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  It was a beautiful sight below. The sky was blue and there were light cloud swirls all over the North American region scattered by the winds. The Pacific Ocean turned from emerald green to dark blue as the sun began to fade in the Western Hemisphere. He would not see this side of the planet for another 90 minutes as the space station sped along its orbit over the southern tip of South America, continued on its easterly course over the Atlantic ocean to the bottom tip of Africa, over parts of China and Russia and then back over the Pacific near the North America coast line. He would enter darkness for approximately 45 minutes and then sunlight for another 45 minutes as the station circled the globe. This would happen 16 times in a 24-hour period. He had less than 10 minutes left before the sun disappeared behind the planet.

  Commander Bonario has been working outside the space station for over two hours. He needed another 15 minutes or so to complete the removal and replacement of the primary computer unit on the Mobile Servicing System called the MSS. This was a massive robotic arm over 57 feet long and weighing 3,968 pounds. The MSS plays a key role in the assembly and maintenance of the space station, moving equipment and supplies along a truss system that connected the main structural elements. The Remote Manipulator System arm has seven motorized joints and is capable of handling large payloads and construction duties. The Mobile Base System moves along rails on the 360-foot truss segments covering the middle length of the space station. The Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator hand at the end of the arm was capable of handling small assembly work. The MSS was currently located between the Thermal Control Panels on the S0 Truss Segment that was directly above the U.S. Lab module near the middle of the space station. Commander Bonario had a clear view of the Earth below him as he worked. There was little sunlight visible now and he had to use his floodlights on the EMU unit to see what he was doing.

  As Commander Bonario opened the computer unit service panel on the Mobile Base Station, he heard a soft crackle on his headset from the UHF backpack radio. “Hello, Commander. This is Major Helms. How’s it going out there?” the major asked from the command module as she adjusted her radio headset and flipped on the remote camera monitor and zoomed in to see Commander Bonario working on the MSS.

  “I’m fine, Major,” Commander Bonario replied. “I’m almost ready to replace the computer unit in the service rack.” “I’ll need Kim to test the MSS unit in a few minutes.”

  “Good news. I’ll advise Kim after I hang up. Alex and I wanted to let you know that he is checking with ground control and NOAA to see what the status is on flare activity. We don’t want you out there if an alert comes in,” Major Helms said.

  “Not a problem, Major. I should be back in the airlock in 30 minutes or so. What did the last report say?” Commander Bonario asked.

  “NOAA hasn’t issued any Alerts yet,” Major Helms replied, “but Alex is concerned. He spotted some new sunspot activity on his cameras and he’s passing the information to ground control and NOAA. We should hear something in a few minutes.”

  “OK, Major. I’ll test this unit as quickly as I can and return to the airlock. Tell Kim to load the MSS test program and wait for my call. I’m almost ready to test the replacement unit. Thanks for the heads up, Major,” Commander Bonario added. He and Major Helms had worked together on his last rotation. He respected her judgment and he knew how insistent Alex could be at times. He didn’t want to be outside if a strong solar flare was imminent. His spacesuit offered some protection from solar radiation, but not enough to shield him from the worst of the flares. The best place to be was inside the space station, not outside, if an Alert came.

  Commander Bonario adjusted his fingertip heaters against the cold and checked his atmospheric pressure. The dial showed 8.3 pounds per square inch (psi). The gas inside his suit was pure oxygen instead of 20 percent oxygen and 80 percent nitrogen at 14.7 psi, which was normal Earth atmosphere from sea level to about 75 miles up where space began. The astronauts have to breathe pure oxygen for a short period of time in the airlock before venturing out for a space walk. The nitrogen must be removed from the body to prevent the release of gas bubbles when the pressure is reduced, which would result in a condition called “the bends”, similar to what divers experience if they decompress too quickly from deep dives.

  Colonel Bonario took a sip of water from the in-suit drink bag and continued to work on replacing the computer unit. The unit had been malfunctioning for some time and they had been using the backup unit to run the Remote Manipulator System. He decided to replace the main computer unit and bring the old unit in for repair before the next shuttle flight arrived.

  Commander Bonario unscrewed the panel door, opened it and flipped up the locking tabs on the rack-mounted unit. He pulled the unit out of the cabinet, disconnected the cable and power connectors from the back of the old unit and attached the unit to the side of his manned maneuvering unit. He then replaced the unit with the new computer module reversing the previous steps. Once the unit was installed, he spoke into his radio transmitter and called Major Parker in the command module.

  “Kim, I’m ready for you to test the primary computer unit. Are you ready?” he asked.

  Major Parker was waiting for Commander Bonario’s call. Major Helms was working nearby monitoring the biomedical instrumentation panel. It collected electrocardiographic (EKG) information from the primary life support system on the back of the astronaut’s spacesuit and relayed the information to flight surgeons in the Mission Control Center at Houston, Texas.

  “I hear you fine, Commander,” Kim replied. “I’m turning on the MSS computer unit test program now. Give me a minute to run the diagnostic tests. The test icons are popping up on the screen now. It looks good. The unit is functioning properly. Let me know when you’re ready to test the arm.”

  “Copy that, Kim,” Commander Bonario responded. “Let me close the panel and screw it down.” He quickly finished tightening down the panel door and put away his tools. He was completely in the dark now, but he could see the sunlight below and behind him on the planet’s surface as he sped further away from this side of the planet. Using his hand controllers on the MMU, he slowing released the nitrogen propellant and backed away from the MSS unit. When he was approximately 20 feet away from the MSS and had a clear view of the whole robotic arm system, he called Kim back on the radio. “I’m clear of the MSS, Kim. You can run the tests now.”

  “Okay, Commander,” Kim said. “I’m running the test program. Let me know if the manipulator hand opens and rotates. I’ll focus the remote cameras on the arm as well.” Major Parker quickly focused the camera lens on the arm and hand section and waited for the test program to show results. The hand began to move.

  “It’s moving now,” Commander Bonario said as the hand began to rotate counterclockwise. He turned his attention to the arm section above his head. All around him he could see the stars, millions of them shining in various degrees of brightness in the universe. It was so clear. Nothing could compare to the view of the stars from this height in space. It continued to amaze him in its beauty and overwhelming vastness.

  “I see the hand moving on the camera,” Kim responded. “The manipulator system is functioning properly. Let me test the robotic arm now.” Major Parker moved his mouse and clicked on another test icon that initiated the second test program for the robotic arm. As Kim watched the computer monitor, everything appeared to be normal.

  * * * *

  Off in the distance towards the retreating sun, slightly below and behind the space station, a speck of light was moving silently towards the station. It was too far away to be seen by the crew yet. It almost looked like another star in the night sky, but its reflection came from the sun and it was moving too quickly on a direct path to the space station.

  NASA’s ISS flight control center in Houston spotted the object first using military satellites high up in Earth orbit. The Trajectory Operations Officer (TOPO) on duty received an automated computer message on his screen and a
brief audible alert tone sounded on his wireless headset, which caused him to look at the monitor screen at his console. He noted the time and position of an object that seemed to be approaching the space station from outside the space station’s orbit. It was unidentified and should not be there according to the computer. As the computer displayed the flight path and positioning data of the object, the most unusual data was the speed and its direction of travel. The unidentified object was traveling way too fast, over 100,000 miles per hour, and it was coming towards the Earth from the direction of the sun. Then, as abruptly as it appeared on the computer screen, it disappeared. It could be a computer glitch, the officer thought. He re-checked his computer system and decided to notify the Flight Director and pass the information along to the Communication and Tracking Officer (CATO) two seats down from his console to see what he thinks.

  * * * *

  Onboard the ISS, Major Parker was watching the robotic arm on the camera monitor when the first message from flight control in Houston arrived on his computer screen with a brief email alert tone. It was a message from CATO asking him to check the radar screens to see if he was picking up any unknown objects heading his way from behind the ISS. It may be a computer problem on the ground, but they wanted him to check it out anyway. This type of thing happens occasionally and Major Parker was not alarmed at all by the message. He turned his attention away from the camera monitor for a minute to look at the radar screen monitors. They looked normal. There were no blips or recordings of any unknown objects heading in their direction from any angle. He sent a quick reply to CATO and turned his attention back to the robotic arm test status.

  From outside the station, Commander Bonario watched the robotic arm move above him. It moved slowly up and then down while the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator hand rotated in both directions during the test. It seemed to be functioning fine now. No jerky movements like before. He was ready to see if the Mobile Servicer Base System that was attached to the truss rail system was able to move. “The arm looks fine, Kim,” Commander Bonario said into his radio. “How about moving the base system a few feet towards the front section?”

  “Okay, I’m clicking on the command button now,” Major Parker replied.

  As the Mobile Servicing System started to inch its way along the rails on the truss system, Commander Bonario slowly propelled his manned maneuvering unit a few feet further from the MSS. He wanted to take some pictures with his digital camera that was attached to the MMU. It would make an interesting photo he could send to his kids back home after he finished the EVA.

  As he was focusing the camera, he thought he saw a reflection of light off to his right in the distance. At first he thought it was a star, but it was moving across the heavens and appeared to be traveling towards the space station. He watched it for a few seconds and then spoke into his headset. “Kim, turn on the AERCam and take a look behind the ISS, at an angle about 45 degrees. I see a moving light reflection, but I can’t make out any details.”

  Major Parker looked puzzled for a moment, then responded. “Let me activate the camera system, Commander. I just received a message from flight control a few minutes ago about an unidentified object in our vicinity, but nothing appeared on radar. Let me check again.”

  As Major Parker re-checked his radar screens, turned on the free-flying robotic camera system called AERCam and maneuvered it above the starboard solar panels, Commander Bonario’s curiosity was beginning to peak. He could definitely make out an object off in the distance, but it was too far away to tell how big it is or what it was. It’s probably a satellite, he thought, and waited for Major Kim to respond. As Commander Bonario was looking at the faint object in the distance, it suddenly darted to the left and disappeared. He blinked and looked again, but the object was gone.

  “Did you see that, Kim?” Commander Bonario questioned over his radio. “The object just disappeared.”

  “I’m looking at the camera monitor, Commander,” Major Parker said. “I don’t see anything. The radar screens don’t show anything either. What do you think it was?”

  “I’m not sure, Kim. Maybe it was a UFO,” Commander Bonario joked. “We haven’t seen one of those in years.” Although he spoke lightly, the commander did not have a closed mind. There were several incidents in the history of space flight where unidentified objects were seen and even photographed, but nothing ever resulted from the event. They were just entered into the space log as part of the daily records. It usually ended there. Commander Bonario looked one more time for the object, didn’t see anything, and refocused on the task at hand.

  Chapter 2

  On the sun’s surface, 93 million miles away from Earth, the temperature is a cool 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit compared to 1,800,000 degrees Fahrenheit in the sun’s outer atmosphere called the corona. To those scientists monitoring the situation, the reasons why it is cooler on the sun’s surface than in the corona are still a great solar mystery. The intense gravitational and magnetic fields probably has something to do with it. Another mystery is what causes solar flares to produce large, erupting solar prominences and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that send massive amounts of energy in many forms towards the planets. Certainly, no one on Earth could predict exactly when solar flares or CMEs would occur or how big they would be.

  At 7:45 p.m. Central Daylight Saving Time in Houston, the sun produced a massive solar prominence in the region of the greatest sunspot activity that reached up thousands of miles from the sun’s surface in a matter of minutes and quickly produced a coronal mass ejection. It was a ‘two-ribbon’ flare sometimes called a ‘seahorse flare’. The last one was recorded on a hydrogen H-alpha telescope at the Marshall Space Flight Center in 2001. That flare produced radiation levels that would have been harmful to astronauts on the moon. This flare was much more powerful than the one in 2001, more powerful than any solar flare ever recorded to date. This was an X-Class flare that was about to spew forth more than 10 billion tons of electrified gas, light and X-rays towards the Earth. Normally, CMEs produced solar storms that traveled outward into space at around 600 miles per second. This one was traveling towards Earth at a rate of 1100 miles per second. The full brunt of the storm would reach Earth in 2 days. However, the first energetic proton particles from this flare would reach Earth within 15 minutes. Not much time for NOAA to sound an Alert.

  NOAA has several satellites in orbit around the sun observing and monitoring solar events. The extreme-ultraviolet imaging telescope aboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite picked up the first proton beams bouncing off its electronic detectors like tiny fireflies. It immediately started sending data to the ground stations and observatories on Earth. NOAA picked up the first signals at 7:53 p.m. CDST and quickly transmitted its first Space Weather Alert to every possible recipient on its distribution list.

  The CATO officer at NASA’s flight control center in Houston was among the first persons to receive NOAA’s Space Weather Alert. Alarms started to ring on several consoles in the flight control room. Heads turned immediately to several monitor screens scattered around the room. The Flight Director quickly walked over to the CATO officer, saw what was happening on the monitor screens and instructed him to notify the ISS communications officer.

  Meanwhile, on board the ISS, Alex Vladamir heard the same alert tones on his wireless headset. A loud tune began to blare out over his laptop speakers. It was a Russian marching song in a shortened digital version that repeated itself very three seconds. Everyone in the command and control module could hear it echoing off the walls in the research module. For a second, Major Parker and Major Helms thought Alex was up to his usual mischief, but that gave way to alarm when they heard the computer alarms start to sound all over the room. Then the NOAA Space Weather Alert message popped up on most of the monitor screens. It read: Space Weather Bulletin #11-8, June 1 at 7:00 p.m. MDST *** MAJOR SOLAR FLARE ERUPTS, EXTREME SOLAR RADIATION STORM EXPECTED ***, followed by a brief description of the solar
flare eruption with an alert of possible S5 (Extreme) solar radiation storm and R5 (Extreme) radio blackout conditions.

  Alex looked at the monitors and immediately realized what was happening. In one sense—for a split-second—he was very excited about the event and couldn’t wait to analyze all the data he was receiving. Then he remembered what this could mean to the ISS crew on board and especially to anyone on an EVA outside the station. He immediately turned on his wireless headset and microphone intercom system and called Major Helms. “Major Helms!” he yelled into the microphone. “Can you hear me?”

  Major Helms was in the command module at the command and control center with Major Parker who was busy trying to activate the two-way radio system to notify Commander Bonario outside the space station. “Yes, I can hear you, Alex,” she replied. “What’s happening?”

  “NOAA just sent a Space Weather Advisory,” Alex responded. “It’s an Alert. A large solar flare just erupted and it’s heading our way. You’ve got to get the commander inside the space station immediately.”

  “What’s the radiation level on this storm, Alex?” Major Helms asked, trying to read the Alert at the same time.

  “It’s a S5 radiation hazard Alert, Major,” Alex responded through his headset microphone. “Enough to fry your insides if you’re outside too long. The commander’s space suit isn’t designed to protect against this level of radiation.”