Word: soyuz
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Salyut 7 is the latest in a series of sophisticated laboratories that the Soviets have put into orbit since 1971. Last February the three cosmonauts made a rendezvous with Salyut only one day after taking off in a Soyuz T-10 rocket from the Tyuratam space center in Kazakhstan. To maintain muscle strength during their long mission, the crew not only exercised regularly but spent part of each day in tight, constraining suits that forced their lungs and hearts to work harder. Still, when they landed last Tuesday, Soviet television showed them looking tired, with dark circles under their eyes...
...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 site with a small escape rocket that let them drop down two miles away by parachute...
Some observers had thought the Soviets might attempt an emergency evacuation of the cosmonauts via their original Soyuz ferry ship (which is still attached to Salyut), so the decision to send up Progress 18 was regarded as an encouraging sign for the spacemen. Said veteran Soviet Space Watcher James Oberg (Red Star in Orbit): "There seems to be little real anxiety in mission control." However, as Oberg notes, Salyut's steering problems, combined with the launch-pad fiasco, show that the Soviets cannot yet manage replacement of crews on a regular, scheduled basis. Such a capability is a prerequisite...
...account remained sketchy, the details not altogether clear. One morning early last week, according to U.S. intelligence sources, a booster rocket exploded into flames on a launching pad at the space center in Tyuratum, in the Central Asian Soviet republic of Kazakhstan. Atop the rocket was a manned Soyuz space capsule bound for a rendezvous with the orbiting space station Salyut 7. Luckily, the safeguards apparently worked without a hitch, and the two or three spacemen aboard survived the disaster...
Since 1971, when the first Soyuz-Salyut hookup took place, about 30 flights have been launched. Over the years the space stations have set several impressive records, including the longest stint in orbit (211 days in 1982). Salyut 7, launched with great fanfare in April 1982, is the most sophisticated so far; weighing some 40 tons and outfitted with three docking ports, the beetle-shaped craft is designed to serve eventually as the core of a much larger complex. Two members of last week's hapless team, Vladimir Titov and Gunady Strakalov, were forced to return to earth after...