Sep 30 1973
From The Space Library
Soyuz 12 cosmonauts L/C Vasily G. Lazarev and Oleg G. Makarov arrived in Moscow from Karaganda, following their successful Sept. 27-29 orbital mission. The crew was met at the airport by members of a state commission, specialists from flight control, scientists, engineers, relatives, and friends. Before leaving Karaganda, the cosmonauts had held a press conference, in which they said they had implemented their flight program "in full." Gen. Georgy T. Beregovoy-cosmonaut and chief of the Soviet cosmonaut training center-speaking in Zvezdny Gorodok, said Lazarev and Makarov had displayed "high professional skills," carrying out a comprehensive checkup of improved onboard systems, further development work on manual and automatic control of the ship in different flight modes, and spectrography of areas of the earth's surface. (Moscow Domestic Service, FBIS-Sov, 10/1/73, U3, Tass, U4)
Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford-speaking in Beverly Hills, Calif.-congratulated Soviet Cosmonauts Vasily G. Lazarev and Oleg G. Makarov on the successful completion of their Sept. 27-29 Soyuz 12 mission. Stafford, U.S. crew commander for the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Apollo Soyuz Test Project's planned 1975 space flight, spoke highly of the Soyuz flight and said he was happy that it had ended with success. He noted that many of the new systems that would be used on the 1975 joint flight were tested by Soyuz 12. (Tass, FBIS-Sov, 10/1/73, B8)
A New York Times editorial commented on the successful Sept. 27-29 Soyuz 12 manned mission: "The purpose . . . was not primarily to set new records. Its main goal was to test the latest improved version of the Soyuz spacecraft. . . . Americans as well as Soviet citizens have reason to rejoice. . . . In 1975 present plans call for the historic docking of a Soviet Soyuz craft with a United States Apollo vehicle. Thus Soviet and American astronauts must want each other's space ships to be as safe as possible. And beyond the docking experiment in 1975 lies the prospect of a future fully integrated Soviet-American joint space program." (NYT, 9/30/73, 12)
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
