Salyut-7. Repair in orbit
Despite the fact that the history of astronautics has a little less than 60 years, to tell about all the more or less routine events that occurred in space and on Earth, hundreds of thick books are not enough. And today I would like to tell you about one of these incidents, which today is unjustly forgotten. And a large share of the blame for this lies with the idiotic practice of the Soviet secretaries to close and emasculate everything connected with space. During this flight, TASS reported that everything was perfect. During the telecommunication regimes that went on the air, astronauts were asked to lie directly to the camera, that everything was fine, and a year later, in the wake of restructuring, they wrote about this story in the major journal Science in the USSR. (UPD. My joint, it was first written about this on August 4, 1985, in the Pravda newspaper, in an article by the designer and pilot-cosmonaut Konstantin Feoktistov, “The Courage of Pamirs”).
The orbital station Salyut-7, which was the forerunner of the legendary Mir station, was launched on April 19, 1982. On February 11, 1985, the station, which had been in autonomous flight for several months, stopped communicating with the Earth. After much debate, it was decided to attempt to save the station.
For the rescue, a complex scheme of launching into orbit and docking in manual mode with, at best, an unoriented object was developed. At worst, the station could be curled around the center of mass, could be depressurized, or for other reasons unsuitable for restoration.
The salvage vehicle Soyuz T-13 was used for rescue. The staff seat of the third cosmonaut was dismantled, additional reserves and equipment, in particular a laser range finder, were taken instead. Automatic proximity system as superfluous removed. But with the question of who put in the first two chairs, there was a problem. The question of a flight engineer was resolved fairly quickly, they were Viktor Savinykh, a former flight engineer of the Soyuz T-13 scheduled launch, who had been preparing for the flight for a long time, and had previously participated in the design of the Salyut station series, and knew the station like his five fingers. The commander of the Soyuz T-13 spaceship Vasyutin had no experience of space flights, and it was decided to replace him. Practical experience of manual docking in orbit at that time had three: Kizim (he recently returned from a long flight, and therefore had to undergo post-flight rehabilitation), Malyshev (did not prepare for the spacewalk program and had no experience of long-term work in orbit) Dzhanibekov (flew four times, and twice on Salyut-7, but he had restrictions from doctors on a long flight). One by one, Berezovaya, Lyakhov and Popov were appointed to the place of the commander. In the end, Janibekov managed to escape from the doctors' tenacious clutches, and he became the commander of the main crew. After numerous trainings, on June 5, 1985, at the meeting of the State Commission, the Savinykh and Dzhanibekov were approved as the main crew, and Popov and Alexandrov as the back-up one. The launch day is scheduled for June 6, 1985. At 09: 39: 51.932 on the time of Baikonur "Pamirs" started.
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After the second day of the flight, the station was in direct visibility, about 10 kilometers from the Soyuz. Using optical devices, the distance to the station and its speed were estimated. In the automatic mode, the approach continued to a distance of 2.5 km, when the automatic approach began to break out of the schedule, after which the crew switched to manual control. When the distance on the laser rangefinder decreased to 200 m, the rendezvous speed was quenched to zero, for a visual assessment of the station docking station and solar cells.
The station slowly rotated, the solar panels were rotated haphazardly, which meant the lack of power at the station with all the attendant troubles. It was helped by the fact that the emergency docking training regimes proposed during the trainings turned out to be much more complicated than what was in reality, and the docking took place clearly and accurately.
As astronauts often say, the worst sound at the station is silence. If any of the devices is silent - it means that it has stopped working. Silence, cold and darkness reigned in the passage of the Salyut-7 compartment. There was an ice crust on the windows. To the question of the Earth about the temperature, Janibekov replied, “Kolotun, brothers!”. The astronauts began to pump air from the working compartment of the station through indicator tubes to study the composition of the atmosphere. When the analysis showed that the composition of the atmosphere was within acceptable limits, the Janibekov and Savinykhs put on gas masks and, opening the hatch, entered the working compartment of the station. After a brief visual inspection, the astronauts removed their gas masks and proceeded to a detailed study. There was no trace of fire or flood. The station looked like a long-abandoned house. Batteries were discharged. There was no power supply, automatic equipment, including the air regeneration system, was not functioning. To begin with, they collected a temporary ventilation system powered from the ship's power plant. This was not enough for full air exchange, and the concentration of carbon dioxide near the astronauts exceeded all permissible norms, but it was at least something.
When checking the power supply system, it was found that two of the eight batteries from forced downtime came into disrepair, they were excluded from the power supply system and decided to directly connect to the solar panels. I went to charge, and finally it was possible to turn on the radio telemetry system. The solar cell orientation system has not yet worked, and the Soyuz T-13 control system and engines were used to target the sun.
The reason for the disappearance of the power supply was simple. The charge of the batteries was controlled by a sensor that disconnected the batteries from them when the charge ended. The sensor gave a false signal that the batteries were fully charged, and blocked the attempts of the program-temporary device to start charging the batteries. As a result, when the charge was exhausted, the station quietly fell asleep.
The astronauts charged the batteries, and the station systems woke up one by one. A light appeared, thermal control was activated, and the air regeneration system started working. In the process of checking, all the nodes that had cooled below the permissible were touched, probed all the cables, removed the inner lining, replaced what was possible to replace, and disconnected the rest. But, despite the fact that the crisis was over, there was an urgent need for help from the Earth, it was necessary to deliver water, fuel, new batteries and much more. All this could have been delivered on the Progress unmanned cargo ship, but it was necessary to check the automatic approach system, because without it everything would be meaningless. The test was successful and five days after the end of the test, Progress-24 moored to Salyut-7. By this time, life at the station almost entered the usual track, and then came the second cargo ship, the only one from the Progress series that received the name Cosmos-1669. Because of the problems that had arisen on it, the bad practice of hiding all the misfortunes in space again leapt. The problem was solved, and the device was regularly docked with the “Salyut-7”, but it remained “Cosmos”.
The crew made a five-hour spacewalk and mounted additional solar panels delivered on cargo ships, and external research equipment was also installed. "Salyut-7" finally returned.
* I recommend reading the book by Viktor Savinykh “Notes from the dead station”
** About this story filmed unimaginably stupid documentary. Here I briefly talked about my complaints about this film.
The orbital station Salyut-7, which was the forerunner of the legendary Mir station, was launched on April 19, 1982. On February 11, 1985, the station, which had been in autonomous flight for several months, stopped communicating with the Earth. After much debate, it was decided to attempt to save the station.
For the rescue, a complex scheme of launching into orbit and docking in manual mode with, at best, an unoriented object was developed. At worst, the station could be curled around the center of mass, could be depressurized, or for other reasons unsuitable for restoration.
The salvage vehicle Soyuz T-13 was used for rescue. The staff seat of the third cosmonaut was dismantled, additional reserves and equipment, in particular a laser range finder, were taken instead. Automatic proximity system as superfluous removed. But with the question of who put in the first two chairs, there was a problem. The question of a flight engineer was resolved fairly quickly, they were Viktor Savinykh, a former flight engineer of the Soyuz T-13 scheduled launch, who had been preparing for the flight for a long time, and had previously participated in the design of the Salyut station series, and knew the station like his five fingers. The commander of the Soyuz T-13 spaceship Vasyutin had no experience of space flights, and it was decided to replace him. Practical experience of manual docking in orbit at that time had three: Kizim (he recently returned from a long flight, and therefore had to undergo post-flight rehabilitation), Malyshev (did not prepare for the spacewalk program and had no experience of long-term work in orbit) Dzhanibekov (flew four times, and twice on Salyut-7, but he had restrictions from doctors on a long flight). One by one, Berezovaya, Lyakhov and Popov were appointed to the place of the commander. In the end, Janibekov managed to escape from the doctors' tenacious clutches, and he became the commander of the main crew. After numerous trainings, on June 5, 1985, at the meeting of the State Commission, the Savinykh and Dzhanibekov were approved as the main crew, and Popov and Alexandrov as the back-up one. The launch day is scheduled for June 6, 1985. At 09: 39: 51.932 on the time of Baikonur "Pamirs" started.
')
After the second day of the flight, the station was in direct visibility, about 10 kilometers from the Soyuz. Using optical devices, the distance to the station and its speed were estimated. In the automatic mode, the approach continued to a distance of 2.5 km, when the automatic approach began to break out of the schedule, after which the crew switched to manual control. When the distance on the laser rangefinder decreased to 200 m, the rendezvous speed was quenched to zero, for a visual assessment of the station docking station and solar cells.
The station slowly rotated, the solar panels were rotated haphazardly, which meant the lack of power at the station with all the attendant troubles. It was helped by the fact that the emergency docking training regimes proposed during the trainings turned out to be much more complicated than what was in reality, and the docking took place clearly and accurately.
As astronauts often say, the worst sound at the station is silence. If any of the devices is silent - it means that it has stopped working. Silence, cold and darkness reigned in the passage of the Salyut-7 compartment. There was an ice crust on the windows. To the question of the Earth about the temperature, Janibekov replied, “Kolotun, brothers!”. The astronauts began to pump air from the working compartment of the station through indicator tubes to study the composition of the atmosphere. When the analysis showed that the composition of the atmosphere was within acceptable limits, the Janibekov and Savinykhs put on gas masks and, opening the hatch, entered the working compartment of the station. After a brief visual inspection, the astronauts removed their gas masks and proceeded to a detailed study. There was no trace of fire or flood. The station looked like a long-abandoned house. Batteries were discharged. There was no power supply, automatic equipment, including the air regeneration system, was not functioning. To begin with, they collected a temporary ventilation system powered from the ship's power plant. This was not enough for full air exchange, and the concentration of carbon dioxide near the astronauts exceeded all permissible norms, but it was at least something.
When checking the power supply system, it was found that two of the eight batteries from forced downtime came into disrepair, they were excluded from the power supply system and decided to directly connect to the solar panels. I went to charge, and finally it was possible to turn on the radio telemetry system. The solar cell orientation system has not yet worked, and the Soyuz T-13 control system and engines were used to target the sun.
The reason for the disappearance of the power supply was simple. The charge of the batteries was controlled by a sensor that disconnected the batteries from them when the charge ended. The sensor gave a false signal that the batteries were fully charged, and blocked the attempts of the program-temporary device to start charging the batteries. As a result, when the charge was exhausted, the station quietly fell asleep.
The astronauts charged the batteries, and the station systems woke up one by one. A light appeared, thermal control was activated, and the air regeneration system started working. In the process of checking, all the nodes that had cooled below the permissible were touched, probed all the cables, removed the inner lining, replaced what was possible to replace, and disconnected the rest. But, despite the fact that the crisis was over, there was an urgent need for help from the Earth, it was necessary to deliver water, fuel, new batteries and much more. All this could have been delivered on the Progress unmanned cargo ship, but it was necessary to check the automatic approach system, because without it everything would be meaningless. The test was successful and five days after the end of the test, Progress-24 moored to Salyut-7. By this time, life at the station almost entered the usual track, and then came the second cargo ship, the only one from the Progress series that received the name Cosmos-1669. Because of the problems that had arisen on it, the bad practice of hiding all the misfortunes in space again leapt. The problem was solved, and the device was regularly docked with the “Salyut-7”, but it remained “Cosmos”.
The crew made a five-hour spacewalk and mounted additional solar panels delivered on cargo ships, and external research equipment was also installed. "Salyut-7" finally returned.
* I recommend reading the book by Viktor Savinykh “Notes from the dead station”
** About this story filmed unimaginably stupid documentary. Here I briefly talked about my complaints about this film.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/216973/
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