Dec 26 1974
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26 December-9 February 1975: The U.S.S.R. launched Salyut 4 space station into earth orbit and 16 days later launched Soyuz 17 with a two-man crew to join the Salyut and establish a manned orbital laboratory.
Salyut 4 was launched 26 Dec. from Baykonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam into orbit with a 252-km apogee, 214-km perigee, 89.2-min period, and 51.6° inclination. Tass announced the purpose of the mission was to test the design, onboard systems, and equipment and to conduct scientific studies and experiments in space. The news agency also re-ported that onboard systems and equipment were operating normally.
The Western press reported that major maneuvers 29 and 30 Dec. put the station at a record high altitude for a Salyut space station, reaching an orbit with a 350-km apogee and 337-km perigee by 31 Dec.
Soyuz 17, launched at 2:43 am 11 Jan. 1975 local time (4:43 pm EST 10 Jan.) from Baykonur Cosmodrome, carried cosmonauts Lt. Col. Aleksey A. Gubarev and Georgy M. Grechko into orbit with a 249-km apogee, 186-km perigee, 88.9-min period, and 51.6° inclination. Tass announced the mission would carry out joint experiments with Salyut 4, including a comprehensive checkup of the spacecraft's onboard systems in various flight conditions. In a launch-day interview with Tass, Maj. Gen. Georgy T. Beregovoy, head of the Soviet cosmonaut training cen-ter, said that Soyuz 17 was in "no way connected with additional checkups of 'Soyuz' systems before its rendezvous with Apollo.' "
An orbital correction raised the spacecraft to an orbit with a 354-km apogee, 293-km perigee, 90.7-min period, and 51.6° inclination, permitting Soyuz 17 to dock with Salyut 4 on 12 Jan. The spacecraft was moved automatically to a distance of 10 m from the station and then the cosmonauts completed docking by manual control. The crew entered the space station, switched on the power and radio transmitters, and inspected the scientific equipment.
In a 14 Jan. interview with Tass, Dr. Konstantin P. Feoktistov, cosmonaut who had helped design the space station, said that Salyut 4 improvements included three panels of solar batteries that were positioned like the tail of an aircraft and could be individually oriented toward the sun. The panels permitted the energy supply in the station to be replenished without using fuel for spacecraft orientation. Other improvements had been introduced in the flight control systems.
During a broadcast from the spacecraft over Moscow Radio 15 Jan., Gubarev and Grechko said they had set up thc first Soviet space-based teletype communications station. The teletype could receive and copy communications from the earth while the cosmonauts were busy at other tasks. Tass reported 17 Jan. that the cosmonauts, neither of whom had been in space before, had become accustomed to weightlessness about the fifth or sixth day of flight.
During nearly 30 days aboard Salyut 4, Gubarev and Grechko used a newly developed high-resolution solar telescope to study solar phenomena, x-ray telescopes and sensors to study the flux of x-radiation from celestial bodies, and an infrared spectrometer to examine the earth's radiation. The cosmonauts also studied effects of weightlessness on the human vestibular function, cardiovascular system, and blood; made earth resources observations; and studied the earth's upper atmosphere. They resprayed two telescope mirrors dulled by exposure to space; carried out biological "Oasis" experiments using insects, micro-organisms, tissue cultures, and plants; and tried recycling water, con-densed from the cabin atmosphere, for drinking and food preparation.
The crew began preparations for their return to earth 9 Feb., transferring equipment to Soyuz 17. The cosmonauts boarded Soyuz 17 and undocked from the space station at 11:08 am Baykonur time (1:08 am EST). Soyuz 17 softlanded in the U.S.S.R. 110 km northeast of Tselino-grad, Kazakhstan, "in complex meteorological conditions" after 29 days 13 hrs 20 min in space. The Soyuz 17 cosmonauts had broken the previous 23-day 18-hr 22-min Soviet record for time in space set by the Soyuz 11 crew on Salyut 1 (6-30 June 1971) before they were killed during re-entry. On-the-spot and later medical checks showed that the Soyuz 17 cosmonauts had "withstood well the long space flight."
Salyut 4 was the fourth space station orbited by the U.S.S.R. Salyut 1 had been launched 19 April 1971. A three-man crew, launched on Soyuz 10, docked with the station 24 April but returned to earth with-out entering. The Soyuz 11 crew, launched 6 June 1971, boarded the station and conducted scientific experiments for 24 days before their reentry tragedy.
Salyut 2 was launched into orbit 3 April 1973, but an explosion or wildly firing thrusters sent the station out of control, tearing off the solar panels and making the station uninhabitable. Salyut 3 was orbited 25 June 1974 [see 25 Dec.]. (GSFC Wkly SSR, 19-25 Dec 74; GSFC SSR, 31 Dec 74; 28 Feb 75; Tass, FBIS-Sov, 31 Dec 74-13 Feb 75; SF, June 75, 235; April 75, 144-5; O'Toole, IV Post, 31 Dec 74, A7; UPI, NYT, 16 Jan 75, 14; SBD, 14 Jan 75, 62; LC, S&T News Alert 2645)
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