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.

A few hours into this spacewalk, the camera was trained on a view including the crew carrying out their tasks. The men were mostly obscured by an intervening solar panel protruding from the Zvezda module. To upper left of the scene was the Progress-16 vehicle, and deep space.

At just this moment, the NASA commentator chose to direct audience attention toward the Progress, and the KURS antenna jutting out of its side. As he spoke about this, an anomalous object came into view. It not only passed behind Progress-16, but also the base of the KURS antenna!

(Some explanation about how the Kurs automated docking system works is available HERE. PDF File)

The CATO must have noticed the object at this point, because the camera was IMMEDIATELY panned to the right, removing the object from our sight! How embarassing for NASA! Here is an anomaly crossing right through the scene, and their own commentator is drawing the attention of the viewing audience directly to it! A small patch of deep space was still visible, and a couple minutes later the camera was panned to the right still further, eliminating all further view of space itself. This incident must have upset them terribly in Houston.

Here is a transcript of the exact words spoken by the NASA Commentator at the time the object was traversing the field of view.

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: "In the upper portion of your screen, you can see the communications antenna for the Progress-16 cargo ship, that uh, docked to the aft, uh, port of the Zvezda Service Module back on Christmas night, bringing two and a half tons of supplies and food, uh, for the crew." (Russian language spoken between crew and TsUP in background throughout)

End Transcript

The fact that it passes BEHIND Progress, and its KURS antenna, proves that it is "out there", and not close to the camera lens.

Another fact which strongly suggests that the anomaly is at some distance. The entire area in which is is seen is in the SHADOW of the station itself. If this is an ice chip (Unlikely, since the station does not dump water like Shuttles do) or bit of debris, it shouldn't have been catching the rays of the Sun were it close by.

What is it? I can't tell you that. It is simply something that shouldn't be there, and the people at Houston Mission Control knew that too, as evidenced by the steps they took to remove the object from our view.

For these reasons, I classify this one as an unknown.

***

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