Salyut 2

  1973-017A

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The first Almaz orbital piloted station (OPS 1, 11F71 No. 101) was launched on 1973 Apr 3. To hide the existence of the military Almaz program, it was given the same Salyut cover name as the civilian DOS stations, becoming Salyut-2 on reaching orbit.

17 debris objects were cataloged shortly after launch and it appears that the third stage of the Proton launch vehicle disintegrated shortly after OPS 1 separated. Failure to vent the stage led to overpressurization of the rocket body and explosion. The debris objects reentered over a 27 day period. OPS 1 raised its orbit on Apr 4 to 240 x 259 km, similar to DOS 1's operational orbit. On Apr 6 three more debris objects were tracked, reentering quickly over the next 4 days.

On Apr 8 the orbit was raised again to 261 x 284 km; then on Apr 14 it appears that the station was depressurized and possibly entered a spin - three new, large debris objects were tracked, possibly the solar panels; two of them (17Z and 17AA) remained in orbit for another month. On Apr 28 it was announced that the mission had been completed. By May 27 the altitude of the station had decayed to only 160 km and the next day it made an uncontrolled reentry.

Salyut-2
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1973 Apr 3	0900:00	Launch by Proton-K	KB
	0910	Sep from Proton-K 8S812	152 x 288 x 51.6
	2236	8S812 disintegrated (17D-V)
			202 x 253 x 51.6
1973 Apr 4			204 x 245 x 51.6
		Orbit raise rev 18, 17m/s	240 x 259 x 51.6
1973 Apr 5	1430		238 x 260 x 51.6
1973 Apr 6?		3 objects (17W-Y) cataloged, 3-4 d
1973 Apr 6			232 x 262 x 51.6
1973 Apr 7			236 x 259 x 51.6
1973 Apr 8			237 x 256 x 51.6
		Orbit raise rev 82, 13m/s	261 x 284 x 51.6
1973 Apr 14	0930	Last contact before failure
1973 Apr 14		Impact by stage 3 debris? (17F,G,J,K, or Z?)
		Station depressurized, lost control
		3 debris objects (17Z,AA,AB)
1973 Apr 15	0015	Reacquired via the backup telemetry system
1973 Apr 16	0612	end of tx
1973 May 27			158 x 160 x 51.6
1973 May 28	1150?	Reentered 3000 km E of New Guinea