January 1981:space activities report

SPACE LITTER

The absence of a Progress ferry flight in the period between the recovery of Soyuz 36 and the launch of Soyuz 38, whether intentional or otherwise, left the Salyut 6 long-stay crew of Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin with the awkward problem of what to do with two months’ accumulation of rubbish and waste.

Normally, Salyut’s crew would load the offending items into the returning Progress orbital module for it to be incinerated in the upper atmosphere during re-entry. The absence of a convenient refuse disposal vehicle meant that other means had to be used to rid the station of its unwanted cargo. Salyut is equipped with small airlock chambers specifically for this purpose and the crew put these to good use.

Over a four week period starting in the middle of August,more than a dozen extra objects appeared in Salyut’s orbit as a result of the dumping operation. Most of the work was completed before the manoeuvre at the beginning of September which preceded the Soyuz 38 launch. This meant that the station had no unwanted orbiting companions during the rendezvous operation; a collision could have left either crew in a rather sticky situation!

This type of dumping operation has been a normal part of Salyut’s operation and has resulted in the total number of catalogued objects associated with it rising to nearly eighty. On top of these are several others which have been observed visually but obviously have not been radar tracked as they never received catalogue numbers. The August event though was the largest individual operation.

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74-SEAT SPACE SHUTTLE

Rockwell International, prime contractor for the US Space Shuttle, have recently designed a passenger transport module,capable of transporting up to 74 passengers to Earth orbit,writes Keith T. Wilson. This would be placed in the 18 m long payload bay of the Shuttle Orbiter. This ambitious plan is only part of Rockwell’s continuing investigation to modify the present Space Shuttle system enabling it to orbit larger and heavier payloads.

The passenger transport module, a large version of a pressurised Spacelab module, would be capable of seating 68 people with additional space for 6 more in the lower flight deck of the Orbiter. The module would be inserted into the Orbiter’s payload bay in the Orbiter Processing Facility, in much the same way as Spacelab is inserted. The passenger compartment would have two decks. The upper deck would be four seats wide, leaving room for a 64 cm wide aisle running the length of the module; also on this level would be doors for entry and unloading. The lower deck, only two seats wide with a similar aisle as the upper deck, would have space for storage along both sides of the module. Upper and lower decks would be linked by two ladders adjacent to the payload bay exit doors in the side of the compartment and a tunnel adapter and airlock would link the module with the Orbiter crew compartment. Additional toilet facilities would be included. Rockwell planners feel that a one or two day flight would be possible with minimum launch and re-entry g-forces on passengers.