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71-615: SSVP was initially conceived in 1967 by the TsKBEM design bureau for use on the then-planned OIS military space station. Though OIS never flew, in 1970 the design was selected for use on the Salyut and Almaz space stations. During its first attempted use on the Soyuz 10 mission, docking was unsuccessful due to a faulty hatch, and a failure in the automatic docking system. This led to a number of redesigns to reduce damage from accidental loads. In

142-747: A "docking sphere" containing a front port and starboard docking port. While the station cores DOS-7 and DOS-8 were built and flown, they never received the Salyut designation. Instead, DOS-7 evolved into the Mir Core Module for the Mir space station that followed the Salyut programme, and DOS-8 was used as the Zvezda Service Module for the International Space Station (ISS) which followed Mir . The heritage from

213-588: A maximum of five docking ports (front, port, starboard, zenith and nadir). And finally, the modules for Mir were derived from the Functional Cargo Block design of the Almaz programme. The name of the Mir space station – Russian : Мир , literally Peace or World – was to signify the intentions of the Soviet Union to bring peace to the world. However, it was during the time of Mir that

284-436: A modified Nudelman aircraft cannon. To operate the cannon, the crew had to maneuver the whole space station in the direction of the target. Sources state that the firing was to deplete the ammunition on the craft. However, others sources say that the station conducted 3 tests of the gun through the whole mission span of Salyut 3. In 1977, another marked step forward was made with the second generation of Salyut stations. The aim

355-433: A resolution down to 25 meters, until it was deorbited on July 30, 1989. It was the first commercial radar satellite, according to Art Dula (chairman of Excalibur Almaz ), who worked in a company marketing the radar images gathered by the satellite. Almaz-1 – The third Almaz-T spacecraft was launched on March 31, 1991, under the name Almaz-1. After the launch a failure of the communications antenna designed to downlink

426-415: A second docking port, these two Salyut stations became the first that actually utilised two docking ports: this made it possible for two Soyuz spacecraft to dock at the same time for crew exchange of the station and for Progress spacecraft to resupply the station, allowing for the first time a continuous ("permanent") occupation of space stations. The heritage of the Salyut programme continued to live on in

497-460: A space station engineering test bed. Aim was from early Almaz beginnings to construct long-living multi-modular stations. Salyut 1 (DOS-1) ( Russian : Салют-1 ) was the world's first space station ; it was launched into low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on April 19, 1971. The Salyut program followed this with five more successful launches of seven more stations. The final module of

568-498: A variety of astronomical, biological and Earth-resources experiments, and on the other hand, the USSR used this civilian programme as a cover for the highly secretive military Almaz stations, which flew under the Salyut designation. Salyut 1 , the first station in the program, became the world's first crewed space station. Salyut flights broke several spaceflight records , including several mission-duration records, and achieved

639-592: Is SSVP-G4000 . The Russian segment of the International Space Station features eight available passive SSVP-G4000 ports, located on Zvezda -aft, Rassvet , Poisk , and Prichal . An additional port, on Zarya -nadir, was used to dock Rassvet. In addition to Russian spacecraft, the SSVP was also used on the European Automated Transfer Vehicle , which docked to the aft port of Zvezda. These ports were provided by Russia in exchange for

710-508: Is planned to be used in support of space tourism while the other three capsules are reserved for scientific and commercial payloads. The needed development of propulsion systems for the VA capsule was reportedly delegated to an unnamed European organization as early as 2009. Excalibur Almaz as of January 2012 postponed its first launch to 2015 to be able to include more lucrative deep space capabilities like asteroid mining . However, in 2015

781-609: Is termed as SSPA-GM . It was made for the Nauka nadir and Prichal nadir ports of the International Space Station, where Soyuz and Progress spacecraft had to dock to a port designated for modules. Before removal of SSPA-GM, the docking ring is 80 cm (31 in) in diameter; that becomes 120 cm (47 in) after removal. Salyut programme The Salyut programme ( Russian : Салют , IPA: [sɐˈlʲut] , meaning "salute" or "fireworks")

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852-663: The Comecon ), finally to reach the Soviet Union itself in 1991. While the Russian Federation became the successor to much of the dissolved Soviet Union and was in a position to continue the Soviet space program with the Russian Federal Space Agency , it faced severe difficulties: imports and exports had steeply declined as the economic exchange with Comecon nations had crumbled away, leaving

923-652: The International Space Station . Salyut 6 was the first "second generation" space station, representing a major breakthrough in capabilities and operational success. In addition to a new propulsion system and its primary scientific instrument—the BST-1M multispectral telescope—the station had two docking ports, allowing two craft to visit simultaneously. This feature made it possible for humans to remain aboard for several months. Six long-term resident crews were supported by ten short-term visiting crews who typically arrived in newer Soyuz craft and departed in older craft, leaving

994-422: The Salyut programme. The programme was composed of DOS (Durable Orbital Station) civilian stations and OPS (Orbital Piloted Station) military stations: It was realized that the later civilian DOS stations could not only offer a cover story for the military Almaz programme, but could also be finished within one year and at least a year earlier than Almaz. The Salyut programme begun on 15 February 1970 on

1065-543: The Salyut stations paved the way for multimodular space stations such as Mir and the International Space Station (ISS), with each of those stations possessing a Salyut -derived core module at its heart. Mir -2 (DOS-8), the final spacecraft from the Salyut series, became one of the first modules of the ISS. The first module of the ISS, the Russian-made Zarya , relied heavily on technologies developed in

1136-405: The Salyut programme : Salyut 2 (OPS-1), Salyut 3 (OPS-2) and Salyut 5 (OPS-3). Five crewed Soyuz expeditions were flown to the Almaz space stations Salyut 3 and Salyut 5, with three reaching their stations and only two of the missions being considered fully successful at that time – the three crews that had reached their stations had crewed Almaz stations for a total of 81 days when the program

1207-649: The Soviet Ministry of Defense judged in 1978 that the time and resources consumed by station maintenance outweighed the benefits relative to automatic reconnaissance satellites . Still, it have some achievements along with Salyut program, the heritage of the twin program continues, with the ISS module Zarya being one example. The space stations' cores were known internally as OPS ( Russian : ОПС , GRAU index 11F71 and 11F71B), from "Orbital Piloted Station" ( Russian : Орбитальная Пилотируемая Станция ). As part of

1278-584: The Soviet Union was dissolved in December 1991, ending what was begun with the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. This dissolution had started with the Soviet " perestroika and glasnost " ("restructuring and openness") reform campaigns by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, had reached a preliminary endpoint with the revolutions of 1989 and the end of the communist Eastern Bloc ( Warsaw Pact and

1349-607: The 1980s, SSVP was further upgraded to support docking of large modules, such as the ones that would be used to construct Mir . They were used to attach all pressurized modules of the Mir , and for most spacecraft dockings (with the exception of the Space Shuttle flights, and Soyuz TM-16 , which used the APAS-89 docking mechanisms located on Kristall and the Mir Docking Module .) The modern version of SSVP

1420-788: The Almaz program, the Soviets developed several spacecraft for support roles—the VA spacecraft , the Functional Cargo Block and the TKS spacecraft —which they planned to use in several combinations. Vladimir Chelomei at the OKB-52 design bureau promoted Almaz as a response to the US Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) project. MOL had been widely publicized in the US press in

1491-524: The Almaz programme is present even today. While the last space station from the Almaz programme was flown as Salyut 5 in 1976, the development of the Almaz TKS spacecraft evolved into the Functional Cargo Block , which formed the basis for several Mir modules, the experimental Polyus orbital weapons platform and the Zarya module of the ISS. DOS-7 continued to be developed during Salyut 7, becoming

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1562-532: The Almaz-OPS hull design include: The FGB was a standalone spacecraft which was intended to function as a resupply craft for the Almaz space stations. The 'functional' section of the name is representative of the fact that the FGB provided electrical power, propulsion, guidance, and docking. Cargo was presented as a large cargo bay accessible by the crew, as well as external fuel tanks. Other types of FGB existed, as it

1633-584: The DOS station's inception to the launch of the first DOS-based Salyut 1 space station took only 16 months; the world's first space station was launched by the Soviet Union, two years before the American Skylab or the first Almaz/OPS station flew. Initially, the space stations were to be named Zarya , the Russian word for "Dawn". However, as the launch of the first station in the programme was prepared, it

1704-610: The Data Management System, supplied by ESA for use in Zvezda. An upgraded version, designed for reusability and to provide a wider tunnel, is planned for use on the next-generation Orel spacecraft . SSVP consists of two components; an active probe, and a passive drogue. The probe enters the drogue, and its tip is grasped by soft-capture latches which are then retracted using electrically driven motors to provide close alignment. Eight hard-capture locks then firmly attach

1775-592: The Mir Core Module of the Mir space station – the first modular space station, with crewed operations lasting from 1986 to 2000. The station featured upgraded computers and solar arrays, and accommodations for two cosmonauts each having their own cabin. A total of six docking ports were available on the Mir Core Module, which were used for space station modules and visiting spacecraft – the docking sphere design had been upgraded from its initial Salyut design to contain

1846-705: The Russian NPO Mashinostroyeniya (the former OKB-52) with the stated intention to outfit and launch them. The Almaz-205 module is similar to the OPS-2 of the Salyut 3 station, while the Almaz-206 is closer to the OPS-3 of the Salyut 5 station. In addition, Excalibur Almaz acquired four VA return capsule hulls (derived from the TKS/VA spacecraft) and plans to outfit and launch them as well: one

1917-516: The United States it was seen as a chance to learn from the over 20 years of experience of Soviet space station operations. It was "Phase Two" of this Shuttle–Mir program that would lead to the International Space Station . DOS-8 evolved into the Mir-2 project, intended to replace Mir . Finally, it became the International Space Station (ISS) Zvezda Service Module and formed the core of

1988-563: The United States. Salyut 6 was visited and resupplied by twelve uncrewed Progress spacecraft including Progress 1 , the first instance of the series. Additionally, Salyut 6 was visited by the first instances of the new Soyuz-T spacecraft. The success of Salyut 6 contrasted with the programme's earlier failures and limited successes. The early history of the programme was plagued by the fatalities of Soyuz 11 and three launched stations which quickly failed. Earlier successful stations received few crews, limited to several weeks' habitation by

2059-583: The cannon, which was on a fixed mounting, the entire station would be turned to face the target. The Almaz series are the only known armed, crewed military spacecraft ever flown. Salyut 3 /OPS-2 conducted a successful remote test firing with the station uncrewed due to concerns over excessive vibration and noise. OPS-4 was to have featured two rockets instead of the aircraft cannon, but this system has not been shown publicly and may have never been fully manufactured despite it being used experimentally. Three Almaz OPS space stations were flown from 1973 to 1976 in

2130-564: The condition that the crewed lunar programme would not suffer. However, the engineers at OKB-1 perceived the L3 lunar lander effort as a dead-end and immediately switched to working on DOS. In the end it turned out that the Soviet N1 "Moon Shot" rocket never flew successfully, so OKB-1's decision to abandon the lunar programme and derive a DOS space station from existing Soyuz subsystems and an Almaz/OPS hull proved to be right: The actual time from

2201-545: The core of many Soviet and Russian space station modules. The FGB-based Kvant-1 module of the Mir space station was the first space station module of its kind, and the Zarya Functional Cargo Block, which is as of 2018 still in use on the International Space Station . The private spaceflight company Excalibur Almaz bought the two partially completed Almaz-205 and Almaz-206 space station hulls from

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2272-403: The crew instead launched separately by Soyuz rocket in a modified Soyuz spacecraft. Plans called for the first three Almaz stations to be visited by three two-month-long expeditions each. This was realized fully by two missions and partially by one; however, the initial intention of launching Almaz APOS and the TKS spacecraft together with its crew in VA spacecraft would never materialize during

2343-522: The crew would return to Earth by way of a VA return vehicle. Unlike the American MOL design, the Soviets designed the Almaz to be recrewed and resupplied. For this, they created the TKS resupply craft (11F72), which consisted of an FGB and a VA return craft to carry the crew, also launched together on a Proton rocket. At the station, one docking port would be available to receive the TKS craft once

2414-433: The design life of their Soyuz craft and the presence of a single docking port per station; unsuccessful docking was also common. Salyut 6 on the other hand routinely received successful dockings of crewed and uncrewed craft, although the first visiting craft Soyuz 25 and later Soyuz 33 failed to dock with the station. Salyut 7 ( Russian : Салют-7 ; English: Salute 7 ) (a.k.a. DOS-6, short for Durable Orbital Station )

2485-816: The design of SSVP and APAS-95 , is also available, used for permanent docking of space station modules. This version uses the probe-and-drogue design of the standard SSVP, but with a hard-dock collar from APAS-95. The APAS-95 collar has twelve latches instead of the eight of standard SSVP. This variant is known as SSVP-M8000 . These hybrid SSVP ports are used to permanently connect Pirs, Nauka, Poisk and Zarya to Zvezda and Prichal to Nauka. Modified Passive hybrids of SSVP-M8000 are used on lateral ports of Prichal and are known as SSPA-GB 1/2 . It converts passive Hybrid SSVP-M8000 Docking System to passive SSVP-G4000. The docking ring initially used for Soyuz MS-18 and Progress MS-17 docking on Nauka until detached by Progress MS-17 inflight for Prichal module arrived on ISS. This adapter

2556-431: The early 1960s, which provided Chelomei plenty of material to use to lobby for a Soviet response. The Almaz space station programme involved three major hardware components: The OPS would have a maximum diameter of 4.15 metres (13.6 ft), a mass of roughly 20 tonnes (20 long tons; 22 short tons), and an internal habitable volume of 47.5 cubic metres (1,680 cu ft). Much like its MOL / Gemini counterpart,

2627-711: The early ISS together with the Zarya module (which was derived from Almaz Functional Cargo Block designs). The first generation of Salyut stations received few craft for rendezvous and docking. By contrast the programme's second generation stations, Salyut 6 and Salyut 7, received multiple crewed and uncrewed craft for rendezvous, docking attempts (whether successful or not), human habitation, crew transfer, and supply. The table counts craft which achieved rendezvous with their targets as visiting craft, regardless of whether they docked successfully. Almaz The Almaz ( Russian : Алмаз , lit.   'Diamond') program

2698-512: The failure of the first and second stages of the Proton launcher to separate. The safety system then destroyed the vehicle. Kosmos 1870 – On July 25, 1987, Almaz-T2, the second Almaz-T spacecraft, successfully reached orbit with an inclination 71.92 degrees toward the Equator and it was officially identified as Kosmos-1870. The spacecraft functioned for two years, providing radar imagery with

2769-601: The first multi-module space station Mir with the Mir Core Module ("DOS-7"), that accumulated 4,592 days of occupancy, and in the International Space Station (ISS) with the Zvezda module ("DOS-8"), that as of 21 August 2012 accumulated 4,310 days of occupancy. Furthermore, the Functional Cargo Block space station modules were derived from the Almaz programme, with the Zarya ISS module being still in operation together with Zvezda . First generation served as

2840-427: The first orbital handover of a space station from one crew to another, and various spacewalk records. The ensuing Soyuz programme was vital for evolving space station technology from a basic, engineering development stage, from single docking port stations to complex, multi-ported, long-term orbital outposts with impressive scientific capabilities, whose technological legacy continues as of 2023 . Experience gained from

2911-612: The imagery via the Luch relay satellite was noted. Also one of the solar panels failed to deploy completely, leaving the main radar panel of the spacecraft partially blocked. After 18 months of successful work the Almaz-1 was deorbited on October 17, 1992, over the Pacific Ocean. Almaz-2 (Almaz-1V) – Not flown. It had a new radar that would have provided a resolution of 5 to 7 meters. In addition, an optical-electronic payload on

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2982-514: The industry of the former Soviet Union in shambles. Not only did the political change in eastern Europe signify an end of contributions to the space programme by eastern European nations (such as the East German Carl Zeiss Jena ), but parts of the Soviet space industry were located in the newly independent Ukraine , which was similarly cash-strapped as Russia and started to demand hard currency for its contributions. It

3053-438: The initial Almaz APOS space station design called for the launch of an Almaz-OPS space station and a VA return capsule containing its initial three man crew, mated together as OPS/VA atop Chelomei's UR-500 Proton rocket . As with MOL/Gemini, once in orbit the crew would access the lab through a hatch in the heat shield at the bottom of the VA capsule. After an extended stay of 30 to 60 days of military observation and photography

3124-451: The newer craft available to the resident crew as a return vehicle, thereby extending the resident crew's stay past the design life of the Soyuz. Short-term visiting crews routinely included international cosmonauts from Warsaw pact countries participating in the Soviet Union's Intercosmos programme. These cosmonauts were the first spacefarers from countries other than the Soviet Union or

3195-426: The next generation of Salyut stations called for the cores DOS-7 and DOS-8 to allow, for the first time in spaceflight, the addition of several modules to a station core and to create a modular space station. For this, the DOS modules were to be equipped with a total of four docking ports: one docking port at the aft of the station as in the second generation Salyuts, and the replacement of the front docking port with

3266-455: The previous crew had left the station in their VA capsule. While the MOL was cancelled in 1969, the Almaz program was integrated into the Salyut programme and resulted in three flown space stations, two of which were crewed successfully. As "man-rating" the VA spacecraft and the Proton rocket took longer, the first phase called for the launch of three Almaz stations without the VA spacecraft, with

3337-519: The program, Zvezda (DOS-8) , became the core of the Russian segment of the International Space Station and remains in orbit. Salyut 1 was modified from one of the Almaz airframes, and was made out of five components: a transfer compartment, a main compartment, two auxiliary compartments, and the Orion 1 Space Observatory. DOS-2 was a space station , launched as part of the Salyut programme , which

3408-465: The program, and neither would the TKS craft play its intended role as resupply craft. The Almaz APOS design, without VA spacecraft, would evolve into the Almaz OPS station cores of the Salyut programme. In addition to reconnaissance equipment, Almaz was equipped with a unique 23mm Rikhter (factory index 261P or 225P) rapid-fire cannon mounted on the forward belly of the station. This revolver cannon

3479-452: The property of Excalibur Almaz, a company that plans to launch these as crewed space stations (see below). The first Almaz station (OPS-1 or Almaz 101.1) was launched on April 3, 1973. For purposes of military secrecy, it was publicly designated Salyut 2 upon reaching orbit. A crew was prepared to fly to the station but an accident days after the launch left OPS-1 disabled and depressurized. OPS-2 (or Almaz 101.2), announced as Salyut 3 ,

3550-551: The same time. Furthermore, the uncrewed Progress resupply craft was created based on the crewed Soyuz, to resupply the crew and station with air, air regenerators, water, food, clothing, bedding, mail, propellants, pressurant, and other supplies. While the Progress docked to the station's second docking port, the crew's Soyuz spacecraft could remain docked to the station's first port. The Progress spacecraft even delivered hardware for updating onboard experiments and permitting repairs to

3621-513: The station would have been capable of producing imagery with a resolution of 2.5 – 4 meters. The heritage of the Almaz space station program continues until today, and can even be found today in the International Space Station and in the Tianhe core module of the Tiangong space station . The DOS (Durable Orbital Station) space station core modules were based on the Almaz-OPS hull design, which

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3692-706: The station, extending its life. Salyut 6 ( Russian : Салют 6 , lit.   'Salute 6') was a Soviet orbital space station , the eighth station of the Salyut programme, and alternatively known DOS-5 as it was the fifth of the Durable Orbital Station series of civilian space stations. It was launched on 29 September 1977 by a Proton rocket . Salyut 6 was the first space station to receive large numbers of crewed and uncrewed spacecraft for human habitation, crew transfer, international participation and resupply, establishing precedents for station life and operations which were enhanced on Mir and

3763-463: The station, of which two would have flown: Kosmos 557 ( Russian : Космос 557 meaning Cosmos 557 ), originally designated DOS-3, was the third space station in the Salyut program . It was originally intended to be launched as Salyut-3, but due to its failure to achieve orbit on May 11, 1973, three days before the launch of Skylab , it was renamed Kosmos-557. Salyut 3 ( Russian : Салют-3 ; English: Salute 3 ; also known as OPS-2 or Almaz 2 )

3834-480: The two spacecraft. After hard docking, the pressure between spacecraft is equalized using the Interface Leak Check System. The port contains a transfer tunnel, with an internal diameter of 800 mm (31.5 in). The ring surrounding this tunnel also includes a number of connectors, providing for transfer of power, data, and fuel between two docked vehicles. A "hybrid" version, combining

3905-399: Was 268 to 272 km. Only one of the three intended crews successfully boarded and operated the station, brought by Soyuz 14 ; Soyuz 15 attempted to bring a second crew but failed to dock. Salyut 3 would make history, by conducting the first test-fire of a conventional weapon in space. During Salyut 3’s mission span, cosmonauts would fire the onboard 23mm cannon, which was reported to be

3976-512: Was a Soviet space station launched on 25 June 1974. It was the second Almaz military space station , and the first such station to be launched successfully. It was included in the Salyut program to disguise its true military nature. Due to the military nature of the station, the Soviet Union was reluctant to release information about its design, and about the missions relating to the station. It attained an altitude of 219 to 270 km on launch and NASA reported its final orbital altitude

4047-522: Was a space station in low Earth orbit from April 1982 to February 1991. It was first crewed in May 1982 with two crew via Soyuz T-5 , and last visited in June 1986, by Soyuz T-15 . Various crew and modules were used over its lifetime, including 12 crewed and 15 uncrewed launches in total. Supporting spacecraft included the Soyuz T , Progress , and TKS spacecraft. After the second generation, plans for

4118-455: Was a broad classification rather than a specific type of module. FGB-based vehicles include Transport Logistics Spacecraft (Russian Acronym: TKS) (1976-1983), Space Station modules (1985-present), and space tugs (1987-present) The modules based on the DOS design are not the only heritage of the Almaz program still in use: The habitat, propulsion and service module of the TKS spacecraft, the so-called Functional Cargo Block (FGB), went on to become

4189-483: Was a highly secret Soviet military space station program, begun in the early 1960s. Three crewed military reconnaissance stations were launched between 1973 and 1976: Salyut 2 , Salyut 3 and Salyut 5 . To cover the military nature of the program, the three launched Almaz stations were designated as civilian Salyut space stations . Salyut 2 failed shortly after achieving orbit, but Salyut 3 and Salyut 5 both conducted successful crewed testing. Following Salyut 5,

4260-660: Was also to be replaced with an advanced Shchit-2 space-to-space cannon. The Shchit-2 was reported to be a two projectile system, although no photographs of it have ever been published and it does not appear that this system was ever installed on the station. OPS-4 was grounded when the Almaz crewed program was cancelled. Following cancellation of the program, the Almaz station was reconfigured as an uncrewed heavy radar-carrying reconnaissance satellite . Three such satellites were launched, two of which functioned successfully in orbit. Almaz-T – The first Almaz-T blasted off from Baikonur on October 29, 1986. It did not reach orbit due to

4331-722: Was during this time of transition and upheaval that the Shuttle–Mir program was established between the Russian Federation and the United States in 1993. The former adversaries would now cooperate, with "Phase One" consisting of joint missions and flights of the United States Space Shuttle to the Mir space station . It was a partnership with stark contrasts – Russia needed an inflow of hard currency to keep their space programme aloft, while in

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4402-454: Was ended. Besides the three flown space stations OPS-1 to OPS-3, seven more spaceframes of Almaz space stations had been built when the program was cancelled: OPS-4, Almaz-205, Almaz-206, Almaz-T , Almaz-T2 ( Kosmos 1870 ), Almaz-1 and Almaz-2 – with Almaz-T2 and Almaz-1 having successfully flown as repurposed uncrewed radar-carrying reconnaissance satellites (see below). The partially outfitted hulls of Almaz-205 and Almaz-206 are today in

4473-635: Was launched on June 25, 1974. The crew of the Soyuz 14 spacecraft spent 15 days aboard the station in July 1974. A second expedition was launched toward OPS-2 in August 1974, but failed to reach the station. The station successfully remotely test-fired an onboard aircraft cannon at a target satellite while the station was uncrewed. Salyut-3 was deorbited in January 1975. OPS-3 (or Almaz 103), announced after launch as Salyut 5 , entered orbit on June 22, 1976. It

4544-437: Was lost in a launch failure on 29 July 1972, when the failure of the second stage of its Proton-K launch vehicle prevented the station from achieving orbit. It instead fell into the Pacific Ocean. The station, which would have been given the designation Salyut 2 had it reached orbit, was structurally identical to Salyut 1 , as it had been assembled as a backup unit for that station. Four teams of cosmonauts were formed to crew

4615-472: Was managed by Kerim Kerimov , chairman of the state commission for Soyuz missions. A total of nine space stations were launched in the Salyut programme, with six successfully hosting crews and setting some records along the way. However, it was the stations Salyut 6 and Salyut 7 that became the workhorses of the programme. Out of the total of 1,697 days of occupancy that all Salyut crews achieved, Salyut 6 and 7 accounted for 1,499. While Skylab already featured

4686-399: Was mated by Sergei Korolev 's organization OKB-1 with their own Soyuz-derived subsystems. OKB-1 was at that time in competition with the designer of the Almaz, Vladimir Chelomei's organization OKB-52, and was thereby able to short-cut the development time for the first space station and beat OKB-52, which had started design work much earlier. DOS space station cores derived since 1971 from

4757-460: Was modified from the tail-gun of the Tu-22 bomber and was capable of a theoretical rate of fire of 1800-2000 (up to 2600) rounds per minute. Each 168 gram (ammo 23-OFZ-D-R ) or 173 gram (ammo 23-OFZ-G-R) projectile flew at a speed of 850 m/s relative to the station. The cannon was tested at the end of the mission by firing 20 rounds, when the station was operating in uncrewed mode. To aim

4828-625: Was realised that this would conflict with the call sign Zarya of the RKA Mission Control Center (TsUP) in Korolyov – therefore the name of the space stations was changed to Salyut shortly before launch of Salyut 1 . Another explanation given is that the name might have offended the Chinese, who purportedly were preparing a new rocket for launch, which they had already named Shuguang or "Dawn". The Salyut programme

4899-406: Was the first space station programme, undertaken by the Soviet Union . It involved a series of four crewed scientific research space stations and two crewed military reconnaissance space stations over a period of 15 years, from 1971 to 1986. Two other Salyut launches failed. In one respect, Salyut had the space-race task of carrying out long-term research into the problems of living in space and

4970-516: Was to continuously occupy a space station with long-duration expeditions, for the first time in spaceflight. Although Salyut 6 and Salyut 7 resembled the previous Salyut stations in overall design, several revolutionary changes were made to the stations and programme for the aim of continuous occupation. The new stations featured a longer design life and a second docking port at the aft of the stations – crew exchanges and station "handovers" were now made possible by docking two crewed Soyuz spacecraft at

5041-477: Was visited by two crews in mid-1976 and late 1977. Salyut 5 was deorbited on 8 August 1977, and broke up as it reentered the Earth's atmosphere. The next Almaz station, OPS-4, was to be the first station launched with a three panel Mech-A synthetic-aperture radar and a crewed reusable Return Vehicle VA , however the VA was replaced by a second TKS docking port. This station's Shchit-1 23 mm defense cannon

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