Monday, July 20, 1998

Salyut 7

 1982-033A


Space station DOS 6, designation 17K No. 125-2, was launched in Apr 1982 as Salyut-7. It would follow on the success of DOS-5 with operations carried out in much the same operational pattern, as well as demonstrating the Soviet Union's ability to carry out significant on-orbit repairs.

By May 5 DOS-6's onboard engine had raised it to its initial operational orbit, and on May 14 the first main expedition (EO-1) docked at the front port in Soyuz T-5. At this time there was a lot of publicity about the commercial satellite deployments from the NASA Space Shuttle planned for STS-5, and the Russians tried a scoop by ejecting a small amateur radio satellite, Iskra-2, from the small airlock used for garbage bags. Of course, this useful capability was not really different from the ejection of the REP package from Gemini-5 in 1965, and not comparable to the deployment of the large payloads aboard Columbia.

Progress-13 supplied the DOS-6, and was followed by Soyuz T-6, the first Soyuz T to host a guest cosmonaut, and the first flight by a non-communist country to a Soviet station. Jean-Loup Chretien of France stayed aboard for a week. A spacewalk in July allowed the EO-1 engineer Lebedev to test out cutting tools. August saw another visiting crew replace the Soyuz T-5 ferry with the new Soyuz T-7; it featured Svetlana Savitskaya, the first Soviet woman in space since Tereshkova's historic 1963 flight. Savitskaya was flown as a token to scoop Sally Ride's flight on STS-7 in Jun 1983. After two more Progress flights, the EO-1 crew landed in Soyuz T-7 in Dec 1982.

With Salyut-7 unoccupied, the TKS test flight Kosmos-1443 docked in Mar 1983. The EO-2 crew in Soyuz T-8 failed to dock in Apr 1983, and a replacement EO-2 crew flew up in Soyuz T-9 in June, becoming the first astronauts to enter a TKS ship in space. Kosmos-1443 undocked in August, and the EO-2 crew landed in November after two more Progress supply ships.

The EO-3 crew of Kizim, Solov'yov and At'kov arrived on Soyuz T-10 in Feb 1984. In April, a ship exchange was carried out with Soyuz T-11, allowing a visit by Indian astronaut Rakesh Sharma. Progress-20 arrived on Apr 17 carrying equipment to repair the ODU engine, and a series of 4 spacewalks in late April began the repairs. A fifth spacewalk added an experimental solar panel to the station. Two objects jettisoned in early July 1984 may be associated with the solar panel assembly, as they had radar cross sections of 215 and 317 sq m.deb, The Soyuz T-12 visiting mission arrived on Jul 18 with Svetlana Savitskaya becoming the first woman to make a second flight and the first woman to go on a spacewalk (just beating NASA's Kathy Sullivan). A record sixth EO-3 spacewalk in August involved fuel line repairs, and the EO-3 crew landed in Soyuz T-11 on Oct 2.

On 1985 Feb 7, the Salyut-7 station lost power and attitude control, and all contact was lost on Feb 11. It appeared that its mission was over but the Soviet Union mounted a daring rescue mission. After reshuffling the planned crews, veteran astronauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh flew Soyuz T-13 to the vicinity of the station and successfully docked with the tumbling vehicle, bringing it under control. They entered the lab wearing gas masks and slowly reactivated it. Two Progress supply craft then were sent to the station (the second one should have been Progress-25 but due to problems in the early part of its flight it was given the cover name Kosmos-1669) and a spacewalk on Aug 2 carried out repairs to the solar panels. On Sep 18 Soyuz T-14 docked carrying the remainder of the EO-4 crew, Vasyutin and Volkov, together with Energiya design engineer Georgiy Grechko. Grechko inspected the station and then returned to Earth with Dzhanibekov, leaving Vasyutin, Volkov and Savinykh to pursue their original mission. On Oct 2, Kosmos-1686 docked with the station. This was a TKS spacecraft with the reentry vehicle replaced by a military sensor payload. The crew began operating the new module, which can be considered as a precursor to the Mir modules, but in November commander Vasyutin became ill and depressed. In an unprecedented move Savinykh assumed command, and the crew aborted the mission and returned to Earth on Nov 21.

In May 1986 Soyuz T-15 docked with Salyut, and the T-15 crew (which had already visited Mir) began completing the EO-4 crew's program. In two EVAs on May 28 and 31, they carried out a structure experiment similar in spirit to the STS 61-B EASE/ACCESS. On Jun 25 Soyuz T-15 and its crew returned to Mir, leaving abandoned the Salyut-7/Kosmos-1686 complex. On Aug 23 the last of a series of orbit raising burns by Kosmos-1686 left it in a 475 x 475 km orbit from which it slowly decayed. At some point control of the station was lost, and it made an uncontrolled reentry over Argentina in 1991.


Salyut-7 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1982 Apr 19  1945:00  Launch by Proton-K  KB 
  Stage 1 sep 
  Stage 2 sep 
 1954  Stage 3 MECO 
 1955? Sep from 8S812 rocket  212 x 261 x 51.6 
1982 Apr 22    209 x 253 x 51.6 
   208 x 262 x 51.6 
1982 Apr 23   ODU burn  207 x 326 x 51.6 
1982 Apr 25    205 x 322 x 51.6 
  ODU burn  297 x 364 x 51.6 
  ODU burn  309 x 352 x 51.6 
1982 May 5    305 x 347 x 51.6 
  ODU burn  346 x 347 x 51.6 
1982 May 14  1136  Soyuz T-5 docked at -X  342 x 346 x 51.6 
  EO-1 crew entry: 
  EO-1 Kdr, Anatoliy Berezovoy 
  EO-1 BI, Valentin Lebedev 
1982 May 17  1106  Iskra-2 deployed (33C, cover 33D) 
1982 May 25  0757  Progress-13 docked at +X  338 x 343 x 51.6 
1982 Jun 2    335 x 351 x 51.6 
  Orbit lower, P13  302 x 334 x 51.6 
  Orbit lower, P13  291 x 321 x 51.6 
1982 Jun 4  0631  Progress-13 undocked +X  291 x 319 x 51.6 
1982 Jun 10   33E,F,G cataloged 
1982 Jun 20   Orbit trim 2m/s  
1982 Jun 20   33H, J cataloged 
1982 Jun 25  1746  Soyuz T-6 docked at +X  283 x 306 x 51.6 
1982 Jun 25   EP-1 crew entry 
  Kdr, Vladimir Dzhanibekov 
  BI, Aleksandr Ivanchenkov 
  KI, Jean-Loup Chretien 
1982 Jun 25   33K cataloged 
1982 Jul 2   EP-1 crew to Soyuz T-6 
 1104  Soyuz T-6 undocked +X  283 x 319 x 51.6 
1982 Jul 3    283 x 319 x 51.6 
  Orbit raise  307 x 329 x 51.6 
1982 Jul 12  1141  Progress-14 docked +X  306 x 325 x 51.6 
1982 Jul 30  0239  EO-1 EVA-1, hatch open (02:33) 
  BI EVA (Kdr SEVA), tests of cutting tools 
  33M cataloged 
 0512  Repress 
1982 Aug   33N-T cataloged 
1982 Aug 10  2211  Progress-14 undocked +X  290 x 306 x 51.6 
1982 Aug 17    286 x 299 x 51.6 
   294 x 298 x 51.6 
1982 Aug 18    292 x 301 x 51.6 
1982 Aug 20  1832  Soyuz T-7 docked +X  290 x 299 x 51.6 
  EP-2 crew entry 
  Kdr, Leonid Popov 
  BI, Aleksandr Serebrov 
  KI, Svetlana Savitskaya 
1982 Aug 26    287 x 297 x 51.6 
   293 x 315 x 51.6 
1982 Aug 27   EP crew to Soyuz T-5 
 1145  Soyuz T-5 undocked -X  291 x 316 x 51.6 
1982 Aug 27   33U,W,X cataloged 
1982 Aug 29   EO-1 crew to Soyuz T-7 
 1647  Soyuz T-7 undocked from +X 
  Soyuz T-7 docked -X  292 x 314 x 51.6 
  EO-1 crew to DOS 6 
1982 Aug 31    291 x 313 x 51.6 
  Orbit trim  314 x 334 x 51.6 
1982 Sep 9   33Y,Z,AA cataloged 
1982 Sep 18   33AB cataloged 
1982 Sep 20  0612  Progress-15 docked +X   
1982 Sep 28  1645? Astrozond (33AC) deployed from airlock 
1982 Sep 28    296 x 320 x 51.6 
 0615  Orbit raise (P15) 136s 308 x 367 x 51.6 
   364 x 374 x 51.6 
1982 Oct 14  1146  Progress-15 undocked +X  360 x 369 x 51.6 
1982 Nov 2  1322  Progress-16 docked +X  351 x 366 x 51.6 
1982 Nov 18  0756?  Iskra-3 launched from airlock 
  (33AD Iskra, 33AE cover) 
1982 Nov 28    347 x 353 x 51.6 
  Orbit trim  354 x 367 x 51.6 
1982 Dec 8    350 x 367 x 51.6 
  Orbit trim, P16  351 x 354 x 51.6 
1982 Dec 10   EO-1 crew to Soyuz T-7 
 1543  Soyuz T-7 undocked -X  350 x 355 x 51.6 
1982 Dec 13  1532  Progress-16 undocked +X  348 x 354 x 51.6 
1983 Mar 10  0920  Kosmos-1443 docked -X  325 x 327 x 51.6 
1983 Apr 5    318 x 320 x 51.6 
  Orbit lower  296 x 319 x 51.6 
1983 Apr 11    294 x 316 x 51.6 
  Orbit lower 293 x 304 x 51.6 
1983 Apr 21   Soyuz T-8 flyby  287 x 300 x 51.6 
1983 Apr 28    282 x 295 x 51.6 
  Orbit raise  291 x 333 x 51.6 
1983 Apr 29   Orbit raise  329 x 341 x 51.6 
1983 Jun 23    315 x 328 x 51.6 
  Orbit trim  326 x 337 x 51.6 
1983 Jun 28  1046  Soyuz T-9 docked at +X  324 x 336 x 51.6 
  Crew entry: 
  EO-2 Kdr, Vladimir Lyakhov 
  EO-2 BI, Aleksandr Aleksandrov 
1983 Jun 29  1149  Kosmos-1443 opened, activated 
1983 Aug 14  1404  Kosmos-1443 undocked -X  314 x 330 x 51.6 
1983 Aug 16   EO-2 crew to Soyuz T-9 
 1424 Soyuz T-9 undocked +X 
 1445  Soyuz T-9 docked at -X  315 x 346 x 51.6 
1983 Aug 19    314 x 346 x 51.6 
  Orbit lower  313 x 326 x 51.6 
 1347  Progress-17 docked at +X  313 x 326 x 51.6 
1983 Aug 20    313 x 326 x 51.6 
  Orbit raise  319 x 341 x 51.6 
1983 Aug 26    321 x 338 x 51.6 
  Orbit raise  332 x 358 x 51.6 
1983 Sep 9   Refuelling 
  ODU propellant leak 
1983 Sep 17    332 x 355 x 51.6 
  Orbit trim, P17  335 x 354 x 51.6 
 1144  Progress-17 undocked +X  334 x 354 x 51.6 
1983 Sep 30   33AG-AL cataloged 
1983 Oct 22  1134  Progress-18 docked at +X  329 x 347 x 51.6 
1983 Nov 1  0447  EO-2 EVA-1 (02:50) 
  Kdr, BI add new solar panel 
 0736  Repress 
1983 Nov 3  0347  EO-2 EVA-2 (02:55) 
  Kdr, BI add new solar panel 
 0642  Repress 
1983 Nov 4    327 x 345 x 51.6 
  Orbit trim, P18  326 x 342 x 51.6 
1983 Nov 11   33AM-AP cataloged 
1983 Nov 13  0308  Progress-18 undocked +X 
  83-106C,D cataloged (Model debris?) 
1983 Nov 14    324 x 340 x 51.6 
  Orbit trim, T9  322 x 337 x 51.6 
1983 Nov 18   33AQ,AR cataloged 
1983 Nov 20    322 x 334 x 51.6 
  Orbit trim, T9  322 x 337 x 51.6 
1983 Nov 23   EO-2 crew to Soyuz T-9 
 1640  Soyuz T-9 undocked from -X  321 x 337 x 51.6 
1984 Jan 13    312 x 325 x 51.6 
  Orbit lower  298 x 323 x 51.6 
1984 Feb 1    293 x 316 x 51.6 
  Orbit lower  292 x 302 x 51.6 
1984 Feb 9  1443  Soyuz T-10 docked at -X  289 x 296 x51.6 
  EO-3 crew entry: 
  EO-3 Kdr, Leonid Kizim 
  EO-3 BI, Vladimir Solov'yov 
  EO-3 KI, Oleg At'kov 
1984 Feb 23  0821  Progress-19 docked at +X  281 x 286 x 51.6 
1984 Feb 25    282 x 283 x 51.6 
  Orbit raise, P19  280 x 309 x 51.6 
1984 Feb 26    279 x 308 x 51.6 
  Orbit raise, P19  306 x 311 x 51.6 
1984 Mar 21   33AS-AZ cataloged 
1984 Mar 29   33BA,BB cataloged 
1984 Mar 30    290 x 301 x 51.6 
  Orbit trim, P19  289 x 303 x 51.6 
1984 Mar 31  0840  Progress-19 undocked from +X  290 x 301 x 51.6 
1984 Apr 4  1431  Soyuz T-11 docked at +X  287 x 298 x 51.6 
  EP-3 crew entry: 
  EP-3 Kdr, Yuriy Malyshev 
  EP-3 BI, Gennadiy Strekalov 
  EP-3 KI, Rakesh Sharma 
1984 Apr 11   EP-3 crew to Soyuz T-10 
 0733  Soyuz T-10 undocked -X  283 x 293 x 51.6 
1984 Apr 13   EO-3 crew to Soyuz T-11 
 1027  Soyuz T-11 undocked +X   
  Soyuz T-11 docked at -X  282 x 293 x 51.6 
  EO-3 crew to Salyut 
1984 Apr 17  0922  Progress-20 docked at +X  278 x 290 x 51.6 
1984 Apr 18    278 x 290 x 51.6 
  Orbit raise, P20  285 x 326 x 51.6 
1984 Apr 23  0431  EO-3 EVA-1 (Kdr, BI 04:15) 
  Preps for engine maintenance 
  33BC, BD jettisoned 
 0846  Repress 
1984 Apr 26  0240  EO-3 EVA-2 (Kdr, BI 05:00) 
  ODU maintenance 
 0736  Repress 
1984 Apr 29  0135  EO-3 EVA-3 (Kdr, BI 02:45) 
  ODU maintenance 
 0420  Repress 
1984 May 3  2315  EO-3 EVA-4 (Kdr, BI 02:45) 
  ODU maintenance 
1984 May 4  0200  Repress 
1984 May   33BE, BF, BG cataloged 
1984 May 6  1746  Progress-20 undocked +X  277 x 318 x 51.6 
1984 May 10  0010  Progress-21 docked +X  276 x 317 x 51.6 
1984 May 18  1752  EO-3 EVA-5 (Kdr, BI 03:05) 
  Solar panel attached 
  33BH, BJ jettison 
 2057  Repress 
1984 May 23    272 x 312 x 51.6 
  Orbit raise  296 x 347 x 51.6 
1984 May 25    295 x 347 x 51.6 
  Orbit raise  334 x 359 x 51.6 
1984 May 26  0941  Progress-21 undocked +X  335 x 358 x 51.6 
  33BK cataloged 
1984 May 30  1547  Progress-22 docked at +X  334 x 358 x 51.6 
1984 Jun 21   Orbit trim, P22 
1984 Jul 10?  33BL-BT cataloged 
  33BN, BP large RCS objects 
1984 Jul 10    328 x 354 x 51.6 
  Orbit lower  307 x 354 x 51.6 
1984 Jul 14   Orbit raise  334 x 355 x 51.6 
1984 Jul 15  1336  Progress-22 undocked +X  334 x 355 x 51.6 
1984 Jul 18  1917  Soyuz T-12 docked +X  334 x 354 x 51.6 
  EP-4 crew entry 
  EP-4 Kdr, Vladimir Dzhanibekov 
  EP-4 BI, Svetlana Savitskaya 
  EP-4 KI, Igor Volk 
1984 Jul 25  1455  EP-4 EVA-1 (EP-4 Kdr, BI 03:35) 
  Welding tests 
  33BU-BX cataloged 
 1830  Repress 
1984 Jul 28    333 x 353 x 51.6 
  Orbit raise  342 x 372 x 51.6 
1984 Jul 29   EP-4 crew to Soyuz T-12 
 0926  Soyuz T-12 undocked +X  342 x 372 x 51.6 
  33BY-CC,84-73C-D cataloged 
1984 Aug 8  0846  EO-3 EVA-6 (Kdr, BI 05:00) 
  Fuel line repairs 
  33CD-CG cataloged 
 1346  Repress 
1984 Aug 14   33CH-CM cataloged (CK 2 yr life) 
1984 Aug 16  0811  Progress-23 docked +X  341 x 369 x 51.6 
1984 Aug 20   33CN-CW cataloged 
1984 Aug 25    351 x 376 x 51.6 
  Orbit trim  373 x 375 x 51.6 
1984 Aug 26  1613  Progress-23 undocked +X  374 x 374 x 51.6 
1984 Aug 30   33CX cataloged, in orbit to May 86 
1984 Aug 30   33CY-DG cataloged 
1984 Sep 8   33DH-DL cataloged 
1984 Sep 12   33DM-DQ cataloged 
1984 Sep 15   33DR-DW cataloged 
1984 Sep 21   33DX-ED cataloted 
1984 Sep 21   33DZ, in orbit to Jan 86 
1984 Sep 27    370 x 374 x 51.6 
   370 x 375 x 51.6 
1984 Oct 2   EO-2 crew to Soyuz T-11 
 0840  Soyuz T-11 undocked -X  370 x 375 x 51.6 
1984 Oct 12   33EE-EH cataloged 
1984 Nov 15   33EJ cataloged 
1984 Nov 30   33EK cataloged 
1985 Feb 11   DRS transmitter failure  
  Backup transmitter on 
 1020? Attempt to reactivate prime transmitter 
  Short circuit, power failure 
  DOS 6 lost attitude 
1985 Feb 11   Radio contact lost 
  33EL-ER cataloged 
1985 Apr 29    360 x 363 x 51.6 
1985 Jun 8  0850  Soyuz T-13 docked at -X  356 x 359 x 51.6 
  EO-4a crew entry, in gas masks. 
  EO-4a Kdr, Vladimir Dzhanibekov 
  EO-4 BI, Viktor Savinykh 
1985 Jun 10    358 x 360 x 51.6 
1985 Jun 10   DOS 6 power, comms restored 
1985 Jun 20   DOS reactivation complete 
1985 Jun 23  0234  Progress-24 docked +X  355 x 358 x 51.6 
1985 Jul 15  1228  Progress-24 undocked +X  354 x 358 x 51.6 
1985 Jul 21  1505  Kosmos-1669 docked +X  354 x 358 x 51.6 
1985 Aug 2  0715  EO-4 EVA-1 (Kdr, BI 05:00) 
  Solar panel repairs 
  33ES-EV cataloged 
 1215  Repress 
1985 Aug 3    355 x 357 x 51.6 
1985 Aug 6    352 x 355 x 51.6 
  Orbit trim  353 x 358 x 51.6 
1985 Aug 17    355 x 358 x 51.6 
1985 Aug 18   33EW cataloged 
1985 Aug 28    352 x 353 x 51.6 
  Orbit lower  339 x 353 x 51.6 
 2150  Kosmos-1669 undocked from +X  339 x 353 x 51.6 
1985 Sep 10   33EX-FB cataloged 
1985 Sep 18   33FC cataloged 
 1414  Soyuz T-14 docked at +X  337 x 353 x 51.6 
  EO-4 crew entry 
  EO-4 Kdr, Vladimir Vasyutin 
  EO-4 KI, Aleksandr Volkov 
  T-14 BI, Georgiy Grechko 
1985 Sep 20   33FD-FE cataloged 
1985 Sep 25   Dzhanibekov and Grechko to Soyuz T-13 
1985 Sep 25  0358  Soyuz T-13 undocked from -X  337 x 352 x 51.6 
  Soyuz T-13 practice rendezvous 
  Soyuz T-13 sep burn 
1985 Sep 26   33FF-FM cataloged 
1985 Oct 2  1016  Kosmos-1686 docked at -X  335 x 352 x 51.6 
1985 Oct 4    336 x 353 x 51.6 
  Orbit raise  358 x 359 x 51.6 
  33FN cataloged, d after 1 yr 
1985 Oct 5   HO to K1686 
1985 Oct 16   33FP to GA cataloged 
1985 Oct 26   33GB,GC cataloged 
1985 Nov 9   33GD-GM cataloged 
1985 Nov   EO Kdr ill, BI assumes command 
1985 Nov 15   33GN cataloged 
1985 Nov 21   EO crew to Soyuz T-14 
  Soyuz T-14 undocked from +X  354 x 355 x 51.6 
1985 Nov 21   33GP-GR cataloged 
1985 Dec 28   33GS cataloged 
1986 Feb 7  First TLEs for 33HJ 
1986 Mar 8    342 x 346 x 51.6 
1986 May 6  1658  Soyuz T-15 docked at +X  335 x 343 x 51.6 
  EO-5 crew entry: 
  EO-5 Kdr, Leonid Kizim 
  EO-5 BI, Vladimir Solov'yov 
1986 May 15   33GT cataloged 
1986 May 28  0543  EO-5 EVA-1 (Kdr, BI 03:50) 
  Erect structure 
  Mayak experiment, 150 kg, 2m? long 
  Mayak back in PKhO 
  33GU-GX cataloged 
1986 May 31  0457  EO-5 EVA-2 (Kdr, BI 05:00) 
  Structure tests 
1986 Jun 4    324 x 340 x 51.6 
1986 Jun 20   33GY-HD cataloged 
1986 Jun 22    333 x 338 x 51.6 
1986 Jun 25   33HE-HF cataloged 
1986 Jun 25   EO-5 crew to Soyuz T-15 
 1458 Soyuz T-15 undocked from +X 
1986 Jul 4   33HG, HH cataloged 
1986 Jul 24    332 x 337 x 51.6 
1986 Aug 17    331 x 333 x 51.6 
1986 Aug 19   Orbit raise  331 x 385 x 51.6 
1986 Aug 21   Orbit raise TKS? 333 x 466 x 51.6 
1986 Aug 21   Orbit raise TKS? 466 x 467 x 51.6 
1986 Aug 22   Orbit trim TKS?  470 x 475 x 51.6 
1986 Aug 23   Orbit trim  475 x 475 x 51.6 
1986 Oct 6    473 x 475 x 51.6 
1986 Nov 19   33HJ cataloged
1986 Dec 13    473 x 474 x 51.6 
1987 May 1    472 x 474 x 51.6 
1989 Jul 3    93.35 437 x 439 x 51.6 
1991 Feb 7  0355Reentered over Argentina 34.9S 63.8W 

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