Microgravity at night. Ryumin noted in his diary on August 16 that every night before going to sleep the crew activated the Kristall or Splav-01 materials processing furnaces. This was done to reduce the level of disturbance caused by crew movements around the station, improving its microgravity conditions for materials processing.[1] Ryumin also commented that Splav and Kristall could not be used at the same time, because they each placed a heavy load on the Salyut 6 power supply. Previous expeditions had operated the furnaces for a maximum of 10-12 hr at a time, but for Salyut 6 Principal Expedition 4, longer melts, of 120 hr and 60 hr, were carried out. The products of these melts were large crystals.[2]62
Fuel conservation and problems with showers. On September 10 Ryumin
wrote in his diary that the experiments requiring that Salyut 6 be maneuvered
at a cost in fuel were complete, so the station was in a gravity-gradient
stabilization mode at least until the next Progress arrived. In this mode it
pointed the aft end of the Soyuz 37 spacecraft toward the Earth. This made
Earth observations convenient, as most of the windows not blocked by
equipment were located in the transfer compartment and pointed toward Earth.
Ryumin also noted that he and Lyakhov had decided to postpone their monthly
shower. “When you begin to think of all the preparatory operations you have
to do, and then how many post-shower operations you have to perform, the
desire to take a shower diminishes. You have to heat the water, in batches, no
less. You have to get the shower chamber, set up the water collectors, attach
the vacuum cleaner . . . it takes nearly the entire day just for that shower,” he
complained.[3]
|}
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Soyuz 37 • Salyut 6 • Soyuz 38 | September 19-26, 1980 | |
| Cuban in Space. The Soyuz 38 docking occurred in darkness. As the spacecraft approached Salyut 6, the Dneipers could see only its “headlights.” Ryumin filmed ignition and operation of the transport’s main engine.,[4] Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez of Cuba and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko docked without incident. | |||
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Soyuz 37 • Salyut 6 | September 26-30, 1980 |
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Soyuz 37 • Salyut 6 • Progress 11 | September 30-October 11, 1980 | |
| Principal Expedition 4 ends. Ryumin reported that his last 10 days on Salyut 6 were very busy. The Dneipers unloaded Progress 11, changed out the station’s communications equipment, and mothballed the station. Ryumin onsidered the communications gear changeout the most serious repair operation the Dneipers had carried out. | |||
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Salyut 6 • Progress 11 | October 11-November 28, 1980 |
