Russia: How to save the dead Saljut 7 station

29. 08. 2017
6th international conference of exopolitics, history and spirituality

In autumn, a blockbuster will be on screen Salt 7 - the story of one heroic act. Director Klim Šipenko made a film about astronauts who flew into the unknown in June 1985 to rescue an orbital station that got out of control. These heroes were Vladimir Djanibekov and Viktor Savinych (they were played in the film by Vladimir Vdovichenkov and Pavel Derevjanko). What these people have done is considered by specialists to be the most complex technical operation performed in open space.

The Soyuz T-13 spacecraft with two astronauts on board launched from Baikonur on June 6, 1985 and headed for an orbital station Salt 7, which has not shown any activity for several months. It operated in automatic mode without crew, but the connection was interrupted due to electronics failures. There was a danger that the many-ton giant would fall to Earth.

Information about the emergency was kept strictly confidential. At the flight control center, they wondered if they should try to restart the space station or carefully pull it out of orbit. It was necessary to contact her to solve this problem. The maneuver was to be carried out by the crew commander Vladimir Janibekov and flight engineer Viktor Savinych. The astronauts had only three months to prepare. They practiced non-standard situations, learned how to feel in complex devices, trained for hours in the pool and on exercise machines, the transition from the boat to the station. But no one knew what awaited them in orbit.

Even though the crew found themselves at the station, the resort could not decide whether Saljut would remain in his place or return to Earth, condemning him to extinction. It was only when our heroes succeeded in setting up systems of life support that the fate of the "cosmic house" was decided. Photo Print Services RosKosmos

Handmade

The first task of the crew was to find it Salt 7. The next day after takeoff, they saw the astronauts in a nearby window Months red dot. Was brighter than all stars and as they approached, it grew larger. Cosmonauts did everything they practiced on Earth. Switch to manual zoom mode.

"At a glance, the Voloď seemed to be moving more calmly than the trainers in the ship's control levers. We had to follow it according to the movement chart that will allow us to catch up with the station and not hit it ... " thus described Viktor Savinych in his book Notes from the Dead Station.

We met her, did not hit her, did the "grip", and slow down the zooming speed to zero. We landed and opened the station hatch. That was the first victory.

Prior to this flight in 1985, the crew commander Janibekov was already working on Salyut 7 and had experience with manual approach. Photo Print Services RosKosmos

When the cosmonauts found themselves at the station, they found that the internal sections were hermetically sealed, which meant they could stay here. There was a complete darkness, a temperature of about seven degrees below zero, and a wall of ice covering the walls and the apparatus.

In the photographs that appeared later, Janibekov and Saviny work in furry knitted hats. Pamirov, who was their call sign, was supplied by Viktor's wife before departure. They fit.

The cosmonauts repaired the equipment for several days, and the ice started to deflate from the station. But soon all the instruments and cables were in the water.

"Together with Jan (as Janibek's friends say), we cleaned all the nooks and crannies with rags as cleaners. But we didn't get them! No one thought that such a problem could arise. So we took off our underwear and overalls and cut them into pieces, "Savinych recalled.

They had to spend several days in the cold and dark black. "We looked very unusual: in hats, warm overalls and gloves," the flight engineer Savinych recalled in the book Notes from the Dead Station. Photo Print Services RosKosmos

Vladimír Džanibekov, with whom we met at the Museum of Cosmonautics a few days before June 6, 1985, the date when the rescue expedition began, also told me about it.

"Svetlana Savicka's suit became part of the inventory; was saved on Saljuta, "smiles Vladimir Alexandrovich. "He was beautiful, white. When Svetlana Jevgeniewna learned this, she was not mad at us, just laughing. "

"But did not you laugh at the station?"

"It simply came to our notice then. We worked as plumbers, locksmiths and fitters. I have a huge garage experience, because I was already on a motorcycle driver at the age of fourteen. I studied at the Suvorov School and got a driver's license there on the day of my sixteenth birthday. I completely disassembled the Volga car. Do you know how to say: tin, soldering, cans and buckets to repair, that's just mine."

Connection scheme and flight history

The volume of work was of course great. About a thousand electronic blocks and three and a half tons of cables. Carbon dioxide has accumulated due to the long-functioning fans. We often had to interrupt work and waggle something to blow up the air. But we did it. Well, when it was hard for us, we were kidding and screaming together. "

It was not for gasoline

"It was terrible?"

"Interestingly. We wanted to know what it was all about. I've had experience with manual steering, and if the connection failed, everyone would just shake their heads sadly and break up. According to the calculated trajectory, Salyut would fall into the Indian or Pacific Ocean in two or three days, and Viktor and I would return to Earth.

But when we understood that the station was habitable, we decided to do our best. We didn't want to make fun of us. It was said that we had food supplies for five days. It wasn't like that, we had a small reserve. We revised it at the frozen station and found that it would be enough for several months. Although the flight center ordered us to throw everything away, we did not do so, as we were convinced that the food did not spoil in the cold. Even when nothing worked, we heated it in our pockets or under the T-shirt, later we adapted the photo lamp to it. We put it in a bag filled with glasses, packages of tea or coffee. "

"Was your work well rated?"

"Completely for Soviet times. I got the Volga and ten thousand more rubles. My pension is now also dignified. But it happened that at the time of perestroika I did not have gasoline. Space veterans complained and to Star City sent a commission from the Accounting Office to help address this issue. They adjusted our pension and paid the amounts due for the past years. "

Link established

"Do you get about sixty thousand?"

"Much more."

"That is right! Vladimir Alexandrovich, what do you think we will fly to other planets? "

"In my opinion, the probability is small. This requires nuclear propulsion. They are working on it in many countries, but no one can get such a device into orbit yet. As far as manned space is concerned, we are in charge here, but in the field of automata, the United States predominates. Their Mars program is especially good. But don't ask me about Martians and UFOs, I didn't see them. "

"Then I'll ask something else. Do you believe in God? ”

"I believe. Without help of God, nothing would fail. "

Data

Vladimir Alexandrovich Janibekov was born on May 13, 1942 in the Kazakh USSR. He completed five space flights and was the commander of the ship in all of them, setting a world record. Professor and consultant of the Department of Space Physics and Ecology, Faculty of Radiophysics, University of Tom. He is a major general of the Air Force and a member of the Union of Fine Artists of the USSR.

Viktor Petrovich Savinych was born on March 7, 1940 in the Kirov region. He traveled into space a total of three times. Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, President of the Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography, Editor-in-Chief of the Russian Cosmos.

"They shot the blockbuster, but not us!"

About the movie Salt 7 - the history of one heroic act, the participants of the legendary flight expressed skeptically: "They shot a Hollywood blockbuster with elements of inexhaustible imagination and a lot of technical mistakes. It's not about us. " Janinikov complains.

Actors Pavel Derevjanko a Vladimir Vdovičenko

Savinov, whom I called to wish him the anniversary of the memorable events, also has reservations about the film:

"Half a year ago, the head of the flight control center and I made a number of remarks about this film. We wanted the authors to be more respectful of astronautics. The script was written according to my book, but much of it was presented roughly and unlikely. "

They shot laser

After the Americans tried to win Salt 7, at a time when the probability of personal confrontation in space seemed real, they developed a truly fantastic weapon at the Military Academy of Missile Forces of Strategic Destination of the USSR, and that was fiber laser gun. Pyrotechnic ammunition was used to shut off optical sensors on enemy ships and satellites. Laser beams burned shields with a heel or blinded a human within twenty meters.

Laser pistol

Life after death

Rescued station Salt 7 worked in orbit for another six years. Eleven manned ships flew to it Soyuz T, twelve cargo ships Progress and three cargo ships of the Kosmos series. Thirteen open-space openings were made from the station.

On February 7, 1991, Salyut burned down. The station, which they planned to bring into orbit under the name Salyut 8, was renamed Mir. Viktor Savinych worked on it in 1988. Vladimír Džanibekov, however, no longer flew into space after the expedition to Salyut 7.

Payouts, not the universe

Today, the salary of an astronaut who has returned from orbit is about eighty thousand rubles. Seventy-four thousand pay for those who are just getting ready to fly. Cosmonauts - instructors receive about one hundred thousand and candidates for astronauts seventy thousand. There are surcharges, bonuses, payable for each flight and stay at the station. About half a million rubles can be earned for a half-year stay in space.

The maximum possible amount of income for a long-term job is eighty-five percent of the salary.

For comparison, American astronauts receive from sixty-five thousand to one hundred and forty-two thousand dollars a year, Canadians eighty-one hundred and fifty thousand, European astronauts from eighty-five thousand euros.

Connection to orbit

When it comes to events Salt 7 learned in the US, they intended to seize the station to acquire Soviet military technology. This happened in the middle of the Cold War, when confrontations between the USSR and the USA were at their peak. In the United States, they rushed to develop a strategic defense initiative capable of destroying any satellite or missile in orbit. If the Americans managed to steal Salyut, it would inevitably lead to a global war. Therefore, it was extremely important for the USSR to get to the station first.

This is what this story looks like in events and dates:

  • 19. April 1982 - Saltut 7 was transported to orbit around the Earth.
  • October 2, 1984 - The astronauts leave Salyut 7 and the station was then in automatic flight mode. However, in February 1985, something unexpected happened.
  • February 11, 1985 - Due to a failure of one of the sensors, the Salyut 7's batteries disconnected from the solar batteries and discharged. The station lost control. The information immediately reached the NASA space center in Houston (USA). The Challenger space shuttle, ready to launch at Cape Canaveral, was ordered to transport Salyut 7 to Earth.
  • The Frenchman Jean-Loup Chrétien revealed to the USA everything he had learned in the Soviet Union

    February 24 - It is announced that Patrick Baudry, a Frenchman, has become a member of the shuttle's crew. His deputy, Jean-Loup Chrétien, flew to Salyut 7 three years before him, and then Baudry was his deputy. They both knew the station in detail.

  • March 10 - Challenger is ready to launch. However, in the USSR, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Konstantin Chernenko. The Americans decided that the Russians were not in the mood to travel into space now, so they postponed the start to the end of April.
  • March - April - Salutu 7 rescuers' training sessions began at the cosmonaut training center. It could not be thrown because Americans could fly into space at any time.
  • 29. April - Challenger got into the orbit, and the Spacelab installed on it recorded everything that Saluet 7 was doing. Americans have convinced that the connection with the Russian station in space is real.
  • June 6 - Vladimir Janibekov and Viktor Savinych set out on an expedition to Salyut 7.
  • 8. June - there was a connection.
  • June 16 - The astronauts adjust the solar batteries, connect the batteries and restore the station to work.
  • June 23 - The cargo ship Progress 7 joins Salyut 24 with equipment, water supplies and fuel.
  • 2. August - Jannibek and Savinych stepped into the open space and installed additional elements on the solar battery.
  • 13. September - The US has passed an anti-satellite weapon test.
  • September 19 - The Soyuz T-7 with a crew of Vladimir Vasjutin, Georgy Grecko and Alexandr Volkov joins Salyut 14.
  • September 26 - Janibekov returns to Earth with Grecek; he did not receive the star of the hero of the Soviet Union for this flight, because he already had two.
  • November 26 - Savinych, along with Vasyutin and Volkov, landed on Earth. He became a two-time hero of the USSR.

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