Outposts on the Frontier: A Fifty-Year History of Space Stations (Outward Odyssey: A People's History of Spaceflight)

by Jay Chladek

  For the week that the T-6 crew spent on Salyut 7, it was a very busy time for Chrétien. He conducted echocardiograph measurements of the crewmembers to monitor how the heart migrates in the chest cavity in zero gravity and motion detection studies of how body posture alters in orbit. Chrétien also studied the effects of zero gravity on microorganisms and the effects of antibiotics on them. Due to his workload, he ended up sleeping very few hours each night and was exhausted by the time the T-6 crew returned to Earth on 2 July. No ferry exchange took place since the T-series Soyuz could stay docked for longer periods.

  The resident crew performed a space walk in late July, mounting experiment cassettes, retrieving others, and inspecting the external condition of the vehicle. A Progress delivered a new materials furnace along with other heavy equipment, which the crew activated not long after that. The crew found that by not hard-bolting the furnace to a rack and letting it float while only attached by its power cords, it could generate purer materials samples since vibration was kept to a minimum.

  On 20 August Soyuz T-7 lifted off to make history. Joining veteran Leonid Popov and rookie Aleksandr Serebrov was only the second woman to fly in space, Svetlana Savitskaya, flying nineteen years after Valentina Tereshkova’s Vostok 6 mission. The flight was likely in response to NASA selecting women as full-time mission-specialist astronauts for the shuttle program and took place a year before Sally Ride’s shuttle flight on STS-7. Even today, female Russian cosmonauts are a rarity. Svetlana’s father, Yevgeniy Savitzky, was a World War II fighter ace and a high-ranking general in the Soviet military, so his political connections likely led to his daughter’s selection. However, Savitskaya was also an accomplished civilian and military pilot who had won aerobatic championships and set many aviation records before her cosmonaut selection.

  During her time on Salyut 7, Savitskaya was more than just a passenger, as she conducted electrophoresis experiments on biological samples of blood protein and urine. She also processed interferon. To accommodate their female crewmate, the Soyuz was set up as a private living quarters where Savitskaya could sleep and use the toilet facilities, but she opted to move her sleeping bag into the main cabin and slept with her male counterparts. It was an exhausting week in orbit packed with experiments before the newcomers departed in the Soyuz T-5, leaving Soyuz T-7 for use by the resident crew. The new craft was moved to the front port a few days later to make room for the next Progress.

  Ultimately, Berezovoy and Lebedev would spend 211 days in Earth orbit. Things did not go smoothly, though. Salyut 7 encountered failures of its Delta attitude-control computer, and the water-recycling system failed due to a seized bearing. The bearing was replaced easily, but the Delta system would need total replacement since it was required for precise aiming of the station for astronomical observations.

  After the crew left, Cosmos 1443 was launched on 2 March 1983. It was a TKS spacecraft, and it docked with Salyut 7 a few days later. It used its control system to maneuver the complex, and its solar arrays added to the station’s power-generating capabilities. The TKS “tug” was also outfitted with 3,600 kilograms of supplies, and the VA capsule would allow for return of 500 kilograms of cargo to Earth.

  Docking Failure

  On 20 April 1983 Soyuz T-8 launched into orbit with crewmembers Vladimir Titov, Gennadi Strekalov, and Aleksandr Serebrov. Titov was making his first spaceflight, while Strekalov and Serebrov were veterans. The crew’s mission goals were to replace the Delta control system and install replacement solar arrays on Salyut 7, along with other repair tasks. But they wouldn’t make it to the station. During Soyuz T-8’s launch, the Igla rendezvous radar antenna was torn off during separation of the payload shroud. The crew asked for and received permission to attempt a rendezvous and docking using just the onboard optics and radar observations from the ground. The crew was able to close within three hundred meters before the station drifted into Earth’s shadow during a night pass. Illumination of Salyut 7 from Soyuz spotlights made Titov think his closure rate was too high, so he aborted the approach. By the next daylight pass, Salyut 7 was four kilometers away, and Kaliningrad aborted the mission due to fuel constraints. Although the mission was a failure, Soyuz T-8 provided experience on how to conduct a manual approach, something that would prove invaluable in a few short years.

  Second Crew

  The TKS spacecraft reboosted Salyut 7’s orbit to over three hundred kilometers in preparation for the next two-person crew. Salyut 6 veteran Vladimir Lyakhov and rookie Aleksandr Aleksandrov were successfully launched into orbit on 27 June and docked with the station soon after. Their goal was to conduct at least a four-month mission, but they would also carry out the repairs originally intended for the Soyuz T-8 crew, a task made more challenging by having one fewer crewmember.

  After two months in orbit, the crew loaded the VA capsule on the TKS spacecraft with about 350 kilograms of experiment results and filled the rest of its cargo hold with failed equipment being sent back to Earth for analysis. This particular TKS was a full-production version of Chelomei’s design, and it even had three seats in the recovery capsule. But no crewmember would be riding it home. The entire spacecraft, including its FGB node, was undocked on 14 August, and the VA capsule was deorbited on the twenty-third, making a normal reentry and landing. The TKS flew free for a few more weeks until deorbiting on 19 September. While it would have been nice to keep TKS docked, the aft port had to be freed up for the next Progress to replenish Salyut 7’s fuel and water tanks.

  Fuel Leak and Launch Abort

  Progress 17 came next to deliver supplies in early September. During the fuel-transfer procedure, one of the nitrogen tetroxide lines ruptured and began leaking fuel into the unpressurized portion of the station’s engine bay. Engineers and managers on the ground called it “a slight leak,” but it was more serious than that, as it meant that the station’s reboosting engines were crippled until the line could be repaired. Thankfully, the Progress could perform reboosting operations with its own engines to keep the station’s orbit stable. Engineering teams worked on a solution on the ground while the resident crew prepared for its next visitors.

  The next mission, originally designated Soyuz T-10, was scheduled to launch on the night of 26 September with the two-man crew of Vladimir Titov and Gennadi Strekalov. They were rescheduled to fly this mission because of their extensive preparations to conduct EVA repairs as part of the Soyuz T-8 mission. Seconds before scheduled liftoff, a valve on the pad failed to close, and leaking fuel caught fire, engulfing the bottom of the R-7 rocket. The fire steadily grew for about twenty seconds into a raging inferno before a launch controller finally triggered the escape tower on the Soyuz, pulling the two cosmonauts safely away on a high-g ride that would ultimately land them about four kilometers from the pad. The rocket exploded soon after. The crew was a little shaken from their ordeal, but at least they were alive. Reportedly, Titov said in subsequent interviews that they turned off the ship’s cockpit voice recorder after the escape rockets fired because “We were swearing,” which was probably putting it mildly. In keeping with the Soviet tradition of not assigning a full number to a mission that failed to reach orbit, this mission was called Soyuz T-10A or T-10-1 when details of the launch abort leaked out to Western agencies.

  Thus, it would fall to the resident crew to carry out the solar array repair. The new clip-on solar arrays had been sent up on Progress ferries and were already on hand. On 1 November Lyakhov and Aleksandrov opened up the airlock to conduct their first EVA. The first clip-on array was added just fine, while the second one took some effort due to difficulties with the winch system, but finally it was put into place. Originally, three people were desired for this repair, because once one set of panels was added, the solar array being upgraded could be rotated 180 degrees by a crewmember inside to allow the second pair of panels to be fitted on one EVA. With only two crewmembers, the EVA tasks took two days to complete since no one inside could rotate the array. The added power fro
m the new arrays added capabilities to the station’s onboard equipment. On 23 November Lyakhov and Aleksandrov returned home. While they didn’t set a space endurance record, the crew and their Soyuz spent 149 days in space, validating the T series Soyuz module’s design life. It would be up to the next resident crew to fix the fuel leak.

  New Residents

  A new Soyuz T-10 mission took place on 8 February 1984 with the three-person crew of Leonid Kizim and rookies Vladimir Solovyov and Oleg Atkov. Atkov was a medical doctor who was added to the team so that he could monitor their health on orbit. Once the crew docked with Salyut 7, their first tasks were to check over the station to see if it was still suitable for long-duration habitation and to reequip it with supplies from the next Progress ferry. Once those tasks were done and a short-duration crew visited, they would get down to the task of repairing the station’s damaged fuel line.

  Soyuz T-11 docked next on 4 April with the crew of Yuri Malyschev, Gennadi Strekalov, and Indian research cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma. Third time was the charm for Strekalov, as there was no docking failure or launch abort to deny him this Salyut visit. Rakesh Sharma was the second international crewmember not from a Soviet-aligned nation to fly in space. A pilot in the Indian Air Force, Sharma conducted several medical experiments during his time on orbit with the help of Dr. Atkov. Sharma photographed India with the MKF-6M, as well, in preparation for an Indian hydroelectric dam project. The week of activity left both him and his crewmates exhausted, but they got some good data on the mission before departing, swapping ferries for the T-10 module. The resident crew redocked Soyuz T-11 on the front soon after to make room for the next Progress.

  Progress 20, which had docked only six days after Soyuz T-10 left, contained the usual load of supplies and spare parts, but it was also fitted with a small platform to help with the repair of the fuel system. Kizim and Solovyov suited up for an EVA on 23 April. Their first task was to set up the work site for the engine module with a special platform and pre-stage tools for the repair. The task took longer than expected, so the next phase didn’t begin until three days later, after a rest and servicing of the Orlan suits. Performing the simple task of repairing a leaky pipe was anything but simple. After the suspect pipe was exposed, nitrogen was pumped through it from inside to verify the leak. The plan was to isolate the damaged pipe and its valve while replacing both with new ones. They only just got the new valve on before EVA time expired, so the crew rested for another three days before venturing out one more time to complete the repair task by fitting the new pipe.

  After Progress 21 docked with the final set of tools they needed, the pair conducted their fourth space walk in less than a month and finished their tasks to bring the fuel system for Salyut 7’s engine back online. They next fitted a second pair of clip-on solar panels on to one of Salyut 7’s arrays and cut a sample from the original panel for analysis on the ground.

  The next visiting crew of Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Svetlana Savitskaya, and Igor Volk docked Soyuz T-12 with the station on 19 July 1984, bringing the crew tally up to six. For this mission, Savitskaya was a flight engineer, while Volk occupied the third seat. Volk was a test pilot in the Soviet space shuttle program (later known as Buran), and he was flying a space mission to see how a week in zero gravity would affect his piloting abilities during simulated return of a shuttle from orbit.

  Savitskaya’s primary task was to conduct a vacuum welding experiment during an EVA, beating American Kathy Sullivan to the milestone of first EVA conducted by a woman by about three months. Dzhanibekov and Savitskaya performed their task on 25 July, with Savitskaya taking up position at a special workstation built by the Institute of Electrical Welding in Kiev. She used the specially designed electron-beam welder to both cut metal plates and weld them together. When her task was completed, she exchanged places with Dzhanibekov, and he conducted the same tasks. Funny enough, after the jobs were finished, academician Boris Paton, director of the Institute, commented that the test work would lead to robotic welding processes that could be carried out automatically during future space missions. To date, no other welding tasks have been conducted in orbit.

  After the short-duration crew departed following ten days of joint activity, Kizim, Solovyov, and Atkov continued their long-duration assignment, eventually setting a new endurance record of 237 days in orbit. They made numerous photography passes of Earth with the MKF-6M, conducted celestial observations with a new X-ray telescope, and processed numerous material samples in the furnaces. Dr. Atkov conducted a thorough on-orbit study of the cardiovascular systems of his two crewmates. This, in combination with the crew conducting six of the station’s seven EVAs during the mission, meant that it was a very productive flight on all fronts. When Soyuz T-12 returned to Earth on 2 October, the stage seemed to be set for future long-duration crews. There was even talk of having an all-women cosmonaut crew occupy Salyut 7 on a future mission.

  Saving a Dead Space Station

  In the beginning of 1985, Salyut 7 was in a stable, high orbit. While the station was not quite as reliable as its immediate predecessor, all indications were that it could support additional crews. However, all those plans were put on hold when contact was lost on 11 February. Salyut 7’s orbit was still stable, and observations from the ground indicated that the station was intact. But it was dead in space. In early March the Soviet news agency TASS reported that Salyut 7 had completed its mission. So it came as a surprise to many when Soyuz T-13 lifted off on 6 June 1985 with Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh on board. In place of a third cosmonaut, their Soyuz was crammed with equipment for an attempt to bring the crippled station back to life. The Soyuz flew a two-day rendezvous trajectory to save propellant. If docking succeeded, the T series Soyuz could stay docked for up to ten days, acting as the controlling spacecraft, before a lack of consumables would force the crew to come home.

  With the experience gained from Soyuz T-8’s manual rendezvous, Soyuz T-13 closed within visual range of the station, using tracking data from the ground. Salyut 7 was doing a very slow roll of about .3 degrees a second, enough for the Soyuz to match; the structure looked intact otherwise. The Soyuz periscope system had been equipped with a laser rangefinder for this mission, to give rate-of-closure data for a manual docking. Dzhanibekov carefully guided the Soyuz in for a soft dock and then achieved a successful hard dock when the latches were retracted. After opening a valve to determine that the Salyut was still pressurized and finding no toxic fumes, the crew opened the hatch. There was still atmosphere in the station, but it was completely dark inside with all the window covers shut. The two cosmonauts were greeted to a surreal sight of frost on almost every surface and zero-g icicles. It was well below freezing; even with cold-weather gear on, the crew had to retreat to the Soyuz for warmth after each hour of work. For the first few days, the two men would eat and sleep inside the Soyuz. They ran a ventilation hose into Salyut 7 from the Soyuz since the stagnant air contained floating pockets of carbon dioxide.

  The fault was traced to an electrical switching system that controlled whether the station was powered by batteries or solar energy. After a night pass, it had failed to switch back to solar power; the batteries ran down, ironically, while trying to keep the arrays tracking the sun. Four of the six batteries were still useable; once the station was in a stable attitude, they began taking a charge from the solar arrays.

  As the hours went on, the crew slowly began to restore Salyut 7’s attitude control and environment systems. The temperature inside was brought up slowly so as not to overwhelm the moisture-collection system with too much melting ice. Salyut 7 went through a slow thaw for the next several days. Once the humidity levels began to drop, the heaters were finally activated to warm the station up fully. The ice had damaged some of the onboard equipment, as split water pipes needed replacing and the Orlan suits were written off as being too damaged for EVA use. A Progress ferry brought up spare parts on the next supply run and docked with no difficulties. Salyut 7 wa
s saved.

  Final Resident Crew

  On 17 September Soyuz T-14 launched with a three-man crew of Vladimir Vasyutin, Georgi Grechko, and Aleksandr Volkov. They docked with the station the next day. For this mission, Vladimir Dzhanibekov would return home with Grechko, leaving Viktor Savinykh to attempt setting a new space endurance record with two new crewmates who hoped to be in orbit for six months themselves. Grechko and Dzhanibekov departed on 26 September; after swapping the ferry’s docking port, the crew settled down to receive their next visitor, Cosmos 1686, which docked on 2 October.

  The Cosmos craft was a TKS ferry, but the VA capsule section was heavily modified with additional instrumentation, making it incapable of independent flight. There has been speculation that this new module was an attempt to conduct a military mission similar to Almaz. Vasyutin was a military-research cosmonaut and specially trained to operate the systems on this particular TKS ferry. With new equipment and supplies delivered by the TKS, all seemed to be going rather well.