
May 21
1996 EVA 6 World EVA 142 Russian EVA 71 Space Station EVA 80
Duration: 5:20
Spacecraft/mission: Mir PE-21
Crew: Yuri Onufrienko, Yuri Usachev, Shannon Lucid (NASA) Spacewalkers: Yuri Onufrienko, Yuri Usachev
Purpose: Transfer MCSA from Docking Module to Kvant installation site; begin installation
For this EVA, the first since her arrival on Mir, U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid operated a video camera to record the cosmonauts' activities. Mir had relatively few viewports, preventing her from seeing the entire EVA. In a letter home to Earth, Lucid recounted the start of the EVA:
I hear them exiting the airlock and leaving the station... no sooner were they out the airlock, than Yuri was yelling at me to look out the window and start taking pictures. I looked out and there was my commander perched on the end of a very long white pole [Strela] arcing over the blue and white Earth below... My first thought when I saw this was, "Wow, the future is now. This is real space station work." For a number of years now, I have been seeing artist renditions of what it would be like when the International Space Station is being worked on in a routine manner by astronauts, but this was no artistic fantasy; this was real life.
Commander Onufrienko and Flight Engineer Usachev used the Strela boom installed in March to move to the Docking Module at the end of Kristall. There they removed the Mir Cooperative Solar Array (MCSA), jointly developed by NASA and RSA, and delivered attached to the Docking Module by Atlantis on STS-74. NASA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio managed the U.S. contribution to MCSA. The array was designed to help increase available Mir power, extending the station's life and supplying additional power for U.S. experiments. The cosmonauts secured MCSA to Strela, then moved it to Kvant, removed it from its container, and attached it to a mounting bracket. The cosmonauts returned to the Kvant 2 airlock using Strela and assembled a 1.2-m (3.9-ft) Pepsi can replica from aluminum struts and nylon sheets. The oversized replica was delivered by Progress M-31. They videotaped each other near the replica, then disassembled it for return to Earth. The videotape would be used by Pepsico in a commercial campaign.
"Lucid writes home about space walking protocol," Space News Roundup, NASA JSC, July 26, 1996, pp. 1, 4; "NASA Science comes to Mir," Neville Kidger, Spaceflight, September 1996, pp. 296; "Mir Cooperative Solar Array is Deployed/ISS Power Hardware Being Built and Tested," NASA press release 96-107, May 25, 1996.
May 24
1996 EVA 7 World EVA 143 Russian EVA 72 Space Station EVA 81
Duration: 5:34
Spacecraft/mission: Mir PE-21
Crew: Yuri Onufrienko, Yuri Usachev, Shannon Lucid (NASA) Spacewalkers: Yuri Onufrienko, Yuri Usachev
Purpose: Install and deploy MCSA on Kvant
Onufrienko and Usachev deployed the 18-m-long (59-ft-long) MCSA outside the Kvant module using a handcrank. The array, which unfolded like an accordion, had 84 "panel modules" of 80 silicon solar cells each. The cells were identical to those planned for use on the U.S. segment of the International Space Station. The cosmonauts linked the array to Mir's power supply, but the electrical cables used permitted power to be supplied from only half of the array. Fully operational, MCSA would supply 6 kW of electricity—at the end of this EVA, it supplied half that. A Progress-M supply ship would deliver new cables for installation on a future spacewalk.
"Lucid Writes Home About Space Walking Protocol," Space News Roundup, NASA JSC, July 26, 1996, pp. 1, 4; "NASA Science Comes to Mir," Neville Kidger, Spaceflight, September 1996, pp. 296; "Mir Cooperative Solar Array is Deployed/ISS Power Hardware Being Built and Tested," NASA press release 96-107, May 25, 1996; "Life on Mir with the Cosmonauts," Neville Kidger, Spaceflight, April 1997, pp. 115-116.
May 30
1996 EVA 8 World EVA 144 Russian EVA 73 Space Station EVA 82
Duration: 4:20
Spacecraft/mission: Mir PE-21
Crew: Yuri Onufrienko, Yuri Usachev, Shannon Lucid (NASA) Spacewalkers: Yuri Onufrienko, Yuri Usachev
Purpose: Install U.S.-built MOMS instrument outside Priroda module
The Modular Optoelectrical Multispectral Scanner (MOMS) device was launched inside Priroda for later EVA installation. MOMS flew on the STS-7 and STS 41-B Shuttle missions. Prior to the EVA, the cosmonauts planned their activities and positioned equipment in the airlock, then gathered together tools and placed them in their tool tray. To prepare for the EVA, which was scheduled for the middle of the night, the crew slept in, ate lunch, then slept again. Before entering the airlock, Commander Onufrienko placed a piece of red tape across controls Lucid was not to touch. While in the airlock he and Usachev asked her about station air pressure levels and the location of the complex over the Earth. Lucid found the EVA difficult to observe through Mir's few tiny ports. Radio communication with the EVA crew was excellent, Lucid reported, but there was little communication with the TsUP. The cosmonauts attached the MOMS to its site on Priroda's exterior. The cosmonauts referred to the male and female electrical connectors as "mamas" and "papas," which Lucid said made Mir feel "warm and homey."
"Lucid Writes Home About Space Walking Protocol," Space News Roundup, NASA JSC, July 26, 1996, pp. 1, 4; "NASA Science Comes to Mir," Neville Kidger, Spaceflight, September 1996, pp. 296.
June 6
1996 EVA 9 World EVA 145 Russian EVA 74 Space Station EVA 83
Duration: 3:34
Spacecraft/mission: Mir PE-21
Crew: Yuri Onufrienko, Yuri Usachev, Shannon Lucid (NASA) Spacewalkers: Yuri Onufrienko, Yuri Usachev
Purpose: Install sample cassettes; install micrometeoroid detectors
The cosmonauts moved to Spektr and replaced cassettes in the Swiss/Russian Kozma experiment, then installed the Particle Impact Experiment (PIE) and the Mir Sample Return Experiment (MSRE). They then installed the SKK-11 cassette, which exposed construction materials to space conditions.
"Lucid Writes Home About Space Walking Protocol," Space News Roundup, NASA JSC, July 26, 1996, pp. 1, 4; "NASA Science Comes to Mir," Neville Kidger, Spaceflight, September 1996, pp. 296.
June 13
1996 EVA 10 World EVA 146 Russian EVA 75 Space Station EVA 84
Duration: 5:42
Spacecraft/mission: Mir PE-21
Crew: Yuri Onufrienko, Yuri Usachev, Shannon Lucid (NASA) Spacewalkers: Yuri Onufrienko, Yuri Usachev
Purpose: Install Ferma-3 (Rapana) structure on Kvant; deploy Travers antenna
The Strombus (Ferma-3) was a 5.9-m (19.35-ft) truss made up of four sections. Onufrienko and Usachev assembled and installed the structure on Kvant's underside, then moved to Priroda and manually deployed the saddle-shaped Travers Synthetic Aperture Radar antenna. The cosmonauts closed out the last EVA of PE-21 by filming the final segment of the Pepsi commercial.
"Lucid Writes Home About Space Walking Protocol," Space News Roundup, NASA JSC, July 26, 1996, pp. 1, 4; "NASA Science Comes to Mir," Neville Kidger, Spaceflight, September 1996, pp. 296.
June 20-July 7
STS-78/Columbia
August 17
Soyuz-TM 24/Mir PE-22 launch
September 2
Soyuz-TM 23/Mir PE-21 landing
September 16-26
STS-79/Atlantis (Shuttle-Mir 4)
November 19-December 7
STS-80/Columbia
December 2
1996 EVA 11 World EVA 147 Russian EVA 76 Space Station EVA 85
Duration: 5:57
Spacecraft/mission: Mir PE-22
Crew: Valeri Korzun, Alexandr Kaleri, John Blaha (NASA) Spacewalkers: Valeri Korzun, Alexandr Kaleri
Purpose: Install Mir Cooperative Solar Array cables; move Rapana truss
Korzun and Kaleri installed a 23-m (75.5-ft) cable to double to 6 kW the amount of electricity provided by MCSA. This involved attaching the cable to the array, then trailing it to the socket for the Mir base block "top" solar array, which was no longer used because it was shadowed by Kvant 2. The cosmonauts then moved the Rapana girder to the top of the new Strombus girder on Kvant's underside.
"Life on Mir with the Cosmonauts," Neville Kidger, Spaceflight, April 1997, pp. 115-116; MirNews 337, Chris Vandenberg, December 3, 1996.
December 9
1996 EVA 12 World EVA 148 Russian EVA 77 Space Station EVA 86
Duration: 6:36
Spacecraft/mission: Mir PE-22
Crew: Valeri Korzun, Alexandr Kaleri, John Blaha (NASA) Spacewalkers: Valeri Korzun, Alexandr Kaleri
Purpose: Attach Kurs rendezvous radar antenna to Docking Module
Blaha, the third NASA astronaut to stay for an extended period aboard Mir, checked systems and executed Mir control commands provided him by the TsUP during this EVA, which lasted longer than planned. Korzun and Kaleri had difficulties handling cumbersome cable bundles when they installed a new omnidirectional Kurs antenna on the Docking Module. Before returning inside, they reattached a cable to an amateur radio antenna which they had knocked loose during their first EVA.
"Life on Mir with the Cosmonauts," Neville Kidger, Spaceflight, April 1997, p. 116, MirNews 338, Chris Vandenberg, December 9, 1996; "NASA 3/Mir 22 Status Report-13," December 13, 1996.
1997
January 12-22
STS-81/Atlantis (Shuttle-Mir 5)
February 10
Soyuz-TM 25/PE-23 launch
February 11
STS-82/Discovery launch
February 13
1997 EVA 1 World EVA 149 U.S. EVA 72 Shuttle EVA 34
Duration: 6:42
Spacecraft/mission: STS-82
Crew: Ken Bowersox, Scott Horowitz, Mark Lee, Greg Harbaugh, Steve Smith, Steve Hawley, Joe Tanner Spacewalkers: Mark Lee, Steve Smith
Purpose: HST repair; replace FOS with NICMOS; replace GHRS with STIS
Steve Hawley grappled HST with the RMS early on this date, at 3:34 a.m. Houston time, and about 30 min later berthed it on the Flight Support System in Discovery's payload bay. He then used the RMS camera to survey the telescope's exterior, detecting an orbital debris crater on the aft shroud that "looks like a volcano." Hawley deployed HST after its launch aboard Discovery on STS-31 in April 1990. Late on this date, Mark Lee, an EVA veteran, and EVA rookie Steve Smith commenced the second series of HST servicing EVAs (HST SM-02). The astronauts had more than 150 tools. Two of the astronauts wore EMUs incorporating improvements for ISS use. Lee and Smith entered the airlock, which, during Discovery's just-completed maintenance period in California, was moved outside of the crew cabin. This was done to create more space in the middeck and to better position the airlock for ISS use. They left the airlock after a delay of several min caused when one of HST's twin 12.2-m (40-ft) solar arrays windmilled through a quarter turn and bounced back. Postflight analysis showed that air vented from the airlock was funneled through thermal blankets in Discovery's payload bay and vented onto the array. The crew reported that the event lasted only 5 sec. The first 17 deg of rotation required 14 sec, then the SADE automatically powered off, cutting telemetry. Total motion through 120 deg required 60 sec. In postflight debrief Lee accounted for the discrepancy between the inflight crew estimate and postflight analysis by saying that the crew witnessed only the last part of the event. Smith rode the RMS while Hawley operated it. The astronauts removed the GHRS and replaced it with the 318-kg (700-lb) Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). The GHRS had suffered partial electrical system failure on February 7. The astronauts noted that yellow paint was flaking off HST handrails, raising the possibility that they might contaminate its delicate inner workings. Lee and Smith then removed the Faint Object Spectrograph, the last of the original science instruments launched on HST, and replaced it with the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). Ground controllers determined that the NICMOS and STIS instruments were operating and ready for their calibration period, which would last until May. (During the calibration period, controllers determined that NICMOS camera 3 could not be focused.) The EVA concluded at 6:17 a.m. Houston time on February 14.