March 1979

From The Space Library

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Current revision

FBIS carried regular reports on the progress of the Soyuz 32 cosmonauts aboard the Salyut 6 orbiting space station. Upon arrival February 26, the crew had begun reactivating the thermal regulators, water regeneration system, and ventilation. On March 1, they had begun checkout of individual consoles and scientific instruments, tested the manual attitude control system, and corrected the flight path of Salyut 6 using Soyuz 32 propulsion.

The following day the crew did baseline medical checkups using Polynom apparatus; the flight engineer was tested in the morning, and the commander was tested in the afternoon. In an interview March 4, the crew's doctor reported that Lyakhov had needed 1.5 days to adapt to weightlessness but was now feeling well. The crew had asked to begin their exercise program on trainer machines and cycles several days ahead of schedule. Lyakhov's regime emphasized his "vestibular system"; Ryumin's, the cardiovascular. On March 5, Tass, the Soviet news agency, said that the doctors were keeping close watch on Commander Lyakhov, "a thick-set man ... on his first flight in outer space." The commentator said "unhasty adaptation" was important during the first few days on the space station, which imposed three peak loads at one time: adaptation to weightlessness, complicated docking and transfer procedures, and emotional strain. More time had been allowed on this flight than usual for the crew to check all the station systems, both those governing flight and those controlling living conditions (the "boost week," a term used by cosmonaut Vladimir Kovalenok, one of the communications team keeping in touch with the Soyuz 32 crew).

A March 6 broadcast interview with a "scientific employee at the Flight Center" on repair and servicing of the Salyut said that the intensive activity "did not mean that anything is broken or needs mending." On Salyut 6, unlike its predecessors, individual items of equipment for the first time could be exchanged when their resources were exhausted. The station had been in orbit for 18 months and carried almost 1,000 different instruments, the reporter said. Important systems, such as life support, had been designed to be practically failure proof by using interchangeable units within easy reach, facilitating periodic exchange of equipment. Introduction of the Progress automated cargo ships meant that new instruments, equipment, and tools were available upon crew request. Progress 2 had brought the Soyuz 29 crew a globe indicator for the control panel to show the station's location in relation to Earth; it had also brought new computer units for the Delta automated navigation system.

The first job in reactivating the Salyut 6 station had been to check out the docking unit on the transfer module, with its opening into outer space; the Soyuz 26 crew had done this last year. Lyakhov and Ryumin would have to test each on-board system and plug in reserve circuits or replace units. The reporter pointed out that, notwithstanding the long use of the station, "not one reserve circuit in any system has so far been switched on." The current crew would replace ventilators in the thermal system, light bulbs, cables in the television and communications systems, components of the exercise equipment, and filters and regenerators in the life-support systems.

On March 12, Progress S was launched with a load of fuel for the Salyut 6 propulsion unit and materials for its on-board systems. A commentator said that portable cables and other mobile elements of radiocommunication "wear out heavily" on long flights; the crew had replaced headsets, cables, and switches. They had also set up and operated an on-board videotape recorder and a video monitoring device. An interview March 13 with cosmonaut Vladimir Aksenov said that the Salyut represented a new stage of technology, not only because it could be supplied but also because it could be overhauled in space with components and assemblies flown there by freight and crew transport vessels. Aksenov noted that the crew had used an ordinary soldering iron, said to be an enormous departure for repairs in a closed weightless space. Also, he said, basic scientific apparatus had heretofore been assembled in a ground workshop and checked out in a ground station; for the first time, the installation and test of new apparatus would take place on an operating space station in orbit. This was made possible by a wide selection of tools designed especially for use in space: pliers, screwdrivers., clamps, and special instruments to handle special nuts and bolts.

Upon the arrival March 14 of the Progress 5, bringing fuel, equipment; experiment materials, and mail, the crew's doctor said in an interview that previous flights had indicated that weightlessness had some tricky aspects and that the consequences of exposure to it could be very serious. The current crew were apparently beginning to feel at home in the new surroundings, however. After unloading the ferry, the crew had the job of dismantling the Kristall electric furnace used for more than 40 experiments in space processing of materials and installing new apparatus better designed to operate in weightlessness; they had also plugged in a new chemical battery to reinvigorate the power system. By March 21, the unloading of the supply ship was completed, and the crew was ahead of schedule using the new equipment, especially a color television camera to show the interior of the station with equipment replacements including new sensors installed in the work area to detect minimal air pollution in the station's atmosphere. On March 24, the crew communicated by television with the flight control center "in the direction from earth to the spaceship... for the first time in the history of space flight." The control center could now transmit drawings, plans, and working documents from the ground to the Salyut; "in principle," said the report, "any central TV transmission can be sent to the spaceship." By month's end, Tass said that the crew had adapted to weightlessness and were proceeding with scheduled tasks. (FBIS, Tass in English, Mar 1-28/79)

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