The Russian Salyut 7 space station in orbit, with ferry spacecraft Soyuz T-14 docked at the bottom.
RESCUE OF A CRIPPLED SPACE STATION
Evidence of growing Soviet confidence and technical abilities became apparent when a crew was sent to attempt to reactivate the Soviet space station Salyut 7, which had experienced a power shutdown. The following year, Soviet cosmonauts achieved another space “first,” by traveling from one orbiting space station to another several thousand miles away.
In 1985 the Salyut 7 space station suffered major systems failures following the departure of the Soyuz T-12 crew. The seventh expedition to Salyut 7, Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Svetlana Savitskaya—the second Soviet female in space—and Igor Volk, had stayed on board the space station for 12 days beginning in July 1984. Dzhanibekov and Savitskaya carried out a spacewalk, during which they tested equipment as well as cutting, welding and coating metal samples.
But now Salyut 7 was without power and according to one Western commentator was “dead in the water.” Even if the systems could be brought back on, it was by no means certain that a Soyuz craft could dock with it to enable a crew to get aboard. Nevertheless, it was decided to try—a clear indication of the growing confidence of the maturing Soviet space effort.
Vladimir Dzhanibekov could not have imagined that he would be going back into space so soon, but he and the Soyuz T-12 backup cosmonaut Viktor Savinykh were the obvious choices. They left Earth on June 6, 1985, and one day later they were closing in on the crippled space station.
Dzhanibekov: We saw the station directly after it had emerged into the light—it was blazing in the Sun’s rays, which were just beginning to penetrate the atmosphere. A dot was not a dot, a speck was not a speck—they grew as we approached. The Moon was also within our field of vision. The Salyut’s crimson color gradually grew lighter and finally became white, the shade of ivory. The Salyut appeared to flare still more and at times was painful to look at through binoculars.
We made out the solar panels. At first they seemed to be correctly oriented toward the Sun—a ray of hope. But within a few minutes it was obvious that this was an optical illusion. They were facing in the opposite direction and were useless. It seemed clear that there would be big problems with the electricity supply. But the most important thing for us was to dock—the rest could come later.
We hard docked and checked the hermetic sealing. The equalization of the pressure on either side of the hatch and its opening gave us no problems. The only delay was in order to perform a gas analysis of the inside of the space station. It was possible that a short circuit had caused a fire in which case the scorched remains would have produced a dangerous atmosphere. So we sat there in the docking compartment patiently operating the level of the air sampler, watching to see if the indicators changed color. Just in case, we had gas masks.
There was complete silence in the docking compartment and we were in semidarkness. The rays of our flashlight picked out specks of dust hanging motionless in the air. This oppressive silence and the stillness of the air were the first signs of anything wrong in the station. Our most important compartment was the main compartment. There we found the same darkness, only now it was total. I removed my mask and sniffed the air. It seemed to be normal but the smell wasn’t the usual one. It was a kind of stagnant factory smell. I took several photographs with flash and floated toward the table.
Awaiting us were some rusks and some salt tablets—the traditional “bread and salt” welcome from the previous crew after their 237-day epic stay. We drew the blinds and let in daylight, everything seemed in order, clean and dry, no damage. The portholes were covered in frost. We were by now feeling the cold, the Salyut’s internal temperature was below zero. The worst thing was that there was no electrical power and the back-up batteries were dead. The first thing we had to do was to link the batteries to the solar panels so that they could become charged. We drew up circuit diagrams and severed cables and improvised for insulation. A day after we had docked we rejoiced to see a rise in voltage as the batteries recharged.
Dzhanibekov: Without ventilation, exhaled carbon dioxide accumulated around us. Imperceptibly we grew more and more tired and our heads began to ache. I taught Viktor to breathe out more energetically in order to expel the breath further away. He advised me to wave away the cloud with my hand. To combat the cold we wore fur coats, caps, gloves and boots. At first we worked only in daylight; it was uncomfortable to do so in the 45 minutes of orbital night. When it was dark we would float over to the Soyuz to get warm and to breathe properly. We realized that the space station was coming to life when we could turn the lights on. Then the instruments started working. It was a wonderful moment.
We still had a major problem—water. When we entered the Salyut we switched on the Rodnik water supply system but it was frozen and there was ice in the tanks. Then I noticed a strange plastic column that had grown onto one of the junctions of the water pipes. It was ice, water was escaping from the system and freezing in front of our eyes. When our week’s supply of water would run out we were prepared to drink the coolant water from our spacesuits. We had collected drops of water from various pipes and hoses to add to our daily ration. We knew that our comrades on Earth were preparing an unmanned cargo craft to send to us containing plentiful supplies.
The cooker did not work so we rigged up a system out of towels and foil and a powerful photographic lamp and used it to heat packets of food as well as coffee. The Salyut was slowly coming back to life.
The most difficult thing in the cosmonaut’s trade is the capacity to stand up to, every day, minute by minute, the thousands of unforeseen circumstances. The arrival of the cargo craft, with the resultant unloading and loading, was more than just moving a few boxes. At one time, for instance, five spacesuits had accumulated on board and they took up a tremendous amount of space.
The spacewalk to charge up the third solar battery required several days training and the checking and adjustment of spacesuits. Soon we listened to the voices on the other side of the hatch signaling the arrival of our replacement crew—Volodya Vasyutin, Sasha Volkov and Georgi Grechko. I was to return, Viktor was to stay. Earth greeted me with sunshine and smiles.
Thanks to the rescue of Salyut 7 by Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh the space station was host to more long-duration crews, and on May 6, 1986, another space first was achieved.
The Mir space station had been launched on February 19, 1986. Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov docked with Mir on March 15, on the Soyuz T-15 mission. They stayed on Mir for 51 days, unloading two visiting Progress cargo craft. On May 5 they undocked and traveled in their spacecraft to Salyut 7, which was 2485 miles (4000 km) ahead of them in a lower orbit. It took them 29 hours, and it was the first ever inter–space station flight. The cosmonauts stayed on board Salyut 7 for a further 51 days. Then it undocked and journeyed back to Mir for another 20 days, during which Kizim became the first person to have spent a year in space.
TIMELINE
| 1985 | 6 June Soviet spacecraft Soyuz T-13 launches. Its mission is to attempt to dock with, and return to operational status, the “dead” space station Salyut 7 |
| 13 June Following earlier successful power restoration, Salyut 7’s attitude control system was reactivated, meaning that a Progress cargo craft could deliver new supplies | |
| 1986 | 19 February Soviet Mir space station is launched |
| 5 May Cosmonauts begin a journey from Mir to Salyut 7—the first ever inter–space station flight |