During the orbit of the Soviet Union’s space station, there was an electrical failure and the contact with the ground station broke. Fortunately, when this incident happened in the space station called Salyut 7, there was no crew present at that time. But with the power failure, it got out of control and left its orbit. This was the most serious problem in the Soviet Union’s space history. A space station flying at a speed of 27,000 kmph was no less than an uncontrolled time bomb. All options to regain control had failed. But then something happened that made the Soviet Union proud. the head of the world with pride.
During the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, both the countries were busy demonstrating their power. This show-off of power, where billions of dollars were wasted, was also used to create things that we are still taking today, like the internet, jet aircrafts and Global Positioning Satellites, i.e. GPS. Meanwhile, to humiliate each other in the eyes of the world, such steps were taken that man could not even imagine. And when this happens, the name of the space race comes first. Both countries were so much possessed that their goal was to launch as many space missions as possible. During this race, many space stations were launched from both sides in the 1970s, whose purpose was to research different things in space.
Soviet space stations were named Salyut, while the USA named its space station program the Skylab. These space stations were small and were launched at the same time. After researching in space for a limited time, they were brought back to Earth. Now the competition was who would get their astronauts to stay in the space station for the longest time. The tussle between the two was so deep that when the USA named their space crew as Astronauts, the Soviets didn’t want to use this name. Instead, they named their space crew as Cosmonauts. In the 1980s, the Soviet Union decided to make a full-fledged Mir space station instead of these small space stations to teach the USA a lesson. The development of the station was delayed and the Salyut 6 had already completed its time in space. So, by the time Mir would launch the station, the Soviets had already launched the Salyut 7 because they wanted to keep their presence in space.
The special thing about Salyut 7 was that it had docking ports at the front and back. With the help of these docking ports, another spacecraft could be attached to them during the orbit, allowing the crew to rotate and deliver supplies at the same time. In April 1982, the Salyut 7 was launched through a proton rocket, The crew was sent on a mission in which they set a new world record in 211 days. Their task was to launch a 28 kg radio satellite through the trash airlock of the space station. It was the first communication satellite to be launched from any manned space vehicle. The first year of Salyut 7 was successful, but after that, obstacles were created one by one. On 9th September 1983, the astronauts noticed zero pressure in a fuel tank.
This was not normal at all because zero pressure means that one tank is completely empty. After a thorough investigation, a fuel leakage spot was found outside the space station. Let me tell you that due to lack of atmospheric pressure in space, any hole in the space station will be pulled by the vacuum of space. And this is what happened with the fuel tank of Salyut 7. This hole should not cause further damage, so it was necessary to close it on time. But unfortunately, the cosmonauts had a shortage of tools. The ground station launched another spacecraft to Salyut 7 for the delivery of tools, which was to dock at Salyut 7.
It had extra crew and necessary tools. This repair is considered to be a very complex repair work of that time, in which the cosmonauts had to go out of the space station and do welding. Special tools and cold welding helped to close the hole in the fuel tank. This repair of Salyut 7 was very impressive, but the upcoming difficulties were going to turn their peaceful lives into trouble. In 1984, the cosmonauts of Salyut 7 put the space station in autopilot mode and returned to Earth via the Soyuz spacecraft returned to Earth.
Now, the monitoring of the space station was the responsibility of the Soviet ground team, which was doing this work remotely. A few months after the return of the cosmonauts, on 11th Feb, 1985, suddenly, the ground station team of Salyut 7 lost contact with the Salyut 7. When the fault logs were checked, it was found that there was some kind of electrical surge in the Salyut 7, there was some kind of electrical surge. The ground team activated the secondary communication system to reconnect the connection.
Now the contact with Salyut 7 was disconnected, but immediately after that, another electrical surge occurred and now all kinds of contact with the space station were broken. Not only that, but it also moved away from its orbit, which was a dangerous moment for the Soviets. The 16-meter long space station was completely silent and out of control without any crew. When this news reached the USA, it was not a good time for them. The USA wanted to capture Salyut 7 with the help of its cargo bay shuttle, bring it back to Earth and then become a hero in the eyes of the world. The Soviet Union could have done this, but unfortunately, their Buran shuttle was in operation at that time.
Therefore, it was impossible for the Soviets to capture Salyut 7. In the eyes of the world, the Soviet Union was quite helpless about this matter. So they decided to send a crew of two cosmonauts to repair it. This would have been much easier if the Space Station was alive. Because the docking mechanism in it automatically connects to other spacecraft. The Soviet Union’s intention was to manually track the Space Station orbiting at a speed of 27,000 km per hour, and then the space station will have to be aligned with it and docked manually. And in this whole process, even a small mistake can kill the crew sent. But there was no other option left.
On June 6, 1985, the Soyuz spacecraft was launched to rescue the Salyut 7. The cosmonauts also brought night vision goggles with them, because manual docking may have to be done when it is completely dark. After orbiting for two days, the cosmonauts finally reached near Salyut 7. The first thing they noticed were the misaligned solar panels. This meant that the electrical system had completely failed. Because the solar panels in the spacecraft are connected to electrical actuators, which keep the solar panels facing the Sun at all times. With the help of a laser rangefinder, the crew first aligned itself with Salute 7, and then matched its rotation with the rotation of his spacecraft and slowly moved closer to the space station.
And finally, he managed to dock the Soyuz with Salyut 7 manually. Now the time had come that everyone was waiting for. Because no one knew why Salyut 7 was shut down and what danger is hidden. After docking, when he opened the hatch of Salyut 7, he immediately felt a strong cold breeze. Because for a long time Salyut 7’s power was being lost, the heating system inside was also shut. It was completely dark inside and everything was frozen. Temperature of minus 150 degrees Celsius, for which the interior design of Salyut 7 was not done.
Both the cosmonauts wore warm clothes and opened all three hatches and went inside the Salyut 7. They also had air quality testers in which the quantity of carbon monoxide was showing very high, which indicated that there was a fire here. were having trouble breathing because the circulation system of Salyut 7 was not working. The carbon dioxide in their lungs was making the atmosphere inside more dangerous. That is why they decided that only one cosmonaut would be in Salyut 7 at a time. Supplies were also a big issue for both the crews. They had only enough food and water. If they used even a little bit, they would have only 12 days worth of supplies. But it would have taken more than 12 days to know what was wrong with the Salyut 7 and to repair it. Anyway, when troubleshooting was started in the electrical system, it was found that the entire space station shut down.
