Word: salyut
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Things were going so well aboard the Soviet Union's Salyut space laboratory last week that there were hints in Moscow that the manned flight might last a month or more. Inside Salyut's large cabin, the three cosmonauts were running tests to determine the physical effects of weightlessness on man, tending a small on-board vegetable patch in which cabbages and onions were growing, and comparing their observations of earth with those being made from two planes flying at much lower altitudes directly below them. Not forgetting their other obligations, the cosmonauts also took time to radio...
Resignations. U.S. astronauts had far less reason to be pleased with their Government. As a result of congressional budget slashing, only two more Apollo missions are scheduled after next month's flight to the moon, and the highly touted Skylab program-comparable to the Soviets' Salyut series-has been cut from six to three missions...
Very Bright Flash. Last week in a second attempt to man the station, the Russians launched Soyuz 11. Equipped with improved docking mechanism, the 71-ton spaceship rendezvoused with Salyut after 24 hours. With Test Engineer Viktor Patsayer, 38, leading the way, the cosmonauts feigned surprise upon entering Salyut's large, living-room-size interior, complete with instrument panels, separate compartments, kitchen and housekeeping equipment and even a small library. "This place is tremendous," said Dobrovolsky. "There seems...
Besides their televised games and bantering, the cosmonauts performed more serious tasks: a number of unspecified biomedical experiments, tests of Salyut's systems and photography of the earth with an externally mounted TV camera. They also fired the space station's main engine, an operation accompanied by what Dobrovolsky described as "a very bright flash with a large number of white particles, like a snow blizzard." After two firings, they managed to raise Salyut's orbit to 161 by 175 miles. That increased elevation should give the space station at least another month's life-enough...
...Though Salyut is only a third of the size of the proposed U.S. Skylab space station, scheduled to be launched in 1973, NASA officials were clearly impressed by the Soviet achievement. The feat stirred less comment in budget-conscious Washington. With the Apollo program coming quickly to an end-the third from last U.S. moon shot will lift off in July-Congress and the Administration seem unwilling to engage the Soviet Union in any new space races. Anticipating bigger and better Soviet space stations, U.S. space officials point out that it now seems more likely than ever that the next...