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terror on the space station s01e01
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00:00We've got your own crew from the International Space Station. Welcome aboard.
00:06Hurtling around Earth at 17,000 miles per hour.
00:12In the most hostile place humanity has ever attempted to live.
00:18The International Space Station.
00:22In a space mission, the bad guy is the environment.
00:27The environment is trying to kill you.
00:31Now, 25 years since the first crew arrived on the ISS,
00:36we reveal the times astronauts' lives were in the balance.
00:42We're always asking ourselves, what's the next worst failure?
00:45What could go wrong next?
00:47From toxic leaks.
00:49And he's Bill Anderson. You copy? We're having a hard time with the leak.
00:53Sooner Raiders got exposed at the outside of the suit to his crewmates,
00:57who were not interested in dying horrible deaths.
01:00To equipment malfunctions.
01:02I don't understand where you're coming from.
01:05There was a risk that if the water increased dramatically, I would drown in space.
01:11Lethal showers of space junk.
01:14You've got orbital debris that can hit your module and put a hole in it.
01:20Station Houston on 2. This is an actual...
01:23To docking disasters.
01:25We are at an attitude by at least 45 degrees and increasing.
01:30250 miles above Earth.
01:34The smallest mistake could spell disaster.
01:37How do we respond to that unknown?
01:42Understanding situations may have the ultimate consequences.
01:46Split-second decisions mean the difference between life and death.
01:57From first-hand accounts from ISS astronauts and mission control who keep them safe.
02:05This is the untold story of courage, science, and survival aboard the ISS.
02:17And we need to be able to handle those things when they happen, because in space, it will happen.
02:50We need to be able to handle those things when they happen, because in space, they will not be able
02:52to survive.
02:52for the arrival of a new module.
02:57They have spent years of training,
02:59planning for every possible outcome
03:02and every possible failure.
03:06But nothing prepared Luca for this.
03:09That's why I feel a lot of water on the back of my head.
03:14Hey, Luca, can you clarify,
03:15is it increasing or not increasing?
03:18It's hard to tell, but it feels like a lot of water.
03:22Oh, I see, uh, I see it now, wiggling.
03:29250 miles above Earth,
03:32Luca's spacesuit has malfunctioned
03:34and is leaking water into his helmet.
03:37There should never be any water inside your spacesuit,
03:40especially not in the helmet area.
03:44In the microgravity of space,
03:47liquids behave in unexpected ways.
03:52It's surface tension that drives the behavior of water,
03:56and the water just wants to stick to whatever it's stuck to.
04:00Chris, you can continue to help troubleshoot it.
04:01In Luca's helmet,
04:02the growing ball of water is creeping around his head.
04:06It could smother his nose and mouth.
04:10I have a lot of water.
04:12That's the moment I think we're solidified in everybody's mind.
04:16Okay, we're done for today.
04:21Hi, Chris and Luca.
04:23I think we're going to terminate EV8 case for EV2.
04:26So, Luca, we'll have you head back to the airlock.
04:28Chris, we'll get a plan for you to clean things up here
04:31and then join him in a minute.
04:36In the military, we say that problems happen at the fold of a map,
04:40at the junction of grid squares and at night.
04:42And that's exactly how this was shaping up.
04:46As soon as he started to move, the sun set.
04:51Everything turns gold, bright gold, for one split second.
04:57Incredibly beautiful.
04:58And then it's lights out.
05:14Hey, Chris.
05:15I hear you, Luca. Go ahead.
05:21Luca, I hear you.
05:23Luca.
05:28More water fills Luca's helmet,
05:30causing his communications to malfunction.
05:36I called Chris telling him,
05:38Hey, Chris, I think I'm a bit lost.
05:40But nothing came out.
05:41And I didn't have any returning my earphones,
05:43so I knew that he couldn't hear me.
05:48Pretty soon, he's not going to have air in his helmet to breathe.
05:54If the water increased dramatically, I would drown in space.
05:59A routine spacewalk has turned into a life-or-death race back to the airlock.
06:07The next few moments will not only decide Luca's fate,
06:11but also the future of the space program.
06:16Please.
06:20The ISS is the largest and most complex structure ever built in orbit.
06:26A triumph of international cooperation.
06:31But for those who live and work here,
06:34every moment of every day is a calculated risk.
06:38Space is a very hostile, unforgiving environment.
06:45It's an environment that we are not designed to live in.
06:51In space, there's no margin for error.
06:57Radiation.
06:59Fire.
07:00Contamination.
07:02Collision.
07:04And even drowning.
07:08Are just some of the dangers astronauts face.
07:12So the International Space Station is the place that keeps you alive.
07:19The ISS is the culmination of years of planning,
07:24beginning shortly before the turn of the 21st century.
07:29A collective effort of more than 50 nations with unprecedented ambition.
07:36To build a state-of-the-art science laboratory in space.
07:49Main engine start.
07:51Six engines up and running.
07:52At liftoff, the International Space Station is underway.
07:59The bold venture kicks off on November 20th, 1998,
08:04from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
08:08A Proton-K rocket carries the Russian component, Zarya,
08:13meaning sunrise, into orbit.
08:16And liftoff of the spatial endeavor.
08:20Sixteen days later, the U.S. Unity Module joins Zarya.
08:30But it's not until 20 months later,
08:32with the arrival of Zvezda, which means star,
08:37that life support systems and living quarters are finally added.
08:42On November 2nd, 2000, the ISS welcomes its first residence.
08:49The first crew of the International Space Station
08:51have reached their home.
08:53NASA astronaut Bill Shepard
08:56and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko
08:58and Sergei Krikoliov
09:01marking the beginning of continuous habitation
09:04on board the orbiting outpost.
09:11Three spacewalks the following month
09:14configure power systems
09:16and add a framework of trusses
09:18to support the station's solar arrays and radiators.
09:22But things are only just getting started.
09:26Great news, Mario. Go for docking.
09:28The space station's early success
09:30is followed by a sobering truth.
09:33Building a home in orbit
09:35is as dangerous as it is ambitious.
09:39And with every new addition,
09:42the risks grow.
09:48Its next module,
09:50Destiny, an American-built laboratory,
09:52will lay the foundation
09:54for U.S. scientific research
09:56aboard the station.
10:02Its installation falls
10:04to two first-time spacewalkers,
10:07Top Gun pilot Robert Beamer Kerbeam
10:09and Tom Jones.
10:14I know the thermal cover is down,
10:16so you can go ahead, you digress.
10:20I think it's a great day
10:22to go and do a spacewalk,
10:23so Nima, when you're ready.
10:27When you're first starting
10:29and you're going out the hatch,
10:31your first thought is,
10:32I want to make sure that I get this right,
10:35that I do everything right.
10:38While their crewmate, Marcia Ivins,
10:40uses the shuttle's robotic arm
10:42to maneuver the 16-ton Destiny module
10:45into position,
10:47the spacewalking pair
10:48will assist with its attachment
10:50to Unity
10:51and integration
10:52with the rest of the station.
10:54This is when the game starts
10:57and you've got to be serious about it.
11:00It's time to go to work.
11:06Beamer, cables are complete.
11:08You have a go to head onto the lap.
11:11Roger that.
11:15One of their primary tasks
11:17is to connect Destiny's coolant lines
11:20to the space station's cooling system
11:22to regulate the onboard temperature.
11:26Heat doesn't dissipate in space
11:28the way it would here.
11:29It just stays there.
11:32And if it just stays there,
11:33you're going to probably overheat
11:35whatever you have.
11:38Every 45 minutes,
11:40as the ISS orbits the planet,
11:43its exterior is exposed
11:45to direct sunlight,
11:47raising its temperature
11:48to a blistering 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
11:54Then, as the station slips
11:56into the Earth's shadow,
11:58the temperature plummets
12:00500 degrees to minus 250.
12:09To combat these wild temperature extremes,
12:12the space station's cooling system
12:15uses loops of mechanically pumped fluid.
12:20Inside U.S. modules,
12:22circulating water transfers heat
12:24to an external loop
12:26filled with liquid ammonia,
12:28which then passes through
12:31three waffle-shaped panels
12:32on the station's exterior
12:34to radiate the heat into space.
12:38It's this pressurized ammonia loop
12:41that Robert Kirby needs
12:43to connect to Destiny.
12:54The pressurized system
12:56keeps the ammonia in liquid form.
12:59Any crystals forming around pipes
13:01or connections
13:02are evidence of leaks.
13:11At Johnson Space Center in Houston,
13:13lead flight director Bob Castle
13:16keeps watch over Tom and Beamer.
13:19When he's got the suit on,
13:21Bob's completely fine.
13:24But one or two breaths of pure ammonia
13:27and you will very likely die
13:30within minutes.
13:32Everyone watches the systems
13:34on the station and on the shuttle
13:36to make sure that everything
13:37is still working the way it should be.
13:40While the team knows
13:42what's expected of them,
13:43in space,
13:44any number of things can go wrong.
13:50Hold on.
13:51I got a little bit of bombonia
13:53coming out of there.
13:54Some ice crystals.
13:58When I actually removed the hose,
14:00I saw a lot more crystals
14:02growing all around the two orifices.
14:07And I knew I had a problem.
14:11Getting a lot of ice.
14:13I'm just throwing you
14:14all over the place.
14:17An automatic shutoff valve
14:19has failed.
14:26I felt like I was working
14:28in a blizzard
14:28because there was so much
14:30ammonia coming out.
14:36Beamer immediately reported,
14:37oh, it's spewing all over the place.
14:39And then my counterpart,
14:40Andy Allgate,
14:41said we see the accumulator
14:42going down.
14:46We're having a hard time
14:47with the leak.
14:48And stand by.
14:48We're discussing the next steps
14:50that we need to do.
14:53Without its coolant,
14:55the destiny module
14:56would be uninhabitable,
14:58potentially jeopardizing
14:59the entire mission
15:00of the space station.
15:03That heat must be ejected
15:05from the spacecraft eventually,
15:06or else you will burn up
15:08the spacecraft
15:09and the people inside of it.
15:13We don't know exactly
15:14what the leak rate was,
15:15but I knew we didn't have long.
15:19Beamer needs to find
15:21the shutoff valve upstream
15:22and turn it off.
15:24I did find very quickly
15:27that it was going to be
15:28a lot harder than I thought.
15:32The valve is stuck.
15:36When I tried to close it,
15:38it didn't close.
15:40I tried again,
15:42it didn't close.
15:44They said it was going to be
15:45about 25 pounds of force.
15:48I can tell you,
15:49I've spent a lot of time
15:51in the gym.
15:51It was not 25 pounds of force.
15:55It was much, much more.
16:04I tried to close it again.
16:10And finally, after the four or five tries,
16:13I got to close it.
16:17Just pull the valve?
16:19Yeah.
16:20And that stopped the leak.
16:21Very good, Dean.
16:22Good idea.
16:27Mission control breathes
16:28a sigh of relief.
16:31With the leak stopped,
16:32the astronauts can connect
16:34Destiny's cooling lines
16:36to the station.
16:38The ISS is safe.
16:43What's next?
16:46But now Beamer is covered
16:48in toxic ammonia.
16:55Sooner or later,
16:55he's got to get out of the suit.
16:57And sooner or later,
16:58he's got to come back in the cabin
17:00and exposed the outside
17:01of the suit
17:02to his crewmates
17:04who were not interested
17:05in dying horrible deaths.
17:09I thought to myself,
17:10what are they going to do with me?
17:12You know,
17:12now that I have this toxin
17:14on the outside of the suit.
17:20I knew that the procedure
17:22to go back into the spacecraft
17:23was going to change.
17:25I just didn't know how.
17:29Tom wipes the toxic crystals
17:31off his crewmate's spacesuit
17:33using a brush
17:35in their EVA kit.
17:47But before he can re-enter
17:50the space station,
17:52Beamer must burn
17:53the last remaining traces
17:55of ammonia off his suit
17:58in the baking heat
18:00of the sun.
18:07The amazing thing
18:08about the procedure
18:10to help me decontaminate
18:12the outside of my spacesuit
18:14was that it gave me
18:16the opportunity
18:17to just sit in the sun
18:18and watch the Earth go by
18:21for 45 minutes.
18:25which was awesome
18:26and it was incredible.
18:28I loved it.
18:34And you see
18:35the Gobi Desert.
18:37You see all the different
18:39parts of Asia.
18:41You see the Himalayas
18:43to the south.
18:44You see a little bit
18:45of cloud layer there.
18:50and you just bask in it.
19:07Over the next four days,
19:09undeterred by the experience,
19:11Beamer clocks up 12 more hours of spacewalks to ensure Destiny is safely attached.
19:19The Destiny module is what we refer to as the U.S. lab.
19:24It's really our core lab capability.
19:27So we have freezers, we have different payload facilities to conduct science.
19:32This is sort of the heart of the U.S. segment.
19:36Destiny is designed for microgravity research.
19:39In a variety of fields from life sciences to material science and more.
19:48Microgravity is not zero gravity.
19:52The Earth still exerts a pull on the ISS.
19:58This pull is what keeps the station in orbit, circling the Earth in constant freefall.
20:06Creating an environment that allows scientists to observe phenomena that cannot be replicated on Earth.
20:16But the instruments on board are also designed to put our own planet under the microscope.
20:22We have a really unique capability to look down on Earth.
20:27Our orbital path takes us around 90% of the Earth's inhabited surfaces.
20:33So this is what allows us, over time, to see how the Earth is changing.
20:40How weather patterns are changing and affecting our environment.
20:45How the forest canopy is changing.
20:48And the carbon cycle of Earth.
20:51You have these instruments all on the same platform going over the same area.
20:56So you get a global picture of the health of what's happening to our planet.
21:02The new Destiny module not only provides a platform for scientific research.
21:07It also increases the habitable volume of the space station by over 40%.
21:14A welcome addition for those building and living on the ISS.
21:19After the installation of the Destiny lab module, it was fast and furious.
21:27Over the next 21 months, eight successful missions add the Canadian Space Agency's Canadarm-2.
21:35A 57-foot-long robotic arm.
21:39Quest, which will serve as the primary airlock for spacewalks.
21:44The S-Zero truss, forming the station's backbone.
21:49And radiator trusses, to help dissipate heat.
21:56All of this made possible by an iconic spacecraft.
22:04The ISS could not have been built without a space shuttle.
22:08Full stop.
22:13But in February 2003, after 16 successful shuttle missions to the space station, disaster strikes.
22:23Columbia-Houston, comm check.
22:28Columbia-Houston, UHF, comm check.
22:38Fly controllers here at Mission Control have declared a contingency as communications was lost with the space shuttle Columbia during
22:44its descent from orbit en route to landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
22:49After more than two weeks conducting experiments in orbit, space shuttle Columbia disintegrates on re-entry, killing all seven crew
22:58members.
23:03Those are my friends.
23:05You know, I knew them personally.
23:06I knew them professionally.
23:09Some of them were in my class.
23:12I miss them every day.
23:15It caused us to lose seven very incredible people.
23:20And believe me, they were incredible.
23:32The Columbia disaster, we later found out, was due to foam shedding off of the external tank.
23:43During launch, a falling piece of insulating foam struck the shuttle's left wing, damaging the thermal protection tiles designed to
23:52shield it from extreme heat during re-entry.
23:55And what that did was that allowed very hot plasma to get inside of the wing and basically melt the
24:04inner structure of the spacecraft.
24:08Test simulations back on the ground reveal the devastating impact of this seemingly small briefcase-sized chunk of foam traveling
24:17at high speed.
24:22All shuttles are grounded while a full investigation is carried out, effectively halting construction of the ISS.
24:34The only way to reach the orbiting outpost is via Russian Soyuz capsules launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
24:44To conserve vital supplies like oxygen and water on the ISS, the crew is reduced from three to just two.
24:56Commander Gennady Padalka from Russia and flight engineer Mike Fink from the United States formed the two-person crew of
25:06Expedition 9.
25:09I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
25:12It's not a super wealthy city, but we have all kinds of resources for education.
25:17So I went to the planetarium, I went to the library, I learned, and I knew that I wanted to
25:21become an astronaut.
25:24I met my wife at Johnson Space Center here at NASA, and like men and women do, we fell in
25:30love and we started a family.
25:33And I still hadn't flown yet. And then the opportunity came up.
25:39When I married him, I knew that he wanted to go into space.
25:43And so I was always going to support his dream, even though it was going to disrupt our planning for
25:51life on the ground.
25:56Mike spent eight years training before this mission, a mission scheduled to last six months.
26:05It's been his ultimate ambition, but one that involves personal sacrifice for himself and his wife, Renita.
26:19Boy, she sounds upset.
26:24Well, we heard her all the way up here.
26:27It was about two months into his six-month mission that we had the baby.
26:32For the first time in history, an American astronaut is in space when his child is born.
26:41It will be four months before Mike returns to Earth to hold his daughter for the first time.
26:49During his absence, she will grow.
26:53But Mike's body will also undergo changes.
26:59While his new baby is developing muscles quickly, Mike's muscles will deteriorate because of microgravity.
27:09Renita and fellow biomedical engineers at Johnson Space Center research ways to overcome this challenge.
27:17As you're up there longer and using your muscles less, you're going to need to find ways to counteract all
27:24the changes that are happening.
27:26Without exercise, astronauts' muscle mass can fall by up to 50% over a six-month mission.
27:34We provide crew members with aerobic exercise as well as resistance exercise.
27:40So we're able to build muscle as we're exercising so that we can make sure that everybody is fit for
27:49doing what their duties are in space.
27:54In their role as the station's caretakers, the crew must occasionally carry out physically exhausting work on the outside of
28:02the space station.
28:06For Mike and Gennady, this poses an additional challenge.
28:11Since for safety, spacewalks require two crew members.
28:16This means leaving the ISS completely unoccupied during the operation.
28:23One of our planned spacewalks was to travel to the very end of the space station, which is the very
28:30aft end of Zvezda.
28:32The plan is to install equipment in preparation for the arrival of a cargo vehicle from the European Space Agency.
28:45The two spacewalkers undertake a tightly choreographed procedure.
28:50But no matter how much they plan and practice, in space, there's always room for the unexpected.
29:00We're always asking ourselves, what's the next worst failure?
29:03What could go wrong next?
29:05We need to be able to handle those kind of things when they happen, because in space, it will happen.
29:13Two hours into the spacewalk, it does.
29:20Gennady and I were just working away doing what we needed to do.
29:25But as they worked, they were inadvertently causing a problem.
29:31Our spacesuits were providing a very little bit of momentum towards pushing the space station.
29:39So we were actually pushing it to go out of orientation.
29:44The two astronauts working at one end of the station have caused the entire structure to tip.
29:52How could this happen?
29:57The stability of the ISS and its orientation, or attitude, should be maintained through the use of four gyroscopes.
30:07A gyroscope is a wheel or disc spinning on its axis.
30:13The heavier the disc, and the faster it spins, the more stable the gyroscope.
30:20That's because a spinning disc creates momentum perpendicular to the plane of rotation, which makes it resist tipping over.
30:35Embedded in the ISS are four huge gyroscopes pointed in different directions, with 220-pound wheels spinning at over 100
30:46revolutions a second.
30:48Usually enough to keep the whole station from rotating in any direction.
30:55The space station constantly experiences forces from solar winds or from the Earth's gravity.
31:03If left unchecked, they would cause the space station to tilt or tumble.
31:10The gyros counteract those movements.
31:15But they can only compensate so much.
31:22And they're already close to their limit when Mike and Gennady pushed the station out of alignment.
31:35So the space station went into a mode that said, look, I can't control myself anymore.
31:39I'm not out of control, but I'm going to go into what we call free drift.
31:43So the space station just started to drift and point up, point up.
31:49And there we are, and we looked up, and we were in a very unusual attitude.
31:53And there was, planet Earth was zooming below.
31:58Holding a desired orientation in space is crucial to help keep the station's solar arrays locked onto the sun.
32:07This isn't just about efficiency.
32:10It's about survival.
32:14We're completely off the grid.
32:17And in order to keep it powered, we're collecting as much solar energy as we can when we're on the
32:22light side of the planet.
32:25When the station slips into darkness for 45 minutes every orbit, solar charged batteries become crucial for powering critical life
32:34support systems.
32:39With the solar panels unable to charge the ISS's batteries, to conserve power, mission control turns off non-essential systems.
32:51The only way to get the space station back into the correct attitude is with the use of thrusters.
32:59Located exactly where Mike and Gennady are working.
33:09But there's a new problem.
33:12Gennady and I were working and talking to our Russian colleagues on the ground, and all of a sudden it
33:16became very quiet.
33:27The power saving protocols have inadvertently cut off all communication between the astronauts and ground control.
33:42There was no one else to give us instructions, and Gennady and I said, well, what are we going to
33:47do?
33:48Mission control has a terrible dilemma.
33:52To restore attitude, they must activate the thrusters.
33:58But with no way to communicate with Gennady and Mike, flight controllers have no idea whether their astronauts are in
34:05the firing line.
34:08If a crew member was going to be moving by them, that crew member would be blasted with hot gas
34:13or contaminated,
34:14because the gas that the thrusters used was extremely toxic, extremely, extremely toxic, deadly.
34:23We don't want to be anywhere near that action.
34:25If we were there in our spacesuits when the thrusters went off, we would experience the thrill of being melted.
34:36Suspended hundreds of miles above Earth, the two spacewalkers cling to an empty, drifting space station.
34:44They're unsure what to do next.
34:51As the planet turns slowly beneath them, Mike scans the horizon,
34:57and spots something that provides a spark of hope against the void.
35:04We saw where we were going.
35:08We were headed over Greece and headed north and east, so we knew we were going to be over what
35:12we call a Russian ground site.
35:15After several minutes of silence,
35:22success.
35:24Roscosmos manages to reestablish backup communications.
35:29We heard Moscow, they said, hey guys, you know, the space station's not in good control.
35:34We need to reestablish control.
35:35We highly suggest, in fact, we tell you, to move away from those thrusters.
35:39It's not in your interest to stay there.
35:45So we had to go hand over hand to move away from the thrusters to be safe from any plume
35:50damage or any heat that was being produced.
35:56With the pair clear, the thrusters are fired.
36:07Attitude reestablished.
36:14It was a good view.
36:15We got to look at planet Earth as we regained orientation from being pitched up all the way to being
36:20pitched down.
36:21We got the chance to just sit there and wait as the station regained its orientation.
36:30Then they said, okay, we're back in normal work.
36:32Get back out there and finish your job.
36:34Stop slacking.
36:39On October 23rd, 2004, after traveling more than 78 million miles aboard the International Space Station,
36:49Expedition 9 hands over command of the outpost to the crew of Expedition 10
36:54and makes preparations to return to Earth.
37:01By the end of the mission, I was kind of missing things back on planet Earth.
37:04I was missing my family.
37:06Got bigger while I was gone.
37:07We had a baby.
37:09And I knew I had to go back home.
37:17For almost two years, ISS has been in stasis.
37:23With no way of getting new modules up, its completion relies on one crucial factor.
37:31NASA's return to flight.
37:41Less than a year after Mike's return to Earth, following an overhaul of NASA's safety practices,
37:48the space shuttle program is reinstated with the first assignment, a mission to the ISS.
37:57On July 26th, 2005, the crew of Discovery prepares for STS-114.
38:05Okay, Alain, our long wait may be over.
38:07On behalf of the many millions of people who believe so deeply in what we do,
38:12good luck, Godspeed, and have a little fun up there.
38:13STS-114 was our return to flight after the Columbia tragedy.
38:18We had made mistakes and we were ready to fly again with the solutions to be able to show that
38:25we belonged in space and we could keep going.
38:28Okay, here we go.
38:29The fact is, we had to have the space shuttle to finish building the International Space Station.
38:37For mission specialist Wendy Lawrence, STS-114 will be her first visit to the ISS and fourth and final venture
38:46into space.
38:50The flight will carry supplies to the station and prove that the shuttle program is safe enough to continue.
38:57Foreign, hot guy, you're on and cleared. We're all ready to go.
39:00T-minus ten seconds. Go for main engine start.
39:02Seven, six, five, three engines up and burning.
39:07Three.
39:14Main engines lit off. Solid rocket boosters lit off.
39:19You literally feel like you're in your slingshot. You know when you're leaving the launch pad.
39:27In the wake of the Columbia disaster, NASA implements a series of new safety protocols.
39:33A redesign of the shuttle's external tank to reduce the potential for foam shedding.
39:40Installation of multiple cameras to cover the launch and check for any anomalies.
39:46And an enhanced in-orbit inspection of the shuttle using new cameras and sensors.
40:01Discovery reaches orbit, apparently without issue.
40:06Flight day two for us was the initial on-orbit inspection.
40:13We use the shuttle robotic arm and the new sensor package to examine the structural integrity of the thermal protection
40:20system to see if there was any damage that may have occurred.
40:25Meanwhile, on the ground, analysts scour footage of the launch and discover several troubling incidents.
40:39A large bird hitting the shuttle's fuel tank.
40:45A small piece of thermal tile detaching.
40:51And a large section of foam falling from the external tank.
40:57Could history be repeating itself?
41:01We looked at the side of the vehicle, we looked around our nose cap area as well.
41:11Didn't see any damage, so we're like, okay.
41:13Not great to hear that foam came off.
41:17Doesn't look like it hit a critical area.
41:22The inspection isn't conclusive though.
41:26They need a closer look.
41:29And to do that, they'll need the help of the ISS crew and a shuttle maneuver never before attempted.
41:39We came to 600 feet below the station.
41:43We basically did a backflip.
41:46Inside Discovery, Commander Eileen Collins initiates the maneuver to pitch the shuttle 360 degrees.
41:58The shuttle was performing what we called the rendezvous pitch maneuver to allow the ISS crew to take scores of
42:06high resolution photographs.
42:09The crew on board the ISS have a window of just 93 seconds when the underside is in the sun
42:16to take high resolution images of the shuttle's heat shield.
42:21Those were then downlinked to engineers to be able to look for any damage or misconfiguration of those tiles.
42:30As we came out of our backflip, we got to watch Space Station come up over the tail of our
42:37Orbiter Discovery.
42:38And I called that our Star Wars moment.
42:41This was just so cool.
42:42It was like, here's this big spacecraft right next to mine, rising up over the tail.
42:51While the shuttle crew unloads supplies onto the station, engineers on the ground pour over the images of the shuttle,
42:59searching for anything out of the ordinary.
43:07Engineers identified that there was a small piece of gap filler.
43:11What this is is a piece of fabric that is meant to fill spaces in between the tiles on the
43:16Orbiter.
43:18This gap filler had actually stuck up into the surrounding area above the outer mold line of the Orbiter.
43:25So there were two of these gap fillers sticking out from in between the tiles on the underside of Discovery.
43:31Something I'd never seen before.
43:35The problem with this is as this re-enters the Earth's atmosphere, this could actually cause the smooth flow to
43:41hit that gap filler and then become turbulent, which creates downstream heating and puts extra heat stress on the Orbiter
43:46tiles.
43:47The flow might come back together in a way where it now becomes almost like a blow torch and it
43:53might burn through one of the thermal protection system tiles.
43:58This could turn the shuttle into a fireball.
44:03The gap fillers protect the tiles from vibrations on launch, but are not needed for re-entry.
44:10The decision was made that these two gap fillers really need to be removed before we come back for landing.
44:17One hour and ten minutes, the IMU aligned.
44:20The underside of the Space Shuttle Orbiter was not designed to have astronauts there.
44:24There were no handholds whatsoever.
44:26Really the only way for us to have done the gap filler removal was to have a crew member on
44:30the end of a robotic arm.
44:36I got to fly the station robotic arm for that VV-8.
44:41Steve Robinson was on the end of the arm and I flew him to where no astronaut had ever been
44:46before.
44:46On the underside of the Space Shuttle Orbiter.
44:51Beneath the belly.
44:54Once Steve locates the gap fillers, he must remove them.
44:58Our brakes set. The brakes are on. Here I go.
45:10Actually downstairs.
45:20Okay, that came out very easily. Probably even less force.
45:24It looks like this big patient is cured.
45:28Copy that.
45:33After a two week, 5.8 million mile journey in space, on August 9th, 2005, Discovery sets off for home.
45:43That's why your C-circle breaker is coming back in.
45:45Okay, we did see that.
45:47Only now will the team find out if the fix worked.
45:51Discovery's altitude now is 72 miles, speed 17,000 miles per hour.
45:58And now all of a sudden you're coming back to gravity, something you've spent virtually your entire life in.
46:05And it's not pleasant.
46:08The shuttle's immense speed as it re-enters Earth's atmosphere, superheats the air, tearing molecules apart, creating a plasma.
46:19Temperatures outside soar to a blistering 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
46:28As Discovery descends into the atmosphere, it will perform a series of four banks to dissipate speed.
46:37Well past the point of no return, all the seven crew members can do now is trust that their inspection
46:44was thorough, and the repair is sufficient.
46:48Discovery, Houston, Energy, Ground Track, and NAV are all go.
46:54Your touchdown is 2600 at 205.
47:01Discovery copies, thank you.
47:13You say Discovery has the runway in sight.
47:15Copy runway.
47:22Main gear touchdown.
47:26Nose gear touchdown.
47:29And Discovery is home.
47:33Let me tell you, when Discovery touched down on the runway, we knew that it had been a flawless re
47:38-entry profile.
47:39There was a sense of both relief and accomplishment of all the teams that had shown that we could, again,
47:44fly the space shuttle safely.
47:50With the shuttle program reinstated, construction of the ISS can now resume.
47:59Over the next six years, 19 shuttle missions and 94 spacewalks, numerous parts and modules are bolted onto the International
48:08Space Station.
48:11Among them, Columbus, a cutting-edge science laboratory from Europe.
48:19The Japanese Kibo Laboratory, with an exterior facility to conduct Earth observation, communication, and materials science research.
48:31The Poisk Mini Research Module 2, Russia's first major edition since 2001.
48:39And the Tranquility Module, with its now world-famous observation cupola.
48:48In May 2011, the ISS is finally complete.
48:55A $150 billion space laboratory.
49:01When we humans really want to, we can take that proverbial sword and we can truly beat it into a
49:09plowshare.
49:10We can do some pretty remarkable things together, peacefully, for the benefit of all humankind.
49:19We've opened some of the secrets of the universe, all the way from science and physics, to how to work
49:26together as humans, how to plan and overcome difficulties together.
49:33It was a milestone many, many, many, many people had been working to achieve its original goal, which to be
49:41a place where you could do scientific research in a very unique environment, that of microgravity.
49:50But what makes it unique also makes it perilous.
49:56In space, you are constantly at risk of dying for a multitude of reasons.
50:03Survival in space is on a knife's edge.
50:08Very quickly, you can have an out of control situation from a very innocuous start.
50:14Over the next 15 years, events on the ISS will test the powers of human ingenuity to its limits.
50:23To keep astronauts alive and prevent the space station from breaking up.
50:29This was like riding a bucking bronco and we've got to make it the full eight seconds, except this time
50:33it was in orbit around the entire Earth.
50:55The Earth will be at the í•„ x2 and its limits.
50:58This time, the wave has been delivered quite a few years ago, while we're doing two screens, right?
50:58I'm sorry.
51:03I'm sorry.
51:11I'm sorry.
51:16You can see your screen.
51:20You can see your screen.
51:21The Earth will be front of me.
51:22You can see my screen or that's a mini screen.
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