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!

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

During the course of this EVA, ISSy and her crew passed over Argentina and Chile, in South America, no less than three times on three consecutive orbits. As ISSy approached this region, also known as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), the CATO cut off the live TV feed each time. Three times in three orbits, the live feed was cut just here. One has to wonder WHY?

The first time this happened, the NASA commentator verbally claimed that ISSy was "out of contact with the NASA communications network", even though one could still hear the audio radio transmissions coming from the spacewalkers aloft. IF ISSy was truly OUT OF CONTACT with the global network, how is it that they were STILL receiving radio transmissions from the men? As they say, "Ya can't have it both ways..."

Next is a transcript of the words spoken by the NASA commentator as he TRIES to explain the reason for the first instance of signal cut-off in the SAA. His lies are blindingly exposed by the fact that audio communications continue unabated with the Astronauts in their spacesuits, outside the station. IF ISSy was "out of contact with the NASA communications network", how is it that we can STILL hear the Russian language space to ground chatter of the Astronauts? OUT OF CONTACT means just that, not SELECTED contact. A pattern noticed over the years, whilst listening to these announcers, is that the more times they insert the term "UH" into a sentence, the more likely they are NOT telling the truth.

All Orange italics mine for emphasis, CAPITALS reflect the voiced emphasis of the respective speaker. Hesitations and grammatical errors are left in as originally spoken. JC.

Commentator: "We've, uh, temporarily moved out of contact of the tracking and date relay satellite system, uh, with again, uh, television that had not been expected, uh, the Ku-Band communications antenna had a, uh, proper, uh, temperature to provide, uh, that downlink terr, uh, television FOR us, uh, we had, uh, television earlier in the spacewalk, uh, after not having TV at the outset of today's Extra Vehicular Activity, the Ku-Band connumications antenna has been parked, uh, from time to time during the spacewalk, uh, to maintain, uh, the proper thermal condidtion on that ,uh, apparatus that provides downlink television from the station.

Uh, the combination of the station's orientation, uh, plus, uh, the angle, uh, toward the Sun that, uh, we are currently orbiting the Earth in, uh, left, uh, the Ku-Band, uh, a few temeratures, a few degreees, uh, too cold in temperature, at the outset of the spacewalk, uh, rendering TV, uh uh, unavailable to us at the beginning of the spacewalk, since then we have, uh, been fortunate enough to get, uh, a bit of television, uh, from time to time, showing Chiao and Sharipov as they move about their activities today.

(Russian language space to ground communications were being translated to English throughout the EVA, and during the comments. At the end of the comments, you could hear the translator saying "...and stowed, and you remembered...")

End Transcript

Did you not hear the spacewalkers continue to send and receive over radio? IF the station was REALLY "out of contact" with the TDRS System, then we would NOT be receiving those radio transmissions either. Remember, this was over the southern end of South America. There is no line of sight to NASA ground receivers, and being some 200 miles (330 km) above the stratosphere, radio waves cannot follow the routes taken by Earthbound transmitters. The ONLY way those two crewmen could be heard in Houston, and thus by us, was through the TDRS satellite.

Did you also catch that ridiculous, and rambling, "story" about the Ku Antenna being too cold to function? More on THAT goofiness HERE.

Next we'll have a look at where ISSy was each separate time the TV downlink was cut off. These were on three consecutive orbits, and were approximately 90 minutes apart.

Third time, over the coast of Chile, but EACH time at approximately the SAME latitude. What is going on in this part of the world that we are not meant to see?

Now we will take a look at the TDRSS "constellation".

(NASA)

These relay satellites are placed in geosynchronous orbit all around the Earth. They orbit at an altitude of around 22,500 miles (37,500 km) above the surface. This is why they can pick up signals from ISSy, or Shuttle, as they orbit over remote places and send them back to the White Sands Complex in New Mexico. The signals are then processed and forwarded to Houston Texas at Mission Control Center. At MCC Houston, the signal is "censored as necessary", then broadcast over the NASA Select TV channel. Please note that there were no less than three satellites over the Atlantic Ocean, and at least one or two over the Pacific, all "IN RANGE" of ISSy.

More on how all this works is available from these web pages at Project P.R.O.V.E.

Diego Garcia Island & The "ZOE"

NASA Secrecy & The "ZOE"

This is the still frame from the first orbit when we were cut off, with the TDRSS constellation map superimposed over it. It now becomes obvious that there was no way ISSy was "out of contact" with the global TDRS network. Once again, NASA was lying, and for reasons unknown.

***

At all times during this incident, the visual presentation 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