glenn@LL-VLSI.ARPA (Glenn Chapman) (10/07/85)
The Soviet Union just announced yesterday (Oct 5) that a new Star module
was docked to the Salyut 7 space station on Oct 3. The Star series are
very large (50 cubic meter volume) additions to the space station which
increase it's working area and electrical power by at least 50%. The
Russians said that this module brought up 5 tonnes of cargo to the 3 man
crew that is currently aboard the Salyut. This is the first Star module
that has been launched in about 2 years. In the past the Soviets have
described these as fully equipped laboratories which can be docked to the
station. They can either stay with the Salyut or leave and act as free flying
unites (either manned or unmanned). Aviation Week has also suggested possible
military applications. The previous Star module (docked to Salyut 7 in
late 1983) contained a capsule which returned 500 Kg of material to earth.
After that the module was detached and destroyed.
This suggests several things. First it confirms that the Salyut 7 has been
repaired. Secondly comming after the partial crew replacement of the
Soyuz T-14/13 mission (Sept 26) it really suggests that this is going to be a
very long duration mission on the space station. Finally the reactivation of
the Star modules indicates again that Salyut 7 will not be replaced in the
near future by Salyut 8.
This puts the Russians space station at about half the mass of the finished
version of the NASA station. Now if we can get the money to build NASA's.
Glenn Chapman