Salyut takes over

While the Americans were completing their final excursions on the Moon, setting records on Skylab, and preparing to dock with Soyuz, the Soviets were recovering from the setback not only of Salyut 1, but also the officially unannounced launch failure of the second Salyut in July 1972. The in-orbit failure of the first Almaz station in April 1973 (which had been designated Salyut 2 to disguise its military objectives) was followed by the loss of a third Salyut just a month later. The latter one failed so soon after entering orbit that it was not assigned a Salyut designa­tion but instead was identified as Cosmos 557 to once again mask its true, failed mission. These frustrating setbacks were balanced, to a degree, by the successful solo flights of two manned Soyuz missions. In September 1973, Soyuz 12 evaluated the new improvements to the basic ferry design in a pre-announced and planned two-day test flight. This was followed by the week-long Soyuz 13 astronomical research mission in December 1973.

Things began to look up for the Soviets from 1974, with the launch of another Almaz (designated Salyut 3). Then came a civilian station (Salyut 4) in 1975 and another Almaz (Salyut 5) in 1976. A series of eight Soyuz ferry craft, each carry­ing a two-man crew, supported operations with these stations. The reduction from

the previous three-man team was a direct result of the findings of the Soyuz 11 disaster, which required the cosmonauts to be protected in pressure suits. The additional support equipment replaced the mass of a third crew member, until an improved Soyuz variant could be introduced.

Two missions were flown to Salyut 3 in 1974, with the Soyuz 14 crew complet­ing a successful 14-day residency and the first totally successful Soviet space station mission. But Soyuz 15 failed to dock with the station and came home after just two days, while Soyuz 16 was a dress rehearsal for the ASTP Soyuz mission and not associated with any Salyut. In early February 1975, the Soyuz 17 crew completed a 30-day mission to Salyut 4, followed just over three months later by the Soyuz 18 crew with a 63-day residency. This made Salyut 4 the first Soviet space station to host two resident crews. In between, though, came the first recorded launch abort of a manned mission, on April 5, 1975, when the original “Soyuz 18” suffered separation failure of a spent rocket stage. The ascent had to be aborted and the crew endured a rather hair-raising 20-minute ballistic trajectory flight and recovery near the border with China. The crew survived the ordeal but it was their backup crew who eventually flew the 63-day replacement mission. Their landing, just after the return of the Soyuz 19 ASTP crew, demonstrated Soviet ability to handle two separate manned space missions at the same time. The final mission to Salyut 4 was the unmanned Soyuz 20, which further tested the proposed robotic resupply missions being planned for the next-generation Salyut station.

The next Soviet station (Salyut 5) was a military Almaz version, with Soyuz 21 completing a 49-day visit in 1976, followed by an 18-day visit by Soyuz 24 early the following year. As with all the previous Salyuts, there were setbacks as well as successes. The Soyuz 21 crew were forced to return earlier than planned, due to “sensory deprivation” according to the official line, and reports that the crew encountered an “acrid odor” inside the station. This must have been resolved because two months after the crew came home a second Soyuz was launched to the station. Unfortunately, Soyuz 23 only completed a two-day flight after failing to dock with the station. This mission is remembered more for its hazardous landing and recovery than its achievements in orbit. The landing occurred during a snowstorm and, to make things worse, on a frozen lake. The recovery effort was one of the most challenging ever encountered during a manned space flight and, although both cosmonauts survived their ordeal, neither ever flew in space again.

Partially in preparation for the next Salyut and also to fly a backup spacecraft that had previously been assigned to the ASTP, another “solo” Soyuz was flown in September 1976 to test new equipment and procedures. During the Soyuz 22 mission, the two cosmonauts evaluated a new Earth terrain camera intended for the forthcoming second-generation Salyut station. At the time, reports indicated that the flight was part of a planned series of “solo” scientific Soyuz missions flown independently of space station operations, but this proved to be the final “solo” Soyuz mission. Perhaps this was misunderstood information, or a move by the Soviets to mask the fact that the two solo Soyuz missions of Soyuz 13 (astro – physical) and Soyuz 22 (Earth resources) were flown because of the absence of a civilian Salyut (and to utilize available hardware approaching the end of its operational lifetime). In any event these missions, along with Soyuz 6 (space welding) and Soyuz 9 (biomedical), provided the Soviets with the chance to conduct research relevant to their space station program in more depth.

Another interesting development during Soyuz 22 was an official release revealing that candidates from Eastern Bloc countries would soon be selected as cosmonauts (within a program known as Interkosmos), to fly on future Salyut missions with Soviet commanders. This was the first time a cosmonaut selection process, albeit international, had been announced ahead of time. It appeared to be in direct response to the news that American and international candidates would be selected for dedicated science missions, or to accompany specific payloads, flown on the Space Shuttle. These “part-time” astronauts would become known as payload specialists, while their cosmonaut equivalent would be known as cosmonaut researcher. With new NASA selections for career astronauts for the Shuttle pending, a new era of space exploration was rapidly approaching.

In September 1977, one of the most successful space stations, Salyut 6, was launched. Over the next four years, the program would include 18 Soyuz missions and the first flights of the new unmanned resupply craft—Progress—based on the Soyuz design. To accommodate this increase of traffic, the new Salyut featured two docking ports, in theory to allow crews and vehicles to be exchanged for continuous manning of the station. On Salyut 6, however, although some Soyuz vehicles were replaced for fresh vehicles on orbit as their operational life came to an end, leaving a new vehicle with the resident crew; the expected exchange of resident crews did not occur.

What was introduced on this station was EVA capability, with the completion of the first space walks by cosmonauts since 1969. There was a series of missions flown by representatives of the Interkosmos countries between 1978 and 1981 and new world endurance records were set of 96, 140, 175, and then 185 days. Late in 1980, a short evaluation mission was flown to confirm that the station could support one final residence of 75 days which would allow the crew to host the final two Interkosmos missions. The Salyut 6 program also included an unmanned test flight of the new Soyuz variant (Soyuz T) and three test missions (Soyuz T2, T3, and T4) to confirm its operational integrity, prior to full operations with the next Salyut. Towards the end of the station’s operational fife, it acquired the first add-on module (Kosmos 1267), which was developed from an intended military manned spacecraft and ferry vehicle but now designed to test the potential for adding scientific modules to future space stations and to evaluate the structural integrity between two such vehicles.