Salyut 6 Totally Explained

Everything about Salyut 6 totally explained

Salyut 6 (; English translation: Salute 6) was a Soviet orbital station. Launched on September 29, 1977, the station was the first of the 'second-generation' type of space station, possessing several revolutionary advances over the earlier Soviet space stations, which it resembled in overall design, most notably a second docking port where an unmanned Progress cargo spacecraft could dock and refuel the station. The launch of Salyut 6 allowed the Soviet space station program to evolve from short-duration to long-duration expeditions, and marked the beginning of the transition to multi-modular, long-term research stations in space.
From 1977 until 1982 Salyut 6 was visited by five long-duration crews and 11 short-term crews, including cosmonauts from Warsaw Pact countries. The very first long-duration crew on Salyut 6 broke a long-standing endurance record set on board the American Skylab station, staying 96 days in orbit. The longest flight on board Salyut 6 lasted 185 days. The fourth Salyut 6 expedition deployed a 10-meter radio-telescope antenna delivered by a cargo ship. After Salyut 6 manned operations were discontinued in 1981, a heavy unmanned spacecraft TKS spacecraft, derived from hardware left over from the cancelled Almaz military space station program and flown under the designation Cosmos 1267, was docked to the station as part of a hardware test. Salyut 6 was deorbited on July 29, 1982, almost five years after her launch.

Description

Salyut 6, launched on a Proton 8K82K rocket on 1977-09-29, marked the switch from engineering development stations to routine operations, uniting the best elements from all of the stations launched so far. The power system, consisting of a trio of steerable solar panels (together producing a peak of 4 kW of power), was based on the arrangement used on Salyut 4, as were the navigation (the Delta semi-automatic computer to depict the station's orbit and the Kaskad system to control its orientation) and thermal regulation (making use of a sophisticated arrangement of insulation and radiators). Salyut 6 also made use of environmental systems first used on Salyut 3, and controlled its orientation using gyrodenes tested on that station. The most important feature on Salyut 6, however, was the addition of a second docking port on the aft end of the station, which allowed two spacecraft to be docked at once. This, in turn, allowed resident crews to receive shorter, 'visiting' expeditions whilst they remained on board, and for crew handovers to take place. Such handovers, with one expedition vacating the station only after the next had arrived, permitted the long-sought after aim of continuous occupation to move a step closer. Some of the visiting expeditions were flown as part of the Intercosmos program, with non-Soviet cosmonauts visiting the station. Vladimír Remek of Czechoslovakia, the first space traveller not from the US or USSR, visited Salyut 6 in 1978, and the station also hosted cosmonauts from Hungary, Poland, Romania, Cuba, Mongolia, Vietnam, and East Germany. In addition, the rear port also featured plumbing to allow the station to be refuelled by unmanned Progress spacecraft, which also brought supplies and extra equipment to keep the station replenished and ensure the crew were always able to carry out useful scientific work aboard her (in all, twelve of the unmanned freighters delivered over 20 tons of equipment, supplies and fuel). The Progress tankers docked automatically to the station, making use of the new Igla automatic docking system, and were then opened and emptied by the cosmonauts on board, whilst transfer of fuel to the station took place automatically under supervision from the ground. The addition of the extra docking port also caused the adoption of the Almaz-derived twin-chamber propulsion system first used on Salyuts 3 and 5, with the two nozzles of the engine mounted peripherally on either side of the aft port. Salyut 6 also introduced a Unified Propulsion System, with both the engines and the station's control thrusters running on unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, drawn from a common set of pressurised tanks, allowing the refuelling capabilities of the visiting Progress tankers to be exploited to the maximum effect. The entire engine and fuel storage assembly was contained within an unpressurised bay at the rear of the station, which was the same diameter as the main pressurised compartment. However, the replacement of the Soyuz engine used on previous stations with the bay meant that the station kept a similar overall length to its predecessors. Salyut 6 was also equipped with an inward-opening EVA hatch on the side of the forward transfer compartment, which could be used as an airlock in a similar way to the system used on Salyut 4, and contained two new semi-rigid spacesuits which allowed much greater flexibility than earlier suits, and could be donned within five minutes in case of an emergency. Finally, the station offered considerable improvements in living conditions over previous outposts, with machinery being soundproofed, the crews being provided with designated 'cots' for sleeping and the equipping of the station with a shower and extensive gymnasium. An experimental transport logistics spacecraft called Cosmos 1267 docked with Salyut 6 in 1982. The transport logistics spacecraft was originally designed for the Almaz program, and proved that large modules could dock automatically with space stations, a major step toward the construction of multimodular stations such as Mir and the International Space Station.

Instrumentation

The primary instrument carried aboard the station was the BST-1M multispectral telescope, which could carry out astronomical observations in the infrared, ultraviolet and submillimetre spectra using a 1.5m-diameter mirror which was operated in cryogenic conditions at around −269 °C. The telescope could be operated only when Salyut 6 was on the night side of the Earth, and had its cover closed for the rest of the time. The second major instrument was the MKF-6M multispectral camera, which carried out Earth-resources observations. An improved form of a camera first tested on Soyuz 22, the camera captured an area of 165 by 220 kilometres with each image, down to a resolution of 20 metres. Each image was captured simultaneously in six bands in 1200-frame cassettes, which required regular replacement due to the fogging effects of radiation. Salyut 6 also featured a KATE-140 stereoscopic topographic mapping camera with a focal length of 140 mm, which captured images of 450 by 450 kilometres with a resolution of 50 metres in the visible and infrared spectra, which could be operated either remotely or by the resident crews. The photographic capabilities of the station were, therefore, extensive, and the Soviet Ministry of Agriculture had planted a number of specifically-selected crops at test sites at Salsky in the Ukraine and Voronezh near Lake Baikal to examine the capabilities of the cameras. To further expand its scientific capabilities, Salyut 6 was equipped with 20 portholes for observations, two scientific airlocks for equipment of rubbish ejection, and various pieces of apparatus to carry out biological experiments. Later on in its flight, a Progress spacecraft delivered an external telescope, the KRT-10 radio observatory, which incorporated a directional antenna and five radiometers. The antenna was deployed on the rear docking assembly, with the controller remaining inside the station, and was used for both astronomical and meteorological observations.

Resident crews

The station received 16 cosmonaut crews, including six long-duration crews, with the longest expedition lasting 185 days. The first long-duration crew stayed for 96 days, beating the 84-day world record for space endurance established in 1974 by the last Skylab crew.

On December 10 1977 the first crew, Yuri Romanenko and Georgi Grechko, arrived on Soyuz 26 and remained aboard Salyut 6 for 96 days.
On June 15 1978, Vladimir Kovalyonok and Aleksandr Ivanchenkov (Soyuz 29) arrived and remained on board for 140 days.
Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin (Soyuz 32) arrived on February 25 1979 and stayed 175 days.
On April 9 1980 Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin (Soyuz 35) arrived for the longest stay on Salyut 6, 185 days. While aboard, on July 19, they sent their greetings to the Olympians and wished them happy starts in the live communication between the station and the Central Lenin Stadium, where the opening ceremony of the 1980 Summer Olympics was held. They appeared on the stadium's scoreboard and their voices were translated via loud speakers.
A repair mission, consisting of Leonid Kizim, Oleg Makarov, and Gennady Strekalov (Soyuz T-3) worked on the space station for 12 days starting on November 27 1980.
On March 12 1981 the last crew, Vladimir Kovalyonok and Viktor Savinykh, arrived and stayed for 75 days.

Specifications

Length - 15.8 m

Maximum diameter - 4.15 m

Habitable volume - 90 m³

Weight at launch - 19,824 kg

Launch vehicle - Proton 8K82K (three-stage)

Orbital inclination - 51.6°

Span across solar arrays - 17 m

Area of solar arrays - 51 m²

Number of solar arrays - 3

Electricity available - 4–5 kW

Resupply carriers - Soyuz Ferry, Soyuz-T, Progress, TKS

Number of docking ports - 2

Total manned missions - 18

Total unmanned missions - 13

Total long-duration missions - 6

Number of main engines - 2

Main engine thrust (each) - 300 kgf (2.9 kN)

Station operations

Docking operations

Spacecraft	Docking		Port	Undocking		Duration (days)
Soyuz 25	1977-10-10	07:09	front	1977-10-11	~08:00	1.03
Soyuz 26	1977-12-11	06:02	rear	1978-01-16	14:22	36.35
Soyuz 27	1978-01-11	17:06	front	1978-03-16	11:00	63.75
Progress 1	1978-01-22	13:12	rear	1978-02-07	08:55	15.82
Soyuz 28	1978-03-03	20:10	rear	1978-03-10	13:25	6.72
Soyuz 29	1978-06-17	00:58	front	1978-09-03	11:23	78.43
Soyuz 30	1978-06-18	20:08	rear	1978-07-05	13:15	6.71
Progress 2	1978-07-09	15:59	rear	1978-08-02	07:57	23.66
Progress 3	1978-08-10	03:00	rear	1978-08-21	-	~11
Soyuz 31	1978-08-27	19:37	rear	1978-09-07	13:53	10.76
Soyuz 31	1978-09-07	14:21	front	1978-11-02	10:46	55.85
Progress 4	1978-10-06	04:00	rear	1978-10-24	16:07	18.50
Soyuz 32	1979-02-26	08:30	front	1979-06-13	12:51	107.18
Progress 5	1979-03-14	10:20	rear	1979-04-03	19:10	20.37
Progress 6	1979-05-15	09:19	rear	1979-06-08	11:00	24.07
Soyuz 34	1979-06-08	23:02	rear	1979-06-14	19:18	5.84
Soyuz 34	1979-06-14	~19:50	front	1979-08-19	12:08	65.86
Progress 7	1979-06-30	14:18	rear	1979-07-18	06:50	17.69
Soyuz 38						7.86
Soyuz T-4	1981-03-13	23:33	front	1981-05-26	-	~74
Soyuz 39	1981-03-23	19:28	rear	1981-03-30	11:22	6.66
Soyuz 40	1981-05-15	21:50	rear	1981-05-22	13:37	6.66
Cosmos 1267	1981-06-19	10:52	front	permanently docked	-	-

List is incomplete. Dates and times are 24-hour Moscow Time. Source:

Station crewing

Expedition	Crew	Launch Date	Flight Up	Landing Date	Flight Down	Duration (days)
Salyut 6 - EO-1	Yuri Romanenko, Georgi Grechko	December 10, 1977 01:18:40 UTC	Soyuz 26	March 16, 1978 11:18:47 UTC	Soyuz 27	96.42
Salyut 6 - EP-1	Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Oleg Makarov	January 10, 1978 12:26:00 UTC	Soyuz 27	January 16, 1978 11:24:58 UTC	Soyuz 26	5.96
Salyut 6 - EP-2	Aleksei Gubarev, Vladimír Remek - Czechoslovakia	March 2, 1978 15:28:00 UTC	Soyuz 28	March 10, 1978 13:44:00 UTC	Soyuz 28	7.93
Salyut 6 - EO-2	Vladimir Kovalyonok, Aleksandr Ivanchenkov	June 15, 1978 20:16:45 UTC	Soyuz 29	November 2, 1978 11:04:17 UTC	Soyuz 31	139.62
Salyut 6 - EP-3	Pyotr Klimuk, Miroslaw Hermaszewski - Poland	June 27, 1978 15:27:21 UTC	Soyuz 30	July 5, 1978 13:30:20 UTC	Soyuz 30	7.92
Salyut 6 - EP-4	Valery Bykovsky, Sigmund Jähn - German Democratic Republic	August 26, 1978 14:51:30 UTC	Soyuz 31	September 3, 1978 11:40:34 UTC	Soyuz 29	7.87
Salyut 6 - EO-3	Vladimir Lyakhov, Valery Ryumin	February 25, 1979 11:53:49 UTC	Soyuz 32	August 19, 1979 12:29:26 UTC	Soyuz 34	175.02
Salyut 6 - EO-4	Leonid Popov, Valery Ryumin	April 9, 1980 13:38:22 UTC	Soyuz 35	October 11, 1980 09:49:57 UTC	Soyuz 37	184.84
Salyut 6 - EP-5	Valery Kubasov, Bertalan Farkas - Hungary	May 26, 1980 18:20:39 UTC	Soyuz 36	June 3, 1980 15:06:23 UTC	Soyuz 35	7.87
Salyut 6 - EP-6	Yuri Malyshev, Vladimir Aksyonov	June 5, 1980 14:19:30 UTC	Soyuz T-2	June 9, 1980 12:39:00 UTC	Soyuz T-2	3.93
Salyut 6 - EP-7	Viktor Gorbatko, Pham Tuan - Vietnam	July 23, 1980 18:33:03 UTC	Soyuz 37	July 31, 1980 15:15:02 UTC	Soyuz 36	7.86
Salyut 6 - EP-8	Yuri Romanenko, Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez - Cuba	September 18, 1980 19:11:03 UTC	Soyuz 38	September 26, 1980 15:54:27 UTC	Soyuz 38	7.86
Salyut 6 - EO-5	Leonid Kizim, Oleg Makarov Gennady Strekalov	November 27, 1980 14:18:28 UTC	Soyuz T-3	December 10, 1980 09:26:10 UTC	Soyuz T-3	12.80
Salyut 6 - EO-6	Vladimir Kovalyonok, Viktor Savinykh	March 12, 1981 19:00:11 UTC	Soyuz T-4	May 26, 1981 12:37:34 UTC	Soyuz T-4	74.73
Salyut 6 - EP-9	Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Jugderdemidiyn Gurragcha - Mongolia	March 22, 1981 14:58:55 UTC	Soyuz 39	March 30, 1981 11:40:58 UTC	Soyuz 39	7.86
Salyut 6 - EP-10	Leonid Popov, Dumitru Prunariu - Romania	May 14, 1981 17:16:38 UTC	Soyuz 40	May 22, 1981 13:58:30 UTC	Soyuz 40	7.86

Spacewalks

EVA	Spacewalkers	Date	EVA Start	EVA End	Duration (hours)	Comments
*Salyut 6 - PE-1*	Romanenko & Grechko	1977-12-19	21:36	23:04	1:28	Test of Orlan-D spacesuit, inspection of docking apparatus and Medusa cassette deployment.
*Salyut 6 - PE-2*	Kovalyonok & Ivanchenkov	1978-07-29	04:00	06:20	2:05	Retrieval of Medusa cassette and passive micrometeoroid detector, deployment of radiation detector & new experimental cassettes.
*Salyut 6 - PE-3*	Ryumin & Lyakhov	1979-08-15	14:16	15:39	1:23	Removal of KRT-10 radio telescope dish, retrieval of experiment cassettes.

Dates and times are 24-hour Coordinated Universal Time. Source: Further Information

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