1975-065A (Soyuz 19) – 1975-066A (Apollo 18)
15 July 1975
Pad 1, Site 5, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan (Soyuz 19); Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida (Apollo 18) 21 July 1975 (Soyuz 19); 24 July 1975 (Apollo 18)
86 km northeast of Arkalyk (Soyuz 19); Pacific Ocean,
432 km west of Hawaii (Apollo 18)
R7 (11A511U); spacecraft serial number 7K-TM #75 (Soyuz 19); Saturn 1B SA-210; spacecraft serial number CSM-111; Docking Module-2 (Apollo 18)
5 days 22hrs 30 min 51 sec (Soyuz 19);
9 days 1hr 28 min 24 sec (Apollo 18)
Soyuz/Apollo
First international manned space flight; docking of an American Apollo with a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in Earth orbit, with crew exchanges, returning to Earth in own vehicles
Flight Crew
LEONOV, Aleksey Arkhipovich, 41, Soviet Air Force, commander Soyuz 19, 2nd mission
Previous mission: Voskhod 2 (1965)
KUBASOV, Valery Nikolayevich, 40, civilian, flight engineer Soyuz 19,
2nd mission
Previous mission: Soyuz 6 (1969)
STAFFORD, Thomas Patten Jr., 44, USAF, commander Apollo 18,
4th mission
Previous missions: Gemini 6 (1965); Gemini 9 (1966); Apollo 10 (1969) BRAND, Vance DeVoe, 44, civilian, command module pilot Apollo 18 SLAYTON, Donald Kent “Deke”, 51, USAF, docking module pilot Apollo 18
Flight Log
After three years of extraordinary cooperation between the superpowers, involving reciprocal visits by teams of scientists and spacemen, development of a compatible docking system and flight planning, Apollo and Soyuz were made ready for the big link up, amid publicity comparable with one of the first Moon landings. First to go were Aleksey Leonov and Valery Kubasov aboard Soyuz 19 at 17: 20 hrs local time at Baikonur, watched live on television while the reserve, fully fuelled Soyuz sat on a
|
It may not have been a lunar mission, but this launch of Apollo 18 was significant in its own right
|
sister pad about 30 km (19 miles) away. Soyuz entered an orbit with an inclination of 51.8° and a maximum altitude of 220 km (137 miles).
Sixteen thousand km (9,942 miles) away, on Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, America’s last manned space flight for almost six years was about to begin, seven and a half hours after the ascent of Soyuz 19. Apollo’s crew, the veteran Stafford, the mature Brand and the positively aged former unflown Mercury astronaut Slayton, reached orbit and extracted a docking module from the S-IVB stage of the Saturn 1B. The race in space began with Soyuz relatively passive and Apollo doing most of the manoeuvring. At T + 51 hours 49 minutes ASTP mission time, Apollo
|
Kubasov and Leonov in the Soyuz 19 Orbital Module
|
and Soyuz docked together and a little later, with the connecting hatches open, Stafford and Leonov shook hands over Holland.
With the crews speaking their respective languages, visiting each other’s spacecraft and exchanging TV conversations with President Gerald Ford and Premier Leonid Brezhnev, the mission took on the mantle of a space summit. At one point Brand, sitting in the Soyuz, spoke to Soviet TV viewers in Russian. The two spacecraft later separated for some joint experiments, one of which was to simulate a solar eclipse, and the rendezvous ended at T + 102 hours 16 minutes. During the series of crew transfers between the two spacecraft, Leonov spent 5 hours 43 minutes aboard Apollo, while Kubasov had been in the American spacecraft for 4 hour 47 minutes. Stafford had visited Soyuz for a total of 7 hours 10 minutes, Brand for 6 hours 30 minutes and Slayton for 1 hour 35 minutes.
Soyuz 19 landed at T + 5 days 22 hours 30 minutes 51 seconds, 86 km (53 miles) northeast of Arkalyk, watched live on TV. Apollo flew on, reaching a maximum altitude of 228 km (142 miles), almost as if savouring America’s last days in space for as long as possible. The re-entry was textbook perfect, but as Apollo 18 descended towards USS New Orleans in the Pacific Ocean, 432 km (268 miles) west of Hawaii, Brand forgot to operate two switches to deploy the parachutes and shut down the RCS thrusters. When the drogue chute failed to deploy, Brand commanded it to do so manually, but the oscillations caused the still-armed thrusters to fire. Stafford shut them down but not before nitrogen tetroxide gas had boiled off and entered the cabin via a pressure fed valve. The astronauts began to cough and choke and Brand fell unconscious. He came round with the aid of oxygen from masks that were donned before splashdown at T + 9 days 1 hour 28 minutes 24 seconds. It was an unfortunate end to an historic and, it appears now, unique space flight.
Following the mission, there were enthusiastic plans for docking an American Shuttle with an improved (Salyut 6-class) space station in 1981, but relations between the two countries deteriorated with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and this contributed to the shelving of plans about future joint flights for almost 20 years.
Milestones
57th and 58th manned space flights
27th Soviet manned space flight
19th Soyuz manned space flight
31st US manned space flight
15th (and final) Apollo CSM manned space flight
1st joint US-Soviet manned space flight
1st time five people travel in “one” spacecraft
1st Soviet manned launch shown live on TV across the world
1st space traveller aged over 50
Flight Crew
VOLYNOV, Boris Valentinovich, 41, Soviet Air Force, commander, 2nd mission
Previous mission: Soyuz 5 (1969)
ZHOLOBOV, Vitaly Mikhailovich, 39, Soviet Air Force, flight engineer
Flight Log
Another military Almaz space station, designated Salyut 5 (Almaz-3), was launched on 22 June 1976 (1976-057A), together with its conical, recoverable capsule, to continue operations which began with Salyut 3 in 1974. It also operated on frequencies used by reconnaissance satellites and previous military Salyuts. The Soyuz 21 ferry vehicle ascended from sunny Baikonur at 17: 09 hrs local time, and one day later a smooth docking was completed. Maximum altitude achieved by Soyuz 21 was 274 km (170 miles) during the mission at 51.6°.
Salyut 5 was crammed with over 20 pieces of scientific equipment for science – technological experiments, biological investigations, astronomical and Earth observations, medical checks and technical evaluations. Apart from classified military work, the crew of veteran Boris Volynov and the first moustached cosmonaut, Vitaly Zholobov, were clearly going to have their hands full on the projected 60-day plus mission. The behaviour and breeding of fish was studied using an aquarium – another space first – and the cosmonauts monitored aerosol and industrial pollution.
They also grew crystals in microgravity and studied the behaviour of liquids as a prelude to in-orbit refuelling by tanker craft. Equipment was even used to harden and solder metals. It is interesting to note that the equipment used for Earth resources was unnamed, unlike all the other scientific experiments, clearly pointing to the reconnaissance nature of the mission, with its quick response being aided by the teleprinter on board. Soviet reports honed in on the science equipment on board but did little to describe the cosmonauts’ other activities, which included monitoring the extensive air and sea operations around Siberia during Operation Sevier.
|
Inspecting the business end of their launch vehicle at Baikonur are Soyuz 21 cosmonauts Volynov (left) and Zholobov
|
Seemingly out of the blue to western observers, the end of the mission was announced just 12 hours before the crew was back on Earth. Volynov and Zholobov had evacuated the space station when an odour in Salyut’s atmosphere became so acrid as to be unbearable. First time space flyer Zholobov’s health had been deteriorating for some time – even prescribed medication seemed not to work – and this initiated reports of him suffering sensory deprivation due to prolonged isolation. But Volynov was also suffering (to a lesser extent) from what was assumed to be nitric acid fumes leaking from the propellant system of the Salyut. The cosmonauts landed at night 198 km (123 miles) southeast of Kokchetav at T + 49 days 6 hours 23 minutes 32 seconds. The next crew got ready with new equipment – gas masks.
Milestones
59th manned space flight 28th Soviet manned space flight 20th Soyuz manned space flight
Flight Crew
BYKOVSKY, Valery Fyodorovich, 42, Soviet Air Force, commander, 2nd mission
Previous mission: Vostok 5 (1963)
AKSENOV, Vladimir Viktorovich, 41, civilian, flight engineer
Flight Log
In July 1975, Soyuz spacecraft serial number 74 had been prepared as a second backup vehicle for the ASTP programme. The first Soyuz back-up vehicle, serial number 76, had been fuelled and sitting on Pad 31 in case the primary Soyuz 19 mission failed. As it had to be launched within 75 days of being fuelled, it was dismantled and sent back to NPO Energiya for short-term storage. The DM was recycled to be used on Soyuz 31 but the OM and SM were used in a display with a mock-up DM at the Energiya museum. Spacecraft 74, being unfuelled, had a longer shelf life and was available for its own mission. This independent Soyuz spacecraft, rather than a ferry, was then rather ingeniously and cost-effectively converted into a specialised Earth observatory, manned by cosmonauts Valery Bykovsky and Vladimir Aksenov. It was launched into a unique 64.5° inclination orbit at 14: 48 hrs local time at Baikonur. The docking system on the front of the Orbital Module had been replaced with the East German Karl Zeiss MKF-6 multi-spectral camera. This was loaded with film and operated from within the Orbital Module in much the same way as the Orion astronomical equipment on board the Soyuz 13 spacecraft.
From its 296 km (184 miles) maximum altitude orbit, Soyuz 22 made special observations of the Soviet Union and East Germany and may not have been able to resist some military reconnaissance of the coast of Norway where a NATO exercise was being conducted. The MKF camera was able to take six photographs simultaneously in the visible and infrared bands, providing a stereo imaging capability which would be useful to agricultural experts, cartographers, geologists and hydrol-
|
Aksenov recording data during the Soyuz 22 mission
|
ogists. The camera took pictures in 164 km (102 miles) swathes with a resolution of 28 m (92 ft). The Soviets claim that the resulting pictures helped find the best route for the construction of a new railway, identified optimum timber and production sites, and mapped tidal zones to assist in the siting of tidal power stations. Images also assessed mineral prospects in the continental shelf, harvest projections, land reclamation possibilities and atmospheric pollution monitoring. In all, the MKF took 2,400 images covering 30 special targets.
Bykovsky and Aksenov came home 148 km (92 miles) northwest of Tselinograd at T + 7 days 21 hours 52 minutes 17 seconds. Soyuz 22 was the final solo flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. All the future flights were associated with space stations, and though it seems other solo flights were expected, no such long-term programme was planned.
Milestones
60th manned space flight 29th Soviet manned space flight 21st Soyuz manned space flight Final solo “scientific” Soyuz mission
Flight Crew
ZUDOV, Vyacheslav Dmitriyevich, 34, Soviet Air Force, commander ROZHDESTVENSKY, Valery Ilyich, 37, Soviet Air Force, flight engineer
Flight Log
Like Apollo 13 six years before, Soyuz 23 seemed to have its gremlins. Firstly, the cosmonaut transfer bus broke down on the way to the launch pad. During the ascent, high winds caused the R7 to deviate from its intended flight path to such a degree that it almost triggered a launch abort. This resulted in a lower orbit than planned. Then the Igla system failed and a challenging recovery awaited the rookie crew.
Armed with gas masks to prevent possible asphyxiation by Salyut 5’s acrid atmosphere, rookie cosmonauts Vyacheslav Zudov and Valery Rozhdestvensky took off in the Soyuz 23 ferry at 22: 40 hrs local time from Baikonur for a routine flight to the space station. The flight was to become an arduous and much shorter one than the planned 14-day mission. The bite noir of the Salyut programme reared its ugly head again, as Soyuz 23 approached and failed to dock because of a failure with the automatic system. The rendezvous radar electronics had failed. The ferry, without solar panels and running on just batteries, had a limited lifetime in its 275 km (171 miles), 51.6° orbit. The happy-go-lucky crew, as they had been described before the launch, shut down as many systems as possible and floated around cold and disappointed until the next convenient re-entry pass for a landing in the main recovery area. The Soviets had failed to dock with their space stations seven times in eleven attempts.
Following a curt Soviet announcement that the visit to Salyut 5 had been cancelled, Soyuz 23 fired the retro-rockets and came home. Though de-orbit burn and re-entry occurred as programmed, the high winds in the recovery area resulted in a 121 km overshoot from the planned landing near Arkalyk and they descended in a thick fog, with temperatures at — 22° C. The 32 km (20 miles) wide Lake Tengiz was situated in the recovery area, 194 km (121 miles) southwest of Tselinograd, and the
|
The only Russian crew to splash down at the end of their mission. Zudov (left) and Rozhdestvensky
|
unlucky duo, expecting a hard ground impact, headed straight for it, making the first splashdown of sorts in the Soviet space programme, at T + 2 days 0 hours 6 minutes 35 seconds. As the lake was covered with ice, which was broken by the Soyuz descent capsule, the recovery, in temperatures of —20°C in the fog and in darkness, was very difficult and not without “a certain amount of heroism,” said the Soviets later. The true extent of the danger and difficult recovery did not emerge for some years. The capsule rapidly cooled in the freezing waters and the cosmonauts took off their thin Sokol pressure suits, instead donning their warmer flight suits before breaking into some of their emergency rations. To conserve energy they stopped moving and talking, but this hampered efforts to find them, as the signal beacon was obscured by the fog and corrosion activated the reserve parachute which rapidly filled with water. Fortunately, as the lake was shallow, it did not drag the capsule beneath the water line, allowing the equalisation valve to supply additional oxygen to the dwindling supplies on board. The capsule was found by chance and in extreme conditions, with a lack of adequate equipment meaning that the recovery had to wait until the next morning. It was snowing and several attempts to reach the capsule were thwarted. The crew were in contact with their rescuers, but by the next day the antenna had frozen, and rescue teams thought that they would find a dead crew. The weather improved slightly, however and divers communicated with the crew, but were unable to attach a lifting cable. The only way to rescue the crew was by towing the capsule to finally retrieve a cold and exhausted crew. The rookies of Soyuz 23 never flew again.
Milestones
61st manned space flight 30th Soviet manned space flight 22nd Soyuz manned space flight 1st Soyuz manned splash down Final manned use of R7 11A511
Flight Crew
GORBATKO, Viktor Vasilyevich, 42, Soviet Air Force, commander, 2nd mission
Previous mission: Soyuz 7 (1969)
GLAZKOV, Yuri Nikolayevich, 37, Soviet Air Force, flight engineer
Flight Log
Baikonur was treated to yet another fireworks display at 23: 12hrs local time when another Soyuz departed at night. Soyuz 24 made four orbital manoeuvres and a day later got to within 1,500 m (4,921 ft) of Salyut 5 at a speed of 2m/sec (6.5ft/sec). When Igla again failed, Commander Viktor Gorbatko took control at 80 m (262 ft) distance, and with Salyut illuminated by Soyuz 24’s searchlight, he made a smooth docking. After a sleep period inside the Soyuz and wearing breathing apparatus, they entered the space station, and to their surprise found conditions comfortable. There was no longer an acrid odour. A full operational mission lasting 17 days, in a 51.6° orbit and at a maximum altitude of 281 km (175 miles), was on the agenda.
The cosmonauts conducted many classified military experiments and had much success with the science equipment. Soldering tests were successful but the casting of metals was not. The cosmonauts conducted crystal growth experiments, observed fungi and fish roe development in microgravity, photographed the sun, carried out Earth resources photography and made a study of glacial precipitation based on observations made by the Soyuz 21 crew. Continuing investigations into the effects of weightlessness on the human body, the crew conducted several biological and medical tests, including regular electrocardiogram sessions and studies into space sickness. A unique event occurred on 21 February when much of the spacecraft’s atmosphere was purged, using air in onboard containers.
The highly successful mission ended quietly at T + 17 days 17 hours 25 minutes 58 seconds, outside the planned recovery zone, in snow, high winds, low cloud and sub-zero temperatures, 36 km (22 miles) northeast of Arkalyk. After leaving the
|
The final military Soyuz crew. Glazkov and Gorbatko
|
capsule to await the rescue team, the cosmonauts found it too cold outside and reentered the capsule. The rescue teams arrived an hour after landing. It was from the experiences on several Soyuz off nominal landings (notably the Soyuz abort, Soyuz 23 and Soyuz 24) that improvements to survival gear were authorised for future missions. This was the final military Soyuz flight and the last flight of a manned Almaz station. Though a further station launch was planned for the early 1980s, it was cancelled. Salyut 5 finally re-entered the atmosphere in August 1977.
Milestones
62nd manned space flight
31st Soviet manned space flight
23rd Soyuz manned space flight
Final Soyuz “Almaz” military station mission
Flight Crew
KOVALENOK, Vladimir Vasilyevich, 35, Soviet Air Force, commander RYUMIN, Valery Viktorovich, 38, civilian, flight engineer
Flight Log
The Soviet Union started its 20th anniversary celebrations of Sputnik 1 with the launch of the Salyut 6 (DOS 5-1) space station on 29 September. Salyut 6 (1977-097A) was very similar to Salyut 4 but significantly upgraded, equipped with more experiments, two docking ports instead of one allowing for re-supply missions, and an operational EVA system. Rhetoric was emotional as the Soyuz 25 crew, rookies Vladimir Kovalenok and Valery Ryumin, prepared to start a new era in space operations, the third decade of Soviet space flight. Their launch at 07: 40 hrs local time was unimpressive since the rocket almost immediately disappeared into low cloud.
Kovalenok and Ryumin, heading for a stay of90 days or more in space, made the routine rendezvous with Salyut 6 and things looked good. Soyuz 25, which reached a maximum altitude of 349 km (217 miles) during the mission, at 51.6°, made contact but it was only a soft dock. Radio silence fell over the mission. The cosmonauts made three more desperate attempts to get a hard dock but ran out of time before the critical limit in the ferry vehicle’s power capability was reached. The Soviets announced that the much heralded mission had ended prematurely and ignominiously. There are conflicting reports on the docking operations; some indicate the orientation of the station was incorrect, while other suggest that the docking mechanism failed. Whatever the reason, once again a crew could not enter a station.
The disappointed crew – the last all-rookie crew in Soviet history – came home, 184 km (114 miles) from Tselinograd at T + 2 days 0 hours 44 minutes 45 seconds, after the eighth docking failure in thirteen Soviet attempts. There were concerns that the docking port had been damaged, perhaps by imperfections in crew control, since Kovalenok and Ryumin did not get the usual full honours on their return, although
|
Studying hard for a mission they could not complete, Ryumin (left) and Kovalenok were the intended first crew to Salyut 6
|
they did return to space. If the port had been damaged it did not matter, because for the first time there was an alternative port on a Salyut.
Milestones
63rd manned space flight 32nd Soviet manned space flight 24th Soyuz manned space flight
Flight Crew
ROMANENKO, Yuri Viktorovich, 33, Soviet Air Force, commander GRECHKO Georgy Mikhailovich, 45, civilian, flight engineer, 2nd mission Previous mission: Soyuz 17 (1975)
Flight Log
Soyuz 26 was originally planned as the second long-duration mission to Salyut 6 with rookies Yuri Romanenko and Aleksandr Ivanchenkov, who had been paired since 1973. After the Soyuz 25 abort, the Soviets decided not to fly all-rookie crews again and Romanenko and Ivanchenkov were split. Romanenko was to command what was now to be the first long-duration mission, with Georgy Grechko as the new flight engineer. Grechko had been drafted in from the intended third crew as he was a Salyut designer and would be able to evaluate any fix to the forward docking port that may have been damaged by Soyuz 25.
Soyuz 26 got underway at 06: 19hrs local time at Baikonur, and just over two days later Romanenko made a manual docking at the rear port of Salyut. Had the forward port been damaged by the Soyuz 25 attempt, the second port on Salyut 6 had saved the day. Romanenko and Grechko floated into the new space station to sample the delights of several improvements since Salyut 4, in their 356 km (221 miles), 51.6° orbit.
The station was equipped with a temperature regulation and water regeneration system, external TV cameras, EVA handrails, airlock, sun sensor, waste ejection airlock, dust filter, running track, shower, ion sensor and the MKF multi-spectral camera, whose housing took most of the room in the aft pressurised section. The rear docking port replaced the Salyut main propulsion system engine chamber which was divided into two either side of the port. Salyut 6 was equipped internally with several scientific experiments, including a smelting furnace for crystal growth and metallurgical processing brought up later by cargo vehicles. Much emphasis was placed on medical experiments since this mission was to exceed all previous ones in duration.
|
Romanenko and Grechko near the main control panels of Salyut 6 during their record-breaking mission
|
On 19 December, the cosmonauts’ routine work was interrupted by the first EVA in nine years, when Grechko, wearing a new semi-rigid spacesuit called Orlan with a portable life support system in a back pack (which also acted as the suit’s “back door’’ entry), emerged to inspect possible damage to the forward docking port. Grechko did not find any damage during the 20 minute EVA. He had practiced his EVA inside a huge water simulator, called the Hydrolab, at Star City. During the 88 minutes of depressurisation, the space-suited Romanenko, keen to look outside as far as possible, floated free. For several years after the flight, Grechko maintained a “story” that his instinctive grab saved Romanenko from becoming the first person to make an independent EVA and meet a lingering death in space. The commander, however, insisted that he was always attached by a small safety line and more recently Grechko has admitted that it was his “big joke’’ and that Romanenko was never in danger of floating away from the station.
Relations between the two were not always good. They had been thrown together with six weeks’ notice for the mission and the rookie commander had a much older and more experienced person as his second in command and flight engineer. Romanenko spent a good part of the mission with a raging toothache which he insisted be kept secret in case the mission be shortened. Wrapped with a scarf around his painful jaw, the miserable Romanenko swallowed aspirin after aspirin in the hope of a cure.
After seeing in the New Year, the crew became the first to receive visitors when Soyuz 27 arrived on 11 January. Before the Soyuz 25 abort, the first visiting crew would have comprised two rookie cosmonauts, Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Pyotr Kolodin on a test of the dual docking port capability. The docking failure saw Oleg Makarov replace Kolodin. Their stay of eight days ended with their return in Soyuz 26, leaving a fresh craft for the resident crew. Another major milestone in the Soviet space programme occurred on 20 January 1978, when the unmanned Progress 1 tanker was launched. It made an automatic docking at the rear of Salyut 6, carrying compressed air, food, water, films, letters, parcels and scientific equipment. It also carried propellants and conducted the first in-flight refuelling in space, replenishing Salyut 6’s tanks. Progress, based on the Soyuz ferry but with no Descent Module, also acted as a waste disposal unit. Crammed with rubbish by the cosmonauts, it undocked from Salyut 6 on 6 February and made a commanded re-entry, but not before conducting a rendezvous test from a distance of 16 km (10 miles).
Romanenko and Grechko got to work on some of the equipment that had been delivered by Progress 1. This included a solar electric furnace capable of temperatures of 1,000° C which was used to study the diffusion processes in molten metals and the interaction of solid and liquid metals in weightlessness. Another piece of equipment, called Medusa, was used to assess the effects of radiation on amino acids and other biological building blocks. Other equipment such as air purification filters and lithium hydroxide canisters were also fitted into the Salyut’s environmental control system. The next highlight was the arrival in March of the Soyuz 28 crew, with the Czechoslovakian visitor, Vladimir Remek and his commander Aleksey Gubarev, who arrived as the crew was breaking the 84-day duration record held by the Skylab 4 crew since 1974.
After the brief Soyuz 28 visit, the Soyuz 26 mission ended at T + 96 days 10 hours 0 minutes 7 seconds, aboard the Soyuz 27 descent capsule, 264 km (164 miles) west of Tselinograd. Grechko learned that his father had died during the flight, a fact that Romanenko had known but was asked to keep from his flight engineer. Re-adaptation to 1-G took a long time but the cosmonauts were nonetheless fit and well. The first visit to Salyut 6 had been an unqualified success and a major milestone in the Soviet programme. That Romanenko had been part of it was later deemed prophetic.
Milestones
64th manned space flight
33rd Soviet manned space flight
25th Soyuz manned space flight
New duration record – 96 days 10 hours
1st crew to receive visiting crew
1st in-flight refuelling in space
3rd Soviet and 18th flight with EVA operations
1978-003A 10 January 1978
Pad 1, Site 5, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan 16 January 1978 (aboard Soyuz 26)
307 km west of Tselinograd
R7 (11A511U); spacecraft serial number (7K-T) #44 5 days 22hrs 58 min 58 sec Pamir (Pamirs)
First exchange of resident crew Soyuz craft for fresher vehicle; structural tests of two docking ports on same space station
Flight Crew
DZHANIBEKOV, Vladimir Aleksandrovich, 35, Soviet Air Force, commander MAKAROV, Oleg Grigoryevich, 45, civilian, flight engineer, 3rd mission Previous missions: Soyuz 12 (1973); Soyuz 18-1 (1975)
Flight Log
This all-Soviet visiting mission was designed to evaluate the structural strength of the new second docking port with another Soyuz already docked to the station. In light of the Soyuz 25 failure, it also provided a good opportunity to confirm what the Soyuz 26 cosmonauts had discovered during their EVA; that the front port of Salyut was able to receive visiting craft. With the two cosmonauts aboard their Soyuz 27 ferry, the Salyut 6 space station flew over Baikonur and was 17 minutes further away when the SL-4 booster came to life at 17: 26hrs local time.
Before manually docking, Dzhanibekov flew around Salyut 6 to inspect its suspect port carefully before berthing. Apart from the obvious firsts, four people were on board a space station at one time and the space station was now 37 m (121 ft) long and weighed 32 tonnes. The first space visitors, reaching 352 km (219 miles) in the 51.6° orbit, had brought with them the Soviet-French Cyton biology experiment, and also conducted what was called the Resonance Experiment, which involved “jumping” on the floor, restrained by bungee cords, to measure the stresses exerted on the space station and the two docked vehicles. Dzhanibekov, an expert in electrical engineering, also gave the Salyut station the once-over.
After their short stay, the visitors packed Soyuz 26 with equipment, samples and other packages, exchanged their custom couches, and headed home. They landed at T + 5 days 22 hours 58 minutes 58 seconds, 307 km (191 miles) west of Tselinograd.
Milestones
65th manned space flight
34th Soviet manned space flight
26th Soyuz manned space flight
1st manned re-supply mission
1st manned dual docking
1st full crew to land in a different spacecraft
1978-023A 2 March 1978
Pad 1, Site 5, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
10 March 1978
307 km west of Tselinograd
R7 (11A511U); spacecraft serial number (7K-T) #45 7 days 22hrs 16 min Zenit (Zenith)
First international crew – Czech visiting mission to Salyut 6
Flight Crew
GUBAREV, Aleksey Aleksandrovich, 45, Soviet Air Force, commander, 2nd mission
Previous mission: Soyuz 17 (1975)
REMEK, Vladimir, 29, Czech Army Air Force, cosmonaut researcher
Flight Log
The Soviet Union decided to fly guest cosmonauts from the Eastern Block “Inter – kosmos space science programme” on space station visits in 1976, at the same time that the USA announced that it was to fly West Europeans on the Space Shuttle. Three countries, Poland, East Germany and Czechoslovakia, were chosen to supply the first candidates for these missions, and Czechoslovakia’s Vladimir Remek came out of the political hat first. He was teamed with Aleksey Gubarev for the mission, which began with a night launch at 20: 28 hrs local time. The docking the following day was shown live on television via a camera on Soyuz 28. Once linked together, the two visiting cosmonauts came through the Salyut 6 entry hatch to a welcome so long-lasting and exuberant that ground controllers told the foursome to sober up, although nothing more powerful than cherry juice was drunk.
Remek got down to work with some national science experiments, most of which were conducted using onboard Soviet equipment. He used the Splav furnace to conduct the Morava experiment to study the growth of super pure crystals in microgravity and the possibility of obtaining semi-conductor optical materials. The Extinctica experiment observed the change in the brightness of stars when viewed through the atmosphere. The Chorella experiment studied the growth of algae cultures in a nutrient medium, and an oxymeter was used to study the concentrations of oxygen in human tissue in weightlessness.
The flight took place with enough national rhetoric to cover 50 missions, but the irony was that ten years later the Soviets admitted that they were worthless propaganda missions. Remek’s was the first of many international missions which after a
|
Remek (at rear) working in Salyut 6 with his commander Gubarev (left). Salyut commander Romanenko is on the right
|
while became rather monotonous other than to the country involved at the time or to ardent space watchers. What they did achieve was access to a lot of unique experiments prepared by specialists outside of the Soviet Union, expanding the research programme of the station. For nine Soviet cosmonauts however, it cost them perhaps their only chance of a seat into space after years of waiting and training, to foreign “part-time” cosmonauts with only months of preparation. Soyuz 28, which reached 353 km (219 miles) during the 51.6° mission, undocked and landed at T + 7 days 22 hours 16 minutes, 307 km (191 miles) west of Tselinograd, where a fleet of jets and helicopters were waiting.
Milestones
66th manned space flight
35th Soviet manned space flight
27th Soyuz manned space flight
1st manned space flight by non-Soviet, non American
1st Interkosmos mission
1st manned space flight by a Czechoslovakian
1978-061A 15 June 1978
Pad 1, Site 5, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan 2 November 1978 (aboard Soyuz 31)
307 km west of Tselinograd
R7 (11A511U), spacecraft serial number (7K-T) #46 139 days 14hrs 47 min 32 sec Foton (Photon)
Second Salyut 6 resident crew programme
Flight Crew
KOVALENOK, Vladimir Vasilyevich, 36, Soviet Air Force, commander, 2nd mission
Previous mission: Soyuz 25 (1977)
IVANCHENKOV, Aleksandr Sergeyevich, 37, flight engineer
Flight Log
Yet another night launch, at 01: 17 hrs Baikonur time on 16 June, dispatched Vladimir Kovalenok and Aleksandr Ivanchenkov towards a rendezvous and docking with the vacant Salyut 6 space station after a one day solo flight in Soyuz 29. The two entered the Salyut to find a welcoming letter from Romanenko and Grechko and soon got to work with some repair jobs. With a balky ventilator repaired and the airlock given the once-over, Kovalenok and Ivanchenkov embarked on a three day production cycle using the Splav furnace. Before the flight, the cosmonauts had been given special instruction in Earth resources observation and potential strategic reconnaissance, flying a TU-134 at a height of 9,200 m (30,180 ft).
During their Salyut mission, some 36 times higher up at 366 km (227 miles) in the 51.6° orbit, the cosmonauts eventually took over 18,000 photographs using the onboard MKF-6m multi-spectral camera and a new topographical camera called the KT-140. To assess their ability to identify objects on the ground, an area near Rostow was specially laid out with grains, grasses and other types of vegetation. Following the standard Soviet procedures, Kovalenok and Ivanchenkov concentrated on one experiment at a time using a scheduled programme, before moving on to another. These tasks also included work on a new furnace called Kristall which was used to assess glass fusing techniques for the semi-conductor industry. This was delivered with Progress 2 later in the mission.
The cosmonauts had a busy time in space, receiving manned spacecraft and unloading several unmanned tankers. The first visitor was Soyuz 30 on 29 June, with a Polish guest cosmonaut. This visit was followed by Progress 2, on 9 July, which
|
Kovalyonok (with Ivanchenkov reflected in visor) stands on the Salyut during the first operational Salyut EVA.
|
remained docked for 25 days and automatically transferred 600 kg (1,323 lb) of fuel and oxidiser. On 29 July, 45 days after their launch, the two exited Salyut for an EVA which lasted 2 hours 5 minutes. Ivanchenkov, the lead EVA cosmonaut, retrieved several materials samples from the side of Salyut, including rubbers, polymers and biopolymers, which would be studied on the ground by scientists to assess the effects of exposure to space conditions. After completion of the assigned EVA tasks, Kovalenok requested an extension to the televised spacewalk, just to give the two cosmonauts a chance to sightsee and relax after being cooped up for so long.
By 8 August, the manned occupation of Salyut 6 had totalled 171 days, exceeding the total manned occupation of America’s Skylab. On 10 August, Progress 3 arrived bearing food, water, oxygen, new processing equipment and Kovalenok’s guitar. Progress 3 remained attached for 12 days. The rear docking port was again left vacant, this time to receive Soyuz 31 on 28 August, with an East German guest. The guest crew left in Soyuz 29, leaving the newer Soyuz attached to the rear of the station, On 21 September, the Soyuz 29 crew became the first space travellers to remain in space for 100 days, and seven days later, Ivanchenkov was celebrating his birthday in orbit.
In a new space first, Kovalenok and Ivanchenkov entered Soyuz 31, undocked from the rear and re-docked at the front in preparation to receive a further Progress delivery. Actually, Salyut 6 did the flying, reorienting itself so that Soyuz faced the front port, rather than the rear port from which it had undocked. As a precaution, in case the re-docking failed, the Soviets planned this unique operation during a standard landing window. Progress 4 duly followed on 4 October, carrying a cargo which included fur boots – either in preparation for the cosmonauts’ winter landing or because Salyut was becoming a cold home. On 9 October, the Soviets announced that the mission would end after operations with Progress 4 had been completed. The tanker’s final operational task was to fire its engine, to raise the Salyut 6 orbit in preparation for a vacant period before the arrival of a new long duration crew. Progress undocked for its standard destructive re-entry on 24 October.
Soyuz 31, with the Soyuz 29 cosmonauts aboard, landed on 2 November, 180 km (112 miles) southeast of Dzhezkazgan after a mission lasting 139 days 14 hours 47 minutes 32 seconds. The cosmonauts’ re-adaptation to 1-G after this record period of weightlessness was considered very good, and this was the result of extensive and intensive exercise while in orbit.
Milestones
67th manned space flight
36th Soviet manned space flight
28th Soyuz manned space flight
1st manned space flight to exceed 100 days
New duration record – 139 days 14 hrs
1st manned spacecraft transfer between docking ports
4th Soviet and 19th flight with EVA operations
Ivanchenkov celebrates 38th birthday in space (28 September)
Flight Crew
KLIMUK, Pyotr Ilyich, 35, Soviet Air Force, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: Soyuz 13 (1973); Soyuz 18 (1975)
HERMASZEWSKI, Miroslaw, 36, Polish Air Force, cosmonaut researcher
Flight Log
At 20: 27hrs local time at Baikonur, Soyuz 30 thundered into the skies, heading for Salyut 6 and its resident cosmonauts Kovalenok and Ivanchenkov. On board were the seasoned and youthful veteran Pyotr Klimuk and his Polish cosmonaut researcher, Miroslaw Hermaszewski. Their spacecraft docked with Salyut 26 hours 19 minutes later. During the brief mission, which reached 343 km (213 miles) in the 51.6° orbit, materials processing was high on the list of Polish priorities.
The Serena experiment was used to attempt to make usable cadmium-tellurium – mercury semi-conductor material, the most sensitive known director of infrared radiation, apparently worth thousands of pounds per gram. The Relaks experiment was dedicated to finding the best position in weightlessness in which to relax. The Zierna programme of Earth resources photography was somewhat thwarted when Hermaszewski’s homeland remained hidden below clouds. Then there was the Kardiolider experiment to study the cardiovascular system and the health experiment named Zdrowie. The final intensely scientific experiment was Smak, an investigation of why some foods which tasted delicious on Earth tasted of sawdust in weightlessness.
The Pole’s mission ended in a maize field near Rostov, 300 km (186 miles) west of Tselinograd at T + 7 days 22 hours 2 minutes 59 seconds. A unique aspect of the mission was the Polish cosmonaut’s candid reflection of his sometimes pensive thoughts during the fiery re-entry.
Milestones
68th manned space flight
37th Soviet manned space flight
29th Soyuz manned space flight
2nd Interkosmos mission
1st manned space flight by a Polish cosmonaut
Flight Crew
BYKOVSKY, Valery Fyodorovich, 44, Soviet Air Force, commander, 3rd mission
Previous missions: Vostok 5 (1963); Soyuz 22 (1976)
JAEHN, Sigmund, 41, East German Air Force, cosmonaut researcher
Flight Log
Another science-packed international mission blasted off from Baikonur at 19: 51 hrs local time with commander Valery Bykovsky, on his third space flight – 15 years after his first – and a cosmonaut researcher from East Germany, Sigmund Jaehn. An emotional, bear-hugging and kissing welcome followed the docking with Salyut 6 one day after launch, and Jaehn got down to work.
His main tool was the East German Karl Zeiss MKF-6M multi-spectral Earth resources camera, which was also used to photograph a major military exercise in eastern Europe. The East German experiments included one called Rech which involved crew members repeating a series of numbers during the flight to see if their speech levels changed. There was another, called Audio, which was to “study subtle nuances of sound”, that is, a hearing test. Other work included operations using the Splav furnace to study crystal growth.
After seven days aboard Salyut, during which they reached 355 km (221 miles) altitude at 51.6°, Bykovsky and Jaehn left residents Kovalenok and Ivanchenkov with their fresh spacecraft and landed inside Soyuz 29 – the first spacecraft switch involving an international crew – at T + 7 days 20 hours 49 minutes 4 seconds, 140 km (87 miles) southeast of Dzhezkazgan.
Milestones
69th manned space flight
38th Soviet manned space flight
30th Soyuz manned space flight
3rd Interkosmos mission
1st manned space flight by an East German
1962 gamma 1
