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Salyut 7

Launched : April 19, 1982, 10:45 P.M.
Altitude : 212 * 260 km. @ 51.6°

Salyut 7 was launched to continue the research begun by Salyut 6 and to further perfect space station operations, and study the docking of large modules to the Salyut. The delay between the last mission to Salyut 6 and the launch of Salyut 7 was to give time for personnel of the ground control teams and technicians to take vacations and time to update equipment that should have been replaced when the expected lifetime of Salyut 6 was reached. Extending operations of Salyut 6 made it necessary to keep old outdated equipment in operation. A third control room at Kaliningrad was also built to support the multiple spacecraft used for station operations.
Soviet spacecraft designer Konstantin Feoktistov said that there was little difference between Salyut 6 and 7 stations. Salyut 7 had a few minor changes from the Salyut 6 design and was probably the original back-up to Salyut 6. Salyut 7 was intended to have a lifetime of four to five years in stead of Salyut 6's 18 months.
Salyut 7 was launched into orbit 70 degrees displaced from that of the still orbiting Salyut 6. By late April, Salyut 7's orbit was 308 * 352 km.. Initial control of Salyut 7 was accomplished through the Soviet ground stations and the communications ship Korolev which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Figure 5-11. The Salyut 7 station was a modified version of Salyut 6. The front docking port was strengthened for docking large modules, the living accommodations were improved, and connections for additional solar panels were added.

Soyuz T-5 First long duration crew of Salyut 7 / 211 days

Launched : May 13, 1982, 1:58 P.M.
Landed : Aug. 27, 1982, 7:04 P.M.
Altitude : 192 * 231 km. @ 51.6°
Crew : Anatoliy Berezovoi &Valentin Lebedev
Backup : Vladimir Titov &Gennadiy Strekalov
Call sign : Elbrus

Berezovoi and Lebedev started training for the Soyuz T-5 mission a year before the launch. Both of the cosmonauts had already been through the training program for a long duration mission twice before as backups. Soyuz T-5's transfer orbit to Salyut 7 was 269 * 325 km.. Docking to Salyut 7's forward port was at 3:36 P.M. May 14, at 343 * 360 km..
The crew activated Salyut 7's systems and installed an air duct from the Salyut to the Soyuz, as part of normal activation of the Salyut environmental control system. Lebedev reportedly adapted quickly to weightlessness, and the crew was said to have adapted by the third or fourth day. The crew continued setting up equipment on the station for the first week of the mission before starting any experiments.
Salyut 7 was maneuvered by the crew fully automatically using the Delta system. Previously on Salyut 6, cosmonauts were required to monitor any maneuvers by the automatic systems. On May 17, Iskra 2, an amateur radio satellite, was launched by a spring, from a scientific airlock, into a 342 * 357 km. orbit. Before the deployment, the cosmonauts tested the satellites power supply and radio. With the antennas folded, the satellite was put into the left scientific airlock. The spherical airlock consisted of two spheres, one inside the other. The inner sphere had a hole which matched up with the opening on the outer hull of the station. To launch the satellite, the outer sphere was closed and the inner one rotated until the opening matched the outer opening. Spring then pushed the the satellite away from the station. After launch, the satellite deployed its radio antennas. The satellite was hexagonal and weighed 28 kg.. Iskra 2 decayed from orbit on July 9, 1982. With the launch of Iskra 2, the Soviets became the first to launch an active satellite from another Earth orbiting manned spacecraft (Apollo 15 &16 launched sub satellites into lunar orbit). This was an attempt to up-stage the US, STS-5 flight in November, which would launch two large communication satellites. On May 22, the station was put into gravity gradient mode flight using the Delta unit in its first fully automatic maneuver of the station.

Progress 13

Launched : May 23, 1982, 9:57 A.M.
Reentry : June 6, 1982
Altitude : 191 * 278 km. @ 51.6°

Progress 13's transfer orbit to Salyut 7 was 290 * 347 km.. The cargo craft docked at 11:57 A.M., May 25. The flight carried 290 liters of water, 660 kg. of propellent, 900 kg. of equipment including French built experiments to be used during the next Soyuz international flight, the Kristall and Magma-F material processing furnaces, the Czechoslovakian EFO-1 electro photometer, warm boots for the cosmonauts, letters, food, and the Oasis plant growth experiment.
The Magma-F was an enlargement of the Kristall furnace. Magma-F could accept quartz ampules of samples up to 20 mm. in diameter, and 200 mm. long with the temperature monitored from 14 points in the furnace. A computer records the temperatures of up to 900° C and transmits the data to mission control for analysis. The materials processing equipment delivered was not attached to the Progress by standard fittings because of its bulk presenting the crew some extra difficulty in removing it.
The Progress spacecraft now had been modified to carry water in tanks outside the orbital module leaving more room for cargo inside the Progress. By May 26, the crew began unloading the cargo and finished the refueling process on June 1. They then used the Rodnik pumping system to transfer water to the Salyut tanks. On June 2, Progress 13 lowered Salyut 7's orbit from 335 * 341 km. to 219 * 321 km. in preparations to receive the next flight, which would carry a three person crew. A Soyuz with a crew of three could not reach a higher orbit. Progress 13 undocked at 10:31 A.M., June 4. Retrofire was at 4:05 A.M., June 6.

Kosmos 1374

Launched : June 3, 1982
Landed : June 3, 1982
Altitude : 167 * 222 km @ 50.6°

This was the first of flights of space planes that are sometimes referred to as Kosmolyot's. They were launched from Kapustin Yar, by the C-1 booster. The flights were tests of heat shield materials and reentry techniques for the large shuttle that was in development at the time. Dimensions of the spacecraft were 2.28 meters wide, 2.86 meters long, orbital mass was 1074 kg. and dry mass 795 kg..

For many years, U.S. intelligence sources had reported that a theorized manned version of this space plane would weigh 15,000 kg., be four to five times larger and be launched by the J type booster in the mid-1980s, but this is very unlikely considering the statements of the Soviets and their subsequent development of a large space shuttle.
To support communications for the test flight, the tracking ships Patsayev, Dobrovolskiy and Chumikan were transferred from their normal Salyut support activities. After one and a quarter orbits, the Kosmolyot reentered flying past the coast of India. The spacecraft then made a cross range maneuver heading about 600 km. to the South toward the recovery fleet. The spacecraft landed by parasail, 560 km. south of the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean where the seven ship recovery force retrieved the space plane. A cone protruding from the top of the spacecraft was an inflatable float to help right the floating plane in the water. Along with the Soviet ships was an Australian Orion patrol plane which photographed the recovery operation. The most distinctive features revealed were small windows where a cockpit would be on a manned spacecraft, and a heatshield made of tiles, possibly like those used on the U.S. shuttle. The quick reaction of the Australians and photography of the spacecraft probably indicate that western intelligence agencies knew well before the launch that the short one orbit flight was about to occur and where it was to terminate, giving the Australians time to get an aircraft in the recovery area.

Soyuz T-6 Tenth international crew - France

Launched : June 24, 1982, 8:30 P.M.
Reentry : July 2, 1982, 6:21 P.M.
Altitude : 189 * 233 km. @ 51.6°
Crew : Vladimir Dzhanibekov &Aleksandr Ivanchenko & Jean-Loup Chretien
Backup : Leonid Kizim & Vladimir Solovyev & Patrick Baudry
Call sign : Pamir

The joint French-Soviet space mission was the result of a long cooperation between the two countries in the area of space science. In 1966, an agreement was reached which included launching French satellites on Soviet boosters and flying French instruments on Soviet space probes, high altitude balloons, sounding rockets and Earth satellites. The agreement to launch a French crewman on a Soviet Soyuz flight was reached when Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and French President Giscard d'Estaing met in April, 1979.
Chretien and Baudry began training for the international mission in September, 1980. A year later, Chretien was selected as the primary crewman for the flight. He had seven years test pilot and 5000 hours flight time as experience. Some members of the French Academy of Sciences protested the joint spaceflight saying that the experiments were only after thoughts to the political decision to fly with the Soviets.
The original commander for this mission was Yuri Malyshev. During training for the flight, the Soviet's said that a heart irregularity was detected which grounded Malyshev from spaceflight. Dzhanibekov was assigned as replacement commander of the flight.
The transfer orbit to Salyut 7 was 248 * 265 km.. Dzhanibekov performed a manual rendezvous after the Argon computer failed 900 meters from the station. The computer had just turned the Soyuz around and fired its main engine in the direction of flight to break its approach to the Salyut. It was then supposed to turn around again to begin a slow approach to the station. At this point, the Soyuz computer sensed its gryoscopes had reached their limits and stopped the maneuver. After disengaging the computer, Dzhanibekov could not see the Salyut and had to turn the Soyuz on all three axis to get the Soyuz pointed at the station again. Dzhanibekov then proceeded to dock at 9:46 P.M., June 25, 14 minutes earlier than planned, due to the failure in orbit at 288 * 311 km.. Docking with a station at this distance under manual control was very unusual and a significant achievement for the Soviets.
On the Soyuz T-6 and previous Progress missions, over 500 kg. of equipment had been delivered to the Salyut to be used for the international mission. Biological experiments were emphasized during the flight including ultrasonic doppler imaging of the heart and blood vessels with a standard French medical instrument called Echograph which was left on the station for future Soviet use. Other experiments included testing the bodies sensory systems and muscle activity required to maintain normal standing posture in weightlessness, the biological effects of cosmic radiation, and the effects of antibiotics on micro-organisms. Experiments in materials processing were also conducted investigating capillary forces during crystallization of alloys at differing temperatures, producing aluminum indium alloy, and measuring the effects of very small accelerations on samples being processed and measuring the thermal environment inside the Magma-F furnace. The cosmonauts also tested a device called Braslet which restricted blood flow into their legs to easy adaptation to weightlessness. The elastic cuffs were worn around the thighs and for only 30 to 60 minutes at a time, five times a day.
Photography of the celestial objects was also carried out during night time using the Piramig image intensifier while Berezovoi or Lebedev pointed the Salyut in the correct direction for the cameras. The stations interior lights and attitude control thrusters had to be turned off when using the Piramig camera. The Piramig operated between 200 and 1000 nanometers wavelenghts and used a fiber optic photomultiplier to enhance the image. Filters could also be used to take images at certain wavelengths from the near infra reds to the ultraviolet. Exposure, and the date and time on the image, could be changed by the operator. 350 pictures were taken in 20 sessions with the Piramig. A camera called PCN was also used by the international crew to photograph zodiacal light, noctilucent clouds, and lightning in different wavelengths. The cosmonauts oriented the station for the astronomical observations using the Delta navigation unit. This was accurate to only one degree of arc, but using other instruments it was possible to then achieve five to ten arc seconds and then pointing the photographic instruments themselves achieved at least one arc second of arc accuracy. The stations attitude was controlled for observations for up to six hours a day.

Berezovoi later commented that Chretien seemed to spend most of his time recording measurements of his heart and blood vessels using the Echograph ultrasonic imager. Chretien also complained that he was so busy with the experiments and reports that he didn't have time to view France when the station was in position. The cosmonauts then programmed the Delta navigation unit to warn them when passing over France so Chretien could take pictures. In order to complete the experiments later in the flight, Chretien got little sleep each night.
The Salyut cosmonauts also were instructed by Ivanchenkov, who had spent 140 days in space, in observing the Earth. He showed them how to see atmospheric phenomenon, zodiacal light, and Aurora. On June 28, the crew photographed a giant lightning flash south of Hawaii in the Pacific that lasted over a minute and light up an area roughly 30 * 50 km.. On June 30, photos were taken of noctilucent clouds 80 km. over Ireland.
The T-6 and the international crew ended their mission after loading the Soyuz capsule with experiment results and undocking at 3:01 P.M., July 2. Orbital module separation occurred at 4:05 P.M., followed by retrofire at 5:35 P.M.. Eleven minutes later, the capsule separated from the service module just above the dense layers of the atmosphere. At 6:10 P.M. the parachutes opened and the capsule landed at 6:21 P.M., about four km. from the target point, 65 km north east of Arkalyk.

On July 3, the Salyut maneuvered into an orbit at 309 * 344 km.. The Salyut crew performed a two and a half hour EVA July 30. Leonov, the first person to perform an EVA on Voskhod 2 in 1965, was the capcom for the EVA and gave the cosmonauts advice. The cosmonauts had practiced the EVA many times during training, the last time being just before the launch. Lebedev positioned himself on a foot anchor on the transfer compartment and tested various tools including a power screw driver and cutting tools. He also removed some of the test samples from the Medusa fixture on the hull of the transfer compartment of Salyut 7 for return to Earth. Lebedev handed the Medusa fixture to Berezovoi who remained in the airlock. Berezovoi removed the samples already exposed to space conditions since Salyut 7's launch, and replaced them with new samples to be retrieved by a later crew. The tests were on components under evaluation for future use in spacecraft. These included pipe fittings conditioned to expand and contract significantly under varying temperatures to aid construction in space, various metals under constant stress, and types of threaded connectors.

Progress 14

Launched : July 10, 1982, 1:58 P.M.
Reentry : Aug. 14, 1982
Altitude : 192 * 258 km. @ 51.6°

Progress 14 docked to rear port of Salyut 7 at 3:41 P.M., which was in orbit at 301 * 325 km., July 12. The flight delivered propellant, water, mail, air regenerator canisters, supplies, the Korund materials processing furnace, materials for processing, and food including tomatoes, cakes, apples, and lemons.
The Korund furnace was equipped with a revolving sample holder which held up to twelve ampules that were processed one at a time. The unit could be controlled from mission control allowing processing to continue after the crew left the station. Each ampule measured 30 mm. in diameter and 30 cm. in length. The samples could be heated to between 20 and 1270° C at a rate of between 0.1 and 10 degrees per minute. The ampule could also be mover in the furnace at a rate of 100 mm. per minute.
The Progress was unloaded by July 16, and refueling was completed by July 20. The Progress undocked Aug. 11, at 2:11 A.M., to clear aft port for Soyuz T-7. Retrofire was at 5:29 A.M., Aug. 13.

On July 10, the Lebedev repaired a fault in the Oasis plant growth unit. For the next few days the cosmonauts unloaded the Progress. Letters to the cosmonauts were usually loaded near the hatch, but after opening the hatch, they found only one letter. Mission control told them that the rest of the letters were behind the other cargo, a tactic used to get the cosmonauts to unload the cargo more quickly. After completing the unloading that same day, the cosmonauts found that mission control was lying and that there were no more letters on the Progress. On July 23, the crew underwent a routine medical examination.

Soyuz T-7 Second woman in space

Launched : Aug. 19, 1982, 9:12 P.M.
Landed : Dec. 10, 1982, 10:03 P.M.
Altitude : 194 * 205 km. @ 51.6° (final booster stage)
Crew : Leonid Popov & Alexandr Serebrov & Svetlana Savitskaya
Backup : Vladimir Vasyutin & Viktor Savinykh & Irina Pronina
Call sign : Dneip

Savitskaya became the second woman to fly in space on Soyuz T-7. She was a pilot and had 1500 hours flight time in 20 aircraft types as experience. Savitskaya was flown primarily as a propaganda stunt in response to plans of NASA to fly female astronauts on the shuttle beginning the next June. At this time, the commander of the Gagarin Training Center and former cosmonaut, General Beregovoi, said that one other female was training as a Pilot-Flight Engineer at Star City. The backup commander for the mission was probably either Vladimir Vasyutin or Yuri Romanenko.
Soyuz T-7's initial orbit was not released but would be similar to the orbit of the booster's upper stage which was 194 * 205 km.. After ten orbits, the Soyuz was in a transfer orbit of 228 * 280 km.. Soyuz T-7 docked at 10:32 P.M., Aug. 20, at 289 * 299 km.. This flight emphasized medical experiments on female adaptation to weightlessness and used the French medical instruments from the T-6 flight. The visiting crew also tested the Tavriya electrophoresis device, and made observations of celestial objects with the French Piramig visible near-infrared camera and Czechoslovakian EFO-1 photometer. Serebrov also tested the Braslet devices and French ultrasonic cardiovascular monitor. The crew also made the usual measurements of the stations atmosphere and took samples for analysis on Earth. During their stay on the station, Savitskaya was given full use of the Soyuz orbital module for privacy as required although she still slept in the Salyut with the others.
The T-7 crew traded spacecraft with the long duration crew by switching seats and centering weights on Aug. 22 and transferred experiment results to the T-5 capsule for return to Earth. They undocked on Aug. 27, in the Soyuz T-5. The Soyuz capsule landed at 7:04 P.M., 70 km. north east of Arkalyk.

The Salyut crew transferred the new Soyuz T-7 to the forward port, undocking from the aft port at 6:47 P.M., Aug. 29. After drifting away from the station, the docking system was activated again with the Salyut's forward port active. The station turned 180 degrees to place the forward port facing the Soyuz and Berezovoi docked again normally.
On Aug. 30, the crew resumed their research program with photographic sessions studying dust storms in the southern USSR and natural gas fields near the Caspian Sea. Later that day, a maneuver was made using one of Salyut 7's main engines changing the complexes orbit. On Sept. 3 the orbit of the station was 321* 340 km..
On Sept. 7, the crew completed their latest round of photographic duties and prepared to start a new series of astronomical observations using the X-ray telescope. By Sept 10, the cosmonauts were conducting routine medical tests using the Beta and Rheograph cardiovascular monitors. The next day they cleaned the station, took a shower, and made routine calls to their families over the two way television link. These routine activities continued until the next supply mission was launched.

Progress 15

Launched : Sept. 18, 1982, 8:59 A.M.
Reentry : Oct. 17, 1982
Altitude : 195 * 258 km. @ 51.6°

The Progress' transfer orbit to Salyut 7 was 214 * 372 km.. The cargo ship docked at 10:12 A.M., Sept. 20 at 302 * 372 km.. The mission delivered food, supplies and raw materials for processing. Refueling began on Sept. 21, and was completed by Sept. 24. The Progress was used to boost the station's orbit on Sept. 28, to 312 * 379 km., and again on Sept. 29, to 364 * 384 km.. Undocking was at 4:46 P.M., Oct. 14, and retrofire was at 8:08 P.M., Oct. 17.

On Sept. 24, the crew completed refueling the station and performed medical tests using the Chibis suit and the Echograph ultrasonic cardiovascular monitor. On September 28 and 29 the station was boosted by Progress 15 to an orbit at 364 * 384 km.. On Oct. 1 the crew started a new round of astronomical experiments after finishing another series of Earth resources photographic assignments. Objects they observed included the Crab Nebula, and the Earths atmosphere using the EFO-1 photometer. Pravda noted that six groups of geologists were searching for mineral deposits in regions around the Caspian and Aral Seas and Lake Balkhash previously photographed by Salyut 7.
The cosmonauts also continued with a series of experiments using the Pion device. The Pion allowed viewing of the crystals growth while they were forming during heating. The particular liquid and gas being studied was contained inside a clear flattened disk. A light was shown in one side while the process was filmed from the other side. Temperature and time measurements were also recorded on the film of the experiment.

Progress 16

Launched : Oct. 31, 1982, 2:20 P.M.
Reentry : Dec. 15, 1982
Altitude : 193 * 263 km. @ 51.6°

The transfer orbit to Salyut 7 was 290 * 358 km.. Progress 16 docked at 4:22 P.M., Nov. 2, at 353 * 362 km.. The flight delivered food, supplies and propellant to continue the long duration mission. The Progress was mostly unloaded by Nov. 5. Progress 16 was used Dec. 8, to make several maneuvers to raise and change the orbit of Salyut 7 to facilitate the return of the long duration crew. The Progress undocked on Dec. 13, and was destroyed on reentry as normal.

On Nov. 7 the crew had a communications session with their families. The next day, was spent repairing the stations video recorder which had broken. On Nov. 11, the cosmonauts probably recorded the infrared signature of Space Shuttle Columbia launch (STS-5). The closest approach was 80 km. at night, the cosmonauts tried to look for the shuttle but could see nothing in the darkness. Crews on Salyut's often observed Soviet ICBM and ABM test launches. The same day, Berezovoi felt ill. The cosmonauts consulted with doctors who prescribed medication. Lebedev injected the medication and Berezovoi's condition improved. A decision about ending the mission was very near, but by the evening his condition improved more and the decision was postponed.
On Nov. 18, the crew launched a second sub-satellite, Iskra 3, into a 350 * 365 km. orbit. This time the crew filmed the deployment. The satellite reentered less then a month later on Dec. 16, 1986. On Nov. 28, the crew used the Kristall furnace to produce alloys. On Dec. 7, the crew cleaned and inspected the station. The mission was ending due to a failure of the Salyut's Delta navigation computer which began writing data over its instructions. Without the Delta, the station's attitude had to be manually controlled by either the cosmonauts or mission control. Without any backup system other than the cosmonauts, the decision was to end the mission and repair the Delta on the next flight. They left the Korund materials processing furnace on automatic, to obtain samples, while there was no crew creating unwanted motions in the station. In previous experiments using the Kristall furnace, the cosmonauts detached the unit from the stations wall and let it hang unsupported while processing samples. This yielded better results because it damped motions caused by the crew and equipment of the station that caused micro gravitional disturbances effecting processing. Among the samples obtained by the crew was a crystal of cadmium selenide weighing 800 grams, and measuring the full 30 cm. by 30 mm..
The cosmonauts packed the Soyuz with log books, results from experiments, film and video tapes. The crew returned to Earth on Dec. 10, 1982, outside of the normal landing window, because of the Delta failure. This forced the crew to not follow mission rules and land at night. The predicted weather for landing was 21 km/Hr winds, temperatures at 15°C, and 10 km. visibility. They instead descended into low clouds and fog, at -9° C temperatures, in a snow storm. They landed at 10:03 P.M., on a hill in deep snow and high winds, 150 km. southeast of Dzhezkazgan. In the high winds, the parachute pulled the capsule on its side and it rolled several times down a hill. The recovery helicopters soon found the capsule by its radio beacon, since its light beacon was barely visible through the snow..
Normally, the helicopters would have landed and taken the cosmonauts to a nearby airport for a trip back to baykonur, but the helicopters were blowing up to much snow to see the ground to land. One helicopter pilot was given permission to land, at his own discretion, to give assistance to the cosmonauts. The pilot took the helicopter down and landed with enough forward speed to see the ground, but he broke a landing gear in the process. The ten person recovery crew set out flares to guide another to land but the rest were sent away until the weather improved. Twenty minutes later, the cosmonauts were out of the capsule and a snow tractor reached the site. The cosmonauts spent the night in the cab of the tractor and were running out of fuel to keep warm when the helicopters returned in the morning.
The crew did not adjust to the Earth as well as the last long duration crew. They were not as prepared as they had planned, because of the Delta failure. But, they were walking in three days, went to the swimming pool often and returned to Star City by New Years day.
During the mission, the cosmonauts had carried out the first fully successful experiments in plant growth with the plants reaching full maturity. Arabidopsis, a common weed, was grown in the Fiton plant growth unit which used a special nutrient solution and specially filtered air to produced about 200 seeds. Other plants grown with less success were wheat, oats, borage, peas, radish, coriander, dill, and carrots. The Oasis plant growth unit was also tested using electric fields to stimulate plant growth.
During the mission, the crew also took 2500 photos with the MKF-6M camera and 200,000 separate spectrograms with various apparatus. Cosmonaut observations and photos from orbit were said to speed prediction of the spread of major crop disease by several days. The crew also made 40 reports to geologists about possible mineral deposits they had sighted. Fifty hours were spent performing astrophysical observations with the RT-4M telescope. Over 1000 photographs were taken in astrophysical experiments. In all, 300 experiments were conducted by the crew.
General Beregovoi said at this time that cosmonauts would be in orbit on a permanent basis in the near future. On Jan. 1, 1983, Salyut 7 was in a 342 * 347 km. orbit, awaiting its next cosmonaut crew.

Kosmos 1443 Star module

Launched : March 2, 1983, 12:32 P.M.
Capsule Landed : Aug. 23, 1983, 3:02 P.M.
Module Reentry : Sept. 19, 1983, 4:34 P.M.
Altitude : 191 * 259 km. @ 51.6°

The Kosmos 1443 module was nearly the same as Kosmos 1267. Its weight plus its cargo slightly exceeded 20,000 kg.. The Soviets said that 1443 was the freighter version of the Star module, implying that other versions were planned. Kosmos 1443 was launched to provide Salyut 7 with large amounts of cargo, new equipment, additional attitude control and orbital maneuvering ability.
The Star module was launched into an orbit shifted 1.25° longitudally away from the Salyut's orbit and began a slow approach to the station. This slow approach saved propellant and provided for slower approach which was desirable for the Soviets since they had little experience in docking the relatively large module. During the extra time before docking, the modules systems were tested and monitored by mission control. During the initial flight of the module, the tracking ships Korolev and Dobrovolskiy were stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
As soon as the module docked to the station, it took over all attitude and orbital control of the space station complex. On March 2 the orbit was boosted to 199 * 269 km.. The module maneuvered again on March 3 and 5 to 280 * 314 km. and again on March 9 to prepare to dock at the forward port of Salyut 7. Docking was completed on March 10, at 12:20 P.M., at an orbit of 325 * 345 km.. The total length of the station complex was 28 meters and massed 40,000 kg..
The module delivered 3600 kg. cargo of 600 items including new gallium arsenide solar arrays for Salyut 7, new Delta system memory units, water, air regeneration canisters, air filters, instruments, exercise and medical equipment, movies, film, a guitar, flash bulbs, cloths, spare parts, and foods including fruits, onion, garlic and mustard. The module was equipped with a rail which could extend into the Salyut, on which bags of supplies were moved. This made the unloading much easier for the cosmonauts. On April 5 and 11, the module lowered Salyut 7's orbit to 293 * 305 km. for the next manned mission..

Kosmos 1445

Launched : March 15, 1983, 1:34 A.M.
Landed : March 15, 1983, 3:27 A.M.?
Altitude : 176 * 217 km @ 50.7°

This flight was the same type as Kosmos 1374. Academy of Sciences tracking ships Volkov and Belyayev were used to support the test flight. The space plane splashed down 556 km. south of the Cocos Is. in the Indian ocean and was successfully recovered by Soviet ships in the area. Detailed pictures of the spacecraft were again obtained by Australian aircraft. ,

Soyuz T-8 * Aborted

Launched : April 20, 1983, 5:11 P.M.
Landed : April 22, 1983, 5:29 P.M.
Altitude : 196 * 213 km. @ 51.6°
Crew : Vladimir Titov & Gennadiy Strekalov & Aleksandr Serebrov
Backup : Vladimir Lyakhov & Viktor Savinykh & Aleksandr Aleksandrov
Call sign : Ocean

The first launch attempt of the Soyuz T-8, on April 11, was scrubbed because of technical problems and the launch was again scrubbed, on April 14. On April 20, the flight was finally launched, and all was well until the launch shroud separated. Flight International magazine later reported that Titov said that the shroud accidentally tore off the rendezvous radar antenna. The crew, not knowing this at the time, tried to swing the apparently non-responsive arm holding the antenna into position by attitude thruster bursts. After this failed, the crew was told to sleep while mission control thought about the problem. The crew got little sleep, Titov later remarked he slept only a few hours.
The next day, the crew went ahead with plans to try a manual docking with help from mission control. Mission rules previously used by the Soviet's stated that a mission must abort the docking attempt and return to Earth at this point. Flight directors decided let Titov attempt a manual rendezvous. A normal rendezvous ended at a distance of 10 km. from the station when Titov saw the station as a point of light ahead of the Soyuz. Titov later said that in order to dock manually, he had to determine the size the Salyut in his periscope sight, and the ground would compute the closing velocity, so the crew could make the necessary burn to close on the station. An optical rendezvous from the 10 km. distance had never been attempted before by the Soviets and had a low chance of success.
When within 330 meters of the station, the Soyuz passed out of communication range of the ground, and Titov lost his source of information on relative velocity. In darkness Titov was not be sure of his depth perception to judge closing velocity. With the Salyut running lights on and illuminating the station with the Soyuz's floodlight, he closed the distance to 175 meters, but he feared a collision. He decided to fire the Soyuz thrusters and pass the station, sending the Soyuz into a slightly higher orbit and aborting the mission. Titov said later that he never trained for manual approach and docking before the T-8 flight.
At this point, the Soviet media moved the ranking of the story from the top of the news to just before discussing women's rights in Afghanistan, and dropped all mention of the Salyut 7 docking attempt. The propellant situation on the Soyuz was now critical. With most of the reserves used on the manual rendezvous, there was little extra left for retrofire if additional problems arose. To conserve propellant, the Soyuz attitude control system was shut off while awaiting the next pass over the landing area. The Soyuz was put in the spin stabilized mode normally used on Soyuz flights in the early 1970s to save propellant. The crew landed safely although they had almost no reserve propellant for retrofire. Landing was at 5:29 P.M., April 22, 60 km. northeast of Arkalyk. The crew would have been the first to occupy an expanded Salyut/Kosmos space station and would have performed EVA's to add solar panels to the Salyut.
The Kosmos 1443 module raised Salyut 7's orbit back to a normal altitude of 291 * 347 km. on April 28, after the T-8 failure to dock. On June 23, the module boosted the station's orbit from 315 * 328 km. to 326 * 337 km. preparing for the next manned mission launch.

Soyuz T-9 long duration mission / 149 days

Launched : June 27, 1983, 1:12 P.M.
Landed : Nov. 23, 1983, 10:58 P.M.
Altitude : 199 * 228 km. @ 51.6°
Crew : Vladimir Lyakhov & Aleksandr Aleksandrov
Backup : Vladimir Titov & Gennadiy Strekalov
Call sign : Proton

This crew was the back-up to the Soyuz T-8 crew. The T-8 back-up crew originally consisted of Lyakhov, Aleksandrov, and Volkov, but Volkov had been dropped from the crew to allow the Soyuz to carry more propellant to dock with the Salyut at a higher orbit. The Soviets had apparently been willing to use the Kosmos modules precious propellant to lower and raise the stations orbit once for the Soyuz T-8 docking, but not for the second attempt with the T-9 mission. Costly orbit changes to facilitate docking apparently could not be justified just to add a crewman to the mission. Soyuz T-9's transfer orbit to the Salyut 7 station complex was255 * 303 km.. The Soyuz docked to the rear docking port of Salyut 7 on June 28, at 1:46 P.M., at 328 * 343 km., with the Kosmos module at the forward docking port holding the station in position. The combined weight of the Salyut, Star module and Soyuz was 47,000 kg. and the orbit was 325 * 337 km..
The crew activated the Salyut and soon began Earth resources work. The Star module would enabled the crew to take more pictures in one week than on the entire 211 day mission. In actuality, the crew spread this work out over eight weeks, but still took as many as 500 over only a two week period. The modules capsule was the only way to return the great amount of film this produced.
On June 30, they opened the hatch to the Kosmos module at 12:49 P.M., and began unloading the module. The crew reported discomfort adapting to weightlessness until the ninth day of the flight. The cosmonauts worked a slightly different schedule than previous crews by working half a day on Saturdays to reduce the amount of work during the rest of the week. The cosmonauts replaced the Delta navigation system memory unit and it was reprogrammed by telemetry from mission control. This procedure required a week to complete, but put the station back into routine operation.
On July 18, the cosmonauts began a series of experiments using the Yelena and Ryabine instruments to measure gamma radiation and changed particles. They also began use of the MKS-M spectrometer-camera. The MKS-M could be pointed to with a higher degree of freedom than the other fixed cameras like the MKF-6M or KATE-140. The camera could also be fitted with two different instruments for photographing either the atmosphere or ocean. They also photographed lightning and aurora.
The crew took part in a series of Earth resources experiments focusing on the worlds oceans and the Mediterranean Sea in particular. An AN-30 aircraft and a research ship took measurements in areas while the Meteor 30 satellite, and the cosmonauts observed the release of colored dye in the Black Sea in an area 500 meters in diameter. The cosmonauts reported that the dyes could be seen easily with the naked eye. They also began use of the Tsvet-1 instrument. This unit replaced a printed catalog of 1000 colors used for describing areas observed on Earth. With the Tsvet-1, the cosmonauts could tune a color with knobs to mix a nearly infinite range of colors. They also used the Astra-1 instrument which measured the cloud of particles and debris surrounding the station created by rocket thruster firings and waste dumping. ,
Another new piece of equipment on Salyut 7 was the Electrotopograph. This experiment was to expose various materials to the space environment in a scientific airlock. The materials would be sandwiched between two pieces of metal plates with a emulsion coated photographic plate next to the sample. After exposure to vacuum, a charge of several thousand Volts would be applied to the metal plates. The electric field created would be contoured around any microscopic or invisible defects in the sample material caused during its manufacture, or exposure to vacuum and low temperatures.
Material processing experiments also were conducted using the Kristall and Magma-F furnaces producing cadmium theioselinide for laser uses. The Tavriya electrophoresis unit was also used to continue tests separating biological materials. By July 23, the crew had unloaded about half of the cargo from the Star module. The crew had moved some equipment including the Salyut's EVA space suits into the module freeing up space in the Salyut transfer compartment.
On July 25, the crew started emergency procedures to evacuate the station when they heard a loud crack. After they realized there was no immediate danger, they investigated and found a impact crater 3.8 mm. wide in a window. Cosmonauts on Salyut 6 also found a three mm. crater in a window before the station was destroyed in 1982. An evacuation of the Salyut would take an estimated 15 minutes. The Soviets also estimated that a hole the size of a pin head in the hull of the Salyut would allow the atmosphere to escape in about one day. With a hole the size of a pencil it would take about 1.5 hours. The cosmonauts could also attempt to seal any leak with a special sealant. The majority of space debris are very small particles, but the relative velocity makes even small particles very destructive.
On Aug. 9, the crew started taking urine samples for a period of three days, for later analysis on Earth. The samples were frozen and stored in the Plasma-1 apparatus. In early August, the cosmonauts also began loading the Kosmos reentry capsule with a cargo of 317 kg. film, material samples from 45 experiments including results from the Electrotopograph experiment, used air regenerators and the failed Delta memory unit. There reportedly was a major malfunction of the Star module which caused it to be undocked early with the reentry capsule only partly loaded. The module had performed over 100 orbit corrections and attitude changes of the space station. The cosmonauts also commented that controlling the station with the Star module was very difficult and that a fully automatic system was not yet developed to control the space station complex.
On Aug. 14, at 6:04 P.M., Kosmos 1443 undocked and the Soyuz T-9 boosted the station's orbit from 314 * 330 km. to 315 * 346 km.. Kosmos 1443 boosted its orbit to 326 * 348 km. and the Salyut lowered its to 313 * 326 km. on Aug. 18. The Star module reentry capsule undocked and landed with its cargo on Aug. 23, at 3:02 P.M., 100 km. southeast of Arkalyk. The Star module would continue to orbit for almost another month.
The long duration crew then had to prepare for the next Progress mission by undocking the Soyuz T-9 from the aft port and moving it to the forward port where the Star module had been docked. At 6:25 P.M., Aug. 16, the Soyuz was undocked and drifted back 250 meters from the station which was then commanded to activate its forward docking system, causing the station to turn 180 degrees to point the forward port at the Soyuz, which was then redocked 20 minutes after undocking.

Progress 17

Launched : Aug. 17, 1983, 4:08 P.M.
Reentry : Sept. 18, 1983
Altitude : 186 * 228 km. @ 51.6°

Progress 17 maneuvered into a transfer orbit of 257 * 321 km. which was raised to 313 * 326 km. in the hours before docking with Salyut 7 at 5:47 P.M., Aug. 19. The Progress was soon used to boost the station to 319 * 339 km.. The flight delivered mail, food and propellant. By Aug. 26, the ship was unloaded and boosted the station's orbit again to 337 * 358 km.. Refueling was begun by Sept. 2. Before undocking, the Progress again boosted the station's orbit to 337 * 358 km.. After undocking, on Sept. 17, at 2:44 P.M., the Progress performed retrofire at 1:43 A.M. the next morning.

On Sept. 9, during refueling operations, Salyut 7 suffered a ruptured oxidizer line which vented two of Salyut's three oxidizer tanks to space. The long duration crew prepared to return to Earth immediately, but the ground controllers found the situation was stable and decided not to return the crew. This failure left the Salyut with only half of its 32 attitude control thrusters operational. It was not known if a malfunction of the Progress caused the failure but the failure did occur during the refueling operation. The failure forced a change in the work done by the cosmonauts from Earth resources to material processing since the attitude control system was nearly unusable and could not be used to point the Salyut's cameras.
On Sept. 16, the Star module which had been undocked in August, lowered its orbit from 322 * 338 km., to 288 * 337 km. in preparations for destructive reentry and disposal. On Sept. 19, the Kosmos 1443 module, minus the reentry module, was deorbited over the Pacific with a retrofire at 4:34 A.M..
On Sept. 20, the crew again started taking urine samples for three days again in continuation of a previous experiment. The samples were frozen and stored in the Plasma-1 apparatus. On Sept. 23, the crew replaced a pump in the water recovery system, set up the Pion to continue material processing experiments and continued Earth resources work.

Soyuz T-10A * Aborted

Launched : Sept. 26, 1983, 11:36 P.M.
Landed : Sept. 26, 1983, 11:40? P.M.
Altitude : 1 km.
Crew : Vladimir Titov & Gennadiy Strekalov
Backup : Leonid Kizim & Vladimir Solovyev
Call sign : Ocean

The crew of Titov and Strekalov (from the aborted Soyuz T-8 flight) climbed into their new Soyuz capsule at T minus two hours in the countdown. Their crewmate Serebrov had been dropped from the mission, just as Volkov had been dropped from the Soyuz T-9 mission. This was again apparently to allow the Soyuz to carry more propellant, enabling it to dock with the Salyut which was in a higher orbit than during the Soyuz T-8 docking attempt. The Soyuz on its A-2 booster was on the primary A type launch pad which was the same one that launched Sputnik and Vostok 1. The backup cosmonauts for the flight, Kizim and Solovyev, were the capcom's (capsule communicators) for the launch, and were in the underground launch control bunker near the launch pad. Temperatures were 10° C with winds at 43 km/hour during the countdown. While waiting the cosmonauts listened to music over the radio as most crews do before a launch.
At about 1:36 A.M. local Baykonur time, about 90 seconds before lift-off, a malfunction allowed fuel to spill out and flow around the base of the booster. Less than a minute before the scheduled launch, flames and smoke appeared around the booster as the spilled fuel caught fire and the ground controllers commanded an abort before the booster's engines started. The cosmonauts noticed the flames and smoke outside the porthole through the capsule and its launch shroud. A launch abort had been commanded, but the communication lines to the spacecraft were already burned through. Leaving the crew stranded on the booster since there is no crew control of the abort system.
In the control rooms two launch safety officers operated a back-up radio command system, simultaneously activated the abort sequence about 20 seconds after the first attempt. The command was sent by radio to the Soyuz which started the escape tower motors. By this time, flames and smoke had engulfed the entire booster, up to the top of the Soyuz's launch shroud.
Inside the Soyuz, Titov said that he felt the booster sway a little in the wind, and then felt two waves of vibration caused by the explosive bolts firing to separate the capsule from the Soyuz service module, and the upper launch shroud surrounding the capsule from the lower shroud. This was immediately followed by a strong jerk caused by the solid propellant abort motor firing pulling the capsule, in its shroud, off the booster. Titov immediately knew that "we did not make it again [to Salyut 7]" The crew experienced a very short 17 gravities of acceleration during the tractor motor firing. Six seconds later, the booster exploded.
The abort motor fired for only five seconds, making the high gravity forces easily survivable, then smaller sustainer motors fired, and the large square air brakes deployed to keep the launch shroud vertical. The cosmonauts then heard the pyrotechnics fire to separate the capsule from the orbital module, to allow the capsule to drop out of the launch shroud. This happened at about 650 meters altitude. Next, the heatshield separated and the emergency parachute opened, lowering the capsule to Earth within sight of the launch complex. Titov said he tried to make observations on spacecraft performance during the abort procedure into the tape recorder, but there was little time for this as they were contacted by Kizim in the control bunker over the landing radio link. Kizim told them that the abort system had been activated, but the cosmonauts were well aware of this as they looked out the left port hole to see the launch pad burning in the distance. The spacecraft landed hard, four km. down range of the launch pad. During this abort there was nothing for the crew to do since the sequence was automatically controlled after initiation by the launch crew.
The cosmonauts were uninjured, but shaken. They had some vodka before getting their mandatory medical check-ups. The remains of the booster and launch pad burned for 20 hours. This flight had nearly the same crew as the Soyuz T-8 flight which also had to be aborted in orbit. This crew would have performed EVA's to place new solar arrays on the Salyut. The T-10A crew would have taken over as the new long duration mission and the T-9 crew would have returned in November. This would have started the permanent manning the the Salyut 7 space station as General Beregovoi predicted a year earlier. It would be years before a crew exchange would be accomplished because of various problems..,

At about the same time as the Soyuz launch failure, on Salyut 7 the environmental control system malfunctioned, probably because of the failure in the solar array power system, which caused a acrid odor that nearly over came the crew. It was similar to a failure on Salyut 5 which brought it's crew home early. In this case the crew remained on board with irritated eyes until the problem was corrected. The temperature in the station also dropped to 18° C because there was little power to run heaters, because of the solar array problem. The cooling causing humidity to rise to 100 percent.
By Sept. 29 , then crew had taken about 3500 photographs of the Earth. By the middle of October, the crew had gained about 0.5 kg. weight each, and were working normal ten to twelve hour days. On Oct. 13, the Soviets announced that the mission was nearing the end.

Progress 18

Launched : Oct. 20, 1983, 12:59 P.M.
Reentry : Nov. 16, 1983
Altitude : 193 * 269 km. @ 51.6°

Because of the failure in the propulsion system of Salyut 7, a Progress was launched to provide additional propellant, mostly oxidizer, and the use of its engines to help control the station.
The cargo ship maneuvered away from its booster stage in an orbit at 185 * 237 km. into an initial orbit at 193 * 269 km.. Docking was at 2:34 P.M., Oct. 22, in an orbit at 329 * 347 km.. The flight delivered mail, propellant, materials, equipment, air regenerator canisters, new components of Tavria experiment and the second pair of add-on solar panels for Salyut 7. Unloading was completed by Nov. 10. The Progress boosted the stations orbit Nov. 5, to 326 * 342 km.. It undocked on Nov. 13, at 6:08 P.M., and retrofire was at 7:18 A.M., Nov. 16, sending the Progress into the normal destructive reentry.

After Progress 18 arrived, the crew was able to begin Earth resources work again because the Progress filled the one usable oxidizer tank of the Salyut to provide some attitude control ability. The Progress itself could also help the Salyut maneuver a little. The crew also began scrambling their radio transmissions for the first time in two months indicating possible military work by the crew.
On Nov. 1 and 3, the cosmonauts performed EVA, the first lasting 169 minutes and the second lasting 175 minutes, to add two small solar arrays to the center Salyut array. This EVA was originally to be conducted by the Soyuz T-10A crew, and changing the mission of the T-9 crew to perform the EVA showed a growing maturity of the Soviet space program. The EVA on Nov. 1, started at 7:47 A.M., and on Nov. 3, at 6:47 A.M.. The gallium arsenide arrays measured 4.5 by 1.2 meters and a pair produced 800 Watts additional power.
The same procedure was used for both EVA's. First, Alexandrov moved from the airlock to the center solar array where he secured himself to the station. Lyakhov then brought the tools and new solar array in its container from the airlock to Alexandrov. They then mounted the container onto pins on the center solar array and connected power lines to sockets built into the station. Then the new array was uncovered the and Lyakhov moved away while Alexandrov cranked a winch unfolding the new array. Pins on the top of the new array snapped into catches on the existing array completing the work.
Meanwhile, cosmonauts Kizim and Solovyev simultaneously duplicated the work of the cosmonauts in the Hydrobasin water tank simulator at Star City to provide any assistance they could with unexpected problems. Both of the spacewalks were also supervised by cosmonaut Romanenko in mission control. Communications during the EVA was augmented by the tracking ships Volkov and Dobrovolskiy, stationed in the Atlantic ocean, and the Gagarin in the Mediterranean. A drawback to use of the tracking ships was the need to relay the signal from the ships to the Kaliningrad mission control. The Sapphire system was used for this which made the cosmonauts voices very distorted, but understandable if they talked very slowly. After finishing the installation, Alexandrov threw the empty array containers into space making sure they would not accidently throw them into an orbit that would decay bringing the boxes back to hit the station. Mission control was more concerned by his unplanned action since the boxes could be detected by the star trackers of the station upsetting the guidance systems.
The crews heartbeat was higher for the first EVA than the second. The highest valve was when operating the winch that deployed the array, and during closing the airlock hatch. The Soviets said that the crew had simulation EVA on Earth in the Hydrobasin twelve times before the mission. The crew said that the simulation was harder than the actual work.
After the first EVA, the crew immediately began preparations for the next EVA on Nov. 3. They step up fans in their space suits to dry out perspiration, replaced components like air filters which were limited to about six hours use, and tested the suits systems. They also had to perform a medical examination before the EVA. These EVA procedures along with testing tools and maintaining the space station, eating, sleeping and exercising took up nearly five days time.
The Progress boosted the stations orbit on Nov. 5, to 326 * 342 km. and unloading was complete by Nov. 10. On Nov. 13, the Progress undocked. The crew continued with normal work by using the Tavria unit, to produce 35 mg. of pure protein from membranes of an influenza virus which was said to supply Soviet laboratories for many months. On Nov. 14, the Soyuz T-9 was used to lower the station's orbit from 324 * 340 km. to 322 * 337 km..
The Soviets then announced the imminent return of the long duration crew. Their return window lasted until Dec. 14. They also announced that there would be a pause until the next long duration crew was launched (to give time to fully investigate the launch disaster of T-10A). This would also give the next crew time to practice EVA techniques to repair the Salyut's oxidizer line. The Soviets also announced that the crew of Alexandrov and Lyakhov were not supposed to fly a record breaking mission. They were supposed to be replaced by the Soyuz T 10A crew.
The return of the cosmonauts was probably a precautionary move since a new Soyuz could not be launched to give the long duration crew a fresh return spacecraft. Rather than risk the need for a return of the cosmonauts before a new Soyuz could be launched, the Soviets decided to end the mission short of the goal of extending the previous 211 day record. The crew also had not expected or been trained for a record breaking mission. Their main goal seems to have been operating the Kosmos 1443 module and its systems.
The cosmonauts began packing the experiment results including experiment log books, holograms, processed materials, and Electrotopograph results in the T-9 on Nov. 21, and they tested the ships engines. They also loaded trash into the orbital module of the Soyuz to be disposed of when the module is jettisoned before retrofire. Retrofire occurred as usual over the South Atlantic and was monitored by the tracking ship Volkov. They landed, with the capsule characteristicly rolling onto its side, on Nov. 23, at 10:58 P.M., 160 km. east of Dzhezkazgan, in light fog after 149 days in space. Landing was uneventful although this was the first time the Soyuz T used its extended lifetime as a viable manned spacecraft. The recovery forces for landing consisted of ten aircraft, 15 helicopters, and five search and recovery teams along the flight path.
The crew reported that they felt relatively well after landing. After eight hours, one of the cosmonauts still experienced dizziness and nausea when sitting or standing. Both preferred maintaining a horizontal position. They lost 4.6 kg. average during the flight, of which about one kg. was gained after the first day after landing. They returned to their preflight weight after nine days. Calf volume decreased by an average of 11.8 percent. Both cosmonauts had an altered gait and were unable to stand perfectly still with their eyes closed during re-adaptation. They also noted dizziness and discomfort after head movements. This continued for seven and three days respectively for the Commander and Flight Engineer. During the flight, they were exposed to 1755 mrad radiation, roughly 17 times the low yearly average background dose on Earth.
They took about 3000 pictures with the MKF-6M and MKS-M, and 100 with the Kate-140 during 43 sessions of more than 300 million square kilometers. Areas not only included the USSR but also Australia, Africa and South America in cooperation with a UNESCO program studying biological resources. They had around 20 conferences with geologists, meteorologists and other specialists during the flight advising them on the observations they were performing. About 200 television conferences with family members and others were conducted. 88 samples of thin film coatings were obtained with the Isparitel device. They also took over 16,000 other photographs and spectrographs in addition to holographs made by the KGA-2 holographic camera of materials processing experiment samples. Fourteen experiments with the Pion-M mass transfer experiment were performed and recorded on film and holographically. The Tavriya electrophoresis device was used to obtain eight ampules, 35 mg. total, of an anti influenza and anti-viral preparation. They performed 19 electrophotograms of materials after exposure to space in an airlock for hours or days. They made observations with the Piramig, PCN cameras, the SKR-02M, and the RT-4M telescope. The Yelena gamma ray telescope was used for over 300 hours measuring high energy particles, especially over the South Atlantic Anomaly. The stations orbit had been boosted, or changed about 60 times during the mission. The Oasis plant growth unit was used to grow plants using electrical stimulation and the Svetobloc-T was also used to try growing tomatoes. Medical exams were carried out a total of 128 times.

Kosmos 1517

Launched : Dec. 27, 1983
Landed : Dec. 27, 1983
Altitude : 180 * 221 km @ 50.6°

This flight was the same as the Kosmos 1445 flight, but instead of landing in the Indian Ocean, the space plane landed in Black Sea to avoid picture taking by Australian ocean patrol aircraft as during the recovery of Kosmos 1445. A Soviet tracking ship monitored the retrofire as it occurred over the southern Atlantic. Further details are unavailable since the recovery took place in the Black Sea.

On Jan. 1, Salyut 7 was in a 314 * 327 km. orbit. On Jan. 11, Salyut 7 was lowered to a 298 * 323 km. orbit. On Feb. 1, it was lowered again to 292 * 303 km. in preparations for the next three man Soyuz launch and long duration mission.

Soyuz T-10B Long duration crew / 237 days

Launched : Feb. 8, 1984, 3:07 P.M.
Landed : April 11, 1984, 5:50 P.M.
Altitude : 198 * 219 km. @ 51.6°
Crew : Leonid Kizim & Vladimir Solovyev & Oleg Atkov
Backup : Vladimir Vasyutin & Viktor Savinykh & V. Polyakov
Call sign : Mayak

This crews main task was to repair the serious engine system problem on Salyut 7, and if possible set new endurance records. Kizim and Solovyev had been training extensively in the Hydrobasin at Star City for their future EVA's to repair the engine system. Solovyev was well acquainted with the Salyut systems since he had written many of the documents used on the station. Atkov was a physician trained to monitor the crews adaptation to weightlessness and their response to various tests. Atkov also had the authority to end the mission if he observed dangerous deterioration of the crews health. The Soviets announced that a doctor would be a part of all long duration missions in the future (they would later abandon the plan).
The Soyuz separated from its upper stage in orbit at 197 * 207 km. , and maneuvered into an initial orbit at 198 * 219 km.. The transfer orbit to Salyut 7 was 227 * 270 km.. At five km. distance, the crew sighted the station and activated the Salyut rendezvous system and the Soyuz docking camera. Responding to the activation of the rendezvous system, Salyut turned to point at the approaching Soyuz. After attempting to dock, Kizim backed the Soyuz away from the station because he could not see the markings on the docking target, which was in intense sunlight. The station fortunately moved into shadow shortly afterwards and Kizim approached again and docked at 5:43 P.M., Feb. 9, at 289 * 296 km.. The cosmonauts moved into the station with flashlights to turn on the stations systems and commented on the smell of burnt metal from the docking drouge. By Feb. 17, the Salyut was completely reactivated. The Mayak's mission would follow a schedule allowing for nine hours experiment operation, one hour preparation for the next days work, nine hours sleep, two hours exercise and three hours personal time to eat, etc.
On Feb. 15, the crew serviced and loaded film into the MKF-6M and KATE-140 cameras. Atkov began observing crew management of the stations environment and hygiene. He was also be responsible for many of the house keeping chores and Progress unloading to free the commander and engineer to perform scientific experiments. A day before the launch of Progress 19, the Salyut was in orbit at 282 * 288 km..

Progress 19

Launched : Feb. 21, 1984, 9:46 A.M.
Reentry : April 1, 1984
Altitude : 186 * 245 km. @ 51.6°

Progress 19 docked at 11:21 A.M., Feb. 23, with the station in an orbit at 282 * 286 km.. The crew observed the docking, but had to wait until the next day to open the cargo ships hatch. The flight delivered 2094 kg. of supplies total including 300 kg. of food, water, oxygen, mail, newspapers, letters, 800 kg. of propellant, 300 kg. of film, spare parts, materials and new Indian camera equipment to be used by the Soyuz T-11 crew. The Progress boosted the station's orbit on Feb. 25 and 26, to 306 * 311 km..
The Progress was unloaded only as the supplies were needed, slowing the usual unloading process. Oxidizer transfer was completed by March 12, and by March 30, refueling was completed. The Progress boosted the stations orbit to 289 * 303 km., before undocking at 12:40 P.M., March 31. Retrofire was at 9:18 P.M., April 1, sending the Progress filled with trash into a destructive reentry as normal.

On Feb. 24, the station was carefully oriented with interior lights and solar array pointing turned off so the cosmonauts could photograph comet Crommelin with the French Piramig camera. On March 19, the Isparitel experiment was installed and tested in the airlock. This experiment was a prototype electron beam welder, cutter and sprayer. The crew also began photographic sessions over India in preparations for the coming international flight.
During the mission, Atkov performed a medical check of the crew about every ten days as a part of several experiments being done to investigate aspects of adaptation to weightlessness. Some of the experiments were Biokhim, which measured blood electrolytes in flight. Optokinez, which was a vestibular eye movement test using the station's video monitor. Claznoye, which studied blood flow to the eye and movement of the blind spot, and Sport, which was a exercise program.

Soyuz T-11 Eleventh international crew - India

Launched : April 3, 1984, 5:09 P.M.
Landed : Oct. 2, 1984, 1:57 P.M.
Altitude : 195 * 224 km. @ 51.6°
Crew : Yuri Malyshev & Gennadiy Strekalov & Rakesh Sharma
Backup : Anatoliy Berezovoi & Georgiy Grechko & Ravish Malkhotra
Call sign : Beacons

The Indian international mission was similar to the French international mission of Soyuz T-6. Large scale Indian cooperation in the space field with the Soviets began with the launch of the Aryabhata satellite on a Soviet booster in April, 1975. India also cooperated with the United States and other countries to help start its own space program. Sharma and Malkhotra both arrived at Star City in September, 1982 to begin training for the mission. Originally Strekalov was the backup for Rukavishnikov, but an illness prevented Rukavishnikov from flying. Grechko was then assigned as Strekalov's backup for the mission. Sharma was eventually selected to be on the primary crew, putting Malkhotra in the backup role. Before becoming a cosmonaut, Sharma was a squadron commander with 1600 hours jet flight time.
Soyuz T-11 separated from the booster's upper stage in orbit at 193 * 216 km. and maneuvering into an initial orbit at 195 * 224 km. A pair of maneuvers on the fourth and fifth orbits made the T 11's transfer orbit 222 * 271 km.. The Soyuz docked at the Salyut's rear port on April 4, at 6:35 P.M., at 286 * 299 km. and the crew opened the hatch to the Salyut at 9:36 P.M..
Using the camera equipment shipped up on the last Progress flight, the cosmonauts made Earth resources observations in the Terra experiment. The Indian government was especially interested in mapping to search for water in arid regions, for a survey of potential hydroelectric power plants and search for mineral and petroleum deposits. Salyut 7 made nine passes over India for photography using the MKF-6M taking about 166 photos. The Kate-140 was used to take about 200 photos and hand held cameras were used to take more. There were also simultaneous ground surveys of the photographed areas to confirm and better analyze camera results..
The visiting crew also experimented making thin alloy coatings in the Isparitel apparatus. In another experiment called supercooling, a sample of silver germanium alloy was cooled with liquid helium on side and melted by a laser on the other. This would hopefully make the sample much stronger than originally. Other adaptation investigations included Optokinez, Profilaktika, and Braslet. Membrana was an experiment to investigate calcium loss in weightlessness and methods to counter it. Vector was an experiment using an Indian designed unit to improve electrocardiogram analysis by measuring chest movement during heart beats. The Ballisto experiment also measured the accelerations of the body caused by heart pumping action. This also reveals changes in the hearts position and shape in prolonged weightlessness. Opros was a standard questionair filled to determine psychological condition and Yoga was an attempt by Sharma at controlling weightlessness adaptation using practiced yoga exercises.
The crew also held a joint television news conference with officials in Moscow and Prime Minister Gandhi. After completing 43 experiment sessions, the international crew returned in the T-10B spacecraft, leaving the fresh T-11 spacecraft for the long duration crew to use. They undocked at 2:27 P.M., April 11 after loading the capsule with experiment results and exposed film. Landing was at 5:50 P.M., one minute ahead of schedule and one km. from the target point, 46 km. east of Arkalyk.

After the visiting crew left in the T-10B spacecraft, the long duration crew moved the new T-11 spacecraft to the forward docking port. Atkov said the that the crew felt very tired after the visiting crew left the station. They knew that the others were returning to the relative luxuries of Earthly life while they still had several months left in their mission.
Some typical military activities of the crew were reported in Aviation Week magazine to be the observation of Soviet military maneuvers, observing the release of smoke on the ground to camouflage movement, observing ABM tests, intelligence and control of naval movement, acting as a target for laser research and testing space based laser tracking and target acquisition.

Progress 20

Launched : April 15, 1984, 12:13 P.M.
Reentry : May 7, 1984
Altitude : 195 * 260 km. @ 51.6°

Soon after separating from the booster's third stage at 183 * 247 km., Progress 20 maneuvered to 195 * 260 km. and then to a transfer orbit at 236 * 269 km.. The Progress docked with the stations rear docking port at 1:22 P.M., April 17, at 278 * 290 km.. The flight delivered mail, air, parts and a tool kit containing 25 tools and weighing 40 kg. for the engine repairs, a batteries, air regenerators, propellant and attitude control ability for the crippled Salyutstation.
Progress 20 also carried a special extension on the forward end of the orbital module which was unfolded and locked on ground command after docking. On the extension was a place for an EVA anchor, to be used in repair EVA's. This enabled a cosmonaut to 'stand' on the Progress orbital module while another worked attached to the Salyut.
The Progress boosted the station's orbit on April 19, to 285 * 326 km. and again on April 20 to 301 * 332 km.. After the Salyut engine repair EVA's, the Progress undocked on May 6, at 9:46 P.M..

On April 24, 26, 29 and May 4, the crew performed EVA in an attempt to correct the Salyut's propulsion system problems. Kizim and Solovyev performed the EVA's, while Atkov monitored them from inside the Salyut (which was equipped with only two EVA space suits). Ryumin, who saved Salyut 6 during an EVA to jettison the KRT-10 telescope, was the Flight Director for most of the EVA's. Communication coverage of the stations orbit during the EVA's was extended by using two tracking ships, one in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific, from 20 to 50 minutes. A special tool kit delivered by Progress 20 was used for the repairs.
The first in the series of EVA's began at 8:31 A.M., April 24, and was 4.25 hours long. During it, the crew attached a telescoping ladder like structure to the Salyut that curved around a third of the Salyut's propulsion section. This required the cosmonauts to drive pins into the hull of the Salyut to attach the ladder to the station. They then placed a foot restraint or anchor on the ladder. An anchor was also placed on a specially built extension on Progress 20's orbital module. They also placed tool containers to the hull of the Salyut. The cosmonauts also set up a path of hand holds or tethers from the airlock on the transfer compartment to the work area to speed subsequent EVA's.
The next EVA was five hours long and replaced a valve assembly and fuel lines on the damaged half of the engine system, starting at 6:40 A.M., the 26th. Kizim did most of the actual work on the ladder while Solovyev helped, while attached to the Progress. It took 20 minutes for the cosmonauts to get into position to start work. First Kizim opened an access plate on the side of the station's propulsion section near the Salyut's docking antenna. Next, he cut through an insulating covering, first poking a hole in the thin material using a pneumatic punch, and then cutting it with a tool resembling a butter knife. Then he opened the filler assembly which contained the valve to be replaced. This took two hours to accomplish because at least one bolt on the filler was covered with epoxy putty and the wrench would not fit the bolt. After some hard work the bolt was removed.
They replaced the valve and installed jumpers in the launch feed ports to test the repair. Atkov, from inside the Salyut, pressurized sections of the line with nitrogen from the Progress' supplies. Soviet mission planners had hoped that the repairs could end there, but by pressurizing individual sections of propellant line using the jumpers, they found a section of the line had to be replaced. The cosmonauts asked for more EVA time beyond the planned 4.1 hours and were allowed to continue. When they completed all the work that could possibly be done during the EVA, they replaced the insulation over the open hole in the side of the propulsion section and returned to the Salyut. The crew was not scheduled to make another EVA for a few days to allow them time to rest and take care of other routine space station needs, but they talked mission control into allowing another EVA on April 29.
The third EVA was 2.75 hours long starting at 5:35 A.M., on the 29th. The task was to install a new section of line to bypass the damaged section, tested its integrity by pressurizing the line with nitrogen supplied by Progress 20 and put a insulating cover over the new line.
While the commander and flight engineer dealt with EVA preparations, Atkov continued unloading Progress 20. By May 4, most of the cargo had been unloaded and water had been pumped into the Salyut tanks. Another 2.75 hour EVA started at 3:15 A.M., May 4th. It's objective was to connect the secondary line to bypass the ruptured line. Although the work was completed for the time being, the repairs were not complete. To complete the repair the old propellant line needed to be closed off. A special tool to do this was being prepared on the ground. After completing the hard EVA work, the cosmonauts were given the rare time to take showers on May 8.

Progress 21

Launched : May 8, 1984, 2:47 A.M.
Reentry : May 26, 1984
Altitude : 190 * 243 km. @ 51.6°

The Progress separated from its spent upper stage in orbit at 185 * 237 km. and maneuvered to its initial orbit of 190 * 243 km.. The transfer orbit to the space station was 243 * 277 km. and the Progress docked with the Salyut at 4:10 A.M., May 10, in orbit at 277 * 319 km..
The flight delivered propellant, food, another pair of add on solar panels, and other supplies. On May 20, the Progress boosted the station's orbit from 272 * 312 km. to 296 * 347 km. and again on May 25, to 334 * 355 km.. The Progress was undocked at 1:41 P.M., May 26 and made a normal destructive reentry..

On May 11, the cosmonauts continued to unload the Progress and began experiments measuring the atmosphere around the station and underwent medical exams. On May 18, the crew started an exercise program called Sport which under Atkov's supervision increased the intensity of exercises trying to shorten the time required for exercise to prevent muscle and bone mass loss.
On May 19, Kizim and Solovyev went EVA again at 9:52 P.M., to add another pair of nine square meter gallium arsenide solar arrays to the right Salyut array (right as viewed from the rear). An identical pair of the arrays had been added to the center Salyut array by the Soyuz T-9 crew. This second pair of solar panels reportedly added 1200 Watts of power (at 20 Amps) to the Salyut power system. The EVA lasted 3.1 hours and was not related the the engine system work previously performed. This time after the crew installed the first array, Atkov rotated the main solar array 180 degrees so the crew could install the other without moving themselves and their equipment. The handle of the winch used to raise the solar arrays broke off during the EVA, but the work was completed. Solovyev then connected the new arrays to the Salyut power system by way of the connectors built into Salyut 7 before its launch more than two years earlier. The cosmonauts carefully threw the empty array containers into space to dispose of them. They cut off a piece of the left main Salyut solar array for return to Earth and analysis. They also installed a small new antenna on the Salyut for an unspecified purpose..

Progress 22

Launched : May 28, 1984, 6:13 P.M.
Reentry : July 15, 1984
Altitude : 188 * 244 km. @ 51.6°

Progress 22 maneuvered to an initial orbit at 188 * 244 km. after separating from the third stage in a orbit of 179 * 209 km.. The transfer orbit was 290 * 331 km. and the cargo ship docked with the Salyut station at 7:47 P.M., May 30, at 334 * 358 km.. The flight delivered propellant, food, mail, 45 kg. film, 40 kg. medical equipment, 25 kg. instruments, new storage batteries for the station, and supplies including air that would be needed for future EVA's.
The Progress was used to boost the station's orbit on June 22, to 365 * 383 km.., then it lowered the orbit to 307 * 354 km. on June 11, to adjust the time for the next launch. The Progress again raised the orbit on June 14, to 334 * 358 km.. Progress 22 undocked on July 15, at 5:36 P.M.. The Progress carried out a clean separation which only used the springs in the docking collar to push the spacecraft away from the station. The Soviets theorized that short engine burns normally made to increase the separation rate were harming the Salyut's solar arrays when the rocket exhaust hit them.

On June 2, after loading the MKF-6M camera with new film cassettes delivered by Progress 22, the cosmonauts began a new series of Earth resources observations centered on the oceans of the world. The cosmonauts reported that they could in some cases see mountains underwater. The usual land observations were continued and the crew also began astrophysical experiments. The oceanographic studies also reportedly included experiments aimed at tracking ballistic missile submarines using a side looking radar. The control target was a Soviet Delta type submarine in the western Pacific. Radar results from U.S. shuttle flight STS-41G showed that sub-surface waves could be detected.
On June 8, the cosmonauts carried out the usual medical examinations and continued Earth resources work. During some of the photographic sessions, the cosmonauts used the Niva video cameras along with the traditional film cameras. Their training had included many aircraft flights simulating conditions and apparatus they would be using on the Salyut. The crew had taken around 1800 photos using the MKF-6M, and about 500 with the KATE-140. They also conducted a practice evacuation of the station and performed medical tests using the Chibis suit. On June 21, the station was in orbit at 328 * 365 km.. By June 29, the crew had made measurements of the atmosphere around the space station and refuelled the Salyut with oxidizer from Progress 22.

Sub-Orbital Kosmolyot

Launched : July 4, 1983
Landed : July 4, 1983
Altitude :

Nothing more is known about this flight except that it was of the same type spacecraft as Kosmos 1374. The miniature space plane was launched from Kapustin Yar by the C-1 booster into a sub-orbital flight path. Aviation Week magazine reported that many other sub-orbital flights in this series have apparently been flown, but the information is not publicly known.

By July 6, the Salyut's propellant tanks had been refuelled. By July 13, the Progress was completely unloaded and trash loaded for disposal when the spacecraft burned up on reentry. After the undocking of the Progress, the Salyut maneuvered to adjust the stations orbit to 318 * 358 km..

Soyuz T-12 First female spacewalk

Launched : July 17, 1984, 9:41 P.M.
Landed : July 29, 1984, 4:55 P.M.
Altitude : 198 * 225 km. @ 51.6°
Crew : Vladimir Dzhanibekov & Svetlana Savitskaya & Igor Volk
Backup : Vladimir Vasyutin & Yekaterina Ivanova & Viktor Savinykh
Call sign : Pamir

The Soyuz separated from its booster upper stage and raised its orbit to an initial 198 * 225 km.. The Soyuz then entered a transfer orbit to Salyut 7 at 271 * 304 km.. The Soyuz T-12 docked at 11:17 P.M., July 18, at an orbit of 333 * 356 km.. The T-12 for the first time used a new communication channel which transmitted docking information to the Salyut during the approach. This information was previously only available to flight controllers. This was the first time a Soyuz with three people could reach the Salyut's operational altitude. This suggested modifications to the launch vehicle slightly increasing payload capability. After the usual three hour check of the docking system and shutting down the Soyuz, the crew opened the hatch and entered the Salyut.
While Savitskaya's mission on the flight gained most of the attention at the time, Cosmonaut Volk was later announced as the cosmonaut in charge of shuttle flight testing in 1987. His program of research for the flight was somewhat different then usual. He exercised very little and took medical preparations to reduce the effects of adaptation to weightlessness. After landing, his flying skills were also be tested. All these activities were investigations into how well cosmonauts could fly a space shuttle after a period of weightlessness in orbit. This was not clear at the time of the flight, but the description of his purpose on the mission was identical to that of the future Soyuz TM-4 mission of Soviet shuttle test pilot Levchenko.
Savitskaya's mission was to perform an EVA as a propaganda stunt that gave the Soviets another space first (NASA astronaut Kathy Sullivan would perform satellite refueling tests, during an EVA on STS 41-G, in November 1984). Again as on the soyuz T-7 mission, Savitskaya was given exclusive use of a Soyuz spacecraft for privacy. The six people on board the Salyut complained that they were overcrowded and that some activities were not possible, like using the exercise equipment, because it would disturb the others.
Savitskaya's EVA began at 6:55 P.M., July 25. At first, Dzhanibekov stayed in the airlock and filmed Savitskaya, while she worked nearby outside the station. After placing a work station with foot restraints on the outer hull, she tested the URI multipurpose electron beam tool to cut and weld 0.5 mm titanium and stainless steel, with solder of tin and lead, and sprayed a silver coating on aluminum. The URI evolved from the Isparitel and Isparitel-M experiments and was tested during weightlessness training flights. The URI was comprised of a portable 0.5 meter square mother unit weighing 30 kg., carried by the cosmonaut or attached to hand rails. It was connected by a cable to a hand welder weighing 1.5 kg., that looked like a double barrel flare pistol. One barrel was used for welding or cutting and the other for spraying. The crucible of material to be sprayed was placed in the beam. When it was vaporized by the beam, it resolidified on the nearby surfaces. The welder had four folding sample holders that each held six samples for experiments. The temperature of objects could also be monitored by a non-contact infrared thermometer that looked like a pistol. The welder was tested on two stainless steel and four titanium samples.
After Savitskaya completed her work, the cosmonauts switched places and Dzhanibekov tested the device. The EVA was observed on television by mission control. Before returning to the station, they removed the Ekspozitsiya materials experiment from the Medusa fixture on the station's hull for return to Earth. After 3.5 hours they returned to the station and removed the URI samples from the URI for study on Earth.
It was later revealed that Savitskaya and Dzhanibekov were to perform the last repair tasks on the Salyut propulsion unit, giving Savitakaya's credit for saving Salyut 7 in addition to being the first female EVA, but the long duration crew demanded that they have the honor of finishing the work they had begun. So the T-12 crew briefed the long duration crew on the procedures and specially designed tools they would use to complete the repairs of the Salyut. They used video tapes of simulations to help illustrate the procedures.
From July 19 to the 26th, several Electrotopograph experiments were performed in the scientific airlock using new film delivered by the Soyuz T-12. This required the airlock to be vented to space for up to 40 hours at a time and exposing it to full sunlight. The Kizim was credited with greatly shortened the planned cooling period by putting the station's airlock into shadow from six hours to only minutes. Among the other experiments carried out during the joint flight were more Braslet tests, the French Tsitos-3, and and experiment in which the cosmonauts mixed various substances like mortar in weightlessness which could be used to plug gas and oil wells on Earth with less leakage. Tavriya was an electrophoresis device to test the separation of biological substances into four parts. Its main chamber was 90 centimeters long with 230 needles to draw off the different layers of material. The results were expected to be 15 to 20 times purer than obtainable on Earth. Among the preparations processed were an antifluenza vaccine and antibiotics for agricultural use. Sixty samples were obtained with the unit during the short flight. The EFO-1 photometer was also used in upper atmospheric research. The Astra-1 camera was used to measure the gasses and particles emitted by and surrounding the station. Resonance experiments were conducted and samples of the stations air were taken for routine analysis on Earth..
On July 28, the crew started packing the experiment results and tested the Soyuz T-11 main engine for the return to Earth the next day. Before undocking on July 29, the Soyuz T-11 was used to boost the station's orbit to 342 * 372 km.. They landed on July 29, at 4:55 P.M., 140 km. southeast of Dzhezkazgan. Volk performed tests of his flying skills after landing as a part of the Soviet shuttle research program. The crew returned to Star City on Aug. 7.
Soon after the flight, at the IAF Congress, Savitskaya said that she was qualified to fly the Soyuz T. After the mission, Savitskaya said that ten women were currently in cosmonaut training at Star City. Shatalov also said that more women would be on the third generation stations, possibly as medical or meteorologist specialists. He added that men will still probably do the heavy work like unloading transports. There were also reports that Rukavishnikov said that an all female crew was in training.

On July 30, the Salyut crew were given a day off and they had communications sessions with their families. The Salyut was in orbit at 343 * 387 km. at the time.
On Aug. 8, Kizim and Solovyev went EVA at 12:46 P.M., for five hours to finish the engine repairs by closing off the bypassed propellant line by crushing the pipe at both ends of the rupture with the special tool delivered by the T-12 crew. The tool was a hand pneumatic press, with a compressed air source at 250 atmospheres, that exerted a force of five tons. They also cut out a 20 cm. square piece from the main solar arrays of the station for return to and examination on Earth. The tool they used to do this enabled them to cut and place the sample in a holder without touching its surface and contaminating it. Recovery in this pristine condition would allow researchers to determine how much dust and other particles were on the surface. Solar cells also degrade when exposed to ultraviolet light and micrometeors chip the surface decreasing light reception. The engine system repairs to Salyut 7 turned out to be the worst case envisioned by flight planners. Feoktistov himself thought that only four EVA's would be necessary. The total EVA time required for the repairs was 22.8 hours.

Progress 23

Launched : Aug. 14, 1984, 10:28 A.M.
Reentry : Aug. 29, 1984
Altitude : 186 * 250 km. @ 51.6°

The Progress separated from the booster's third stage, it in an orbit at 179 * 224 km.. The spacecraft then maneuvered into a transfer orbit of 292 * 362 km.. It the docked at 12:11 P.M., Aug. 16, at 341 * 369 km. and boosted the station's orbit to 351 * 387 km.. The flight delivered Siren and RS-17 X-ray telescope equipment, propellant, food, mail, air regenerators, materials, equipment, water and air to replenish that which was lost in the airlock during EVA's.
By Aug. 20 the Salyut had been refuelled with oxidizer. The crew completed maintenance work and propellant transfer on Aug. 21. Before undocking, the Progress boosted the station's orbit to 373 * 375 km.. Progress 23 undocked at 8:13 P.M., Aug. 26, and retrofire was at 5:28 A.M., Aug. 28.

After the Progress docked with the station, the repaired Salyut engine system was reactivated and functioned normally. Medical checks were made on Aug. 20 including using the Echograph ultrasound device and cardiovascular monitors. On Aug. 24 the crew carried out experiments using the Genom electrophoresis unit to separate a DNA solution into different parts. The experiment was filmed using ultraviolet light. Seven hundred samples were taken in all during this experiment. The cosmonauts also continued filling the Progress 23 with used equipment in preparations for undocking and performed more medical tests.
When the Progress undocked on Aug. 26, it uncovered the aft hatch which was then opened by remote control by the cosmonauts. The Soviet/French Siren X-ray telescope had been installed in the intermediate compartment and was able to make observations through the opened hatch as the Salyut was pointed using attitude control thrusters. On August 27, the crew continued medical checks and used the Chibis vacuum suit to stress their cardiovascular systems.
On Aug. 28 and 29, the crew participated in a Earth resources research program which was a cooperative effort of the USSR and some Soviet block countries. Photos were taken by the Salyut crew, Mi-8, AN-30, and AN-2 aircraft, and the Kosmos 1500 satellite. Research ships also took ground measurements during the comprehensive program, which was similar to international mission efforts. The cosmonauts also observed the Iran-Irac war, reportedly seeing explosions caused by bombs or missiles. They observed ships attacked and reported watching one ship burning for nearly the entire mission.
In the first week of September, the Siren telescope was used to take spectrographs of the Crab Nebula and objects in Cygnus. The RS-17 telescope made similar measurements but was designed to receive high energy X-rays from 2000-800,000 electron Volts. The telescopes were installed in the intermediate compartment and the rear docking hatch was opened during observations. The data was recorded on magnetic tape. By the end of the mission the next month, the crew had performed 46 sessions operating the two telescopes.
On Sept. 22, the crew used an infra red radiometer to remotely measure temperature at various parts of the space station. Medical examinations continued at a frequent rate in preperations for return to Earth. The Chibis suit was used and the cosmonauts cardiovascular systems were measured by various apparatus and blood samples were taken. The blood samples were spun in a centrifuge to seperate the blood components for storage and later return to Earth. By Sept. 27, the crew were using the Chibis often to help recondition their bodies for normal gravity, in addition to the normal two hours of exercise. Pressure in the Chibis suit was lowered to 45 mm. Hg. below station atmospheric pressure which was not quite as low as Skylab astronauts used their negitive pressure device in 1973-74. The usual exercice consisted of running five km. on the treadmill, and peddeling 10 km. on the ergometer.
A Soviet device called Argument was used during the flight to image the make images of the heart similar to the French Echograph ultrasonic cardiovascular monitor. The Soviet device was to be mass produced for use in clinics and by emergency crews. Atkov reported that the supply of vitamines was being used as planned and that the Salyut medical kit had not been used during the flight. The medical kit included drugs for headaches, colds and insomnia as well as treatments for burns, traumas and hemorrhages..,
On Sept. 29, they began loading the Soyuz T-11 with experiment results, including samples of the air in the station for analysis of microflora. During reentry the capsule experienced loads of five to six gravities, higher then the normal three to four. At 1:57 P.M., Oct. 2, the crew landed 145 km. northeast of Dzhezkazgan. They had been in space for a record 237 days but were in good condition. Three hours later they were back in Baykonur and feeling fatigued. The crews tibia volume decreased by 15 percent on average and their weight remained about the same as before the flight. By the third day back on Earth, they were walking outside, but a full recovery took three weeks. It was noted that Atkov was five to six cm. taller than at the start of the mission due to normal expansion of the spin in weightlessness. They had operated 100 experiments during the flight. Thirty different medical studies were performed a total of 200 times by the crew.
Atkov and the Soviets were convinced that their research into calcium loss, in flight, had revealed that loss levels off after a few months. They were disappointed to learn from NASA doctors later at a conference that the Soviet measurement methods were not accurate enough to show any leveling off, if it did occur. Thus, there was still no known way to prevent continued calcium loss in weightlessness.

Kosmos 1614

Launched : Dec. 19, 1984, 6:53 A.M.
Landed : Dec. 19, 1984, 8:28 A.M.
Altitude : 173 * 223 km @ 50.7°

This was the last orbital flight of the series begun by Kosmos 1374. Again, the spacecraft landed in the Black Sea after one orbit. Five other suborbital flights not listed in this book have been reported by Aviation Week magazine but no further information is available.

On December 19, 1984, a statement was issued that all was well on Salyut 7 with orbital parameters at 366 * 387 km.. On Dec. 30, the orbit was 365 * 370 km., and the next day Radio Moscow stated that manned missions to the station would continue. The Soviets intended to launch the next mission, Soyuz T-13 with the crew of Vasyutin & Savinykh & Volkov to further extend the limits of manned flight to ten months. The crew would have performed EVA's to test a beam device as well.
The crew would also have been visited by the Syrian Intercosmonaut crew which started training in 1985, and an all female crew consisting of Svetlana Savitskaya, Yekaterina Ivanova and Yelena Dobrokvashina. The female crew did not get the chance to fly to Salyut 7 after the long duration crew returned prematurely. After that, international mission agreements with France, Afghanistan and Bulgaria pushed back the all female mission until it was indefinitely postponed. Even in 1987, there were still reports of up to ten women cosmonauts training at Star City. The Soviets lost control of Salyut 7 in the winter of 1984 to 1985, and it drifted for months totally abandoned.
On March 2, the Soviets issued a statement that Salyut 7 had completed its mission. But before the month was out, they decided to try a risky space rescue to repair the station. The repair mission was probably a result of the great success of the U.S. Space Shuttle and the repair of the Solar Maximum satellite. The Soviets objective would be to make Salyut 7 capable of at least making a controlled reentry. A Progress mission to stabilize the Salyut was impossible, since the Salyut must orient itself to the approaching spacecraft for an automatic docking, even when the Progress was controlled from the ground.
The likely cause of the failure was probably determined after receiving periodic weak telemetry signals from the station. At about the same time, in March, it was reported that President Reagan was considering offering a joint repair mission using the Shuttle, but the offer never materialized.

Soyuz T-13 Repair and long duration mission / 169 days

Launched : June 6, 1985, 10:40 A.M.
Reentry : Sept. 26, 1985, 1:52 P.M.
Altitude : 198 * 222 km. @ 51.6°
Crew : Vladimir Dzhanibekov & Viktor Savinykh
Backup : Leonid Popov & Aleksandr Aleksandrov
Call sign : Pamir

The mission to repair Salyut 7 was formed in March 1985. Dzhanibekov was picked for this mission because of his experience with manual rendezvous from the Soyuz T-6 flight and his expertise with the Salyut electrical system from Soyuz 27. Savinykh had been training for the ten month mission that was originally to be launched on Soyuz T-13. He also had experience with the type of condition the station was in after his repair mission to Salyut 6 in March 1981, when a solar array failure lowered station temperatures and caused water condensation in the station.
After the rescue mission was formed, Vasyutin and A. Volkov, the rest of the original crew, continued to train for an EVA to erect a beam experiment with Grechko standing in for Savinykh, who was by then in orbit. All of the cosmonauts would eventually meet on Salyut 7 and reform the original Soyuz T-13 crew, with Dzhanibekov and Grechko as extras.On June 7, Shatalov said that the crew would conduct work "required by regulations which will undoubtedly need to be done after... long use of the station." More simply they would do a lot of work to make the station habitable again.
Soyuz T-13 used a special two day rendezvous that saved propellant and simplified approach and docking to the dead station. The transfer orbit to Salyut 7 was 298 * 334 km.. The Soyuz main engine was fired to match orbits with the space station at two and again at one hour before docking. The Soyuz automatically approached the Salyut in a 356 * 358 km. orbit.
The cosmonauts discovered the Salyut was in a slow roll (no more than 0.3 degrees/second) and the Salyut's solar arrays pointed randomly. They transmitted television pictures of the station to mission control, and Flight Director Ryumin said they were alarming, but they had expected the station would be in that condition. Dzhanibekov also noted that the once green insulation blankets that covered Salyut 7's transfer compartment and its adapter section had turned gray during the stations years in orbit and exposure to the elements. Tracking ships, including the Cosmonaut Patsayev, were deployed in the Atlantic, off West Africa, in the Pacific and in the Mediterranean.
At 10 km. distance, Dzhanibekov stopped the approach to provide the docking computer with information about the stations attitude. At the time, the Salyut was turned with its side toward the approaching Soyuz. Normally the station would automatically point toward the Soyuz. The Soyuz automatically continued the approach to three km. distance, at a rate of twelve, and later six meters/sec. when Dzhanibekov took control. The crew had trained for approaches from as far as 30 km. out. The distance depended on the accuracy of the booster. While making the final approach for docking, Dzhanibekov used specially installed control sticks near the right port hole of the Soyuz capsule..
At two km., the crew used a new optical guidance system, hand held laser range finder and a night vision instrument, to see and measure distance to the station. While Dzhanibekov flew the Soyuz he instructed Savinykh on what data to enter into the computer. Savinykh then reported to Dzhanibekov the results so he could make the necessary maneuvers. Because of this duties the other cosmonauts had named Savinykh the human computer.At 200 meters from the station, Dzhanibekov stopped for ten minutes because the sun was behind the station making visibility of the docking port poor. While Dzhanibekov waited for more favorable lighting conditions, he then circled the station, inspecting it for any unexpected damage. After that, Dzhanibekov again lined up with the stations forward docking port, and in a roll matching the station, performed a normal docking at 12:50 A.M., June 8, at 356 * 375 km., five minutes after sunset.
The crews first task was to confirm the lack of power on the Salyut docking collar connections. They took great caution opening the pressure equalization valve to take a sample of the station's air. It was possible that an electrical fire in the Salyut would have left a poisonous atmosphere in the station (similar precautions were taken by the Skylab 2 crew in 1973, before entering the crippled Skylab space station). Even though the air tested as good, the cosmonauts wore respirators as they opened the hatch. They later described the station as dark, completely silent and very cold. Metallic surfaces were covered with frost, the air was stagnant, and there were icicles everywhere. A U.S. source reported that one of the cosmonauts was coughing often during the initial work. ,
The temperature in the Salyut was estimated at -10° C. The stations thermometers only went down to 0° C, so one of the cosmonauts spit on the wall and timed how long it took to freeze. Mission control used this unusual data to estimate the temperature. At first they worked in arctic coats and gloves with oxygen masks and flashlights. The cosmonauts took off the stations port hole covers, which are always installed in between manned missions, so they could work during the daylight passes, for around 40 minutes of each orbit, before returning to the warm Soyuz to report on progress to Deputy Flight Director Solovyev.
They said that their feet got painfully cold, and after working without any ventilation they got head aches, felt sleepy and limp from the carbon dioxide build-up. Air pressure in the station had fallen to 714 mm. Hg. because of the cold, but it was not dangerously low. Mission Control had instructed the crew that only one cosmonaut should enter the station at a time, presumably so that if one of the crew were overcome by carbon dioxide the other could retrieve him.
They found all eight main space station batteries dead and two of these were ruined. They were prepared to end the mission if all the batteries were unusable and develop a way to deliver more of the heavy batteries on another Soyuz. They next set up a pipe from the Soyuz ventilation system to one of the Salyut air regenerators to provide some protection from carbon dioxide build up (otherwise, levels would be dangerous within 24 hours). The objective of the mission at this point was to repair the station so it could at least be safely deorbited.
On June 9, Dzhanibekov, an expert on the Salyut electrical system, determined that the sensor which switches the solar array power between the batteries and the station's power bus had failed, so that the batteries were not recharged. Another automatic system turned on the recharging system every orbit but the faulty sensor kept shutting it off. When the batteries ran down, the power to the station dropped below the minimum needed. Occasionally, the solar arrays were able to charge the batteries, while also powering the systems left on by the last crew, enough for the radios to send the weak telemetry signals, which were received by mission control. This would probably have been during a continuous sunlight period in early 1985. Normally this failure would have been noticed by mission control and the problem averted, but a faulty telemetry radio did not report the sensor failure.
To restore power to the Salyut, Dzhanibekov cut the cables to the solar arrays and Salyut electrical busses, to bypass the control relays. Then he connected the combined arrays to each battery one at a time using scavenged wire from other station equipment. While charging the first battery, the Soyuz was used to orientate the Salyut's solar arrays for maximum sunlight. After a few hours, the first one was fully charged to 28.6 volts and the telemetry system was turned on. The rest of the batteries were recharged in the same way. A new sensor control unit was installed and the solar arrays and batteries were then reconnected normally. After a 24 hour work day, the crew retired to the Soyuz.,
The next day, the Salyut's lights and air heaters were turned on. Normally, the electric heaters were used only when the station was unmanned to keep temperature within normal limits for the stations equipment. A crew normally dissipates enough heat in the well insulated Salyut to maintain a comfortable temperature. Main heaters in the walls were not activated until the water covering the interior evaporated. As the station warmed, humidity levels soon reached 90 percent. The crew found a number of valves in the environmental control system were damaged by freezing water and needed to be replaced. They made a list of equipment to be delivered by the next Progress. At this time, they were still sleeping in the Soyuz orbital module and wore overalls, gloves and down hats, but they complained that their feet froze in their flight boots.
On June 11, they had their first hot meal since the launch. The station was in orbit at 356 * 375 km.. On June 13, the station's attitude control system was reactivated and successfully tested. There was rejoicing in mission control since this would allow the badly needed Progress mission to dock. The solar array pointing system was reactivated and damaged electronics units were replaced.
By June 16, the the stations temperature finally increased to above freezing, allowing water recovery by the environmental control system. They could not increase the temperature too fast or they would be inundated by water from all the ice. The environmental control system, water recovery system, air filters and food warmers were activated at this time. The crew had been using water from the Soyuz which had supplies for eight days, and water that was found frozen in portable Salyut containers. The combined water supply would have run out about June 22, and Dzhanibekov later said that they were prepared to drain coolant water out of their pressure suits to drink if necessary. The Salyut's water tanks had also begun to thaw by this time, supplying the crew with 200 liters in one tank, and almost 200 in the other water tank which the cosmonauts were warming by turning that side of the Salyut into the sun often. But, they had no hot water since the water heater had frozen and broken. To warm milk they instead used a powerful and hot television light. The main heating panels were activated, but the crew turned them off because they had become used to 16° C (58° F).
After completing the initial repair work, Dzhanibekov said that there were still some doubts about Salyut 7's reliability. The Soviets officially blamed the loss of the station on faulty radio equipment on the Salyut and the crew replaced the radio command unit. By June 19, the crew was participating in the Kursk-85 Earth observation exercise which combined Salyut, Meteor Priroda and Kosmos Radar satellites and ground observations by Priroda and cosmonauts Kovalenok and Farkas of Hungary.

Progress 24

Launched : June 21, 1985, 4:40 P.M.
Reentry : July 15, 1985
Altitude : 185 * 237 km. @ 51.6°

Progress 24 used transfer orbits of 193 * 270 km., 209 * 409 km., and 350 * 409 km. to reach Salyut 7. It docked on June 23, at 6:54 P.M., at 355 * 358 km.. The Progress refuelled the thawed Salyut propulsion system and delivered other supplies needed to repair systems in the station to allow automatic operations to resume.
The flight also delivered new type Salyut space suits (the old ones were not usable after being frozen), a new water heater, mail, food, 280 kg. of water, three new batteries, two add-on solar arrays, oxygen, linen, warm shoes, toiletries, 40 kg. replacement parts, 30 kg. of film, 30 kg. of medical equipment, video tapes and photos of family and medical supplies. The supplies weight totaled 2000 kg.. By July 9, the Progress with being filled with trash and useless equipment for disposal during its reentry. Progress 23 undocked at 4:28 P.M., July 15.

On June 25, the Pamir's installed the new water heater. On June 27, the crew performed medical checks and on the 29th, they tested the television cameras in the station. By July 2, the water tanks were refilled from the Progress. The crew also finished a series of experiments with the Astra-1 mass spectrometer studying the atmosphere around the space station. By July 5, three new batteries were installed, repairs to the water recovery system were completed, the stations air was replenished, and refueling was begun.
On the night of July 7, Savinykh woke up with very irritated eyes, soon remembering that he must have looked out the unfiltered porthole too long that day. Fortunately he soon recovered from the mild ultraviolet burn. By July 9, the crew were filling the Progress with trash and useless equipment, the station was being refuelled, and the crew began a series of Earth resources photography sessions. On July 10, they replaced eight ventilation fans and inventoried equipment on the station.

Kosmos 1669 First use of Platform

Launched : July 19, 1985, 7:05 P.M.
Reentry : Aug. 30, 1985
Altitude : 188 * 246 km. @ 51.6°

The Kosmos 1669 Platform was the first flight of a free-flyer that could dock periodically to a station and be serviced and replenished by cosmonauts. The main purpose or the platform was to fly free of disturbances caused by the space station's crew. The Platform was reportedly a modified Progress transport with solar arrays to provide power and extended duration flight when in free flying mode. Apparently this flight only tested some of the guidance and control systems developed for the Platform because the Soviets still referred to the spacecraft as a transport and it performed a standard Progress flight plan. Some confusion was caused when the Soviet media referred to the flight as Progress 25. This was an obvious mistake by the reporter and did not indicate a Kosmos name change for a flight in trouble. This was further confirmed by the release of the transfer orbit data which was not normally released for a Progress mission.
The transfer orbits to Salyut 7 were 234 * 355 km. and 298 * 358 km.. The Platform docked on July 21, at 7:05 P.M., in orbit at 354 * 358 km.. The crew soon began unloading equipment including the Comet and Medusa experiments, the Mariya X-ray noise telescope, two add on solar panels, water, biological samples and propellant. By Aug. 27, the crew began filling Kosmos 1669 with trash and the transfer of propellant and water to the Salyut's tanks was being completed. Kosmos 1669 boosted the station's orbit on Aug. 29, before undocking at 1:50 A.M.. It then made another approach and docked testing its systems much like Progress 1 did during its flight. The platform was not used in its free flying mode during this flight. It deorbited and made a destructive reentry like a standard Progress flight.

On July 29, the Salyut crew performed medicals and continued the Kursk-85, Svetobloc-T and Rost experiments. August 1, was officially a day of rest for the cosmonauts, but they spent the time preparing for the next days EVA.
On Aug. 2, the cosmonauts performed a five hour EVA starting at 11:15 A.M., to place the French Comet experiment on the exterior of the Salyut, and to install the last pair of gallium arsenide solar panels to the left Salyut array. They also installed a small prototype solar battery to the array. They waited for 20 minutes to come into communication range before beginning work. To install the pair of arrays, they first attached one and then had the Salyut array rotated 180 degrees by ground controllers to attach the next. All the Salyut arrays now had two add-on arrays installed. The add-on arrays were all gallium arsenide and measured 4.5 by 1.2 meters. The Comet experiment was used primarily to gather dust from comet Giacobini-Zinner. The experiment had several chambers which could be opened and closed by the cosmonauts from inside the Salyut. They also installed Medusa materials experiment cartridges on the stations hull. ,
The EVA also tested the new semi-rigid space suits delivered by Kosmos 1669. The suits had new shoulder joints which expanded the reach envelope, better peripheral vision, better monitoring systems and illuminated controls. The suits had lights on the helmets and arms. The commanders suit has red stripes and the engineer's has blue stripes. Despite the new joints, the cosmonauts complained of uncomfortable pinching of their arms and their fingers tingled for two days after the EVA. The Soviets claim that to suit-up and pre-breathing required only 20 minutes. Also at this time, the humidity in the Salyut began to reach normal levels after very high conditions during the repair operations.,
Experiments conducted by the crew in the first weeks of August included growing flax in the Magnetogravistat, photographic studies with the KATE-140 and MKF-6M, biological processing with the Svetobloc-T and operation of the Mariya X-ray noise telescope. On Aug. 16, the crew made observations of atmospheric pollution over industrial areas. They also took photographs of agricultural land simultaneously with aircraft to provide a more detailed study of its condition. By Aug. 18, the crew had taken around 2000 photos with the MKF-6M and 600 with the KATE 140. On Aug. 20, the crew tested the performance of the Salyut solar panels and the additional panels by varying the angle of sunlight hitting them.
Kosmos 1669's attitude control system was used in a test to control the stations attitude but the results was said to be disappointing. By Aug. 27, the crew began filling Kosmos 1669 with trash and the transfer of propellant and water to the Salyut's tanks was being completed. Kosmos 1669 boosted the station's orbit on Aug. 29, before undocking at 1:50 A.M.. It then made another approach and docked testing its systems much like the first Progress flight.
On Sept. 3, the crew exposed test materials to vacuum in the scientific airlock and observed them with the Electrotopograph process. The cosmonauts also performed the Biryuza and Analiz crystal growth experiments, took atmospheric measurements with the Astra-1 spectrograph, and did another Electrotopograph experiment over the next week. They began tests on Sept. 14, of their cardiovascular systems using the Chibis suits and observed growth of cotton in the Oasis.

Soyuz T-14 First partial crew exchange / 56 (216) days

Launched : Sept. 17, 1985, 4:39 P.M.
Landed : Nov. 21, 1985, 1:31 P.M.
Altitude : 196 * 223 km. @ 51.6°
Crew : Vladimir Vasyutin & Georgiy Grechko & Aleksandr Volkov
Backup : Aleksandr Victorenko & Gennadiy Strekalov & Yevgeny Saley
Call sign : Cheget

The crew of Vasyutin & Savinykh & Volkov started training in September, 1984, and were scheduled to launch in March 1985, when the Salyut failure occurred in October 1984. When the Soviets launched the Soyuz T-13 repair mission, they had removed Vasyutin & Volkov from the planned crew, and teamed Dzhanibekov with Savinykh for the repairs and check out of the Salyut. The T-14 flight then brought the others from the original crew (Vasyutin & Volkov) to the station, in exchange for Dzhanibekov to reform the original crew.
The Soyuz T-14 was launched into clear skies and after separating from the booster's upper stage it maneuvered into an initial orbit at 196 * 223 km.. The transfer orbit to Salyut 7 was 272 * 326 km. and the T-14 docked at 6:15 P.M., Sept. 18, at an altitude of 338 * 353 km.. The T-14 c