The 10th Expedition Crew to ISS lifted off in their TMA-5 Soyuz Vehicle, atop the venerable Starsem booster, from Baykonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 13 October 2004 at 10:06 PM CDT (3:06 14 October GMT). This marked the beginning of 193 days on orbit for this Crew. The crew of TMA-5 consisted of Cosmonauts Salizan Sharipov (Soyuz Commander - Expedition 10 Flight Engineer), Yuri Shargin (Russian Space Forces), and Astronaut Leroy Chiao (Expedition 10 Commander and Science Officer). Shargin returned to Earth one week later with Expedition 9 Crew aboard the TMA-4 Soyuz.

TMA-5 Docked With ISS on 15 October at 11:16 PM CDT (4:16 16 October GMT). During their six and a half month stay aboard, the Crew mounted Two EVAs (Extra-Vehicular Activity or spacewalk) from the PIRS docking and airlock compartment wearing Russian Orlan Spacesuits. The EVAs took place on 26 January 2005, and 28 March 2005. Both were successful, and accomplished all their goals.

Twenty-two major scientific experiment programs (pdf file 2.49mb) were carried out during Expedition 10. These included studies in Bioastronautics, the Physical Sciences, Space Product Development, and Space Flight.

There were several nagging problems with the Elektron oxygen generating system, and the Vozdukh CO2 scrubbing equipment. These problems persisted until STS-114 / Discovery visited ISSy in July/August 2005, bringing up parts and supplies needed to finally stem the failures. Just a few days before Expedition 10 returned to Earth, another of the Control Moment Gyros, for keeping the station under control, failed. This too was repaired once and for all during the visit of STS-114.

The arrival of the Expedition 11 Crew on 16 April 2005, with Italian Astronaut Roberto Vittori, signalled the final days of Expedition 10. Sharipov, Chiao, and Vittori undocked their TMA-5 Soyuz from ISSy on 24 April 2005. They initiated their deorbit burn, and executed re-entry. They made a safe landing near Arkalyk in Kazakhstan later that same evening. Over all, Expedition 10 was a happy and successful mission.

On Wednesday, 26 January 2005, the hardy Crew of ISS Expedition 10 set out on the first EVA of their increment aboard the station. (NASA report HERE) Commander Leroy Chiao, and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov, donned the Orlan spacesuits, and exited the hatch of the PIRS module at 1:43AM CST.

The mission to install several new experiments on the outside hull of the Zvezda Service Module (Living Quarters & Life Support), and inspect the exterior vents relating to the Electron oxygen generating and Vozdukh CO2 scrubbing systems, went very well. The vents proved to have some interesting deposits around them. There was some suspicion that clogging of these vents might have contributed to several system failures over the last few months. Photographs were snapped of the residue, for later analysis on the ground.

Only one minor glitch occurred; a power connection to the new robotic arm experiment (ROKVISS : also another article available as a PDF® File 89kb) was not working correctly. This problem was quickly rectified with a little extra elbow grease on the part of the crewmen.

The men stayed ahead of their timeline throughout the operation, and returned to the airlock, resealing the hatch about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. The spacesuits performed flawlessly, and all of the mission goals were met satisfactorily.

At the very beginning of the live coverage of EVA 10a, the NASA commentator announced that there would be NO live downlink television from ISS during the operation. It was claimed that this was due to the temperature of the Ku band dish antenna! In 47 years of following not only ISSy, but the Shuttle, Shuttle/MIR, Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs as well, this was absolutely the first time this sort of excuse for no live TV has EVER come up! More on this HERE.

The predicted total loss of live TV coverage mysteriously failed to happpen, however. We were treated to plenty of live TV during this spacewalk.

The animated GIF at left is designed to help orient you to the scene. The anomaly can be found within the yellow circle. Its direction of travel is indicated by the red arrow.

The blue box roughly outlines the area of enlargement in the GIFs below.

The numbers identify the Man and major components in view.

1. Astronaut and Station Commander Leroy Chiao in his Orlan Spacesuit, is working hard on the outside of Zvezda in this scene.

2. PIRS docking and airlock compartment.

3. FGB, or Zarya Module.

4. Zvezda, or Service Module. This module provides the life support and living quarters aboard the station.

5. Progress 16 robotic supply vehicle docked to the aft end of Zvezda.

6. Solar Panel attached to the outer hull of Zvezda.

Now, let's take a look at the strange object which appeared during the spacewalk, shall we?

This scene is zoomed 200% over normal. We have concentrated on the area where the anomaly is seen. Note that the anomaly stops, turns black, and either "implodes" upon itself, or perhaps zips straight away from the camera view at high speed.

Immediately thereafter, the CATO zooms the camera in on Commander Chiao, reducing the amount of deep space in the field of view at the same time.

Although an embossed version was produced, in this case there was nothing of value to be gained by including it here.

What sort of object can reverse itself from White to Black in an instant? That suggests that the anomaly was NOT reflecting the light of the Sun. We can be certain that this was not ice, debris, an astronomical body, nor a satellite passing in the distance. NONE of these are capable of the behavior displayed by this particular object. For these reasons, I classify the object as an unknown.

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At all times during this incident, the camera was under the control of the CATO in Houston Mission Control.

(INCO - INstrument & Communication Officer - The man in Houston Mission Control Center who is responsible for operating the Shuttle payload bay, and robotic arm, cameras. He also remotely operates the helmet cameras in space suits. In the case of ISS, this officer is referred to as the CATO - Communications And Tracking Officer. In both cases, these persons CONTROL everything which is PERMITTED to go out on broadcast to the public. It is a commonly believed falacy that the cameras are operated by Astronauts & Cosmonauts on the Shuttles, and Space Station. Very little camera work is done by the crews. They're way too busy for that.)

At the end of the day, it's up to YOU to draw your own conclusions.

© 2005 Jeff Challender