Salyut 6 EO-4

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Mission dates
Mission: Salyut 6 EO-4
Call sign: Днепр (" Dnepr ")
Crew: 2
Begin: April 9, 1980, 13:38:22  UTC
Starting place: Baikonur 31/6
Space station: Salyut 6
Coupling: April 10, 1980, 3:16 pm UTC
Decoupling: October 11, 1980, 06:32 UTC
Landing: October 11, 1980, 09:49:57 UTC
Landing place: 180 km southeast of Djeskasgan
Flight duration: 184d 20h 11min
◄ Before / After ►
Salyut 6 EO-3 Salyut 6 EO-5

Salyut 6 EO-4 was the name of the fourth long-term stay on board the Soviet space station Salyut 6 . The two cosmonauts started with Soyuz 35 and returned to Earth with Soyuz 37 .

crew

Original planning

During the preparation, the team division was changed twice. At first the main team consisted of Leonid Popov and Valentin Lebedev . As usual, the command was to be handed over to a military pilot, while the position of the flight engineer was filled from the ranks of RKK Energija . Lebedev flew into space with Soyuz 13 after a relatively short training period , after which he and Popov formed the support team for Salyut 6 EO-1 and Salyut 6 EO-2 as well as the substitute team for Salyut 6 EO-3 . The substitute team consisted first of Vyacheslav Sudow and Boris Andreyev . Sudow had already gained 23 space experience with Soyuz , Andreyev was a newcomer. Together they had already formed the Salyut 6 EO-3 support team.

Lebedev's injury

In the course of preparation, Lebedev injured his leg while jumping on a trampoline, so that his use was no longer possible. As is customary in Soviet space travel, the entire team was replaced immediately. Thus, Sudow and Andreyev moved up to the main team. Popov was demoted to the substitute team. He was assigned as the new flight engineer Valery Ryumin , who had only recently returned from the long-term mission Salyut 6 EO-3.

Last change

A short time before the start there was the last change. Due to the performances during the preparation, the Popov / Ryumin team was given preference over Sudow / Andreyev.

State of the space station

Ryumin had belonged to the previous long-term crew Salyut 6 EO-3 and left the station on August 19, 1979 together with Vladimir Lyakhov . Since March 29, 1980, the unmanned space freighter Progress 8 was at the rear coupling socket.

Mission history

Start and commissioning

The launch of Soyuz 35 with Popov and Ryumin aboard on 9 April 1980. Ryumin order came exactly two and a half years after the Soyuz 25 already his third space flight on. In Soviet space travel, only the coupling specialists Shatalov and Jelissejew had previously made a similar stormy career. The following day Soyuz 35 docked to the front coupling socket of Salyut 6. After changing trains, Ryumin noticed that the windows had grown dull compared to his last visit. They were also scratched by micrometeorites . Popov and Ryumin put the station back into operation by replacing parts of the attitude control system, installing a new advance warning system, resetting the clocks, connecting a new battery and exchanging the air.

On April 25, 1980 Progress 8 had completed its tasks and was decoupled from the space station. As planned, the freighter burned up in the earth's atmosphere.

On April 29, the next supply spaceship docked with Progress 9 . In contrast to its predecessors, this ship was equipped with a pipe that could be connected to the space station's drinking water tanks. Previously, the cosmonauts had to transport the water in individual canisters. Progress cast off again on May 20th.

First visit: Soyuz 36

Popov and Ryumin received their first visit on May 27, 1980, when the Soyuz 36 spacecraft docked at the rear docking port at 7:56 p.m. On board were Commander Valery Kubasov and the Hungarian research cosmonaut Bertalan Farkas . As usual, four of them spent a week researching until Kubassov and Farkas boarded the Soyuz 35 spacecraft on June 3 . The decoupling took place at 11:50, the landing at 15:06:23. Popov and Ryumin stayed behind with the fresh spaceship Soyuz 36, which they relocated to the forward docking port the following day. It was the first time that astronauts flew in a spaceship that they did not take off and were not supposed to use to land.

Second visit: Soyuz T-2

The next visit took place just two days later. The Soyuz T-2 docked on June 6, 1980 at 15:58, the first manned copy of the new generation of the Soyuz spaceship . The two cosmonauts Yuri Malyshev and Wladimir Aksjonow only stayed three days with Popov and Ryumin on board the Salyut 6. On June 9th at 09:20 the decoupling took place, the landing of Soyuz T-2 took place at 12:39.

On July 1, 1980 at 05:53:00 the unmanned space transporter Progress 10 docked and supplied the crew with food and equipment. Progress 10 remained connected to the space station until July 17 and was deliberately brought down on July 19.

Third visit: Soyuz 37

On July 24, 1980 at 8:02 pm, Soyuz 37, another Interkosmos mission coupled to the rear coupling port. The commanding officer was Viktor Gorbatko , a veteran of the first group of cosmonauts in the Soviet Union . The second cosmonaut was flight engineer Phạm Tuân from Vietnam . The spaceship was changed a second time: Gorbatko and Tuân returned to Earth on July 31 with Soyuz 36, and Popov and Ryumin put Soyuz 37 on the front coupling port on August 1.

Fourth visit: Soyuz 38

The next visiting mission docked on September 19, 1980. In addition to the commander Yuri Romanenko , Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez from Cuba was also the first spaceman in Latin America on board Soyuz 38 . The coupling at the rear coupling connection took place in the earth's shadow , so that Ryumin could film the ignition of the Soyuz engine. As usual, the research program lasted a week until Romanenko and Tamayo Méndez disconnected at 12:35 p.m. on September 26 and returned to Earth on Soyuz 38. This time the spaceship had not been changed. Four days later, on September 30th at 5:03 p.m., the rear coupling socket was used again, this time by the Progress 11 space freighter . Popov and Ryumin installed new communication equipment in the space station and made the space station ready for an unmanned period.

return

On October 11, Popov and Ryumin boarded their Soyuz 37 spacecraft and disconnected from Salyut 6 at 06:32. Progress 11 remained docked to the space station. The landing took place at 09:49:57 UTC.

Significance for the Salyut program

Overall, this fourth expedition to Salyut 6 was also very successful. The Interkosmos missions and the exchange of spaceships had become routine, as was the supply by the unmanned Progress freighters. The docking of the new Soyuz-T spacecraft was recorded as the first service. This time too, the long-term record was broken. Popov and Ryumin had spent 184 days in space. Since Ryumin had previously spent a long-term stay, he led the record list with a total of 361 days in space by a large margin over his respective commanders Popov and Lyachow. The Salyut 6 station was still in good condition so that a fifth expedition could be carried out. The new, larger Soyuz-T spaceship even made it possible to send a three-man crew into space, which was the last time Soyuz 11 and Salyut 1 were used .

See also

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