Hans.Moravec@ROVER.RI.CMU.EDU (02/20/86)
a044 0334 20 Feb 86
PM-Soviets-Space,0487
Soviets Announce Launch of New Orbital Space Station
MOSCOW (AP) - The Soviet Union today launched a new space station
that is designed to become the primary building block of a
permanently manned orbital complex, the official Tass news agency
said.
The space station, named Mir, or Peace, has six docking ports to
accommodate other craft ferrying in cosmonauts and supplies, and also
contains advanced equipment for flight control and research, Tass
said.
It provided no details of today's launch.
Cosmonauts will be sent up to work in the new space complex ''after
it is run in outer space,'' Tass quoted Gen. Alexei Leonov, deputy
chief of the Soviet cosmonaut training center and a former cosmonaut,
as saying.
The Soviet news agency called the Mir ''a base module for assembling
a multi-purpose permanently operating manned complex.'' During the
pilotless phase of its flight in low-earth orbit, Tass said ''testing
is planned of elements of its construction, onboard systems and
apparatus.''
The Mir also has separate cabins for cosmonauts and specialized
research areas for experiments in medicine, biology, astrophysics and
other fields, Tass said. No details were given in the Tass report of
the station's size or weight, or the probable length of time it would
remain aloft.
Leonov said that with the Mir, ''practical cosmonautics has now
entered a new stage: the beginning of a transition from research and
experiments to large-scale production activities in outer space.''
The Mir is second Soviet space complex currently in orbit. The
Salyut-7 was launched in 1982, and is also orbiting without a crew at
present. Tass today said both the Mir and Salyut-7 are functioning
normally.
The Mir has new equipment allowing completely automated flight, a
function missing on the smaller Salyut-7, Tass said. The report gave
no indication what is planned for Salyut-7 now that that the newer
space platform is in orbit.
In October, a Soviet space official predicted that the Soviet Union
would have a permanently manned space station by the year 1990.
Oleg G. Gazenko, head of the Health Ministry department that
oversees space medicine, said then that Salyut-7 was never intended
as a platform for continuous operations, and that other Soviet
vehicles ''would bring us closer to achieving a permanently manned
station.''
Soviet cosmonauts completed the first-ever immediate crew rotation
aboard Salyut-7 in September, which Gazenko had called an important
step toward permanent operations.
The last three cosmonauts to work aboard the station returned ahead
of schedule in November because one of them fell ill.
Saluyt-7 has experienced at least two major malfunctions, including
an electrical fault more than a year ago that left it drifting and
out of control by ground stations.
The orbital platform was restored after a risky mission in June,
when two Soviet cosmonauts manually docked their Soyuz T-13 capsule
with the disabled complex and spent 10 days repairing the systems.
The Salyut-7 also suffered a fuel leak in December 1983.
AP-NY-02-20-86 0633EST
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