Masthead
March 2001

FarewellMir, we knew you well. I shall miss Mir not just because it was a dependable source of news for 'Launchpad', but because for most of my life it has been THE space station. During its 15 years in orbit, Mir travelled over 3 billion miles, hosted the longest ever stay in space by a human, survived fires, computer failures, and even being rammed by a bus-sized resupply ship - never did get to the bottom of who was responsible for that one.

All in all, not a bad showing for a craft that was designed to last 5 years. You have to hand it to that Russian technology - whatever it may lack in finesse it more than makes up for in durability. I shall not forget my last glimpse of Mir on the day before re-entry, as I stood on the beach with a friend who wanted to know where Mir was. The air was uncharacteristically clear - even Rangi wasn't up to his usual trick of bedevilling sky-gazers with clouds. We looked up the valley and saw, smack on time, a small star rising rapidly almost straight up through the constellation Orion. I heard someone give a loud "Woooohoooo!" as if a firework had just gone off. Mission control had tilted the solar panels to point at the sun so as to recharge Mir's batteries, so she wasn't at her brightest. But she rose up, giving us enough time to try and spot some kind of detail with my big binoculars, before winking out overhead as she passed into the Earth's shadow. Her next visible pass, we knew, would be her last.

I came back from work early on Friday to watch the Mir special on CNN News. From the timing and the descent track they were giving, it looked like all 140 tonnes of Mir stayed together in a fairly compact cluster of maybe only 4 or 5 large bits. These sections, being constructed to what I like to call 'agricultural engineering standards' probably came down as heavier, denser lumps than anticipated. The debris impacted with the Pacific ocean unobserved, towards the New Zealand end of the intended drop zone, 160 degrees west by 40 degrees south, as per the picture on the left.

She couldn't be seen from NZ, but the residents of Fiji had grandstand seats. Sun Air pilot Neli Vuatalevu watched it from the cockpit of his light plane. "It was spectacular. The best fireworks I've ever seen. I don't think I'll see anything like it again in my life," he said. A Viking Funeral in the space age.

Because of its commitments to the International Space Station (ISS) Alpha, Russia can no longer afford to run a project on the scale of Mir, but knows that this will not always be so. There is talk of Mir Dva (Mir Two) among Russian space agency personell, and a recognition that Russia is not going to rest on its laurels and let a pioneering mission every bit as challenging as the Apollo flights just slope off and die like the moon landings did. Russia showed the world how to run a space station - at one point Russia even had two space stations when Salyut and Mir were orbiting at the same time. The American Skylab - essentially a fitted out Saturn V fuel tank - went up and fell down in a most ungainly manner. The Soviet Union collapsed, the Berlin wall came down and still Mir flew overhead albeit with a somewhat concerned crew. She survived fire, collision, mutant fungus, Russian humour and bad language; now she's been brought down by the dollar and that sucks.

The space station game is far from over. The ISS is still two thirds Russian construction and there is a new player in town - China. The first Taikonauts will go into space next year, and knowing China I can make a couple of predictions here: The first Chinese space station won't be far behind, and it'll be designed to last a hundred years. But whatever happens I'll never forget that Mir paved the way.

Mum! NASA Won't Share!

In a mood every bit as adult as my two kids arguing over who should empty the dishwasher, NASA is refusing to allow Dennis Tito into "their" parts of the ISS. Tito, you may recall, is the ex-NASA employee who has put up US$20 million to fly into space. Originally, he was to have travelled to Mir, but as that now requires a submarine rather than a space rocket the venue has been changed. The next flight to the ISS by a Russian Soyuz spacecraft is due in April - they have to swap the Soyuz lifeboat on the ISS for a new one because the existing one is approaching its use-by date. This craft has a crew of two and three seats, so Tito will be sitting in the spare. Russia notified NASA of this as they are required to do, and NASA didn't give its permission - except NASA's permission is not actually needed. So when the three cosmonauts turned up for their additional training at NASA and were told that there were only two places for them, they said "OK, so let us know when we can all train together," and walked away again.

The European Space Agency (ESA) said they'd like to fly an astronaut up in the Soyuz so the Russians kindly offered to replace one of their Russian crew members with a European. No thanks, said ESA, they didn't think that it was safe. What confidence they must have in their astronauts. To be frank, Tito's US$20 million represents 13% of the entire Russian annual space budget and they can't afford not to fly him. Also, the current ISS captain is a Russian which gets round any you-don't-have-permission-to-board problems so they won't want to wait until the next Soyuz flight.

NASA also balk on safety grounds. He's a civilian, they say, he'll get in the way like they did on that submarine which tried mating with a Japanese trawler. But that civilian is a fully-trained cosmonaut with many years of experience working for NASA designing flight hardware. The US has launched 3 senators on freebie tickets in the shuttle and never worried much about civilians then. I can only assume that NASA is having a very bad attack of the sour grapes.

ISS Second Crew In Charge

You wanted some good news? Well, the second crew is now up and in charge of the ISS. The shuttle Discovery docked on the 10th March while flying somewhere over New Zealand bringing with it the Expedition Two crew of Susan Helms, Jim Voss and commander Yuri Usachev who takes over from Bill Sheppard. The last crew came up on a Soyuz and stayed for 141 days. The new crew will have the honour of living in space on the 12th April; the 40th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin making the first manned spaceflight, and also the 20th anniversary of the first shuttle flight.

The new crew are supplied with gear from the Italian Leonardo resupply module brought up with the shuttle, and after a false start with the fire alarm (wups!) are settling in to prove that the ISS is mankind's new and only outpost on the high frontier.

This edition is also on the web, just point your web browser to http://olliver.family.gen.nz.   vik@olliver.family.gen.nz.

"A girl with a future avoids the man with a past." - Evan Esar, "The Humor of Humor"
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