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Aviation History
1981
1981 - 0016.PDF
14 FLIGHT International, 3 lanuary 1981 Progress 11 leaves Salyut 6 THE Russian automatic cargo craft Progress 11 was separated from the Salyut 6 orbiting laboratory on Decem ber 10 and burnt up in the atmosphere the next day. Progress 11 was launched on September 28 and made the first automatic refuelling of Salyut 6's orbital manoeuvring system (Flight, November 29, 1980). • Several more details of the visit to Salyut 6 by the Soyuz T-3 crew have now been revealed. Cosmonauts Kizim, Strekalov and Makarov fitted a new, four-pump hydraulic-module into Salyut 6's temperature control system. The crew also replaced tele metry, programming and timing modules, as well as fitting a new con verter to Salyut 6's fuel system. The cosmonauts undocked Soyuz T-3 at 09.10hr Moscow time on December 10, roughly three hours before touch down. The landing-capsule was then separated from the Soyuz T-3 service- module, before retro-rockets were fired—a new feature of Soyuz T craft. Soyuz T-3's retro-rockets were fired at a distance of roughly 9,800km from landing, which was about 130km east of Dzhezkazgah. • The Soviet Union has also pub- Salyut 6 drops away from the crew of Soyuz T-3 during their preparations for entry and landing. The or biting laboratory is seen from the front end and the three rectangular solar arrays dominate the habitable module. Manned Soyuz craft normally dock with the front end of Salyut 6, while Pro gress cargo craft use the rear end lished the results of some of the plant- growth experiments carried out during the 185 days spent aboard Salyut 6 by Popov and Ryumin. The cosmo nauts found that orchids grew nor mally for 177 days, but that they did not give flowers. Several blossoming orchids that were carried to the space station quickly faded and lost all their flowers within two or three days. Orchids were chosen for the experi ment because they do not always grow upwards on Earth—in the jungle, for example, orchid roots often grow up ward. Popov and Lyakhov had more suc cess with another plant, Arabidopsis, which produced some flowers—the first time that blooms have been pro duced in space. But although Arabi dopsis does not require wind or in sects for pollination, the flowers returned to Earth were found to be sterile and did not produce seeds. Soviet scientists do not yet know why the flowers were sterile, but are preparing further experiments for flight which may provide some answers. Russia sees a need 'to grow plants in space on long flights, so as to provide vitamin C for cosmonauts. Nasa extends Venus orbiter mission NASA'S Ames Research Centre, Cali fornia, is to continue operating its Pioneer-Venus orbiter until 1986. The craft completed its second year around Venus in December, having run out of attitude-control gas earlier in 1980. During this time the orbiter mapped 93 per cent of the Venusian surface with radar and took more than 1,000 ultraviolet pictures of cloud tops. While attitude-control gas remained, Pioneer-Venus was kept in an orbit with an inclination of 17° to the planet's equator, giving optimum cov erage of the planet. But the craft will now float back into an equatorial plane, which it will reach in 1986. By 1992 the orbit will have floated back to its original inclination, but its low est point will then touch the Venusian atmosphere, causing the craft to burn up. Between now and 1986, the orbiter's sensors will continue to return infor mation on the region of charged par ticles surrounding the planet. The craft's gravity measuring experiments will also allow mass-concentrations in the Venusian surface to be mapped. One advantage of the floating orbit is that Pioneer-Venus will pass through previously unexplored vantage points. Pioneer-Venus may also make joint observations with Russian craft that are due to reach Venus in 1982 and 1984. Spaceshots... Ireland became the 11th member state of the European Space Agency (ESA) early in December. It has virtually been a full member since 1975, but it was only in October 1980 that France ratified the ESA convention. Ireland has a 0-54 per cent share in ESA's man datory budget, but also participates in remote-sensing and Ariane pro duction. Nasa's Pioneer 6 chalked up 15 years in space during December— the longest operating life of any spacecraft. Pioneer 6 made the first detailed measurements of the tenuous gas in space and has ob served the Sun and its corona. It also passed through part of comet Kohoutek's tail. The TRW-built Pioneer 6 and its sister craft Pioneer 7, 8 and 9 continue to pro vide information about solar ac tivity, allowing solar storms to be predicted. The storms often disrupt communications, so forecasts are useful to airlines and communica tions organisations. Hughes Aircraft is to build the Galileo craft which will visit Jupiter in 1987 (Flight, Dec ember 6, 1980). Galileo comprises an orbiter and an entry probe, which is the conical, striped object at bottom centre. Hughes is developing both the probe and the orbiter. Nasa had planned to launch the two craft and an Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) aboard a Shuttle flight in 1982. But Shuttle delays forced a less favourable launch in early 1984. As a result the probe and orbiter will each have a separate Shuttle launch
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