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HT This Day: July 1, 1971 -- Soyuz home with a dead crew
Russia’s three Salyut cosmonauts landed in their Soyus-11 ferry craft today after a record-breaking stay space lasting 24 days.
Russia’s three Salyut cosmonauts landed in their Soyus-11 ferry craft today after a record-breaking stay space lasting 24 days.
Following an apparently flawless landing back on earth the three cosmonauts were found dead inside Soyuz-11 by a helicopter-borne recrew which reached the touchdown spot almost simultaneously.
The trio-Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev-had carried out the most extensive programme of scientific research ever conducted by men a space.
The Soviet Union has decided to appoint a commission to go into the causes for the death of the cosmonauts.
They spent 23 days aboard Salyut, a 25-ton orbiting laboratory -launched on April 19.
What caused their deaths was not immediately known. but it could have been a failure in one of the Soyuz-11’s life support systems at the last minute, or else .a yet unknown effect of return to earth after prolonged space flight.
A third possible cause might be a fault in the protective heat shield, which guards spacecraft from burning up as they sear through the upper layers of the earth’s atmosphere,
Past Experience
The previous record-holders in space-Andrian Nikolayev and Vitali Sevastyanov-found the return to gravity after 18 days of weightlessness a highly unpleasant experience.
The two men, who made their flight a year ago, reported that they felt they were being pressed into the earth after their long flight, and could not at first remain vertical.
Whether the deaths of the Soyuz-11 cosmonauts could have been caused by a more serious case of such “space-bends” it was too early to say.
Moscow Radio broke into its scheduled home service news bulletin at 10-43 a.m. (IST) to read out the Tass announcement of the cosmonauts’ death.
Tass announcement
The Tass announcement said:
“On June 29, 1971, the crew of the Salyut orbital science station completed the flight programme in full and was directed to, make a landing. The cosmonauts transferred the materials of scientific research and the logs to the transportation spaceship Soyuz-11 for return to earth.
“After completing the transition operation, the cosmonauts took their seats in the Soyuz-11 ship, checked the on-board systems and prepared the ship for unlinking from the Salyut station.
“At 0-28 p.m. Moscow Time (11-58 p.m. IST), the Soyuz-11 spaceship -and the Salyut orbital station separated and continued the flight separately. The crew of the Soyuz-11 spaceship reported to earth the unlinking operation passed without a hitch and all the systems were functioning normally,
“In order to carry out the descent to earth on June 30, at 1-35 a.m. (4-5 a.m. IST), after orienting the Soyuz-11 spaceship, its braking engine was fired and it functioned throughout the estimated time.”
‘’At the end of the operation of the braking engine, communication with the crew ceased. According to the programme, after aerodynamic braking in the atmosphere, the parachute system was put into action and before landing the soft-landing engines were fired. The flight of the descending apparatus ended in a smooth landing in the pre-set area.
Highest title
“Landing simultaneously with the ship, a helicopter-borne recovery group, upon opening the hatch, found the crew of the Soyuz-11 spaceship in the seats, without any signs of life.
“The causes of the crew’s death are being investigated.
“By their selfless work in the testing of sophisticated space equipment-the first manned orbital station Salyut and the transport ship Soyuz-11-Pilot Cosmonauts Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsayev-made a tremendous contribution to the development of orbital manned flights. Their exploits will ever remain in the memory of the Soviet people.”
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet today posthumously awarded the title “Hero of the Soviet Union,” the nation’s highest title to Georgy Dobrovolsky and Victor Patsayev for heroism and courage shown during the test of the orbital station Salyut, Tass said.
The third cosmonaut aboard Soyuz-11, Vladislay Volkov, was posthumously awarded the second medal “Gold Star.”
Volkov was awarded the title “Hero of the Soviet Union” in October, 1969, after his flight on board Soyuz-7.
A commission has been appointed to organise a funeral of three cosmonauts. They will be buried in the Red Square at Kremlin.
