Docking with space station expected

Press, 8 July 1976, Page 8

Docking with space station expected

NZPA-Reuter Moscow Two Soviet cosmonauts are orbiting the Earth today, apparently preparing for a link-up with an unmanned space laboratory in what may turn out to be the first phase of a new, three.spacecraft experiment.

Colonel Boris Volynov and Lieutenant-Colonel Vitaly Zholobov were launched into space yesterday from Soviet Central Asia in their Soyuz 21 ferry vehicle, exactly two weeks after a new space station, Salyut 5, had . been launched.

Their orbit has put them exactly in the tracks of Salyut 5, and on the basis of previous spaceshots they are expected to close in on the station today or early tomorrow.

The Soviet news agency, Tass, following its usual non-committal approach, has said only that Soyuz 21 will undertake joint experiments with the space station.

So far the mission has closely followed the pattern of flights over the last few years, in which two-men crews have docked with space stations, carried out experiments over several weeks, and then returned to Earth.

But this time, Soviet sources have indicated, if all goes well the Soyuz 21 team may be joined on Salyut 5 by another crew after four or five weeks.

The United States magazine, “Aviation Week” reported last month that the new orbital laboratory had two docking ports, enabling ferry vehicles to clamp on at each end in what Moscow sources describe as “a space sausage.”

The sources suggest that the two spacecraft may also carry out crew transfers, repeating experiments done last year in the joint ApolloSoyuz venture with American astronauts.