January 1982:Salyut 6 Expedition 5

During Salyut's autonomous flight, FCC specialists constantly monitored the functional states of the station's ODU,power supply and thermoregulating system. On 16 November, for the first time ever automatically. Progress 11,still docked to the aft port, refuelled the ODU. On 18 November Progress 11’s SKDU was used to adjust the orbit of the complex. Following the burn the orbital parameters were: 315 x 299 km; period 90.5 mins; inclination 51.6°.

Also on the 18th the Paris newspaper L’Humanite carried an interview with Georgi Beregovoi in which the head of the Gagarin Training Centre said that a three-man crew would soon fly to Salyut 6 to effect repairs and assess the state of its sysems with a view to the possible reuse of the station for a long flight.

The first Soviet three man crew for 9 years was commanded by rookie Commander (CDR) Lt-Col Leonid Kizim. 39 at the time of the flight (he joined the cosmonaut corps in 1965 and is one of the “career cosmonauts” who learned to fly advanced planes after being selected). He was reserve CDR for the Soyuz T-2 flight. The Flight Engineer (FE) was veteran cosmonaut Oleg Makarov, 47, who flew into space aboard Soyuz 12 and 27 as well as taking part in the Soyuz 18 “April 5 Anomaly” launch failure. The third cosmonaut was Research Engineer (RE) Gennady Strekalov,40,who like Makarov graduated from the Bauman Technical School and was an apprentice coppersmith at the time the first Salyut was being constructed. Strekalov joined the cosmonaut corps in 1973 along with Ryumin and Aksenov. He was Aksenov's reserve on the Soyuz 22 flight. All three began working with the Soyuz T design while it was still in the blueprint stage.

The flight plan for Soyuz T-3 envisaged 13 days of work in space, including tasks connected with testing the Soyuz T-3 craft and conducting complicated repairs to the Salyut 6 laboratory.

The Soviets say that crew composition on future flights of the Soyuz T design will be variable. The third cosmonaut has no piloting function and his place can be taken by extra equipment. While in autonomous flight Soyuz T is pressurised by pure oxygen in contrast to the oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere on the Soyuz ships.

Soyuz T-3 In Flight

Soyuz T-3 was launched at 1418 (all times GMT) on 27 November 1980. Once in space, the cosmonauts remained harnessed to their seats until the hermeticity of the compartments was confirmed. CDR Kizim,call sign Mayak,reported that the crew felt well.

By midnight on the 27th,following the standard rendezvous sequence,Soyuz T-3 was in an aproach trajectory with Salyut 6/Progress 11. At 5 km from the complex,Kizim handed control of the docking over to the Argon computer, or Mayak-4 as FCC often referred to it (referencing its value as akin to that of a fourth member of the crew). The software problems experienced by the Jupiters on Soyuz T-2's docking had been successfully resolved and,at 1554,exactly on schedule, the ship docked with the front docking port of Saiyut 6. After equalisation of pressure between the vehicles (possibly involving dumping of the Soyuz T-3 oxygen atmosphere overboard and bleeding in the atmosphere from Salyut), Makarov opened the internal hatches and floated into the station. The first thing Makarov found was a bundle of small loaves and some salt left for them by the Dniepers. Makarov thanked Popov and Ryumin for their genuine and welcome surprise. Both crews would converse together at length during the flight.

The first work activities, as always, involved turning the station over from autonomous to manual control. The life support systems were made fully operational (certain functions are begun automatically by FCC before the launch of a crew). In addition, the cosmonauts activated the Oasis and Svetoblok biological installations to conduct some of the ten experiments planned during the short flight. Salyut was put into a gravity-stabilised mode to conserve fuel during the flight.

Working Aboard Salyut

At first the Mayaks found adaptation to weightlessness difficult because of the heavy work load forced on them during the short flight. To aid their adaptation, FCC physicians added physical exercises to the crew's work programme on the second day aboard Salyut. The cosmonauts were cautious in conducting their tasks for the first days in order to avoid any sickness. Parameters of the microclimate inside Salyut were:pressure 780 mm: temperature 21°. A prime task for the cosmonauts early in their stay on Salyut was to take air samples from all over the station in the experiment called Microclimate. The samples would show if air was stagnating in any sections of the station because of slow movement by the airflow from the ventilators. The temperature, humidity and other factors of the sampled air would be determined on Earth. FCC specialists stated that the repair work was vital for Salyut's future. Launching Soyuz T-3 and conducting the repairs was costly, the Soviets said, but nowhere near as costly as launching a new station.

The largest, and most vital, repair the Mayaks conducted involved the replacement of a 4-pump hydro-pump block which circulated fluid through pipes located all over the station’s bulkhead to provide temperature regulation. After 3 years of continuous use the hydro-pump had given out. Repair of this vital system was complicated by the fact that designers had never really anticipated utilising Salyut 6 for longer than two years and so designed the pump to be permanent. Therefore, to get to the hydro-pump it was necessary to saw off one of the metal supports. The replacement pump contained the liquid coolant and the cosmonauts had to ensure, with immense care, that none of the liquid was spilt. The pipes of the system had to be decompressed before the pump was installed,prompting FCC to advise the crew to be careful. Kizim radioed down, “Don’t worry, we’re experienced drivers."

• Faults in the electricity supply commutator were diagnosed from telemetry during autonomous flight. The Mayaks measured the electrical flow in the circuits and determined the fault. FCC advised them on rectification methods.

• A faulty electronics unit in the telemetry system was repaired by partially dismantling the device and replacing certain elements.

• A faulty ODU refuelling system compressor transformer was replaced.

• A new set of programme-timing devices, used to control station systems, was installed.

• The structural stability of the complex was tested in the Amplituda experiment. Following metronome signals one crewman jumped up and down on the running track using different rhythms. A transducer delivered by Progress 11 telemetered the effects to FCC.

Return to Earth

On 8 December the Mayaks began packing the results of their work into the descent module of Soyuz T-3. Progress 11’s SKDU was used to correct the complex’s orbit on the same day. The resultant parameters were: 370 x 290 km; period 90.8 mins; inclination 51.6°. The next day, Soyuz’s systems were checked and the rest of the results stowed. At 1023, Progress 11 was commanded to undock from the complex. All was now ready for them to return home.

At 0510 on 10 December Soyuz T-3 was undocked from Salyut 6 and retrofired over the South Atlantic to fly a nominal re-entry (some reports suggest the descent was fully automatic) to land some 130 km East of Dzezkazgan at 0926. Medical checks at the landing site showed that, because they were unable to carry out the full programme of exercises, cosmonauts Kizim and Strekalov suffered from a certain amount of tension. Makarov, in contrast, was in better condition probably because of experience gained from his previous flights.

At 1400 on 11 December the Progress 11 SKDU was ignited for the last time and the cargo spaceship was brought out of orbit to burn up over the Pacific ocean away from the shipping lanes. Progress 11 had been attached to Salyut 6 for 70 days, the longest ever flight by a Progress ship; earlier Soviet descriptions of Progress said that it had a maximum orbital duration attached to Salyut of about 30 days.

The Mayaks collected their State and Party awards from L.I.Brezhnev in the Kremlin on 24 December. Summing up the Soviet Union's year in space the Soviet leader said that never before had the USSR had such a full year in space technology. Six crews had flown into space, the duration of a flight had been extended to 185 days, three international crews had flown and the new Soyuz T ship had been verified to replace the existing system.

By 0900 on 29 December, 39 months after its launch, Salyut 6 was in an orbit with a height of 349 x 308 km; period 91 mins: inclination 51.6°.