Soyuz 29 (original) (raw)


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Soyuz 29

Part of Salyut

Salyut 6
Salyut 6
Credit: © Mark Wade

Record flight duration. Docked with Salyut 6. First transfer of a Soyuz from the aft port to the front port of a space station.

AKA: Foton (Photon);Salyut 6 EO-2. Launched: 1978-06-15. Returned: 1978-11-02. Number crew: 2 . Duration: 139.62 days. Location: Milit�rhistorisches Museum, Dresden, Germany.

Placed on board the Salyut-6 station the EO-2 long-duration crew consisting of V V Kovalyonok and A S Ivanchenkov to conduct scientific and technological investigations and experiments.

Narrative (adapted from D S F Portree's Mir Hardware Heritage, NASA RP-1357, 1995)

Upon arriving at Salyut 6, Kovalyonok and Ivanchenkov switched on the station's air regenerators and thermal regulation system, and activated the water recycling system to reprocess water left aboard by the EO-1 crew. De-mothballing Salyut 6 occurred simultaneously with the crew's adaptation to weightlessness, and required about one week. On June 19 Salyut 6 was in a 368 km by 338 km orbit. Onboard temperature was 20 deg C, and air pressure was 750 mm/Hg. Soon after this, Kovalyonok and Ivanchenkov performed maintenance on the station's airlock, installed equipment they brought with them in Soyuz 29's orbital module, and tested the station's Kaskad orientation system. The station operated in gravity-gradient stabilised mode June 24-26 to avoid attitude control system engine firings which could cause interference with a 3-day smelting experiment using the Splav-01 furnace. The previous crew installed the furnace in the intermediate compartment so it could operate in vacuum.42

From 30 June 29-July 5, 1978 the Soyuz 30 mission provided the EO-2 crew with their first visitors. Miroslaw Hermaszewski, the second Intercosmos cosmonaut, flew to Salyut 6 with Pyotr Klimuk. His experiment program stressed life sciences, Earth observations, and study of the aurora borealis.

Progress 2 flew from July 9-August 2, 1978. It delivered, among other items, the Kristall kiln. Fuel transfer from the Progress to the Salyut was carried out under TsUP control, leaving the cosmonauts free to do other things. On July 29, the EO-2 crew conducted an EVA to retrieve detectors and materials samples launched attached to the Salyut 6 hull. The EVA lasted 2 hr, 5 min. Afterwards, the EO-2 crew replenished the Salyut 6 air supply, which had been depleted by the EVA, from tanks in Progress 2. They then filled Progress 2 with trash. It separated and deorbited on command from the TsUP.

Progress flew from August 10-21, 1978 and again resupplied the station. After it had departed, Soyuz 31 flew August 27-September 3, 1978 with the crew of Valeri Bykovsky and Sigmund Jaehn of East Germany. Jaehn's program focused on materials sciences, Earth observations, and life sciences.

On September 7, 1978 the EO-2 crew conducted the first transfer of a Soyuz from the aft port to the front port of a space station. This became a routine procedure. They undocked Soyuz 31 and backed off to 100-200 m distance. Then the TsUP commanded Salyut 6 to rotate laterally 180 deg , placing the front port before the waiting Soyuz 31 spacecraft. The operation freed the aft port for additional Progress freighters, the first of which, Progress 4 docked with the station from October 6-24, 1978. Late in Salyut 6 Principal Expedition 2, the crew noted deviations in the control parameters of the fuel lines in the Salyut 6 propulsion system. After the crew had departed, and the station was unoccupied, analysis of readings from six sensors indicated a leak in one of three tanks in the Salyut 6 ODU. UDMH fuel had leaked into the nitrogen-pressurized bellows which pushed fuel from the tank to Salyut 6's rocket motors. It threatened to damage non-metallic parts of a valve which lead into the 'supercharging line,' and to contaminate the entire propulsion system, including the attitude control system.

More at: Soyuz 29.

Family: Manned spaceflight. People: Ivanchenkov, Kovalyonok. Spacecraft: Salyut 6.

1978 June 15 - . 20:16 GMT - . Launch Site: Baikonur. Launch Complex: Baikonur LC1. LV Family: R-7. Launch Vehicle: Soyuz-U.

1978 June 27 - . 15:27 GMT - . Launch Site: Baikonur. Launch Complex: Baikonur LC1. LV Family: R-7. Launch Vehicle: Soyuz-U.

1978 July 5 - .

1978 July 7 - . 11:26 GMT - . Launch Site: Baikonur. Launch Complex: Baikonur LC31. LV Family: R-7. Launch Vehicle: Soyuz-U.

1978 July 29 - . 04:00 GMT - .

1978 August 7 - . 22:31 GMT - . Launch Site: Baikonur. Launch Complex: Baikonur LC31. LV Family: R-7. Launch Vehicle: Soyuz-U.

1978 August 20 - .

1978 August 26 - . 14:51 GMT - . Launch Site: Baikonur. Launch Complex: Baikonur LC1. LV Family: R-7. Launch Vehicle: Soyuz-U.

1978 September 3 - .

1978 October 3 - . 23:09 GMT - . Launch Site: Baikonur. Launch Complex: Baikonur LC1. LV Family: R-7. Launch Vehicle: Soyuz-U.

1978 November 2 - .

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