January 1983:Salyut 7 Expedition 1, part 1

The Soviet Union launched Kosmos
1267 at 0201 (all times GMT) on 25 April 1981 into a close-Earth orbit with its plane
some 10 degrees East of that of the then-occupied Salyut 6
space station. The Kosmos space station module was then
manoeuvred to a docking with Salyut 6, by that time unoccupied, at about 0845 on 19 June 1981.
On 24 May the Kosmos ejected a reentry vehicle which was,
by all accounts, recovered in the USSR. The Soviets appear
to have indicated two weights for the station module: about 15
tonnes and “over 10 tonnes”. The difference is thought to
account for the reentry vehicle. The total mass when docked
with Salyut 6 has been quoted as about 52 tonnes (the main
station’s weight is about 19 tonnes). The Soviets never acknowledged the fact that a vehicle was ejected and recovered from
the Kosmos module.
The combination was maintained close to the operational
orbit of Salyut 6 (around 550 km) by using the Kosmos propulsion system. It was de-orbited on 29 July 1982.

The book Sovetskaya Kosmanavitika (Moscow, 1981) and
the magazine Aviatsiya i Kosmanavtika (April 1982) have both
carried pictures of cosmonauts in the underwater training
facility at Zvyodznyy Gorodok, training with a truncated
Salyut, i.e. minus the forward transfer section of the Salyut
with a hint of a circular vehicle forward of the Salyut, but
separate from it. These pictures may show the Kosmos module,
or a variant of it.

The Soviets noted that the Kosmos module contained guidance, life-support, thermal regulation, power supply and other
major systems which were intended for long duration tests.
Noting that the module was the precursor of future specialised
space station modules for carrying varied scientific equipment,
the Soviets said that the modules would be capable of being
docked to Salyut stations or positioned close by in orbit to
avoid disturbances during experiments such as materials
processing.

A New Beginning

In preparation for the resumption of manned flights, to
Salyut 7, the Soviets expended considerable effort on renovating and expanding the facilities of the Kaliningrad Flight
Control Centre (FCC) while spare equipment was used to
control the flight of the Salyut 6/Kosmos 1267 combination.
The work included the addition of a third control room for
controlling the flight of two spaceships (Soyuz and Kosmos
modules?) as well as the orbital station. This meant that the
Soviets had three control rooms available for Salyut 7 missions.
Soviet spokesmen noted that the new orbital station would
have a design life of four to five years, in contrast to the Salyut
6 design life of 18 months.

Early in 1982 Soviet cosmonaut chief Vladimir Shatalov
noted that, of the Soviet’s about 50 active cosmonauts, 16 were
training for missions. Shatalov noted that training for missions
was no longer dominated by physical and psychological considerations but rather the development of practical skills for Earth observations - geology, oceanography and meteorology.

The New Salyut in Orbit

Salyut 7 was launched atop a Proton rocket from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome at 1945 on 19 April 1982 (11 years to the day after the
launch of the first Salyut station) into an initial 219x278 km
orbit with a period of 89.2 minutes. Despite speculation that,
since cosmonaut crews had been observed training in arctic
conditions in the Soviet far north, the new Salyut might fly at
an inclination of 65 degrees, Salyut 7 occupied the same 51.6
degree inclination as its predecessor (although it was separated
by some 70 degrees in orbital plane from Salyut 6).

Control was handled from the FCC, Soviet ground stations
and the tracking ship Akademik Sergei Korolev stationed in the
Atlantic Ocean. In late April the station was manoeuvred using
its own Joint Propulsion Unit (ODU) into a 508x552 km orbit,
and then to its operational orbit by 2 May.

On the ground, two 40 year-old cosmonauts were preparing
for the Soyuz T-5 mission. Commander was Anatoli Berezovoi
who was selected to become a cosmonaut in the 1970 pilot
group. Although it was his first flight he was reported as being a reserve on at least one occasion for earlier missions. Berezovoi’s partner was preparing once again for a second trip into
space. In February 1980, Valentin Lebedev had been training for
a flight to Salyut 6 with Leonid Popov when he damaged knee
ligaments in a trampoline accident. Three days younger than
his commander and a cosmonaut since 1972, Lebedev had
made his first flight in Soyuz 13 with Klimuk.

Soyuz T-5 in Space

Berezovoi and Lebedev were launched at 0958 on 13 May 1982. Within nine minutes the spaceship
was in orbit. Although it had been almost nine years since his
previous flight Lebedev noted that he felt as though he had
returned to weightlessness after only a day. (For the first two
days both men noted the customary rush of blood to the head
but neither experienced vestibular problems. By day 3 the
feelings had considerably lessened, and by day 4 they had fully
adapted to their weightless condition.)

The cosmonauts, with the call sign of Elbrus, turned in for
their first sleep in space at 1900 after the first manoeuvres that
would lead to the docking with Salyut 7 the next day. They
were awake at 0045 on the 14th and by their 11th orbit of the
Earth had completed checks of their radio guidance system
and reset the docking unit probes. By 0800 Soyuz T-5 had
completed 14 orbits and the cosmonauts were ready for the
final series of rendezvous manoeuvres. The docking occurred
at 1136 with the forward docking unit of the space station.
(Western reports suggest that difficulties were encountered
during the docking because FCC was reported as saying that
“they had lived through the docking with the cosmonauts”).
The Elbrus entered Salyut 7 some three hours later and
began activating the station in preparation for their long stay.

Activating the Station

The first work included activating the life-support system,
the water recovery system (which condenses atmospheric moisture) and the power supply systems. The workload was kept
light to avoid tiring the crew. As soon as the Salyut’s life-
support systems were working the cosmonauts powered down
the Soyuz T-5 ferry and installed on air hose to help the flow
of air between the vehicles.

A day after the docking, TASS announced the orbital parameters of the complex as: 343x360 km; period 91.3 minutes;
inclination 51.6 degrees.- Inside the station the temperature
was 20 degrees C, and the pressure 840 mm of mercury.

FCC had allotted three days for getting Salyut 7 into working
order. The cosmonauts were scheduled next to prepare the
scientific equipment, much of which was rigidly bolted down
to protect it from the stresses of launch. They loaded up the
fixed and portable cameras with film and made a start on their
regular sessions of physical exercises on the KFT treadmill and
veloergometer. The scientific research was scheduled to begin
only one week after their launch.

The Soviets described Salyut 7 as being the same size and
shape as the Salyut 6 station, with two docking units, the major
differences being in the composition of the scientific experiments.

A Unique Experiment

On 17 May, to coincide with the opening in Moscow of the
Young Communists League Congress, Berezovoi and Lebedev
launched a sub-satellite.

The Iskra 2 satellite, a 28 kg hexagonal communications
relay satellite, was put into the ShK airlock and, following
evacuation of the air in the chamber, simply jettisoned, into
outer space. The technique had been used before for ejecting
waste bags.

Iskra 2 was constructed by students from the Sergei Ordzhonikidze Aviation Institute in Moscow (Lebedev is a graduate) and was designed to provide communication between
radio hams and student organisations from the USSR and
Soviet-oriented countries. It contained a repeater, a radio
command and memory unit, a command radio channel and a
telemetric system. The exterior was covered with emblems of
the youth leagues of all the socialist countries.

Control was handled from centres in Moscow and Kaluga.
The satellite was tracked as being in a 342x357 km, 91.3
minute orbit shortly after its “launch” from Salyut 7.

Progress 13 is Launched

On 21 May the Elbrus commanded the Delta autonomous
navigation system, which the Soviets called the central control
of Salyut 7, to put the station into a gravitationally-stabilised
mode. The manoeuvre, which would have normally required
the crew to conduct several thruster firings, was achieved
automatically for the-first time. Much of the responsibility for
control of the station and its systems has been passed over to
the Delta system.

In this stabilised mode the cosmonauts were able to conduct
extensive Earth observations. During the early part of their
flight they reported two large cyclones over the USSR and
photographed the Krasnodar territory, the main winter granary
in the USSR, cotton fields in Central Asia and crops around
the River Volga.

At 0557 on 23 May the Soviets launched the 13th in the
series of Progress automated transport ships to deliver supplies
and further equipment. From its initial low orbit of
191X278 km, Progress 13 was manoeuvred over the next two
days to a successful docking with the aft port, at 0757 on 25
May.

In its two compartments, with a volume of 6.6 m, there was
about 2100 kg of equipment and supplies, including 660 kg of
fuel for the ODU, 290 litres of water, almost 900 kg of scientific
equipment (including about 250 kg for the Soviet/French
flight), and food and clothing. Specific items of scientific equipment included a new, improved, Kristall unit for technological
experiments, an EFO-7 electrophotometer designed for stellar
studies, and the French Posture and Ecography experiments.

On 26 May the cosmonauts opened the hatch between the
two craft and began unloading with their first priority being
a parcelof food, gifts and letters from their families and friends.
The refuelling of the ODU was completed by 1 June and water
from the Progress external tanks was transferred into the Salyut
external tanks via the Rodnik (Spring) pumping system.

Making Ready

On 2 June Salyut 7 was, using the propulsion unit of Progress
13, manoeuvred into an orbit below its operational height. The
three-spacecraft complex was lowered to 291X 321 km in a two
impulse manoeuvre from the 335x341 km orbit it had occupied. It might be, as P. S. Clark has speculated, that the three
man version of Soyuz T (as was to be used in the French flight)
is unable to reach the normal 350 km orbit of Salyut 7. Clark
notes that the three man Soyuz T-3 flight in November 1980
flew into a similar orbit.

At 0631 on 4 June Progress 13 was undocked and steered
away. At 0005 on 6 June the propulsion unit was used to send
the discarded ship, laden with rubbish, into the atmosphere
over the Pacific Ocean where it was destroyed away from
shipping lanes.

On 19 June the complex was given a final correction to
refine its groundtrack in readiness for the launch some five
days later of the Soviet/French Soyuz T-6 spacecraft.