Word: russian
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...space officials could only hope that the Russians were right. Although the U.S. Apollo spacecraft has more than demonstrated its incredible capabilities on eight missions to the moon, the Soviets are still ironing the kinks out of Soyuz. The workhorse of the Russian manned space program underwent a radical overhaul after three cosmonauts were killed when a hatch seal failed in a 1971 flight. Even that redesign did not eliminate all the bugs. At the time of its previous test in August, Soyuz 15's thrusters failed during an attempted linkup with an unmanned Salyut space station...
...Nikolai Rukavishnikov, 42, practiced exercises with a docking ring mounted on the ship's nose. With the ring, according to the Soviets, the crew could simulate some of the "docking maneuvers" that will be required in next year's linkup. (The description was somewhat misleading since the Russian ship will be the passive partner during the rendezvous; Apollo will do all the critical maneuvering.) The Russian spacemen also reduced cabin pressure to about 10 Ibs. per sq. in., or roughly midway between Apollo's 5 p.s.i. and the sea-level atmospheric pressure (14.7 p.s.i.) normally maintained...
Brute Force. In public, American officials had nothing but praise for these Russian efforts. Their private comments, however, still reflected their concern about the relatively primitive Soviet hardware, the lack of quality controls and the Russian penchant for testing in flight rather than on the ground. "Plain, goddamned brute-force engineering," said one U.S. official...
Some Americans were also critical of the Soviets' continued insistence on secrecy; NASA has made a point of letting Russian officials tour the Apollo manufacturing facilities, but no American has been permitted to make a comparable inspection of the Soviet spacecraft during production. In fact, the U.S. astronauts will not see the Soviet ship they will visit in orbit until next May, barely two months before the actual liftoff...
...executives are trying to avoid "provocative" stories. In the process, they have restricted VGA correspondents to the point where many of the newsmen feel that legitimate stories are being suppressed. Some editors and reporters in the radio's U.S.S.R. division have grumbled about interference from the glavlit-the Russian term for official censor...