Mission 1907

Mission 1907: Building the Dream focused on finishing the construction of the space station, but there were many other events of interest that happened, too.

During the week, Mission Control solved a lot of orbital mechanics problems, with some help from Ann Esbeck, an Attitude Specialist at Johnson Space Flight Center. She participated in a teleconference on Tuesday and was at CASA Thursday through Saturday. We had other outstanding visitors during the week, including State Representative Ed Robb, the Mayor of Columbia, Darwin Hindman, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Chase, and Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education Dr. Brown.

During the Mission there were various injuries on the station. There was a solar flare that injured several astronauts on the station; Nadia Viziti experienced radiation burns from it. Also, a micropal exploded and astronauts Adithi Velore and Austin Perry suffered injuries from the pieces that pierced their skin. There was an ammonia leak that caused some astronauts extreme cases of frostbite. When the orbiter hard docked into the station, Jordan Mills was injured.

On Monday, the Russian ambassador called Mission Control, upset that he had not received the full plans for the week in regards to the station’s completion. The Russians helped in funding the construction of the ISS, so they wanted to be informed on what was going to be done. A due date for the outline was set by the Russians and met by Mission Control. Tuesday, the Australian ambassador informed us that a few important parts that were to be put on the station were currently in disrepair on the shores of Australia, where they landed after falling out of the shuttle. After trying for a day to fix them, the Australians informed us that repair would be impossible. The lost parts caused problems that had to be resolved later in the week. In an attempt to bring more oxygen to the space station, the pilots put too many tanks in the shuttle and the depressurization of the oxygen tanks caused the Hendren Shuttle to explode. The pilots suffered minor injuries but were treated upon returning.

Wednesday, the Brazilian ambassador called Mission Control about ISS documents found in a drug bust. The documents were destroyed, but the name Vasili Macelovich was recovered. Vasili Macelovich was found in Japan and because the Russian ambassador wanted to question Macelovich, an exchange was scheduled for Thursday night. The Japanese handed over Macelovich for 20,000 dollars and the Russians gave us replacements for the parts lost in Australia in exchange for Macelovich.

Mission Control received information concerning a bomb threat so on Friday they called the FBI requesting a bomb specialist to go up on the station. Until the specialist was able to be on the station, the FBI ordered the astronauts to trace the power to the located bomb and then input the decoded XY codes into the system in order to defuse the bomb. On Friday afternoon HAL told the astronauts that there was a mole on the station. Believing that the CIA bomb specialist was the mole, the astronauts locked him in the Bio Cube. They later found out that the real mole was Jordan Mills, who shut the other astronauts in Isolation in an attempt to sabotage the station. The pilots escaped and landed the shuttle, intentionally hard docking to injure the mole, but in the process a pilot was also injured. Everyone evacuated the station and landed safely, bringing this year’s mission to a successful end. To check out pictures from this year's mission, click here.