Dec 9 1982
From The Space Library
December 9-15: Tass reported preparations for the end of the record-setting flight in Salyut 7 of cosmonauts Anatoly Berezovoy and Valentin Lebedev, the crew of Soyuz T-7 launched May 13. The crew was stowing in a reentry module a number of containers with flight documentation, biological samples, motion picture and still films, and monocrystals of semiconductor materials. They were also mothballing research equipment and support units on the station.
On December 10 the crew returned to Earth at 10:03 p.m. Moscow time in the preset area 190 kilometers east of Dzhezkazgan "not far from" the space center at Baykonur. Beijing's Xinhua press service said that a special lighthouse equipped with a strong beam was installed at the site to guide helicopters with ground crews to assist the cosmonauts. Difficulties with the landing meant that journalists for the first time were not at the site.
Berezovoy later reported that "Judging from previous crews, who hardly felt the shock of landing, this landing was quite severe and was followed by a few more rolls, apparently because we were on a small incline, and we ended up on our side with one on top of the other-Valentin [Lebedev] was on the (?up-per) couch and I was on the lower. ...We spent about 20 minutes in the descent module while an offroad vehicle was made ready but then spent 5 hours in this vehicle because of poor conditions. It was not bad, it was warm. We changed our clothes for clean and dry ones, replacing spacesuits with flight suits." (Interview recorded for Moscow Dom Svc in Russian, December 13)
Later press reports said that the cosmonauts had "a harrowing reentry" in a craft rolling across a steppe swept by a blizzard and fog. Although initial USSR reports implied all had gone well, the New York Times said that the crew had "anxious moments" when unexpected bad weather landed them in darkness, near-zero temperatures, and blowing snow. One helicopter "force-landed" without injury, and another had to turn back. (NY Times, Dec 14/82, C-2; W Post, Dec 12/82, A-31)
Tass carried reports December 12 of the first meeting with the cosmonauts. Their doctors said that "the cosmonauts feel fine which is somewhat at variance with the real state of their organisms." Good appetites indicated "energetic adaptation to terrestrial conditions. In 24 hours the cosmonauts gained about a kilogram in weight each. They particularly liked a bath with the air temperature of up to 70 °" Berezovoy said afterward "If we could have such a pleasure at the Salyut station I would have worked for more time in orbit." On December 16 Ivan Skiba, chief physician of the space training center, said that the cosmonauts had been "put on a regime approximating their usual lifestyle." He said that the doctors were "naturally worried over the decree to which the additional 26 days spent by [Berezcvoy and Lebedev] in outer space over the 185-day space mission of [Popov and Ryumin] will affect the human organism. These 26 days constituted the "unknown path" both for the cosmonauts and for us physicians. Now we can say with certainty that the [additional] time in space... has not affected the cosmonauts' organisms. Their cardiovascular activity, blood composition, and other characteristics are returning to preflight figures." Skiba recalled that Boris Yegorov, "a representative of the medical profession," was among the first cosmonauts and hoped he would not be the last medical man to fly in space.
Cosmonaut Aleksei A. Leonov told a magazine December 17 Berezovoy and Lebedev had "made an important step in increasing the endurance of weightlessness. . essential for activity in large orbital stations, space plants and factories, and interplanetary missions." When the two returned from the 211-day mission, they "were sunken physically and had become thinner and paler... [wanted] regular human communication with friends. They eat with a good appetite. . . swim every day. . .to have some weightlessness in water and make their life easier. They still find it a bit difficult to be seated as the muscles that make the position comfortable are out of their elementary function." U.S. space officials were watching the cosmonauts' adaptation to gravity after 30 weeks of weightlessness. A television broadcast three days after their return showed them moving unaided to the edge of a whirlpool where they were assisted down a ladder. A commentator noted they were "like infants" and would have to relearn how to walk. The Soviet Union had announced plans for a station orbiting for a year and permanently manned, its crews remaining in space indefinitely to reduce ferrying costs. Soviet experts, like former cosmonaut Konstantin Feoktistov, had talked of manned missions to destinations such as Titan, a satellite of Saturn. (Longest U.S. flight: so far was the 84-day mission flown by Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pogue on Skylab in 1973 and 1W4.)
The Washington Times said that Soviet planners were "seriously divided about what to do next." Valery Ryumin, who spent 175 and then 185 days on Salyut 6 and was now a senior program chief at the space center, talked of grave risks to crew health on long-term missions and said that "four months is about the optimal period" Ignoring reports that Berezovoy and Lebedev were in fine health, Ryumin said that it would take "through medical tests on earth" to show how they had fared. (FBIS, Tass in English, Dec 9-17/82; Beijing Xinhua in English, Dec 11/82; NY Times, Dec 11/82, 12; Dec 14/82, C-2; W Post, Dec 11182, A-23; Dec 12/82, A-31; W Times, Dec 15/82, 8A)
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