Mar 19 1972
From The Space Library
Shuttle Program Office, managed by Roy E. Godfrey, was formed at Marshall Space Flight Center. Office would be staffed by Shuttle Task Team until July 1, when team would be abolished and some members assigned permanently to office. (Marshall Star, 5/17/72, 1; MSFC PAO)
New York Times science reporter John Nobel Wilford toured Zvezdny Gorodok (Star City), near Moscow, as first Western correspondent to be invited to center of U.S.S.R. cosmonaut activities. Guide for visit arranged by Soviet Novosti News Agency was Soyuz Cosmonaut Vladimir A. Shatalov, chief of cosmonaut training. Shatalov said U.S.S.R. did not announce space mission dates "because we don't want to bind the people who are preparing the flight." Cosmonaut flight training areas were closed to most visitors "because we just don't want journalists to interfere with the working atmosphere of the cosmonauts." Area contained medical center with centrifuge that cosmonauts called "Devil's merry-go-round." From size and number of apartment buildings, Wilford estimated Star City population at 1500 to 2000. City was "smaller than Houston space center because it does not also serve as the mission control complex and apparently has no primary responsibility for the management of spacecraft design and development."
Like NASA Manned Spacecraft Center at Houston, Star City contained facilities for premission training of cosmonauts and postmission physical examinations and recreation. Like U.S. astronauts, Soviet cosmonauts were trained in aircraft "that make deep dives to simulate weightlessness." Parachuting tested ability to handle high-stress situations. First simulator for Salyut orbiting laboratory was being installed in new building to be completed at year's end. Wilford said that "this could mean that no major advance beyond the present version of Salyut should be expected until well after the simulator is ready." Of about 50 cosmonauts in Soviet space program, one third were civil engineers living in Moscow, Shatalov said; remainder were Soviet air force pilots who lived in Star City. No women were preparing for space missions but U.S.S.R. had "many women who specialize in meteorology and medicine, which are professions necessary on the orbital stations." From descriptions by Shatalov and Cosmonaut-engineer Aleksey S. Yeliseyev, Wilford had constructed outline of preparations for Soviet space mission: Cosmonauts were assigned to mission one year in ad- vance of launch date by commission of medical and engineering experts and Shatalov. There were two backup crews. After learning spacecraft mechanics and electronics and practicing in spacecraft simulator at Star City, crew went to Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan three weeks before launch. There they completed training in actual space-craft, checked instruments, stocked food, adjusted couches, and recommended minor changes in housekeeping. "Unlike Cape Kennedy," Baikonur had no simulators for last-minute practice. For two days before launch, "after the state commission approves the spaceship's readiness," crew relaxed. On launch morning cosmonauts were examined physically and biomedical sensors were attached to their bodies before they donned spacesuits. Traditionally, cosmonauts then gathered in quarters for few moments of silence broken by shouts of "off we go!" They signed their names on door before leaving for launch pad. Between missions, cosmonauts were expected to devote time each month to "social work"-visits to schools, collective farms, and factories.
Shatalov had suggested that new Soviet manned missions were possible within months and that U.S.S.R. was studying mission longevity in preparation for earth-orbiting laboratories. Of next Salyut mission, Shatalov said: "We are going to make it better .... We will prolong the visits of men, and the number of expeditions will grow. This is the difference now between our program and yours." Yeliseyev had said his countrymen would "probably" be on the moon by 1975. At tour's completion, Shatalov had offered toast: "To cooperation between our peoples, to working together in space, which is our future and the future of the world." (Wilford, NYT, 3/22/72, 30; 3/26/72, 7; Huntsville Times, 4/2/72, 17)
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