[net.astro] StarDate: September 29 The Salyut 6 Space Station

dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (09/29/85)

Today is the anniversary of the launch of the longest lived-in
structure in outer space.  More -- in a minute.

September 29  The Salyut 6 Space Station

On this date in the year 1977, the Soviets launched what would become
the closest thing the world has known -- so far -- to a real space
station.

It was Salyut 6, which came down again in the summer of l982.  Sixteen
crews of Soviet cosmonauts visited Salyut in the course of missions
that lasted from a few days to more than six months at a time.

While Salyut 6 was in orbit, the Soviets perfected a new technique for
sending supplies and fuel to the space station.  They used robots --
unmanned capsules that they called "Progress" spacecraft -- which
automatically docked with the station.  One of these automatic supply
ships was also used as a building block module.  It was permanently
docked to Salyut 6 to nearly double the size of the structure.  This
technique of adding modules to a basic structure will soon be used to
build other, even larger structures in space -- when Russia and the
United States start building larger space stations.

The Soviets now have another small space station in orbit -- Salyut 7
-- launched in 1983.  This past July a new version of the robot
Progress capsule docked with Salyut 7.  Designated Cosmos 1669, the
capsule carries its own independent electrical supply.  Cosmos 1669
could be the prototype of a free-flying platform -- part of an orbital
complex of space structures.

In the meantime, there's no doubt that the Soviets will continue to
place cosmonauts in orbit -- to explore the potential of humans living
in space.


Script by Deborah Byrd and Diana Hadley.


(c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin