This remarkable book is a unique insight into the people involved
in the development of the Salyut space station and the crews
assigned to operate it. It describes the rotation between the
crews, analyses the decision to send the back-up crew on Soyuz 11
and recounts the intrigues and difficult relationships between all
the personalities involved - politicians, CKBEM managers,
designers, generals and cosmonauts. Biographies of the Soyuz 11
cosmonauts are published for the first time in English and the
longest manned space mission of the time is described before
Grujica Ivanovich gives a unique summary of the most tragic day in
the Soviet/Russian manned space program. An investigation into the
cause of the tragic deaths of the Soyuz 11 cosmonauts precedes a
description of the post-Salyut era, showing how the legacy of the
first space station has survived for decades.
The first two chapters provide the history of the first Soviet
space station projects Almaz, Soyuz-R, MKS and DOS from 1964 to1970
and cover the selection of DOS-1 crews in 1971, their training and
crew rotations. Chapter 3 launches the Salyut space station with
its first crew to occupy the first space station, while Chapter 4
portrays the drama of the Soyuz 10 mission in April 1971, which
failed to dock with Salyut due to a broken docking probe element,
culminating a dramatic night return to the Earth. The following two
chapters describe the State Commissiona (TM)s decision to replace
the original crew of Soyuz 11 two days before the launch in June
1971 and introduce cosmonauts Dobrovolysky, Volkov and Patcayev.
The launch of Soyuz 11, its docking with Salyut and the first days
aboard the space station aredescribed in Chapter 7 and the fire
which almost curtailed the mission and led to Dobrovolsky and
Volkova (TM)s deteriorating relationship is then covered. The final
stages of the mission, including the problems with the hatch before
Soyuz 11 separated from the Salyut space station, are explained
before the author details the separation of the orbital and service
modules and the tragic mistake made by the cosmonauts. Chapter 10
describes the normal landing of Soyuz 11, the discovery of and
attempts to revive the dead cosmonauts.
and includes the first interview with one of the rescuers. The
author then demonstrates how detailed analysis found that, after
separation from the orbital module, the internal pressure in the
descent module dropped from 920mm to zero in 112 seconds due to the
premature opening of one of the valves. Without spacesuits, the
cosmonauts had only 15-20 seconds to close the valve and save their
lives. An attempt by Dobrovolsky sadly failed. Further
investigation identified numerous problems which contributed to the
tragedy, including the valve technology, leaking of personal
protection equipment, problems with the hatch and omissions in crew
training, as well as confusion between the cosmonauts.
The last chapters describe the Post-Salyut era. After three
single modular stations, in 1986 the USSR launched the base module
of the third generation space station Mir, which has six docking
probes. In the following years, Mir grew rapidly and was extended
with five additional scientific modules to become a true space
outpost continually occupied by humans, the dream of space
pioneers. The service module Zvezda, a modified Salyut/DOS-1,
currently serves as acore for the International Space Station. The
book ends with memories of all those affected by the DOS program
and the tragedy of the heroic Soyuz 11 crew and looks forward to a
continuation of the historic mission of Salyut.
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