Seven Cosmonauts Now In Space

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32118, 14 October 1969, Page 1

Seven Cosmonauts Now In Space

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) MOSCOW, October 13. Two more Russian cosmonauts, both veteran space-voyagers and Heroes of the Soviet Union, were blasted aloft today in the Soyuz 8 spacecraft to join, in group flight, five colleagues already in orbit in Soyuz 6, launched on Saturday, and Soyuz 7, sent into space yesterday. Officials in Moscow have said little about the purpose of the mission, but it is believed that the crew of Soyuz 8, Colonel Vladimir Shatalov and Mr Alexei Yeliseyev, will help their fellow-cosmonauts to begin the construction of an earth-orbiting space station.

Both Colonel Shatalov and Mr Yeliseyev took part in the first manned docking of two orbiting spacecraft in January of this year.

Mr Yeliseyev, who is 35, was one of the two cosmonauts who “walked” in space during the Soyuz 4 and 5 link; Colonel Shatalov, who is 41, was the commander of Soyuz 4.

An official announcement today by the Russian news agency, Tass, said simply that Soyuz 8 was “put 'into orbit in accordance with the general programme of piloted flight” It did not elaborate, but it described the achievement as “the first group flight of three spaceships, with seven astronauts aboard.” Colonel Shatalov is the commander of the Soyuz 8 spacecraft and Mr Yeliseyev, its flight engineer. Tass said that both were tn good health in orbit Unofficial sources in Moscow have predicted that Soyuz 8 will probably dock with another spacecraft, but whether the latter will be a new, and possibly unmanned, craft, or Soyuz 7, is not clear. Soyuz 6 is reported to have no docking facilities. TV Coverage A videotape recording of today*s blast-off was shown on Moscow television within an hour of the event Soviet televiewers have never been shown a launching live, apparently in case something went wrong. But the remarkable precision of the three latest manned launches at 24-hour intervals, all in poor weather, have made many people wonder how much longer this policy will last. Tass says that Colonel Shatalov has devoted 24 years of his life to aviation and space, and joined the cosmonauts detachment in January, 1963, having logged by that time about 2000 flying hours in various types of conventional aircraft. Mr Yeliseyev, who has a master's degree in technical science, is married and has a daughter aged nine. The Soviet Government newspaper, “Izvestia,” last night brought out a special Sunday edition, three of its four pages being devoted to news of the space flights and eulogies of their crews. There have been several flat statements that the Sights are not a repetition of the feat of Soyuz 4 and 5, which in January docked and flew together for more than four hours to form what was officially described as the world’s first manned experimental space laboratory. Live Telecast Dr Valery Kubasov, the civilian flight engineer aboard Soyuz 6, confirmed in a live television transmission from space last night that the craft was not equipped with docking or automatic approach devices like the earlier Soyuz craft.

Earlier in the day, a space engineer had given a firm indication in a newspaper article that Soyuz 6 was a prototype spacecraft that

would help in the construetion and supplying of orbital space stations. Welding Theory Professor Heinz Kaininski, the director of the space observatory at Bochum, jn West Germany, said that the three spacecraft would probably establish a space platform. Soyuz 8, he thought, would contain the instrument system and equipment for it “Hie Soviet cosmonauts will probably try to weld segments of the three-spaceships together, and some of them are likely to work outside the spacecraft,” he said. “The orbits of Soyuz 6 and 7 will remain stable for only eight or 10 days, and this must limit the experiment to that period unless the orbits are changed.” “Other Tasks” During a telecast from space yesterday, Colonel Gorbatko told viewers that he was partly responsible for communications and engineering tasks aboard the craft. “I have other tasks too, but I’m not going to tell you about them,” he said. Like the two Soyuz 6 cosmonauts, the Soyuz 7 trio are all married men with children, and are members of the Communist Party. Their ex«ct ages were not immediately given but Colonel Filipchenko is aged 40 or 41, Colonel Gorbatko, 33 or 34, and Dr Volkov is 34. A Tass announcement said that both spacecraft were circling the earth once every 88.6 minutes on very similar orbits, both at an angle of 51.7 degrees. Soyuz 7 was orbiting at a

maximum distance of about 141 miles and a minimum of about 134 miles from the earth. Soyuz 6, which had moved a few miles away from the earth after various orbit corrections. since its launching, was circling at a. maximum of about 143 miles and a minimum of about 121 miles. The five cosmonauts copied their predecessors in sending greeting messages to the peoples of the continents and countries over which they passed. This was the first time that five men had been in space at the same time. The launching of Soyuz 7 came on the fifth anniversary of the blast-off of Voskhod 1, predecessor of the Soyuz series and the first designed for multi-crew flight Voskhod 1 had three cosmonauts aboard. * ,