Oct 9 1977
From The Space Library
October 9-12: Newspapers reported the launch Oct. 9 of Soyuz 25 carrying two rookie cosmonauts -Vladimir Kovalenok and Valery Ryumin-toward a linkup with new space station Salyut 6 launched Sept. 29. Western observers said Soyuz 25 - first manned Soviet mission since Feb., when Col. Viktor Gorbatko and Lt.Col. Yuri Glazkov had spent 18 days aboard Salyut 5-was probably connected with the Sputnik 1 anniversary and the upcoming 60th anniversary celebration Nov. 7 of the Russian revolution. The observance might include either an attempt at a new record of more than 63 days in orbit or the launch of another space station to link with Salyut 6 and form a huge orbiting laboratory.
Officials had canceled Soyuz 25 only 26hr into the mission because of unspecified trouble, although the craft had come within 130yd of the Salyut 6. The Moscow domestic service in Russian said only that the linkup was called off "due to deviations from the planned procedure for docking." The word that the flight was canceled came after 24hr of silence, which had caused fears for the safety of the crew. Tass said Oct. 12 that the capsule had returned safely, landing in Kazakhstan at 6:25am local time Oct. 11.
U.S. officials speculated that, like Soyuz 15 in Aug. 1974 and Soyuz 23 in Oct. 1976, this mission failed because the cosmonauts had overshot the docking point and could not make another attempt because their battery power allowed insufficient time to correct the navigational error. When a crew last overshot its Salyut, 4mo elapsed before another crew made a docking attempt. (W Star, Oct 10/77, A-1; Oct 11/77, A-6; W Post, Oct 11/77, A-1; Oct 12/77, A-21; FBIS, Tass in English, Oct 9/77, Oct 10/77, Oct 11/77)
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