Jump to content

Soyuz 11

Coordinates: 47°20′N 70°24′E / 47.333°N 70.400°E / 47.333; 70.400
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 137.110.115.141 (talk) at 04:31, 22 November 2010 (→Death of crew: grammar). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the 1971 mission. For the mission identified by NASA as ISS Soyuz 11, see Soyuz TMA-7.
Soyuz 11
COSPAR ID1971-053A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.05283Edit this on Wikidata
Crew
Members3
File:Soyuz-11.gif

Soyuz 11 (Russian: Союз 11, Union 11) was the first successful visit to the world's first space station, Salyut 1. The mission ended in disaster when the crew capsule depressurised during preparations for re-entry, killing the three-man crew.[3] This accident resulted in the only human deaths to occur in space (as opposed to high atmosphere). The crew members aboard Soyuz 11 were Vladislav Volkov, Georgi Dobrovolski and Viktor Patsayev.[4][5][6]

Crew

Position Cosmonaut
Commander Georgi Dobrovolski
First spaceflight
Flight Engineer Vladislav Volkov
Second spaceflight
Test Engineer Viktor Patsayev
First spaceflight

Backup crew

Position Cosmonaut
Commander Aleksei Gubarev
Flight Engineer Vitali Sevastyanov
Test Engineer Anatoli Voronov

Original crew

Position Cosmonaut
Commander Alexei Leonov
Flight Engineer Valeri Kubasov
Test Engineer Pyotr Kolodin

Crew notes

Soyuz-11 on the 1971 USSR commemorative stamp

The original prime crew for Soyuz 11 consisted of Alexei Leonov, Valeri Kubasov and Pyotr Kolodin. A medical X-ray examination four days before launch suggested that Kubasov might have tuberculosis, and according to the mission rules, the prime crew was replaced with the back-up crew. For Dobrovolski and Patsayev, this was to be their first space mission. After the failure of Salyut 2 to orbit, Kubasov and Leonov were reassigned to Soyuz 19 for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975.

Mission parameters

  • Mass: 6,790 kg (14,970 lb)
  • Perigee: 163 km (101 mi)
  • Apogee: 237 km (147 mi)
  • Inclination: 51.5°
  • Period: 88.4 min

Mission highlights

The Soyuz spacecraft was launched on June 7, 1971, from Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Kazakh SSR. Several months earlier, the first mission to the Salyut, Soyuz 10, had failed to successfully dock with the station.[7] Soyuz 11, however, successfully docked with Salyut 1 on June 7 and the cosmonauts remained on-board for 22 days, setting space endurance records that would hold until the American Skylab 2 mission in May-June 1973.[3]

Upon first entering the station, the crew encountered a smokey and burnt atmosphere and after replacing part of the ventilation system spent the next day back in their Soyuz until the air cleared. Their stay in Salyut was productive, including live television broadcasts. However, a fire broke out on day 11 of their stay causing mission planners to consider abandoning the station. The planned highlight of the mission was to have been the observation of an N-1 booster launch, but the launch was postponed. The crew also found that using the exercise treadmill as they were required to do twice a day caused the whole station to vibrate. Pravda released news of the mission and regular updates while it was in progress.

Death of crew

On June 30, 1971, after an apparently normal re-entry of the capsule of the Soyuz 11 mission, the recovery team opened the capsule to find the crew dead.[2][3][8] It quickly became apparent that they had asphyxiated. The fault was traced to a breathing ventilation valve, located between the orbital module and the descent module, that had been jolted open as the descent module separated from the service module, 723 seconds after retrofire.[9][10] The two were held together by explosive bolts designed to fire sequentially; in fact, they fired simultaneously.[9] The force of this caused the internal mechanism of the pressure equalization valve to loosen a seal that was usually discarded later and normally allowed automatic adjustment of the cabin pressure.[2][9] The valve opened at an altitude of Template:Km to mi, and the gradual loss of pressure was fatal within seconds.[9][11] The valve was located beneath the seats and was impossible to locate and block before the air was lost. Flight recorder data from the single cosmonaut outfitted with biomedical sensors showed death occurred within 40 seconds of pressure loss. By 935 seconds after the retrofire, the cabin pressure was zero, and remained there until the capsule hit the Earth's atmosphere.[9]

Film later declassified showed support crews attempting CPR on the cosmonauts.[12] It was not known until an autopsy that they had died because of a capsule depressurization. The ground crew had lost audio contact with the crew before re-entry began and had already begun preparations for contingencies in case the crew had been lost.[4]

The cosmonauts were given a large state funeral and buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis at Red Square, Moscow near the remains of Yuri Gagarin.[3] U.S. astronaut Tom Stafford was one of the pallbearers. They were also each posthumously awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medal. Craters on the Moon were named after the three cosmonauts.

The Soyuz spacecraft was extensively redesigned after this incident to carry only two cosmonauts. The extra room meant that the crew could wear space suits during launch and landing.[13] A Soyuz capsule would not hold three crew members again until the Soyuz-T redesign in 1980, which freed enough space for three people in lightweight pressure suits to travel in the capsule.

References

  1. ^ "Baikonur LC1". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved 2009-03-04.
  2. ^ a b c National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (2005). "Soyuz 11". NASA -National Space Science Data Center. Retrieved October 20, 2007.
  3. ^ a b c d Time Magazine (July 12, 1971). "Triumph and Tragedy of Soyuz 11". Time Magazine. Retrieved October 20, 2007.
  4. ^ a b Encyclopedia Astronautica (2007). "Soyuz 11". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved October 20, 2007.
  5. ^ Mamta Trivedi (2001). "30 Years Ago: The World's First Space Station, Salyut 1". Space.com - Imaginova Corp. Retrieved October 20, 2007.
  6. ^ CNN (1997). "After glory era, cash woes hobble Russian space program". CNN. Retrieved October 20, 2007. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  7. ^ Time Magazine (May 10, 1971). "A Troubled Salyut". Time Magazine. Retrieved October 20, 2007.
  8. ^ USA Today (February 1, 2003). "Deadly accidents in the history of space exploration". USA Today. Retrieved October 20, 2007.
  9. ^ a b c d e NASA (1974). "The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project". NASA. Retrieved October 20, 2007.
  10. ^ NASA. "The crew of Soyuz 11". NASA. Retrieved October 20, 2007.
  11. ^ Jane's Information Group (2003). "A brief history of space accidents". Jane's Information Group. Archived from the original on October 5, 2007. Retrieved October 20, 2007.
  12. ^ This footage was shown during the 1994 TV adaptation of the documentary Moon Shot by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton.
  13. ^ Charles R. Smith (2003). "Space Race Is Alive and Well". NewsMax. Retrieved October 20, 2007.

Further reading

  • United States Congress: Office of Technology Assessment (March 30, 2005). Salyut: Soviet Steps Toward Permanent Human Presence in Space - A Technical Memorandum. Seattle: University Press of the Pacific. pp. 80 pages. ISBN 1-4102-2138-5.
  • Ivanovich, Grujica S. (2008). Salyut - The First Space Station: Triumph and Tragedy. Praxis. pp. 300 pages. ISBN 0387735852. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • Fallen Astronauts, Colin Burgess, University of Nebraska Press, 2003.

47°20′N 70°24′E / 47.333°N 70.400°E / 47.333; 70.400

Template:Link GA

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Soyuz_11&oldid=398186421"