Word: lyakhov
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Never before had the world received so stunning a glimpse of a Soviet space crisis. Cramped inside a tiny capsule 155 miles above the earth, Commander Vladimir Lyakhov radioed mission control that something was desperately wrong. Seated beside him was a hastily trained Afghan cosmonaut, Abdul Ahad Mohmand. Replied a ground controller: "How are things with food?" Lyakhov: "There is no food." Controller: "What about the emergency rations?" Lyakhov: "They are there, but why touch them? We will be patient," he added, noting that there was no way to rid themselves of wastes...
...struck the Soyuz TM-5 spacecraft soon after it left the Soviet orbiting space station Mir and started on its way home. The cosmonauts had just completed a six-day mission in which they performed routine experiments with the two Mir cosmonauts, who are spending a year in space. Lyakhov, 47, and Mohmand, 29, an Afghan pilot, had returned to the two-stage Soyuz capsule for the three-hour trip back to the Soviet Union, leaving Physician Valeri Polyakov behind to continue monitoring the health of the station crew...
When the re-entry manuever was attempted again, three hours later, the rocket abruptly stopped after just seven seconds. Reason: it had apparently not occurred to either the cosmonauts or the ground controllers to reprogram the computer for the spacecraft's new position. Lyakhov responded by pressing a manual button to restart the engine, but the computer again cut off the rocket. Admitted the cosmonaut afterward: "I am not excusing myself. There was fault there...
...cylindrical Salyut 7 was launched in April 1982. Its present occupants, Cosmonauts Alexander Alexandrov and Vladimir Lyakhov, rocketed aloft to go aboard last June. On Sept. 9, according to Western intelligence sources, the ship developed a leak in its propellant system that disabled half of its steering jets. Aviation Week & Space Technology quoted one U.S. space official as saying, "Salyut 7 is essentially dead in the water." Eighteen days later a Soyuz ferry ship loaded with a fresh crew and additional supplies exploded on the launch pad. The two cosmonauts escaped certain death by lifting off from the flaming launch...
Belatedly acknowledging the mishap after it had been reported by Western intelligence sources, Soviet officials nonetheless insisted that the failure of the resupply effort in no way endangered the Salyut 7 cosmonauts. As if to prove the point, Moscow television last week showed Alexandrov and Lyakhov bantering with mission controllers. Still, after three months in orbit, the cosmonauts need fresh supplies of food, oxygen and fuel. To provide those materials, the Soviets last week launched an unmanned Progress 18 space "freighter" that was expected to dock with Salyut...