Soyuz 35
COSPAR ID | 1980-027A |
---|---|
SATCAT no. | 11753 |
Mission duration | 55 days, 1 hour, 28 minutes, 1 second |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft type | NPO Energia |
Launch mass | 6,800 kilograms (15,000 lb) |
Crew | |
Crew size | 2 |
Launching | Leonid Popov Valery Ryumin |
Landing | Valery Kubasov Bertalan Farkas |
Callsign | Днепр (Dnepr – Dnieper) |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | April 9, 1980, 13:38:22 | UTC
Rocket | Soyuz-U |
Launch site | Baikonur 31/6 |
End of mission | |
Landing date | June 3, 1980, 15:06:23 | UTC
Landing site | 180 kilometres (110 mi) SE of Dzhezkazgan |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric |
Regime | Low Earth |
Perigee altitude | 198 kilometres (123 mi) |
Apogee altitude | 259.7 kilometres (161.4 mi) |
Inclination | 51.65 degrees |
Period | 88.81 minutes |
Docking with Salyut 6 | |
Soyuz programme (Crewed missions) |
Soyuz 35 (Russian: Союз 35, Union 35) was a 1980 Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the 10th mission to and eighth successful docking at the orbiting facility. The Soyuz 35 crew were the fourth long-duration crew to man the space station.[1]
As long-duration crews now routinely swapped spacecraft with incoming crew, the Soyuz 35 craft was used to return the visiting Soyuz 36 crew to Earth, while the resident crew returned in Soyuz 37.
Crew
Position | Launching Crew Member | Landing Crew Member |
---|---|---|
Commander | Leonid Popov First spaceflight |
Valery Kubasov Third spaceflight |
Flight Engineer/Research Cosmonaut | Valery Ryumin Third spaceflight |
Bertalan Farkas First spaceflight Research Cosmonaut |
Backup crew
Position | Crew | |
---|---|---|
Commander | Vyacheslav Zudov | |
Flight Engineer | Boris Andreyev |
Mission parameters
- Mass: 6,800 kg (15,000 lb)
- Perigee: 198 km (123 mi)
- Apogee: 259.7 km (161.4 mi)
- Inclination: 51.65°
- Period: 88.81 minutes
Crew launch, station activation
Soyuz 35 was launched 9 April 1980 with Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin aboard for a planned rendezvous with the orbiting Salyut 6 space station.[2] The launch followed increased recent activity with the uncrewed space station. An uncrewed test craft, Soyuz T-1, spent several months docked to the station until it was undocked 23 March and deorbited 25 March.[2] Progress 8, an uncrewed supply tanker, was launched almost immediately afterwards, on 27 March, and it docked with the rear dock port of the two-dock facility. Several manoeuvres were carried out by 2 April using the Progress to adjust the station's orbit.[2]
Valentin Lebedev had been scheduled to be Popov's flight engineer, but he was disqualified from launch after suffering a knee injury in a trampoline accident.[3] As none of the back-up crew had previous flight experience (required since the failure of the Soyuz 25 mission), Ryumin had been given the choice of replacing Lebedev or delaying the mission.[3] This despite having completed a six-month mission only the previous August.[2] Ryumin's family was upset by this turn of events.[3]
The Soyuz 35 crew docked with and entered the space station on 10 April, using the vacant front port. Ryumin read the traditional note left by the previous crew, a note he had written with no expectation he would be the one receiving it.
On 15 April, Progress 8's mission was completed. The crew loaded it with garbage, after which it was undocked and deorbited three days later. Then Progress 9 was launched, docking with the facility on 29 April. The next day, the first-ever transfer of water between a tanker and a
Minor repair work was carried out by the crew and "Lotos" was carried out, an experiment involving using special moulds to make plastic items with a quick-setting material. Additional experiments involved production of polyurethane foam, exploring its utility in assembling structures in orbit.[2]
Soyuz 36 and Soyuz T-2 crews visit
Progress 9 was undocked 20 May, leaving the rear port vacant for the arrival of the next crew.
Kubasov and Farkas returned to Earth in Soyuz 35, leaving the resident crew with the fresh Soyuz 36, which they then flew around to the front port of Salyut 6, a maneuver taking about 90 minutes.[2] The rapid switch of ferry vehicles, along with the launch of Soyuz 36 at almost the earliest possible date to allow a crew recovery in the nominal window, caused observers to speculate the secretive Soviets were possibly planning a second Intercosmos mission to recoup the time lost after the Soyuz 33 failure.[2] A launch indeed was soon in the offing, but not the predicted mission.
The resident crew carried out repairs of the station's Kaskad attitude control system and performed materials processing experiments.
First Asian and Cuban cosmonauts, end of mission
Observers anticipated a
Pham Tuan's flight also had political implications as he was a decorated flying ace from the
The following day, Popov and Ryumin boarded Soyuz 37 and redocked it to the front port, suggesting to observers that another crew's launch was coming shortly.[2] That was not to occur, nor was another Progress supply tanker soon launched. The crew performed a joint experiment with scientists on the ground, using their Yelena-F gamma ray telescope. The experiment was designed to compare measurements with another telescope on the ground, but the weather balloon the experiment was using malfunctioned and thieves stole much of the equipment before ground crews could locate it.[3]
The next landing window was now 2–15 October, suggesting the anticipated Cuban launch would be 24 September, but observers were caught off guard once again when Soyuz 38 was launched 18 September, almost a week earlier than anticipated.[2]
Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, the first space-farer of African descent, was accompanied by Yuri Romanenko into space, the fourth crew to visit the resident crew. The early launch date was intended to allow Cubans to be able to see their countryman overhead.[2] Twenty-seven material processing and medical experiments were carried out by the visiting crew.[3] As the Soyuz 35 crew were returning to Earth soon, the Soyuz 38 crew didn't swap their craft when they returned on 26 September.[2]
The launch, therefore, of Progress 11 on 28 September came as surprise to observers, as it was assumed cosmonauts due to return to Earth would not need fresh supplies.
References
- ^ The mission report is available here: http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-35.htm
- ^ ISBN 0-517-56954-X.
- ^ ISBN 0-87201-848-2.