Soyuz 10

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Mission emblem
Mission emblem
Mission dates
Mission: Soyuz 10
COSPAR-ID : 1971-034A
Spacecraft: Soyuz 7K-T ( GRAY index  11F615A8)
serial number 31
Dimensions: 6800 kg
Launcher: Soyuz (GRAY index 11A511)
Call sign: Гранит (" granite ")
Crew: 3
Begin: April 22, 1971, 23:54:06  UTC
Starting place: Baikonur 1/5
Space station: Salyut 1
Landing: April 24, 1971, 23:40:00 UTC
Landing place: 120 km northwest of Karaganda
Flight duration: 1d 23h 45m 54s
Earth orbits: 35
Rotation time : 89.1 min
Apogee : 258 km
Perigee : 209 km
◄ Before / After ►
Soyuz 9
(manned) 		Soyuz 11
(manned)

Soyuz 10 is the mission name for the flight of a Soviet Soyuz spaceship to the Soviet space station Salyut 1, which started on April 22, 1971 . It was the first Soyuz spacecraft visit to a space station and the 18th flight in the Soviet Soyuz program. However, there was no permanent coupling and no transfer to the station.

crew

Main team

Schatalow and Jelissejew were already involved in the first Soyuz coupling of Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 , and they also formed the crew of Soyuz 8 in a group flight with Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 7 . You had the greatest rendezvous experience of all cosmonauts and were the first cosmonauts to come on a third space flight. Rukawischnikow had no space experience and was not previously assigned to a replacement team.

Originally Georgi Shonin provided as commander. Due to his alcohol problem, he was replaced by Shatalov in February 1971.

Substitute team

Support team

preparation

After the USSR lost the race to the moon, Soviet space travel focused on docking a Soyuz spacecraft to a previously launched space station . In February 1970 it was decided to use a civilian DOS station instead of the military Almaz, which was available more quickly. However, it was kept from the public that there were two different series, all Soviet space stations were launched under the name Salyut .

Four teams of three cosmonauts each were to be trained for the next flights. During the selection process, as several times before, there were again controversies between Nikolai Kamanin , the head of cosmonaut training, and Vasily Mishin , the head of the OKB -1 design office.

Among other things, Mishin tried to get the designer Feoktistow , who was already in space with Vozhod 1 , into one of the teams. It was thanks to his efforts that the DOS station was built, but his health did not meet the requirements. Kamanin, on the other hand, favored Alexei Leonow and Georgi Dobrowolski as commanders of the first Salyut crews.

Finally, crews were formed for the next three flights under the command of Shatalov , Leonow and Dobrowolski , which at the same time became the main, substitute and support crew of Soyuz 10.

There was also disagreement about the duration of the space flight. Kamanin referred to the poor health of the Soyuz 9 crew, who had returned to earth exhausted after the last record flight of 17 days. He advocated a maximum of 22 days. Mishin, on the other hand, requested 30 days, although this meant that either take-off or landing would have to take place at night.

Soyuz 10 was the first to use the new Soyuz type 7K-T. It had a coupling mechanism equipped with an internal hatch. From now on, the cosmonauts could switch from one spacecraft to the other without having to put on space suits, as was the case on previous flights.

Another improvement was the communications ship cosmonaut Juri Gagarin , which enabled longer radio links with the crew, because unlike NASA, the Soviet space agencies only used ground stations in their own country.

The design office actually succeeded in developing and manufacturing the DOS station within a very short time. On April 19, 1971, the first space station was launched into orbit with a Proton rocket . However, the ground station found that a cover had not come off as intended, so that various scientific devices on the outer shell, including a solar telescope, could not be used.

Mission overview

Despite bad weather, Soyuz 10 took off on April 22, 1971 at 23:54 UTC with the cosmonauts Shatalov, Jelissejew and Rukavischnikow on board. As with Soyuz 9, it was a night start, about an hour before sunrise.

For the rendezvous , Soyuz 10 was not placed in a deeper orbit behind the target as usual, but began the approach from a higher orbit. In the 18th orbit, the Igla automatic proximity system took over control and reduced the distance between spaceship and space station from 16 km to 180 m, then the crew had to take over manual control again. Soyuz 10 docked with the space station on April 24 at 01:47 UTC at around 20 to 30 cm / s.

Although the two spacecraft were firmly attached, the pairing was unsuccessful and telemetry data still showed a distance of 9 cm. An electrical connection between Soyuz and Salyut had not been established. The complete coupling failed because after the contact of the coupling pin of the active partner (Soyuz 10) with the passive partner (Salyut), the automatic control of Soyuz 10 switched on the attitude control thrusters for approx. 30 seconds. The spaceship swung about 30 degrees to the left and right of the horizontal line around the point of the coupling mandrel. This unwanted movement led to massive damage to the part of the coupling adapter, which was supposed to realize the firm and hermetically sealed locking of the two spaceships.

So the hatch between Soyuz and Salyut could not be opened. It was also not possible to exit via the free space because the crew did not have any spacesuits on board. Eventually the decision was made to abort the mission and return to Earth. However, the uncoupling was also not successful because the sequence control did not provide for a procedure for releasing the coupling mandrel without prior successful coupling. The cosmonauts now found themselves in the situation that they could neither enter the space station nor break away from it. There was an emergency procedure after which the coupling adapter of Soyuz 10 could have blown off and remained in the passive adapter of the Salyut station. Then, however, repeated coupling with a new spaceship would have been impossible and the station would have been lost. After several attempts, however, it was possible at 07:17 UTC to uncouple the spaceship from the space station by means of an undocumented command to the passive coupling partner (the Salyut station). In total, the two missiles were connected to each other for 5 hours and 30 minutes.

Due to the early return, a daylight landing on Soviet territory was not possible. The landing commission decided against a daylight landing on another continent and a night landing in the Soviet Union. Schatalow had previously assured that it was still possible to align the spaceship to ignite the brakes.

During the re-entry, toxic fumes penetrated the interior of the landing capsule and Rukawischnikow temporarily lost consciousness. Soyuz 10 landed on April 24 at 23:40 UT. At the landing point, 120 km northwest of the city of Karaganda in the Kazakh SSR , it was April 25, shortly before sunrise.

Effects

On May 3, Shatalov, Jelissejew and Rukaschikow were honored in the Kremlin . Rukashnikov was declared the Hero of the Soviet Union for his first space flight , an honor his two teammates had already received.

The public took the view that it was not planned to enter the space station, that Soyuz 10 should only have tested the docking procedure. The Soviet Union attaches great importance to safe and systematic progress in the exploration of space.

In contrast, the causes of the error were searched internally, because of four coupling attempts with manned Soyuz spaceships only one had success two years earlier, namely the first, as two cosmonauts (Yelissejew and Chrunow ) from Soyuz 5 during the first space transition in history to the active docking partner Soyuz 4 , however, changed by an outboard transfer.

During the investigation it turned out that the cosmonauts apparently had no way of determining distance and angle during the approach. A series of tests confirmed the suspicion that part of the Soyuz docking system could have been deformed as a result of the collision at an unfavorable angle. The Salyut's coupling adapter, on the other hand, appeared to be intact after taking photos and videos, so a second attempt with Soyuz 11 should be carried out as soon as possible.

The flight of Soyuz 11 was planned for June 1971 with the substitute crew of Soyuz 10: Alexei Leonow as commander, as well as Pyotr Kolodin and Valeri Kubasow. It was also considered that the Soyuz 11 crew should perform a space exit, on the one hand to examine the coupling socket of the Salyut, and on the other hand to remove the cover of the scientific equipment on the outside of the space station. For this purpose only two cosmonauts could have started, the command capsule was too narrow for three people in space suits. This plan was rejected due to lack of time. By the time spacesuits were made and the cosmonauts trained, the Salyut would have reached the end of its useful life.

In Soyuz 11, for example, the coupling mechanism was strengthened in order to avoid another defect. In addition, it was incorporated into the sequence control that the position control thrusters are blocked immediately after contact with the station. After the return of Soyuz 11, Dobrowolski's crew was supposed to make another flight to Salyut 1 with Soyuz 12.

In addition to the space station, which was already in space, a second DOS station and a military station of the Almaz type were already under construction. After losing the race to the moon for the Soviets, they now had the opportunity to get a big lead over NASA on space stations . The launch of the American space station Skylab was only planned for 1973.

For Schatalow and Jelissejew, this was the third flight each, and that in just two years. At Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 they took off and landed separately, and they had made the Soyuz 8 flight together. Soviet space travel had a much larger selection of space travelers, and so it was rare that cosmonauts were deployed more than once. It was not until 1978 that another cosmonaut, Pyotr Klimuk, should come to the third space flight.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Boris E. Tschertok: Rockets and people. Volume 4. Hunt for the moon . from the Russian by Dr. R. Meier. Elbe-Dnjepr-Verlag, Klitzschen 2001, ISBN 3-933395-04-6 .