2.2.2 Salyut 1 Notable Features
- Attitude control and orbit maintenance provided by a modified Soyuz service module (2.17 m long by 2.2 m dia). Station main propulsion system was a slightly modified Soyuz KDU-35 system. It had one single-nozzle 417-kg thrust primary engine and one two-nozzle 411-kg thrust backup, with four 10-kg engines for attitude control.[1] The service module was attached at the aft end of the large-diameter section of the work compartment. It could not be entered by the cosmonauts.
- Two habitable compartments. In front, the transfer compartment (2 m dia by 3 m long), containing the drogue docking apparatus and an EVA hatch; aft, the work compartment, which was divided into small-diameter (2.9 m dia by 3.8 m long) and large-diameter (4.15 m dia by 4.1 m long) sections, linked by a 1.2-m-long frustum.
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- Main control panel (“astropost”) was a Soyuz control panel.
- Electricity provided by two pairs of Soyuz silicon photocell solar arrays.
- Electricity from the pair of solar arrays on a docked Soyuz (14 m2 total area) augmented the station’s power supply through plugs in the docking collars. Total solar array area for the Salyut 1/Soyuz 11 complex came to 42 m2.
- Micrometeoroid detector panels built into the station’s hull.
- Served as a space station engineering test bed. Cosmonauts conducted tests of the Salyut ion attitude control sensor, gyrodynes, and atmosphere, as well as tests aimed at developing new automatic docking system and antenna designs.
- Central small-diameter compartment served a wardroom function, with provisions for the cosmonauts’ spare time. These included a cassette player and cassettes, a sketch pad, and a small library of books. It also held a table for dining and working.
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- Equipment compartments lining the inside of the hull covered by removable panels that formed the station’s interior walls. The walls each had different colors (light and dark gray, apple green, light yellow) to aid the cosmonauts in orienting themselves in weightlessness.
- Large-diameter work compartment equipped with a large conical structure housing astronomical instruments and other scientific and guidance equipment.
- Cosmonauts slept in sleeping bags attached to the walls of the largediameter compartment, or in the orbital module of the docked Soyuz.
- Sanitation/hygiene unit located in the large-diameter section of the work compartment, within an enclosure with a ventilation system and washable walls.
- Large-diameter compartment had two refrigerators for food storage.
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2.2.3 Salyut 1 Career
Entries below describe Salyut 1 operations during Soyuz missions to the station. For information on the Soyuz missions, see section 1.7.
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Soyuz 10
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April 22-24, 1971 (launch to landing)
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Vladimir Shatalov, Alexei Yeliseyev, Nikolai Rukavishnikov
Crew code name—Granit
Hard docked, but its crew could not enter Salyut 1.
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Soyuz 11
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June 7-29, 1971 (hard dock to undock)
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Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Volkov, Viktor Patsayev
Crew code name—Yantar
The Yantars performed astronomical observations using the Orion-1 telescope, grew plants in the Oazis hydroponics unit, and conducted extensive multispectral Earth resources photography. They appeared frequently on Soviet television. On June 27, the cosmonauts photographed the in-flight explosion of the third N-1 rocket.[2] During reentry the crew died due to a Soyuz fault.
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- ↑ Nicholas Johnson, Handbook of Soviet Manned Space Flight, Univelt, 1980, pp. 224-225.
- ↑ Payson, March 25, 1993, p. 20.
