Since 1 November 2000, the International Space Station has been manned continuously. Expedition 11 (April to October 2005) consists of (Commander and Soyuz Pilot) Sergei Krikalev, and (Science Officer and Flight Engineer) John Phillips. In the third seat aboard Soyuz was ESA Astronaut, Italian born Roberto Vittori. He spent a week aboard ISS conducting a series of experiement. Soyuz TMA-6 lifted off atop a Starsem booster from Baykonur Cosmodrome on 14 April 2005 at 7:46 PM CDT (00:46 15 April GMT). Orbit was achieved some eitght minutes later.

TMA-6 docked to the station at 9:19 PM CDT on 16 April 2005 (2:19 17 April GMT), prepared for a six month stay. The three men were greeted by Leroy Chiao, and Salizan Sharipov of the 10th Expedition Crew, who had occupied the station since the previous October.

Following a week of joint operations, and handover of command, Expedition 10 along with Vittori, undocked Soyuz TMA-5 and returned home on 24 April.

The Expedition 11 crew hosted the first Space Shuttle flight to ISS since the STS-107/Columbia disaster. STS-114 arrived on 28 July 2005, delivering supplies, effecting repairs and making upgrades. Conducting three EVAs, unloading the Raphaello MPLM, and removing trash and uneeded equipment, STS-114 was a welcome change of pace for the 11 crew. Discovery undocked from ISS for her return home on 6 August, leaving Expedition 11 on their own again.

One EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity or spacewalk) was carried out by Expedition 11. This on 18 August 2005, it was mounted from the PIRS docking and airlock compartment in Russian Orlan spacesuits.

A week after the arrival of the Expedition 12 crew aboard ISSy, Expedition 11 undocked and departed ISS in their Soyuz TMA-6 vehicle. They landed safely, along with space tourist Greg Olsen, back in Kazakhstan on 10 October 2005 at 8:09 PM CDT (1:09 11 October GMT). It had been a highly successful six month mission in space.

ISS (International Space Station) needs a constant stream of supplies in order to run smoothly. There must be food, water, clothing, and other essentials for the human crew, as well as variety of eqipment and consumables for other station needs.

This is where the Russian Progress vehicles come in, most especially since the Space Shuttle fleet has been grounded again following the flight of STS-114 in 2005. This venerable and reliable craft has been in production, and use, since 1978. It served to supply the Salyut space stations, and Space Station Mir, for 23 years. It has been serving the ISS program since its inception.

The Progress vehicles are completely expendable, and are usually filled with rubbish before undocking from the host station, to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere upon re-entry. (Diagram of Progress Vehicle 349 kb jpeg image)

WITHOUT supplies, ISS would have to be abandoned before very much time elapsed. A severe shortage of food almost brought about this contingency in December 2004. Sloppy inventory, by the Expedition 9 crew, had allowed food supplies to fall dangerously short. The arrival of Progress-16 (With 2.5 tons of logistics and a sizeable allotment of foodstuffs) on Christmas Day 2004, permitted the crew to remain on board. Had Progress-16 failed to dock for any reason, the Expedition 10 crew would have been forced to enter their Soyuz TMA-5 craft to return home long before their scheduled departure. ISS would have become an un-manned satellite very early in 2005.

In addition, Progress-17 docked to ISS without problems on 2 March 2005. This freighter brought 2.3 tons of materiel to the station.

Cargo vessel Progress-18 was launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome, atop a Soyuz rocket, on 16 June 2005 to begin its journey to rendezvous and docking to the aft port on the Zvezda Module of ISS, arriving on 18 June 2005. Docking took place at 7:42 PM CDT (00:42 on 19 June GMT).

The story continues after a couple photos from the docking of Progress-15 in August 2004. These photos are included to illustrate just how much of a treat these freighters are to the crews onboard the station.

The Progress-18 approach and docking operation went well until the KURS auto-pilot, which normally docks the spacecraft robotically, failed just moments before completion. (Some explanation on how the KURS system works is available HERE. 92 kb PDF file. Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader™) Station Commander and Cosmonaut, Sergei Krikalev had to take over with the TORU (Telerobotically Operated Rendezvous Unit - I could not find a web page further explaining this system.), and dock Progress manually. His remote piloting, relying upon a black & white camera view from Progress itself, was exemplary. He executed a flawless operation, bringing the cargo freighter in without further incident. Krikalev's TORU instructor at THE YURI GAGARIN COSMONAUTS TRAINING CENTER was even awarded a medal for excellence in performing HIS job!

(An interesting side note: It was during a practice docking session, using TORU and the cast off Progress M-34 vehicle, that MIR 23 Commander & Cosmonaut Vasili Tsibliyev inadvertently caused the disastrous 25 June 1997 Collision with Russian Space Station Mir. So there is always an inherent danger to using the manual controls onboard the station...)

Since the anomalous events of Space Shuttle flight STS-48, in September 1991, it has long been said by many researchers, in numerous places, that NASA Select TV instituted an 8-10 second delay in the broadcast of live downlink television from manned spacecraft. NASA, and the debunker crowd, have stridently denied that this delay exists. One of the better known debunkers even claimed that he tested the delay theory by using a stopwatch to time the docking of Shuttle Discovery to ISS in March 2002 ( STS-102 ). He smugly claimed that his stopwatch proved that there had been NO delay in the TV broadcast signal. We the public were, of course, expected to take his word for this. He actually offered nothing in the way of REAL evidence for his claim.

Ground controllers in Russia DEPEND upon the "live" TV feed from NASA during these operations (Soyuz and Progress maneuvers) in order to monitor how things are going. It appears that NASA plays no favorites when it comes to secrecy and censorship. The Russians are given the very same video feed as broadcast to the public over NASA Select TV. During the approach of Progress-18 to ISS, when the freighter was at approximately 62 km (39 miles) distance (23:44 GMT 18 June), Russian Mission Control (TsUP) in Korolev (A suburb of Moscow), appears to have let slip that there is actually a 20 SECOND DELAY on downlink NASA TV from ISS.

Here are the actual words which slipped out on LIVE TV. The mission control technician is speaking in Russian, and the NASA interpreter is translating into English in real time as it happens.

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.

TRANSCRIPT

Russian Technician At TsUP in Korolev:

"Well, it's about 20 seconds, uh, delay that we have here. Yeah, it's just a slight delay, it's OK."

END TRANSCRIPT

What are we, the public who pay for all of this, supposed to think? What GOOD reason does NASA have for having a delay of ANY sort in their live TV broadcasts? Don't give me any baloney about National Security. That old saw has been used to DEATH! The supposedly CIVILIAN space programs of the ISS partner countries shouldn't have any secrets requiring military style security. As usual, my personal conclusion is that they are HIDING something. The pattern over the years points to this over and over again, regardless of whether there IS a delay in broadcast, or how long it might be.

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

© 2005 Jeff Challender