Flown Soyuz TMA-6 Navigation Window

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ƒ/2.8

50 mm

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800

This mission-critical porthole was used for docking with the ISS and for reentry burn orientation, bringing space tourist Greg Olsen back to Earth.

The porthole is made of multilayered high temperature glass with a heat resistant composite and titanium alloy frame, which is engraved and stamped with registration, identification and serial numbers. It mates with the external periscope Vzor (see photos below).

When I showed it to astronaut Ed Lu, he immediately recognized it, since he used and photographed the equivalent on TMA-2. The other end of the periscope can tilt almost 90°. When it is pointing forward, it is used for docking, with a mechanical alignment reticle much like was used on Apollo with the window-mounted COAS.

When the periscope is rotated to point away from the craft, it provides a mechanical means of orienting the craft for a reentry burn. To get the alignment right, the earth should be moving in a straight line from top to bottom in the central window. The eight peripheral windows are connected to prisms, creating a wide-angle lens array. The flight director needs to make sure that the perimeter of the Earth runs through the center of all of the eight windows.

So, even if all flight electronics have failed, the mission critical operations of docking and reentry can be accomplished with unpowered optics.

8 responses to “Flown Soyuz TMA-6 Navigation Window”

jurvetson

Jul 29, 2012 at 12:18 am

Ed Lu sent me this photo that he took on TMA-2:

"You can see clouds in the central part of the display, and on the outer parts you can see that the lower left hand quadrant is dark, meaning that the periscope is not pointed straight nadir (i.e. towards the center of the Earth). When it is pointed nadir, there will be an equal amount of horizon seen in each of the outer windows."

A couple great photos of TMA-6 on approach to the ISS:

The periscope is the green part coming straight up from the center of spacecraft (the window artifact remains with the spacecraft through reentry):

There is no forward-facing window for the commander to look out of, so between his knees is the periscope window, through which he can observe the docking mechanism at the forward end, and also look downwards to see the Earth’s surface. The crew of three sit in the central section "B" — the Soyuz Descent Module

The back side of the TMA-6 window:

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scleroplex

Jul 29, 2012 at 3:37 am

the optics aren’t exactly unpowered 🙂
they are the most powerful visual processing system on earth and easily powered by a banana.

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solerena

Jul 29, 2012 at 4:07 am

Picture looks beautiful…as always…photography is a powerful thing…one can say million words about humanity, future, space and a few shots here say it all…

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Spaceaholic.com

Jul 29, 2012 at 1:56 pm

Part of the the BCK-4 which was as you indicate designed for the spacecraft attitude monitoring in orbital flight phase, also docking procedure monitoring and space object visual observation. IThe BCK-4 has internal (cabin) cabin which are installed on the periscope A mirror within the assembly allowed two modes of site at 0 degree’s orthogonal to the spacecraft axis for attitude monitoring and 84 degrees to support berthing.The position is changed by turning a mirror unit in the central tube head using an electric motor. Field of view was 15 degrees. Glass visors were clipped on to the assembly – the one used for attitude control had(has) an etched grid – , a clear visor was used for docking/object ID (several other different visor’s carried in flight – used to have a complete BCK-4 assembly back in the days when collecting Russian space was my thing.

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jurvetson

Jul 29, 2012 at 4:16 pm

fascinating…. exploring their design space feels a bit like Rendezvous with Rama

Here is the Navigational Vzor (or visor) that you mention with the grid:

When the spacecraft is perfectly centered in respect to the horizon, all eight of the ports light up. Alignment along the orbit was judged by getting lines on the main scope to be aligned with the landscape. In this way, the spacecraft could be oriented correctly for the re-entry maneuver.

Here it is, with the Vzor mounted over my window

To decide when to reenter, the cosmonaut had a little clockwork globe that showed current position over the earth (little blue sphere in upper right part of panel above, yellow in earlier Soyuz). By pushing a button to the right of the globe, it would be advanced to the landing position assuming a standard reentry at that moment. This manual system could only be used during daylight portions of the orbit. At night the dark mass of the earth could not have been lined up with the optical Vzor device.

In his flight blog Ed Lu writes:

" The Soyuz has a periscope in the cockpit, and we see the station there on the viewing screen. Yuri remarks that it looks just like a model floating there in space. In fact it does — it looks just like one of the computer-generated images we are so familiar with from the simulator. The station looks a bit like a huge mechanical insect with appendages and solar array wings sticking out. We are busy checking all the data as we make our final approach to docking, and of course we are also looking carefully at the view in the periscope to make sure we are all lined up properly with the docking port on the station. It lines up perfectly, and with a thud, we dock with the space station."

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jurvetson

Jul 29, 2012 at 4:39 pm

14" (36 cm) excluding the iron mounting frame that holds it vertical for display

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solerena

Jul 30, 2012 at 4:41 am

Vzor is correct… Da-:)

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jurvetson

Nov 4, 2013 at 5:09 am

Whoa… I just saw Gravity, and the setup above is so familiar. Since this post, I have the Vizor and the instrument deck in the office… which featured prominently when she was in the Soyuz capsule. As well, as a Russian Mir fire extinguisher (not to spoil how that saves her life), and the landing thruster she jerry-rigs to get to the Chinese station… whoa.

"I hate space." — Sandra Bullock

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Flown Soyuz TMA-6 Navigation Window

8 responses to “Flown Soyuz TMA-6 Navigation Window”

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