Jun 11 1981
From The Space Library
The Soviet Union's space program must develop a low-cost transport vehicle like the U.S. Space Shuttle, according to Konstantin P. Feoktistov, one of the three cosmonauts who orbited the Earth six times in Vostok 1 in 1964. Feoktistov, now a professor of technical sciences doing research for the Soviet space program, did not specifically mention the successful flight of Columbia in April but called for solution of technological problems in space travel such as cheap lightweight batteries. The New York Times quoted from Pravda, the official Communist Party newspaper, the first official acknowledgment by the Soviet Union that it would like to have a shuttle-like vehicle for manned space flights.
Tass said June 19 that Cosmos 1267 had docked with the empty Salyut 6 with the mission of testing systems "of the design of future spacecraft and for training in the methods of assembly of orbital complexes of a big size and weight." The Washington Post said that the linkup was "the precursor of a very large space complex that U.S. sources expect to have military uses." (NY Times, June 11 81, A-18; W Post, June 20/81, A-9; FBIS, Tass in English, June 91/81)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
