January 1983:letters

Space Museum Exhibition

Sir, The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. is celebrating the first quarter century of the space age with an exhibit on “25 Years of Space Exploration.” It opened on 1 July 1982, the 25th anniversary of the International Geophysical Year (a coordinated study of the Earth and its atmosphere by 67 nations). It was the IGY that provided both the United States and the Soviet Union with the incentive to establish programmes to launch the first satellites.

The exhibit consists of five modules which place the developments of the space age against the background of social, cultural and other events of the time. Five video displays run continuous film segments of the entertainment and news stories of each period, as well as filmed accounts of launches and space events. The first module, The Beginnings (1957-1960), covers the period of the early satellites; Man in Space (1961-1965) highlights the Mercury flights; Lunar Conquest (1966-1969) describes the “race” to the Moon; Space is Commonplace (1970-1976) begins with the launch of the Jupiter probe Pioneer 10, and covers both Skylab and the Apollo-Soyuz test project; Today and Tomorrow concentrates on the present period of space exploration, with emphasis on Voyager and the Space Shuttle.

Perhaps the most admirable part is the attempt to place space exploration in context. The social, cultural and political background of scientific events is often neglected in science museums. But one cannot look at the history of space explo¬ ration without taking into account the American-Soviet rivalry in 1957 (and today), or the seemingly limitless confidence in technology which encouraged the early space programme.

The show’s major flaw, perhaps understandably, is that it focuses on American space efforts, to the exclusion of other national and international space activities. When Soviet accomplishments, such as Sputnik, are mentioned, it is often couched in terms of competition. Even in the section on the future, virtually no mention is made of past or present European or Japanese space ventures. The European Space Agency is given a one-sentence credit in the last module. Ironically, while the fourth test flight of the Space Shuttle was in progress when the show opened, so was a joint French-Soviet space mission.

Soviet Photographs

Sir, Within the past couple of years the Soviet Union has published several interesting pictures showing its spacecraft, many of which have not been published before. Some are described below.

1. VOSKHOD 2. This picture, from the book “Sovietskaya Kosmanavtika”, Mashinostroene publishers, 1981, shows the Voskhod 2 spacecraft in the MIK assembly shop before the second half of the payload shroud was attached. The book describes Voskhod as a modification to the basic Vostok spacecraft, a fact that BIS members have been aware of since 1974.

2. MARS 2 LANDING CAPSULE. Again from “Sovietskaya Kosmanavtika”, this picture was originally published a couple of years ago in a Soviet youth magazine. The resemblance to the Luna 9 and 13 landing capsules is self evident.

3. SALYUT MODIFICATION. This picture, from the April 1982 “Aviatsiya i Kosmanavtika” shows what I believe to be the Kosmos 1267-type modification to the Salyut space station. This mock-up is in the hydrotank at Star City. Note the sphere on the right hand side of the picture,which may be a Soyuz T Orbital Module.

Shuttle Astronauts

Sir, Now that nearly all the active astronauts from the first seven groups have been assigned to a Shuttle flight and with most positions for the STS missions up to STS 9 known; it is now possible to predict possible assignments for flights STS 10-15.

With the announcement of the crews for STS 6-9 a pattern appeared. Crippen and Truly, who flew as Pilots on STS 1 and 2, were assigned to the Commander positions on STS 7 and 8. It is therefore reasonable to assume that other Group 7 men will gain Commander’s seats on later STS missions in the following order: Fullerton (STS 3), Hartsfield (STS 4), Overmyer (STS 5) and Bobko (STS 6). Peterson will serve as a Mission Specialist on STS 6 and if he does make a second flight it is probable that he will again fly as Mission Specialist. With the announcement of John Young to fly as Commander of STS 9, the first Spacelab mission, it again becomes apparent that Pilots from the other remaining active Group, the fifth, will command future important flights, like the early Spacelab missions, the first flight of each new vehicle and historic or difficult missions, such as SMM retrieval, Space Telescope, etc. If the same procedure applies then the Young, Engle, Lousma, Mattingly, Brand, Weitz order will repeat itself for these important missions. The next after Spacelab 1 is the first flight of Orbiter 103 Discovery scheduled for January 1984, Engle should be named for this mission.

Active astronauts from the fourth and sixth groups, the scientist astronauts, will probably be assigned to the early Spacelab missions, and important flights in the STS series. Gradually, the eighth and ninth groups will figure more and more in the flight schedule and the Pilots, after possibly two flights, will probably be promoted to Commander. By then most, if not all, of the Group 1-7 astronauts will be out of the main stream of flights.

My preliminary suggestions for the initial flights of STS 10-21 mission Commanders are shown below.

10 Fullerton (STS-3)

11 Possibly Hartsfield, with McCandless and England?

12 Engle (STS-2)

13 Overmyer (STS-5)

14 Bobko or Lousma

15 Lousma or Mattingly

16-18 Possibly Crippen, Truly third flights, with Group 8 Pilots on their second missions.

19 & 21 Spacelabs 3 and 2, Brand and Weitz, with Lind and Thornton (SL 3) and Heinize (SL 2).

From the 20th flight we should see the first Group 8 Commanders, with Group 9 as Pilots.

The outcome of these assignments will, of course, besubject to certain crew replacements but it would be interesting to review the assignments at a later date to see if indeed a selection pattern for STS flights does exist.

Veteran Cosmonauts

Sir, Two recent books on parts of the Interkosmos programme of manned space flights have highlighted informa¬ tion on veteran Soviet cosmonauts still connected with the current Salyut programmes.

The first is a commemorative booklet on the Mongolian space flight of March 1981 and mentions that Gorbatko was assigned as Chief of the Soviet-Mongolian training pro¬ gramme shortly after his completion of duties on the Soyuz 37, Vietnamese flight in 1980. In the same booklet two photos show cosmonaut Volynov (Soyuz 5 and 21) training the Mongolian cosmonauts in water recovery and survival techniques.

The second book is devoted to the pre-launch story of the Soviet-French mission of June 1982. It mentions that Glazkov helped to train the French cosmonauts upon arrival at Star Town. The book goes into great detail of how the men were selected and trained and what experiments they were to perform in orbit. A second book covering the actual mission is to be published. With recent mention of Glazkov and Volynov we may see these men making near future flights to Salyut 7 or 8.