Feb 4 2003
From The Space Library
Progress M-47/ISS-10P docked with the ISS, delivering 2.75 tons (2.5 tonnes or 2,495 kilograms) of supplies, which would enable the Expedition 6 crew to remain at the station until June without Shuttle support. The crew~ Russian cosmonaut Nikolai M. Budarin and American astronauts Kenneth D. Bowersox and Donald R. Pettit~ had served at the outpost for 73 days, and NASA had scheduled their return to Earth on Shuttle Atlantis for 1 March. However, in the wake of the Columbia disaster, NASA had grounded all Shuttles indefinitely. Although the suspension of Shuttle flights did not place the ISS crew in danger, it did affect the schedule of space station construction and interrupted NASA's plan to install a high-speed gyroscope at the station in March, to replace one that had broken down in June 2002. With only three operational gyroscopes, the ISS would continue to drift, but NASA did not consider the matter a time-critical problem. (Todd Ackerman, “Cargo Craft Resupplies Outpost Crew Hanging in Orbit,” Houston Chronicle, 5 February 2003; NASA, “Spaceflight 2003: International Space Station Goals and Objectives,” http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/somd/reports/2003/iss.html (accessed 13 November 2009).
Telesat Canada selected Astrium, Europe's largest space company, to manufacture a replacement for its Anik F1 satellite~ the Anik F1R. Engineers had determined that the Anik F1, based on the 702 platform of Boeing Satellite Systems, was defective. Several of the Boeing-built 702 satellites were “afflicted with a solar panel malady” expected to shorten each craft's operational lifetime. Telesat planned to base the Anik F1R, which would carry 24 C-band and 32 Ku-band transponders, on Astrium's Eurostar 3000 platform. (Telesat, “Telesat Selects European Manufacturer for New Anik F Satellite,” news release, 4 February 2003, http://www.telesat.ca/news/releases/2003/03-02-e.asp (accessed 12 August 2008); Sam Silverstein, “Telesat Canada Selects Astrium to Replace Anik F1,” Space News, 4 February 2003.
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