June-September 1981:milestones

March 1981

22 Soyuz 39 is launched with cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Jugderdemidiyn Gurragcha aboard to rendezvous and dock with Salyut 6,occupied for the past 10 days by Kovalyonok and Savinykh. Gurragcha, aged 33, had been in cosmonaut training since 1978 and is the first Mongolian to gointo space. He is the 8th non-Soviet cosmonaut (the 9th will be a Romanian).

April 1981

1 Voyager 2 is 138 million km from Saturn and 114S million km from Earth as it heads for encounter on 26 August. Voyager 1 flew past the planet on 12 November 1980. If all goes well. Voyager 2 will fly by Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989.

10 An estimated one million spectators gather around Cape Canaveral for the first launch of America’s Space Shuttle Columbia, the first manned US flight since Apollo-Soyuz in 1975. The countdown reaches T-9 minutes and is stopped because of problems with the vehicle’s computers. The problem cannot be solved for that day’s launch window and the lift-off is postponed for two days.

12 Pad 39A feels the heat and pressure of a giant rocket once again as STS-1,carrying astronauts Young and Crippen, begins its historic trip. In orbit, the men discover that 16 thermal tiles are missing off the OMS pods. NASA,however, maintains that Columbia should still be able to withstand re-entry two days hence.