Industry Committee on May 11th, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

I call the meeting to order.

Welcome, members of the committee and witnesses, to the 15th meeting of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology this May 11, 2010. We're here pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) to meet with a delegation of astronauts from the Expedition mission.

In front of us today we have two representatives from the Canadian Space Agency, Mr. MacLean and Mr. Thirsk. From the Japanese Space Agency we have Mr. Wakata. From the European Space Agency we have Mr. De Winne.

Welcome to all of you. I understand you have an opening presentation. Why don't you begin with your opening presentation? Then we'll go to questions and comments from members of this committee.

[Dr. Steve MacLean, President, Canadian Space Agency]

Thank you very much.

We welcome the opportunity to speak to you today at this committee. I'm going to speak for 60 seconds because we have a presentation that I think you'll be very interested in.

Canada has had a banner year this year. Bob Thirsk started his mission earlier in the year and flew with space station commander Frank De Winne. That was the first time we had six individuals up in the international space station, and it was the first time that all five partners that had been put on the international space station flew at the same time, so this mission, more than any other mission, represented a crossroads in human space flight.

The presentation is a story line of what happened. It's the adventure of what these two crew members did over the last six months. Bob and Frank flew on one Soyuz, and Koichi Wakata was there when they arrived, having come up on the shuttle. The three of them are now going to give you a presentation and tell you their story of flying for six months in space.

[Dr. Robert Thirsk, Astronaut, Canadian Space Agency]

Mr. Chong and members of the standing committee, it is really exciting for us to be here today and share with you our adventure.

The era of human space flight in Canada is now 25 years old. In that period of time eight Canadians, including Marc Garneau, have flown in space on 15 different flights.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

He still is.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

At least I know what space is.

[Dr. Robert Thirsk]

Sorry about that, gentlemen. This is going to be a good morning.

The point is that what Canada has done over those 25 years is increase our roles and responsibilities in human space flight, and I also think our international credibility among our partners as well. When we first flew, we flew as payload specialists back in 1984, and then we progressed to mission specialists, and then to flight engineers.

We've enlarged our scope of skills as well. Initially we were operating payloads or experiment packages and then systems on board spacecraft. Then more recently we've been operating the Canadarm on the shuttle, the Canadarm2 on the international space station, and other robotics as well. Steve is a good example of that. Also we're now doing EVAs, or spacewalks, as well, so I think it's true to say that the training Canadian astronauts receive is almost equivalent to that of our international partners, including the cosmonauts in Russia and NASA astronauts. Our competencies are equivalent as well.

I'll let my colleagues speak, but I think we are regarded as reliable partners and team members.

Speaking of team members, let me introduce my team members to you in a little bit more detail. Frank De Winne is from Belgium. He represents the European Space Agency. Prior to becoming an ESA astronaut, Frank was a military test pilot. He flew F-16s. He bailed out of an F-16. He also was a squadron commander.

Frank has flown once before on a Soyuz mission to the international space station about five, six, or seven years ago. As Steve mentioned, Frank was also the commander on board our Expedition 21.

Koichi Wakata, from the Japanese Space Agency, has been a Japanese astronaut since 1992, and has flown on two shuttle flights and also a long-duration space flight. Koichi is my role model. When I think of something that we in the astronaut core call expeditionary behaviour, Koichi demonstrates self-management, self-care, teamwork, group living, and leadership. Koichi is a role model for all of us. He plays on another playing field than we do, so he's an excellent person to fly with.

Expedition 20/21 was a first for Canada in certain respects. In one respect, as Steve mentioned, it was the first time we had a long-duration space flight. This was Canada's first long duration flight. We've had several shuttle flights before, 14 of them. Long-duration space flight is different. It has an impact on the individual, it has an impact on the individual's family, and it has an impact on the support team on the ground. It's not a sprint; it's a marathon or a Tour de France. It's a different way of thinking. It's a new skill and a competency that Canada has.

Last year was also the first time that we had two Canadians in space. My friend and colleague Julie Payette joined me in July. She came up on the shuttle and did a marvellous job operating all three robotic arms on board the station, including the shuttle, and brought me a lot of pride.

Then a few months later the first Canadian space flight participant, Guy Laliberté, the founder of Cirque du Soleil, joined us in orbit as well.

I'd ask Frank to say a few words about some of the international firsts associated with Expedition 20/21.

[Frank De Winne, Astronaut, European Space Agency]

First of all, thank you very much, also from my side, for inviting us here today.

Of course one of the big things was that we upgraded the international space station from a three-person crew at the start of our mission to a six-person crew. The international space station is now so big that it takes about two-and-a-half to three people to maintain the space station. If you want to do science and technology research on the space station, you need these extra persons.

This happened with our crew. We went from three to six, which meant that we did more than 1,000 hours of science and more than 100 experiments throughout our mission. This was unprecedented. This is now ongoing with the six-person crew on board the ISS.

Another first that we had during our mission is the HTV, the new Japanese cargo vehicle. You need to supply all those people with goods, but also with experiments and new things to do. The Japanese cargo vehicle flew for the first time.

If we talk about the international space station, what we mean is that it's really international. The HTV was a Japanese vehicle, but it was captured with the Canadian robot arm in space. The arm was operated by an American astronaut, Nicole Stott, our colleague. The HTV and the station were under my command. Bob was the safety officer and had oversight of the entire operation. The command of the space station at that moment was under Russian Gennady Padalka.

All those control centres on the ground and all those teams and all those engineers on the ground also worked together to make this one single mission, the HTV mission, a success.

The international space station is really international, and we show every single day that it works and that people from around the globe can work together.

[Dr. Koichi Wakata, Astronaut, Japanese Space Agency]

It's my great honour to be here. I started to work as an astronaut candidate back in 1992. I was in the same class with, I was very honoured to be able to be in the astronaut corps with, Dr. Marc Garneau and Chris Hadfield. He was already an established astronaut at that time, and I was a baby. My colleagues even gave me a remove-before-flight pacifier.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Dr. Koichi Wakata]

Since then I have had an opportunity to fly three times in space. On every flight I had an opportunity to fly the Canadarm, the space shuttle's robotic arm; the space station robotic arm; and Dextre, the Dexterous Manipulator of the Canadian contribution. Those are wonderful assets in space.

Frank talked about the Japanese cargo ship called the HTV. Not only the HTV is international; for the assembly of the international space station, we have five partners, and 15 countries are cooperating. We have Russian modules, U.S. modules, the European laboratory Columbus, and the Japanese Kibo laboratory modules and HTV vehicle. Without the contribution of the Canadian robotics technology, we would not have been able to assemble the large complex of the international space station.

You have to be proud of the accomplishment of this technology. I was very lucky to be able to work with the Canadian astronauts, who are very talented; Steve taught me a lot of good robotics techniques. There are not only astronauts, but also engineers and mission controllers in Saint-Hubert, as well as many companies here in Canada near Toronto. I was very fortunate to be part of this.

Today we will show the video of our mission, and we'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

[Frank De Winne]

Here you see the logos of all the partner agencies that are participating in this mission and a beautiful picture of the station we flew to, the ISS, which was of course the core of our logos for Expedition 20 and 21. We started as Expedition 20, and then later on, when part of the crew was changed, we progressed into Expedition 21. Six stars and both logos signify the upgrade from the ISS from a three-person crew to a six-person crew.

[Dr. Koichi Wakata]

We had two human space transportation systems that are now in use for the international space station. One is the Russian Soyuz vehicle, and the other one is the U.S. space shuttle. Bob and Frank, together with Roman Romanenko from Russia, went up on the Soyuz, and I went up on the space shuttle mission.

This is before the strapping in, and this is just before the launch of STS-127 with Julie Payette on board. Nicole Stott was the robotic Canadarm2 operator to capture the Japanese HTV vehicle. Those launches were wonderful.

I have been only on the Soyuz. Maybe Bob can mention the differences between those two vehicles.

[Dr. Robert Thirsk]

I have had the opportunity to fly on both now. The Soyuz vehicle, even though it looks somewhat ancient, is a very smooth trip to space. The only exception would be the staging, when one rocket stage is finished its propellant and the next one kicks in. That's when you get jolted around.

[Dr. Koichi Wakata]

This is before the rendezvous. It's amazing to see this gigantic scientific platform floating in a low Earth orbit.

This is the Soyuz spacecraft just docked. Bob came into the space station, and Commander Gennady Padalka and I were all greeting them.

[Dr. Robert Thirsk]

It's an incredible feeling when you get aboard the station. It seems surreal. It looks similar to the trainers that we trained with in Houston and other countries, but in another perspective, it looks like something out of a Salvador Dali painting.

We had several crews visit us; we had three shuttle flights visit us altogether, and one Soyuz flight as well. Every time we opened up the hatches, it was nice to see our friends.

[Frank De Winne]

Here you see an EVA operation ongoing on the Russian segment. For the first time in seven or eight years, we had a new module coming, also on the Russian segment, so the Russian segment is now also going to get into full swing. We did a lot of EVAs as well from the shuttle, when the shuttle crew was there preparing the station for utilization up to the year 2020. The station is now almost finalized, but we will now start utilizing it for the next 10 years. Because of that, we need a lot of spares on the outside of the space station.

[Dr. Robert Thirsk]

Part of doing an EVA is the necessity to breathe pure oxygen, which denitrogenates our bloodstreams so that we can avoid getting the bends. This is our good friend Nicole Stott going out the airlock on her first EVA. I helped operate the Canadarm2 here, transporting Nicole and the payload from the station over to the cargo bay of the shuttle.

[Frank De Winne]

You open up the hatch and the people come back in. The space walk takes about six to seven hours, but in total it's about eight to nine hours that they are in the suits without being able to scratch their noses, for example. It's quite interesting when people come back into the hatch.

Here we see some robotic operations.

[Dr. Koichi Wakata]

This is the assembly of the Japanese Kibo module. There were three shuttle missions, and this is the final assembly of the Japanese Kibo module. We used the Canadarm2 to take it out from the shuttle's cargo bay and install it onto the Japanese laboratory. After that, we moved each payload to the Japanese platform using the Canadarm as well as the Japanese arm.

[Frank De Winne]

Here we see the HTV vehicle. This is the Japanese cargo vehicle we talked about. Shortly you will see here on the right-hand bottom side the Canadarm being operated by Nicole, who is grabbing this vehicle in mid-space, quite a complex operation. Again, everything--all the control teams, all the people--worked flawlessly on this operation.

[Dr. Robert Thirsk]

The HTV vehicle is unique. It has a central unpressurized segment, which contained another pallet inside. I used the Canadarm2 to extract the pallet, which contained a couple more experiments, and then moved it over towards the back porch on the Japanese lab and handed it off to Frank, who was operating the Japanese arm, for installation of the payloads on the lab.

Inside the pressurized portion of the cargo vehicle were five or six tonnes of food, water, clothing, new experiments, and spare parts, which we transferred aboard.

[Frank De Winne]

Here is another big moment for Europe and for myself: the arrival of another shuttle with an MPLM and with another European astronaut on board, Christer Fuglesang. Bob was very happy that Julie was on one of the shuttle missions and that there were two Canadians in space. This time, here on the right, you'll see Christer Fuglesang; we were two Europeans in space, and it was, of course, a very good moment for Europe.

[Dr. Robert Thirsk]

We transport a lot of cargo when the MPLM or the HTV arrives. This is a new treadmill that arrived and required installation. Legs are useless for locomotion in space. They just float in the breeze behind us, so we use them for transporting cargo instead.

[Frank De Winne]

Here we see the Russian vehicle approaching. In Russia they have progress ships, about four per year, that supply the space station with goods. The Russian cargo vehicles normally dock automatically, but here you see Max ready on the controls to take over if something goes wrong and do a manual rendezvous and docking.

Here is the Russian module that we talked about before, the MRM multipurpose research module that arrived at the space station. It's always very nice to have Russian vehicles arrive and open the hatch; they have late access on the ground, and the Russians are very kind in putting some fresh fruits and onions or things like that into their vehicles. Whenever we open it up, we get this smell of fresh goods, and it is very nice.