RUSSIANS TRANSFER TO SPACE STATION

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32627, 8 June 1971, Page 1

RUSSIANS TRANSFER TO SPACE STATION

(N.Z.P.A. -Reuter—Copyright) MOSCOW, June 7. The Soviet Union today scored a space triumph when three cosmonauts became the first crew ever to transfer from a spacecraft to an orbiting space station—the giant Salyut, which has been in orbit for the last seven weeks.

The cosmonauts were launched into a matching orbit with Salyut aboard Soyuz 11 yesterday morning and accomplished the docking with the space station at 10.45 Moscow time. They entered the station through a passage, according to a brief announcement by Tass, the Soviet news agency.

Salyut linked with a previously manned craft—Soyuz 10— but the crew did not transfer to the cigar-shaped station and they returned safely to earth on April 25 after a two-day mission.

Announcing today’s achievement, Tass said: “The task of delivering the crew to an orbital station by a transport ship has been solved for the first time.” The total combined weight of the two shjps linked together was 25 tons, the announcement said. The on-board system, units and scientific equipment of

Salyut were functioning normally after its long unman-j ned flight, Tass said. The cosmonauts—Lieuten-ant-Colonel Georgi Dobrovolsky, who commands Soyuz 11, a test engineer, Viktor Patsayev, and a flight engineer, Vladislav Volkov—had already started to carry out their flight programme. Tass quoted Colonel Dobrovolsky as saying the cosmonauts “feel well and have started to carry out the flight’s planned programme.” Tass said that the transfer of the crew to Salyut was

la step in the Soviet programme of creating longterm orbital stations. “An important step has been made in the development of cosmic technology and manned flights,” Tass said. “The use of the new cosmic complex, orbital stations with feny ships to service them, opens wide perspectives for further research and mastery over space in the interests of science and economy.” The docking of the cosmic vehicles was done in two stages.

During the first stage Soyuz 11 was automatically brought to 100 yards from Salyut The further approach was performed manually by the cosmonauts, Tass said. After Soyuz 11 was docked with Salyut the vehicles were mechanically coupled rigidly and their electrical and hydraulic systems connected. Then the cosmonauts checked the airtightness of the compartments and the performance of the station’s onboard systems, opened the hatches of the airtight passage linking them and entered the scientific station through it