Soyuz T-9

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Mission dates
Mission: Soyuz T-9
COSPAR-ID : 1983-062A
Spacecraft: Soyuz 7K-ST ( GRAY index  11F732)
serial number 14L
Dimensions: 6850 kg
Launcher: Soyuz U (GRAY index 11A511U)
Call sign: Протон (" proton ")
Crew: 2
Begin: June 27, 1983, 09:12:00  UTC
Starting place: Baikonur 1/5
Space station: Salyut 7
Coupling: June 28, 1983, 10:46 UTC
Decoupling: November 23, 1983, 16:40 UTC
Number of EVA : 2
Landing: November 23, 1983, 19:58:00 UTC
Landing place: 160 km E of Sheqasghan
Flight duration: 149d 10h 46m
Earth orbits: 2361
Rotation time : 88.6 min
Apogee : 229 km
Perigee : 201 km
◄ Before / After ►
Soyuz T-8
(manned) 		Soyuz T-10-1
(manned)

Soyuz T-9 is the mission name for the flight of a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft to the Soviet space station Salyut 7, which started on June 27, 1983 . It was the fourth visit by a Soyuz spacecraft to this space station and the 69th flight in the Soviet Soyuz program. This second long-term mission was also called Salyut 7 EO-2 .

crew

Main team

Lyachow and Alexandrov, together with Viktor Savinych, had already formed the replacement crew for the unsuccessful Soyuz T-8 flight. Sawinych was dispensed with this time in order to be able to take more fuel on board, which enabled a rendezvous in a higher orbit.

Substitute team

Titov and Strekalov were previously the crew of Soyuz T-8. Since they had already completed their training but could not connect to the station, they were nominated as a substitute team. The then third man on board, Alexander Serebrov , was not taken into account because the crew was reduced from three to two cosmonauts.

situation

The Salyut 7 space station had been in space since April 1982 and had hosted a long-term mission and two visiting teams. The first long-term team Salyut 7 EO-1 had to break off their stay in December 1982 because the navigation computer Delta, which was also responsible for attitude control, was defective.

An unmanned TKS space freighter named Kosmos 1443 had docked in March 1983 and was waiting to be unloaded. On board were fuel, food and equipment, as well as spare parts for the defective Delta computer.

The next crew attempted to dock with the Soyuz T-8 spacecraft in April 1983, but failed because the antenna of the Igla proximity system had fallen off. Two months later, the next attempt was to be made with the Soyuz T-9. This time there were not three, but only two cosmonauts in the crew.

Mission history

Start and pairing

Soyuz T-9 was launched on June 27, 1983. The coupling to the rear coupling of Salyut 7 on the following day worked without any problems this time. The front coupling nozzle had been occupied for over three months by the TKS freighter Kosmos 1443, which had taken over the attitude control of the entire system.

At around 47 tons, the complex of Salyut, TKS and Soyuz was the most massive spacecraft in Soviet space travel to date. However, the American space station Skylab had about twice the mass 10 years earlier.

Scientific work

The cosmonauts unloaded around 3.5 tons from Kosmos 1443, including the solar module that was to be installed in the field and spare parts for the Delta navigation computer.

Lyachow and Alexandrov repaired the Delta computer, which was then reprogrammed from the ground station. After a week Salyut 7 was able to take over the attitude control again itself.

The cosmonauts performed many experiments from different areas of science. Among other things, they took 3,000 pictures with spectrometer cameras, not only from the Soviet Union, but also from Australia, Africa and South America as part of a UNESCO program. During the flight, Lyakhov and Alexandrov had about 20 conferences with scientists on Earth. Other experiments were from the fields of biology, medicine, materials science, and astrophysics.

Kosmos 1443 return capsule

At the end of July, the cosmonauts were startled by a loud thud. Closer investigations showed that one of the viewing hatches had been hit by an object. The impact left a crater 4 mm in diameter in the outer of the two window layers, but did not penetrate the layer. Whether the object was a meteor from the southern Delta Aquariids or a piece of space debris could not be determined.

During the next few weeks, the cosmonauts loaded Kosmos 1443 with 350 kg of experiment results and equipment that was no longer required, which was to be returned to Earth. The TKS freighter disengaged on August 14, and the return capsule WA (Vozvrashayemy Apparat) landed on August 23. The orbital section FGB (functional no-grusowoj block) remained in orbit and burned up on September 19 over the Pacific .

On August 16, the two cosmonauts boarded the Soyuz spacecraft and disconnected. After the space station had completed a half turn, they reconnected to the front coupling socket. This left the rear nozzle, which had fuel pumps, free for the Progress 17 transporter , which docked on August 19.

An incident occurred on 9 September while fuel was being pumped into the Salyut tanks from the Progress freighter. One of the tank lines broke and the contents of two of the three oxidizer tanks evaporated into space. Aborting the mission was considered, but rejected when it turned out that the situation was manageable and stable. Half of the space station's 32 attitude control jets could no longer be used, which also had a major impact on many experiments.

The replacement does not occur

For the end of September it was planned that the Soyuz T-10 spaceship should bring the replacement. The crew consisted of Titow and Strekalow, who had already attempted an unsuccessful coupling attempt with the Soyuz T-8, and were then substitutes for the Soyuz T-9.

Shortly before launch on September 26, 1983, the Soyuz rocket caught fire and exploded on the launch pad. However, the Soyuz rescue missile ensured that the spacecraft was brought to safety. Titov and Strekalov survived the accident unharmed. This mission had no official name, but is often referred to as Soyuz T-10-A or Soyuz T-10-1 .

Since neither a crew nor a spaceship was available, it was clear that Lyachow and Alexandrov would have to leave the station and leave it unmanned over the next few weeks.

More work

On October 22, 1983 a freighter docked at Salyut 7 with Progress 18. The cargo consisted mainly of fuel to make up for the loss of the two tanks, but also of solar cells. On November 5th, the Progress thrusters were fired to raise the space station to a higher trajectory. Progress 18 remained connected to the Salyut until November 13th.

Originally it was planned that the solar modules that had been delivered with Kosmos 1443 and Progress 18 would be installed by Titow and Strekalow. However, since these two would not get to Salyut in the foreseeable future, Lyachow and Alexandrov had to take on this task. For this, two space exits were necessary, each of which had a solar module installed and connected.

The two exits took place on November 1st and November 3rd. The cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko kept radio contact with the Salyut crew from the ground station. Further support came from Leonid Kisim and Wladimir Solowjow , the cosmonauts scheduled for the next mission. All actions of Lyachow and Alexandrow were carried out by Kisim and Solowjow at the same time in the water basin in the Yuri Gagarin cosmonaut training center in order to discover possible problems as early as possible and to find possible solutions.

Both exits took about 2.5 hours each. The space station then had around 50% more electrical power.

return

On November 21, preparations for the return to Earth began with the loading of experiments and luggage into the landing module of the Soyuz spacecraft. The orbital module was filled with unneeded equipment and other garbage, it was later to burn up in the earth's atmosphere.

The landing took place on November 23, 1983, again in the dark.

Significance for the Salyut program

The mission duration of 149 days was not a long-term record for cosmonauts, but it was for the Soyuz spacecraft. Soyuz T-7 had previously held this record with 113 days.

The manned use of Salyut 7 went into a compulsory break. Two spaceships ( Soyuz T-8 and Soyuz T-10-1) from current production could not be used for the crew of the space station. It would take a few more months before the next spaceship would be ready for launch.

swell

See also

Web links