ISS Astronaut Activity Report, July through September 2003

This is JAXA's primary activity report for Japanese ISS astronauts from July to September 2003. The three astronauts received their first training on the Soyuz spacecraft, spending three months in Russia.

Training on Soyuz Spacecraft

First day of training with the training staff.

Astronaut Furukawa, Hoshide, and Sumino received training on Soyuz spacecraft at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) in Russia. The purpose of the training was to qualify as a flight engineer for the Soyuz spacecraft. Training began in July 2003 and took three months to complete the first part.

Astronauts in the course

The three astronauts were trained on various systems, such as propulsion systems, docking systems, and attitude control systems. They also tried on the Sokol pressurized suits to see if they fit them well. In addition to the Russian language course, they received physical training that included running, swimming, and resistive exercise. They had a full schedule and spent eight hours a day in training, including lectures, simulation training, and verbal tests for each of the systems.
*: The Sokol suit is the pressurized space suit worn during launch and re-entry on the Soyuz. It will maintain a positive air pressure around the astronaut during an emergency.

Soyuz re-entry module

Receiving explanations of Soyuz, in front of the simulator Inside the Soyuz re-entry module simulator

Inside the Soyuz re-entry module simulator Inside the Soyuz orbit module simulator

Wearing Sokol pressurized suit

Wearing Sokol pressurized suit (inside the Soyuz re-entry module simulator)

In addition to Russian cosmonauts, JAXA's three astronauts had the opportunity to meet and talk with astronauts from several agencies, such as NASA and ESA, who were receiving training. Pedro Duke, a Spanish astronaut of ESA who was just launched on October 18 aboard Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft, was one of the trainees there around the same time.

The second training on Soyuz is planned to be conducted in first half of 2004. In addition to the Soyuz system training and Russian language course, there will be centrifuge training and extravehicular activity (EVA) training.