NASA Shuttle-Mir Oral
History Project
Edited Oral History Transcript
Pavel
M. Vorobiev
Interviewed by Mark Davison
Cape Canaveral, Florida – 30 May 1998
Interviewers:
Mark Davison, Rebecca Wright, Paul Rollins,
Davison: Good afternoon. Today is May 29 [1998], and we're interviewing
Mr. Pavel Vorobiev, who works in the Cargo and Manifest Scheduling
Working Group.
Good afternoon. I'm Mark Davison. We met once before in Russia. I
don't know if you remember. This is Paul Rollins and Rebecca Wright
helping on the audiovisual.
Vorobiev: Very nice to meet you.
Davison: Nice to see you again, too. Can you tell us about your educational
background in Russia, or a little bit about yourself, where you were
born, where you grew up?
Vorobiev: I am a native of Moscow. I graduated from the higher engineering
college named after Bauman, so called MBT. That's the name of the
college I went to in Moscow. This school had a department at that
time called rocket-building, and that was my specialty. I graduated
in 1958.
Davison: How did your career begin in the space program? Right after
college, did you start with Energia?
Vorobiev: Actually, yes. I started to work for Energia in 1957. I
stayed there for forty-one year and am still there with them. I was
hired among many of my classmates by Sergei Korolev, the director
of Energia at that time.
I started to work at Department Number Three, which was headed by
Sergei Korolev himself. In 1957, Sergei Korolev became the designer
general of Energia Corporation, but still he was very much involved
in all design projects that we were working on at that department.
So I personally participated in many of the projects, including so-called
Zond [umbrella] Project. That was the first satellite launched and
orbited the moon. I also participated in a lunar expedition that was
under development at that time.
So, for the first fifteen years, I used to work in the analysis department
as a deputy chief of that department. We were involved in such different
areas of research--ballistics, aerodynamics, and many others. Since
1989, I became chief of the design department. We worked on all of
Mir station modules and vehicles such as Soyuz and Progress. Then
we started to work on the NASA-Mir Project and now the department
is working on the Space Station Project.
Davison: Can you tell us how you got involved in the Phase 1 Mir-Shuttle
Program and how that came about?
Vorobiev: In 1993, I was leading the Russian side of the joint Russian-American
group, and that was the time when, for the first time, the project
of the joint Russian-American flights came about. So, in 1994, both
sides signed the contract. Of course, the American astronauts would
be spending time on the Russian Mir station. So, since 1994, we had
to take care of all various manifest issues, such as delivering of
various cargo on Mir station.
So we formed the working group in 1994. The responsibility of this
working group would be to evaluate various scientific and other hardware,
Russian and American, that will be delivered by the Space Shuttle
to Mir for future operation.
Davison: Did you look at both the Progress vehicle and the Shuttle,
or just one vehicle?
Vorobiev: Both. The American cargo delivered by the Shuttle to Mir
and also American cargo that will be delivered by Progress to Mir.
Davison: Did they look at how it would be integrated into the vehicle
or how it would interface with the vehicle?
Vorobiev: Yes, that's exactly right. Many of the U.S. hardware has
been delivered on two of Mir station modules, module Spektr and module
Priroda. So we really were heavily involved in the physical integration
of various units of cargo in these two cargoes prior to their launch.
Davison: Were they also concerned with the mass and the CG [Center
of Gravity] of each one of these pieces of cargo?
Vorobiev: Whenever Russia cargo has to be integrated in the Shuttle,
of course we provide data such as mass and center of gravity and like
that. If it is an American cargo that is delivered by a Shuttle, then
the U.S. side is doing all the calculations. As a result of our joint
work, we have compiled a catalog of Russian cargo and it actually
consists of more than 150 items, with various properties such as mass
and CGs for each of these cargo. It really helps in our work, because
when I would have a similar piece of cargo, all I'd have to do is
just refer to the catalog and the information is already there.
Davison: Good idea. Can you tell us a little bit about the water-transfer
operations that went on between the Shuttle and the Mir? Was your
group a part of that operation and that process?
Vorobiev: Yes. According to our contract, Space Shuttle must deliver
water besides dry cargo. On our cargo Progress vehicle, we have special
round bottles which we use to transfer water. The containers are designed
in such a way that the water can actually be stored for a very long
time and not lose its properties. So when it was decided that the
Shuttle would assist us in delivering water to the Mir station, we
thought we would use something similar, and we'd use the Russian water,
a special kind, to load it on the Space Shuttle and deliver it to
Mir.
Then in the process of our joint work, we realized that there is water
in the fuel elements on the Shuttle which is disposed after the fuel
is used. Unfortunately, that water would not be appropriate for the
crew to use as drinking water and for other purposes. So we started
a whole new program in order to find out how we can keep this water
on board the Mir station for a longer time and still make it useable
for the crew. So, in our opinion, it was a very successful program,
because now we don't have to waste the water. We can just process
it and use it, and I think this was one of the very important achievements
that we were able to accomplish.
Davison: I agree.
Vorobiev: This technique actually allows us to save about 65,700 liters
of water that we would have to deliver on Shuttle if we didn't have
the means to process the used water.
Davison: And you would have had to have brought that up with the Progress
otherwise?
Vorobiev: Yes, this is right.
Davison: Can you tell us about what materials you were able to bring
back from the Mir via the Shuttle that you didn't have that capability
before, some of the old spare parts or whatever?
Vorobiev: There are actually several different types of cargo that
we are very much interested in returning back to Earth, and it became
possible only after we started the Shuttle to Mir. First of all, one
type of cargo would be scientific cargo, the result of scientific
experiments. The second type would be just various hardware, different
materials that were exposed to the space environment for a very long
time. We are very much interested in bringing them down, evaluating
them, and maybe finding some ways of improvement of these materials
so they can serve better during the next phase.
For instance, during STS-89 flight, we have returned a few solar panels.
Some of them are in Russia and some of them were sent to the United
States for analysis. We are studying the effect of degradation. We
have already obtained some interesting results.
The third type of hardware would be just the instrumentation that
we plan to reuse on future missions. For example, we returned a few
items that are part of the rendezvous system, Progress-Soyuz rendezvous
with Mir station, a sample of KURS [course] system and TORU system.
Davison: The antenna, the KURS antenna?
Vorobiev: No, we didn't return the antenna as part of these two systems.
We only returned the actual instruments, the units that were inside.
The antennas were outside. So the actual units are the most valuable
items because it's very complex electronics and it's quite expensive.
Davison: What is your most memorable story or experience since you've
been working in the space program? You've had a great career there,
forty years with the Russia space agency. We'd like to hear some of
the stories that really mean a lot to you.
Vorobiev: The history, actually, of Energia is very rich. We just
turned fifty in 1996. One of the most memorable stories would be my
meetings with Sergei Korolev and just working with him. It was extremely
interesting, memorable. But, of course, the brightest memory I have
was [Yuri A.] Gagarin's fight. That was a real victory for us and
it was really a huge event in the country, in Energia. I remember
just a few days after the landing, he came to our company with Sergei
Korolev, and there was a sea of people all around them. They were
standing on this improvised podium, and it was just amazing to see
his face. He was so young. It was a remarkable experience.
Davison: He identified with the people and the workers of the company
very well, I've heard.
Vorobiev: You mean at Energia, right?
Davison: Yes.
Vorobiev: Of course, Because I've been there for more than forty years,
you can learn a lot from people.
Davison: We've enjoyed talking with you and hearing your stories.
Is there anything you'd like to add?
Vorobiev: I just would like to add a few comments regarding the responsibilities
of our working group. You see, now after all these few years we've
really achieved some quick results and we can really say that the
Space Shuttle can operate now in stack with the Mir station, which
was totally impossible and unthinkable when we just started the program.
Over the course of our work, we were able to develop a whole technique
of loading cargo into the orbiter based on the needs of the station.
We were able to achieve a certain flexibility which was also never
practiced before. For example, whenever we need to load something
that is urgent for the station or maybe such cargo as food items or
something that is required in case of sudden contingency, we now are
capable of doing these things. So now we're going to use this valuable
experience during the next phase, Phase 2 of the Space Station, and
I think that was the main result of work for the last few years.
Davison: I agree. You did a good job.
Vorobiev: Thank you.
[End of interview]