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one of the busiest flight controllers in

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mission control is with us today on an

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extremely busy day

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visiting vehicle officer tom arkenswick

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joining us in between this morning's

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launch of the iss progress resupply ship

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and its upcoming docking

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tom thanks for joining us today as with

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any international partner vehicle

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arriving at the international space

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station there's a lot of coordination

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involved tell us if you would what your

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team does and what type of coordination

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is involved in advance of the launch and

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docking

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sure there are a number of things that

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we do in advance of the launch and

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docking um going all the way out

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you know a year or so in advance we work

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with the russians on how their vehicles

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can come to the station safely in terms

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of their rendezvous radar system and

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their trajectories and so as much as a

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year and then into six months away we

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are looking with them at their

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preliminary trajectories to make sure

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they'll be safe

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and to make sure that there will be no

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interference for the radar system from

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any of the u.s systems or any of the u.s

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solar arrays

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as we get in closer to the flight for

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example about a month out and then a

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week out we're working jointly not only

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with the russians but all of the u.s

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teams to coordinate the planning of the

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us segment

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preparation for the docking in terms of

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array positions radiator positions again

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making sure that it won't be any issue

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for their radar system

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and also providing an overview of what

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that rendezvous and docking will look

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like to the us segment folks so they

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understand the timeline of events from

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launch all the way to docking whether it

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be a one day docking like we'll be doing

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with this one or the more traditional

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you know two to three day docking

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and that gives everybody an overview of

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what will be happening on the russian

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side so that we all understand it in

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advance and aren't having to ask a lot

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of questions in real time

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this docking is going to follow two

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previous progress launches with a

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profile to launch and dock in the same

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day

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historically progress ships have taken

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two days and some cases three days to

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reach the station

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what challenges are involved in planning

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for this accelerated rendezvous yeah i

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would say there are challenges both for

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the moscow team and the houston team

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and certainly

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when we do this with soyuz it'll be

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challenging for the crew as well

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but focusing on the ground teams

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it involves a lot more commanding and a

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lot more coordination just within the

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moscow side because they have to take

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what used to be two days worth of

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activities and squeeze them all into

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into one day so you're doing a number of

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rendezvous maneuvers and burns within a

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couple of orbits that traditionally was

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done over two days and that's to get you

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up from the insertion altitude that the

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booster

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drops the vehicle off and get them all

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the way up to space station

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and uh also

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basically checking out all of the

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vehicle systems making sure they're all

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working so that you know it's safe to

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bring the vehicle to the station

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vicinity all of those things have to

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happen basically in the first two to

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three orbits whereas with a two-day

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rendezvous you can do some of that on

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the first day and you can do some of

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that on the second day you know it's

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plenty of time and multiple russian

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ground station passes to get all that

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done so you're compressing all of that

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into a single day

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as 48p and 49p showed

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it's obviously safe and quite possible

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to make all that happen but it's

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certainly more challenging to do that in

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that compressed time frame

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on the us side i would say it's not

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quite as much more challenging because

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primarily all we're doing is configuring

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the us segment for the docking part and

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really aren't involved in the launch

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part other than the vvo job of

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monitoring what's going on with the

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russian vehicle so that we can provide

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that insight to the u.s team in real

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time

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so

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from that perspective it's it's pretty

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much the same

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tom this progress is bringing up almost

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three tons of food fuel and supplies for

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the six crew members on the station does

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your team deal at all with the actual

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cargo or are you and your colleagues

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strictly focused on the flight dynamics

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and docking coordination only yeah we're

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strictly involved in the the rendezvous

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dynamics and coordination that part so

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we work with a couple of different

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groups on the russian side to make that

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happen there are the the rendezvous

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specialists themselves who are

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responsible not only for the theoretical

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design of the trajectories and to make

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sure that they are safe but also for

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both the hardware and software for the

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guidance and navigation and control

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system that makes all of that happen

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so we are involved in discussions with

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them

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not only for the flight specific part in

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terms of how the vehicle is going to

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implement all that on a given docking

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but also

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the

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regular

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evolution of those systems like anybody

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else

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they are you know constantly trying to

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upgrade and improve their systems

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anytime they make a significant change

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we obviously have to assess that in

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order to understand if there are

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implications to how they're rendezvouing

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with the station and to make sure that's

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safe and so that is part of our overall

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process then we're also involved with a

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another group at

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the

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mcc moscow

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who provides that interface in real time

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uh so that if anything off nominal

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happens

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or even just nominal but maybe a

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dispersion we can talk about that in

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real time and make sure we are

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coordinating that between the russian

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u.s teams so that both teams understand

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the impacts to not only the russian

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segment and the u.s segment but to the

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soyuz or progress vehicle itself

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a visiting vehicle officer handles all

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types of visiting spacecraft for a long

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time that involved only soyuz in

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progress spacecraft but now you have the

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japanese h2 transfer vehicle the

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european automated transfer vehicle the

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newly developed spacex dragoncraft and

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soon the orbital sciences cygnus

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spacecraft so what are the differences

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in the planning and are there vehicles

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that are easier than others in your

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complex work to prepare for a mission

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that's a great great question they're i

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would say they're all challenging in

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their own ways

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we kind of divide them into two groups

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that are basically what we call the

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docking vehicles which are the soyuz in

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progress and then the atv which all dock

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at the russian segment

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and then you have what we call the

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grapple vehicles which are

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htv and dragon and the upcoming cygnus

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who which are all grappled um by the

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crew using the ssrms and then birthed at

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the us segment

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so they're really very different tasks

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the the docking vehicles

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the crew

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on the station or in the case of soyuz

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the crew on the soyuz are obviously

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you know trying to monitor how the

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automated system is working and

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basically be prepared for any off

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nominal situation that may require them

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to perform a response whether that be

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take manual control or even just send

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the vehicle away

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for the grapple vehicles it's similar in

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the sense that again your monitor the

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crew is monitoring those vehicles to

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make sure that uh if an off nominal

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situation occurs that they're prepared

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to uh to send those vehicles away they

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don't have manual control capability um

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but then they also have the other task

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of actually going out and grabbing those

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vehicles with the ssrms

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and our team is involved in both of

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those processes obviously on the grapple

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side we're working very closely with the

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robos who are responsible for the ssrms

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piece

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and the ground of course is uh watching

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the vehicles as well and involved in

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that monitoring process and helping make

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sure the crew can respond if necessary

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to an off nominal situation

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aside from the fact there are no

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passengers how is preparing for a

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progress launch to docking sequence

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different from a soyuz

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with the soyuz

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the soyuz crew has a very you know

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detailed training and detailed flight

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data procedure that tells them how to

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respond to certain off novel situations

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uh with the progress since there's no

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crew on board

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all of that has to be built in to the

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progress vehicle itself until it gets

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really you know relatively close you

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know from space terms

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i would say you know within say less

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than a kilometer

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before you can really even think about

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you know doing anything from the from

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the station side in terms of manual

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control

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so

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obviously do things at a further range

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and still be safe with the progress you

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really have to build that into the

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vehicle with all that said the russians

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have done a really good job of making

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those vehicles

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essentially similar and really

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completely similar from the flight

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dynamics perspective

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so in terms of the automation for

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the guidance and navigation and control

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and the safety of those functions in off

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nominal situations

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the automated part is exactly the same

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between those two vehicles so there's

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really no difference

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the only difference is that you have the

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crew on the soyuz that once you get

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beyond the capabilities of the automated

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system that the the soyuz crew is

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obviously there and can do some certain

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things whereas with the progress you'd

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have to wait until the progress was a

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little closer before the iss crew could

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do something using the remote control

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tom you've done this job for some time

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what do you like the most about your

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role as a visiting vehicle officer and

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what do you think people would find most

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surprising about your job

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the answer to those questions is

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actually somewhat the same

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one of the things i enjoy most about my

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job in my case since i work strictly on

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the russian vehicle side of things

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is working with the russians it's very

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interesting to work with them because

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even though we have a similar

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engineering culture

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obviously the social culture background

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is very different and those things you

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know

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permeate each other in a working

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environment so you have to

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if not understand although that's

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obviously best at least be cognizant of

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those social cultural differences and

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how they affect how you work with each

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other

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so understanding those things is a

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really cool

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learning task and then you know really

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interesting in person to to work with

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them and

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learn how that works you know learn

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about their culture teach them about

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ours

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uh it's a really good good give and take

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on both sides and i have found that to

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be one of the most uh

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interesting parts of my overall job

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and i would say that that's actually one

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of the most surprising things to people

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you know if they ask me what do i do and

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i tell them i'm vvo and

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what my job is here

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you know i tell them i would work with

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international partners

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and

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is that the you know there's so much

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cultural understanding that kind of has

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to go on in the background to really

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help

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do

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tell us a little bit about yourself and

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how you came to work on behalf of

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mission and flight operations when i was

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an undergrad student at the university

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of illinois in urbana-champaign uh the

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cooperative education student

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coordinator actually came and did

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interviews on campus so i interviewed

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and i was fortunate enough to uh to get

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that job as a a co-op student

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i did four tours here at jsc

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basically four semesters worth of work

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uh three in engineering and my very last

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one in mod

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and uh was fortunate enough to to be

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transitioned to full time after i

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graduated from my with my undergrad

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degree so i was transitioned from a

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co-op to a full-time student or a

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full-time employee i'm sorry and i've

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been doing that ever since so i've been

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here full-time since 1994 and

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i've been basically in mod flight

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dynamics the whole time in various

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different positions but i've been

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working the vvo job

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pretty much since the

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1996 to 1998 time frame that's when i

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first started working with the russians

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on

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uh how their vehicles would be coming to

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the space station um you know how we

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could do that safely between the u.s and

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russian segment impacts

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and how we would do the real-time

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operations as well and that's really

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where the vvo job came into being was

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understanding that having an interface

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to discuss

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and work out

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both in advance of the flight and in

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real time

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any issues that might happen while their

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vehicle is coming in

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it became obvious you know pretty early

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on that that was a smart thing to do

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as you probably know

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mod and jsc has a function similar to

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that called the houston support group

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that does that

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from a bigger picture for the overall

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integration of the russian segment and

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us segment where they provide that

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interface

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and so what our job is is similar to

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that but focused mostly on the the

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flight dynamics and guidance navigation

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function

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for rendezvous and docking and also for

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undocking and separation just because

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those are such critical time frames with

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those vehicles being in the vicinity of

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the space station

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tom arkanswick veteran visiting vehicle

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officer and an expert in russian flight

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operations joining us today just hours

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before the docking of a new progress