Back to the News Index

Defintions/Terms

Copyright © 2001 International Space Station Guide

ISS News & Mission: ISS Soyuz 2 / Soyuz TM-32 (Taxi Flight 1)

Mission Overview

The Crew: Commander: Talgat A. Musabaev Fligth Engineer: Yuri M. Baturin Passenger: Dennis Tito

Major Mission Goals: Replace the ISS Soyuz lifeboat with a new one First commerical flight of a passenger Small resupply items

Mission Plan Soyuz spacecraft provide emergency crew return capability on the station and have a limited working life guarantee of around 180 days, although based on routine system monitoring while in orbit this may be extended many days. The first Soyuz also delivered the ISS-1 crew, and its useful life was expiring as planned requiring a new Soyuz launch to replace it. Since the ISS-2 crew was delivered on the Shuttle (STS-100), the new Soyuz was delivered by a visiting crew of 2 cosmonauts and a passenger in similar style to many Salyut and Mir missions in past decades. After about a week on the station, the crew returnes to Earth in the old Soyuz, leaving their new Soyuz for many months of standby duty. A Simple Controversial Mission A series of visiting flights to replace old Soyuz lifeboats was built into space station plans for many years, just has they had been used with the Salyut and Mir stations. Eventually this was planned to be replaced by use of an American life boat, the Crew Return Vehicle. Many such Soyuz missions to Salyut 6, 7 and Mir had carried passengers launched by other nations or organizations for political or commercial reasons. For example, the flight of Japanese journalist Toehire Akiyama to Mir in December 1990 was an example of a passenger flying in space sponsored by an organization to partially finance the cost of the flight. It should be no surprise to anyone that Russia would continue this practice in the ISS, but the question was when they would start. The general process for approving flight of astronauts and cosmonauts had been established early in the program. Primarily, international agreements called for all partners to agree the crew member selections, and that the crew member should be trained to carry out the goals of their mission. 60 year old California investment banker, and former NASA engineer, Dennis Tito had expressed interest in a mission to Russian space officials for many years, and had been negotiating a flight to Mir before its reentry. So, with Russian finances short to pay for the ISS taxi flight, Tito was offered a position on the first ISS taxi flight to help pay for the mission. The only differences were that Tito would be the first passenger flight to be personally paid for his flight, making him a true tourist, and he should require some training by some other space agencies. Reports are that he paid roughly $20 Million, but the figure was kept secret. The money held in a trust and partially paid until after the flight when complete payment was to be made. NASA's reaction to Russia's plan to launch Tito on the first Soyuz taxi mission was harsh and lead to weeks of bitter statements back and forth between the ISS partners leading to questions of how the station would continue to be managed and future joint work. Tito performed a full visiting cosmonaut training program, which is a greatly shortened version of cosmonaut researcher training. Then he arrived with his crew mates at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, he was turned back. NASA wasn't ready to provide him training which from NASA's view point would prohibit his flight. Tito's cosmonaut crew mates did complete their NASA training, after protesting NASA's position. During the controversy, NASA Administrator at one point reportedly called a halt to American participation in some meetings with Russians, and Russia later reportedly forbid American press members from covering the launch at Baykonur. Press coverage for American networks was presumably to be provided by Russian employees and third parties.

The Argument NASA used former astronaut turned manager Bill Ready as spokesmen to defend the position that Tito's flight was dangerous and ill timed on TV talk shows. The NASA position was not very well supported and for example used the Progress-Mir collision as a potential danger, when no such operations were planned or even possible on Tito's flight. Another former astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, countered that the flight was a great idea, and not especially dangerous. NASA was simply trying to maintain the maximum control over the multinational International Space Station, to the point of ridiculous arguments. As late as April 27, NASA was pressing Russia to delay Tito's launch due to computer failures on the US portion of the station, while the Russian portion was operating normally. Russia refused to delay the planned launch maintaining its schedule, but agreed if there were cause not to dock to the station after the 2 day rendezvous, that the docking would be delayed up to a day. NASA also announced that due to the commercial nature of Tito's flight, audio and video coverage of the Soyuz mission would not contain any material related to Tito's flight and only 'normal' station activities. NASA does limit commercial endorsements due to the government funded nature of NASA's work. This also meant that a unique experience of a somewhat new point of view of a tourist was limited to the world audience and tarnish NASA's image since instead of finding a way to accomplish both, it decided to do nothing. Media contact with Tito was limited to short Russian video downlinks. Before Tito's flight, the ISS crew were asked what they felt about the commercial flight, they replied that they would warmly greet anyone who arrived at the station. Mission Results Tito was launched as planned April 28. Tito reported that he experienced some space sickness while on the Soyuz, but that it had quickly passed and that he felt great in space. Soyuz TM-32 docked with space station at 3:58 a.m. After normal leak checks, video showed the ISS-2 crew hugging Musabayev as he floated in, followed by Tito and Baturin. Musabayev commented that the ISS-2 crew had helped him open a stuck hatch between the Soyuz and the Zvezda Service Module. The cosmonauts received hugs from the ISS crew, but Tito did not, Tito said after the flight, "Jim Voss whispered to me, "I'm sorry I can't hug you - we were told not to do that." Titov and his crewmates were given a normal safety breifing by the station crew, and toured the entire station including the NASA portion, being warmly welcomed into the American sections as the station crew ignored the Earthly retoric about keeping him isolated in the Russian segment. Despite what was being said on the gound at the time, NASA work on the station was at a virtual halt due to the series of computer problems over the past few days, and the ISS crew was given a few days of rest and relaxation due to that and to rest up from the just departed shuttle resupply and assembly mission. Tito then began his vacation of making videos and observing the Earth, listening to music, and helping the crew with light tasks around the station."I've been putting out food and doing rather menial tasks to assist the crew and give them more time for their own work". "I am enjoying this so much. If I were allowed, I would spend several months up here in space." Musabayev conducted experiments on fruit flies adaptation to weightlessness, and Baturin carried out a series of experiments on crystal growth of charged particles in a plasma. The bickering on the ground continued during the flight, on May 3rd it was reported that an agreement was finally reached between NASA and Russia on Tito's flight. NASA administrator Daniel Goldin said Russia would have to pay if Tito disrupted work on the station (which there really wasn't much of since the crew was mostly resting). Goldin told a U.S. congressional subcommittee that NASA "will do an assessment and ... get a reimbursement, I want to assure you". Goldin additionally promised to give a bill to the already financially stressed Russian space agency, for the hours of work required by extra precautions and the "incredible stress" placed on NASA employees as they tried to ensure that Tito would not break anything or otherwise endanger the station. How such billing for 'stress' would be done wasn't specified, and any such billing would only reduce Russia's ability to safely run their part of the station responsible for propulsion, navigation, attitude control, and primary life support. Yuri Semyonov, Chief od RKK Energiya, said Mr Goldin's comments were "absolutely incompetent, to put it mildly." Russian flight controller Viktor Blagov said, "Tito's presence, according to our information, doesn't influence the program of the primary expedition or the visiting expedition at all". Tito Returns to Earth On May 5, Tito returned to Earth with Musabayev and Baturin in the Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft. There were no indications or reports that Tito's flight caused any problem for anyone. Tito said, "It was paradise. I just came back from paradise.". "It was a great flight, great landing, a soft landing," "My personal experience was well beyond my dreams. "Before flight he was worried "that I might not feel well in space, but I turned out to feel the best I felt in my entire life." "It's an experience that cannot be described,". "It is being in a different world, being in a different life." "I slept better than I have for years." Baturin said "In flight he was a very obedient and disciplined crew member, but on the second day after his return to Star City, he declined to perform certain rehabilitation procedures. He believed that they were not necessary." Musabayev said NASA's opposition to Tito's flight confounded him, especially because NASA had put many astronauts less qualified than Tito into space. For example, most visiting Shuttle crews have little or no experience of operating the Russian parts of the station, and before that, the Mir station, but Russia never talked of keeping these individuals out. NASA's early shuttle service flights to the ISS only carried one cosmonaut each, but the whole American crew was welcomed in the Russian parts of the station. Blagov said on May 3rd, he did not know of NASA's intentions to demand compensation, and said Moscow would continue sending tourists into orbit if the money can help support the country's space program and Moscow's commitments to the International Space Station. Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland during a May 9 hearing on NASA's 2002 budget request said the trip of Tito to was "outrageous", and "I'm very cranky about the Russians. This is like being pimps.", a Russian space agency spokesman said "Our relations are on the mend, it is politicians that generate problems, whereas engineers keep working together," Gorbunov said.

A complete guide to the Soviet manned space program from 1960 to 1990 Details & Order information

Sample of Chapter 5

email:issguide@attbi.com

Images: NASA, RKK Energia

All material unless otherwise indicated is Copyright © 2001 International Space Station Guide all rights reserved. Please write for permission to use material. Additional material Copyright © as shown or supplied by NASA.