Spanish Soyuz Mission Cervantes

Mission status: Click on the day of your choice ...

June 11, 2003 August 30, 2003 October 1, 2003

This flight with spanish astronaut, Pedro Duque, left October 18, 2003. Duque spend eight days aboard the Space Station conducting science experiments under a commercial contract between ESA and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency.

Duque was launched from Baikonur on the Soyuz TMA-3 craft with Expedition 8 Commander Mike Foale and Expedition 8 Soyuz Commander and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri. The spanish astronaut returned to Earth on October 28 with US astronaut Ed Lu and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko who were on the ISS.

(Commander Mike Foale might be known in Belgium for his participation (as crewmember) to mission STS-45 from March 24 to April 2, 1992, with the first Belgian astronaut Dirk Frimout. STS-45 was the first of the ATLAS series of missions to study the atmosphere and solar interactions.)

Belgian experiments

ESA’s astronaut Duque carried out a full scientific programme, spending some 40 hours of his eight day stay on the ISS on experimental activity. Most of the experiments were sponsored by the Spanish government although there were also several Belgian experiments part of this mission:

Message-2 (Max Mergeay, CEN/SKN): Microbial Experiments in the Space station About Gene Expression. Of which the main objective is to study the effects of space conditions such as microgravity and cosmic radiation on board the ISS on metabolic processes in bacteria.
Read more about Message-2 on the Energia Website.

Cardioscience Rythme (André Aubert, K.U.Leuven): The objectives will be to evaluate changes in cardiovascular function induced by long-term periods in microgravity, to compare altered function to pre- and post-flight data and to compare continuous microgravity effects on the cardiovascular system to short periods of microgravity and to simulations.
Read more about Cardioscience on the Energia Website.

Cogniscience Neurocog (Guy Cheron, ULB/UMH; Berthoz, France): Study the directed Attention Brain Potential in virtual 3D space in weightlessness.
Read more about Cogniscience on the Energia Website.

Promiss-2 (Lode Wyns, VUB; Ingrid Zegers, VUB; Frank Dubois, ULB): Of which the main scientific objective is to improve the understanding of protein crystal growth processes on protein models.
Read more about Promiss-2 on the Energia Website.

Nanoslab-2 (Johan Martens, K.U.Leuven): NANOSLAB was one of the Belgian experiments foreseen on board of the ISS during the Odissea mission in November 2002. Unfortunately, it could not be activated. The experiment is aimed at the study of the aggregation mechanism and kinetics of ZSM-5 and Silicalite-1 nanoslabs into ZSM-5 / Silicalite-1 hybrid phases under micro-gravity conditions.
Read more about Nanoslab-2 on the Energia Website.

Previous versions of them flew during the Odissea mission as well.

Listen to the audio interview with B.USOC manager Jacques Wisemberg about the mission and the Belgian experiments (Wednesday 29, 2003 on the Belgian Radio Station RTBF in French)

A detailed description of the Belgian experiments for the Spanish Soyuz Mission Cervantes is available in .pdf format (1.10 MB)

A complete overview of the Cervantes mission in .pdf (4.46 MB) can be found here as well.

Belgian User Support and Operation Centre

The B.USOC implemented in collaboration with the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) and the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) all technical means that allowed the Belgian Operation Centre to get connected to the mission communication networks to acquire, archive, and display in real-time all data and video transmissions from the Belgian experiments. The B.USOC was also connected by voice to the other mission centres.

During the mission the B.USOC maintained and collected the technical requirements of the Belgian User Home Bases (UHB, user laboratory equipped for telescience) and was the interface between them and the European Space Agency (ESA).