In 1985 one of the most audacious space rescue missions was launched by the
Soviets to recover a space station that had been dead for months due to an
unknown fault. That feat was unparalleled in space exploration and rewrote the
books on what was thought possible and yet its story has fallen into obscurity
and conspiracy theory. In 1979 the Soviet Union was a superpower in search of a
space station, Mir the state-of-the-art orbital facility was in development but
was delayed and still six years from launch and also the military space
station ALMAZ had also recently been cancelled without his final mission
taking place. To maintain a presence in low-earth orbit the Soviet space agency
took the decision to fly one more single long station that's a small space
station that can be lifted into orbit complete in one launch. The backup
hardware for the Salyut program could be used and a series of missions was
planned for the station will become known as Salyut 7. This small lab orbiting
between 200 kilometers or 120 miles above the earth would go further than
any spacecraft before to become the base for six long-term expeditions but Salyut 7
would also suffer from a series of strange malfunctions and become the
scene of a desperate rescue at orbital velocity. The space race of the 60s and
70s was measured by a growing number of competitive record breaking missions in
the Soviet media new achievements were needed to justify the expense of space
programs and bolster national pride. To feed this hunger cosmonauts spent longer
and longer in their capsules on spacewalks and then inhabited manned
space stations. The American Skylab constructed from an adaptive Saturn V
upper stage spent 84 days in orbit in 1973-74 testing the effects of
microgravity on the body and pioneering solar observations. In 1978 the Soviet
Salyut 6 exceeded the long standing Skylab record when its crew passed 96
days in orbit by 1980 that record had been extended to 184 days of
uninterrupted habitation with the upcoming Mir the Soviets plan to do more
ever been possible with single launch stations. Salyut 7 could help make
this a reality by testing out new hardware and training cosmonauts as well
as predecessors, Salyut 7 had the docking ports fore and aft
so crew rotation and resupply could happen simultaneously.
Salyut had previously been supplied by the progress spacecraft a derivative of
soyuz that still travels to the international space station to this day.
Salyut 7 launched aboard a proton rocket on the 19th of April 1982 and on May the
13th the first crew launch to rendezvous with it beginning a mission that would
last for a record-breaking 211 days. The first task aboard the new station was to
launch a 28 kilogram of 61 pound amateur radio satellite from the trash airlock.
This was held by the Soviets as the first launch of a communications
satellite from a manned space vehicle before NASA's planned launch was two
heavy geostationary satellites from the shuttle later that year. Despite a
successful first year, research on Salyut 7 were soon stalled by technical issues.
In September 1983 a fuel leak was discovered after almost a whole tank
vented into space. In a series of spacewalks cosmonauts conducted to in
orbit repairs and a later repair of a special tool delivered by ground
resupply. The unprecedented scale of these repairs was impressive but Salyut
7 faced a much greater challenge ahead. In 1984 Salyut 7's 3rd cosmonaut crew
returned from orbit aboard Soyuz and the space station entered autopilot mode
monitored by remote control from the Soviet ground team. On the 11th of
February 1985 telemetry reported a huge electrical surge knocking out the radio
transmission from salyut, when ground operators attempted to bring the
transmitters back on line a second surge swept through the station knocking out
radio receivers as well now suddenly Salyut 7 was out of
contact with no way of diagnosing what may have gone wrong. For months in 1985
the 16 meter or 50 foot long station drifted
silent and out of control. According to a Russian documentary program made in 2012
the Americans considered trying to capture the Salyut 7 with the space
shuttles cargo bay and bring it back to earth.
In reality Soviet ground control had considered doing the same thing with the
unfinished "Buran" shuttle but they found it would have been impossible
although the Salyut couldn't be scooped up and carried back to earth it was far too
valuable to just be abandoned. Instead the only solution was to send up
a Soyuz with a two-man crew consisting of Vladimir Dzhanibekov and victor
Savinikh to manually dock with Salyut 7 and attempt a rescue. The first problem
was how do you dock with a dead space station that uses an automatic powered
docking system. The engineers had to come up with an entirely new set of docking
techniques. The Soyuz was a three-man craft but with just two crew the third
seat and the automatic docking system removed completely there was enough room
for extra supplies food and water and more fuel to the extended mission. The
Soyuz was fitted with a laser rangefinder and a crew took night vision
goggles in case they had to dock on the night side. With a 70 to 80 percent
chance of success the mission was given the go-ahead. On 6th
June 1985 a rescue mission launched and orbited for two days until it caught
up with salyut 7. As the Soyuz approached more closely
it appeared that these solar panels were misaligned that meant that the
electrical systems have failed completely. Using the laser rangefinder
to align with the docking port the crew matched for rotation of the craft to that of
Salyut and then approached slowly to contact and dock. This was a major
achievement but significant danger lay ahead neither the crew nor the ground
control knew what had caused the station to go dark or what laying
in wait for them inside. As the cosmonauts opened up the hatches to equalize the
air pressure with the station they felt a rush of freezing air. With Salyut's
power being offline for so long it had been exposed to temperatures had never
been designed to operate in. Critical provisions like water were all
frozen and any number of essential life support systems might have been damaged.
Ground control weren't even sure if it was safe for the crew to be onboard.
Dressed in winter clothing the cosmonauts slowly went through the process of
opening the three hatches that stood between them and the dark living area of
the station. With hand-held air quality tests they quickly checked for carbon
monoxide and other dangerous gases that could indicate a fire on board. The
problems of the station were electrical in nature but they couldn't just Hotwire
the station to the Soyuz. The fault that took down the space station could also
blow the electrics in the Soyuz and then they would be stranded and face almost
certain death. Although the air supply was safe they were limited to just one
crew member at a time working the station because with no circulation
systems working the carbon dioxide from the crew members own breath could build
up to dangerous levels. So one crew member stayed in the Soyuz
to monitor the of one working in the station. Water was also a problem, the
crew had eight days supply in the Soyuz if they rationed it and tapped into the
Salyut's emergency supply it would stretch to twelve days but it could take that
time or longer to find the cause of the problem and get the station's systems
back on line, if the water ran out before then they
would have to leave come what may. After carefully working through the Salyuts
electrical systems the cause of the power loss was eventually pinpointed to
a single sensor on one of the batteries. This malfunctioning sensor was designed
to stop the batteries from being overcharged. Once a day, everyday the main
computer instructed the solar cells to charge the batteries but the faulty
sensor stopped charging almost immediately. Over time the
batteries ran flat and soon the whole station went dead unable to communicate
with the ground or function at all. Once the crew had replaced the battery and the
faulty sensor and further adjustments to the out of alignment solar cells were
made, in August Salyut 7 was saved and continued to support missions for a
further year. After the station was returned to service Vladimir Dzhanibekov
remained on the station for 110 days. MIR was launched in February
1986 but even with its replacement in orbit, Salyut 7 continued to make history.
The first crew on Mir traveled in the Soyuz to Salyut to collect and transfer
valuable equipment, the only time but a station to station crew transfer has
taken place to date. The Soviets had intended to continue using Salyut 7 even
after the launch of Mir. It was boosted into a higher orbit of 475 kilometers or
295 miles to delay reentry however due to the funding cuts the future Salyut
missions, the collapse of a Soviet Union and the non appearance of the "Buran"
shuttle the station's orbit gradually decayed and in 1991 three years earlier
than intended the last Salyut broke up during an uncontrolled re-entry over
South America. It's this determination and experience of the engineers, ground
control and cosmonauts to keep Salyut 7 flying when previous stations
that have gone before we're allowed to fail but has been carried over into the
ISS which has now been flown continuously over 15 years by the
international community. So thanks for watching and don't forget we now have
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