Cosmonauts link with station

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33740, 13 January 1975, Page 14

Cosmonauts link with station

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

MOSCOW, January 12.

Russia’s two latest cosmonauts today linked with the orbiting space station Salyut 4 and then went aboard to carry out experiments, Moscow Radio announced.

The two spacemen, Mission Commander Alexei Gubarev and Flight Engineer Georgy Grechko carried out the docking of their Soyuz 17 spacecraft and the space station in two stages, according to Tass news agency.

The initial approach was controlled automatically by equipment aboard Soyuz. But the cosmonauts used manual control from a distance of 100 metres to bring the two craft together and perform the actual link.

Then they checked the systems of the station, opened the connecting hatch, and went aboard Salyut, put into orbit two weeks ago, Tass said.

; After announcing the link, • Tass gave the first official breakdown of the Soyuz 17 mission, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in ' Central Asia early yesterday. It said the cosmonauts would carry out tests of the improved design of systems

and equipment on the orbiting space laboratory as well as general space research and observing Earth’s surface in the interests of the national economy.

It also said they would carry out medico-biological research.

Tass said that the spacestation systems were functioning normally. The cosmonauts, both aged 43 and in space for the first time, felt well and had started their mission programme. There was no indication how long Gubarev and Grechko would stay aboard Salyut. There has been speculation in Moscow that Soviet scientists hope to stage a marathon linked mission to match the successful American flights aboard the much larger United States Skylab orbiting laboratory.