Inquiry into Soyuz failure

Press, 19 October 1976, Page 9

Inquiry into Soyuz failure

NZPA-Reuter Moscow Soviet Union space scientists have begun detailed investigations into the failure of the manned space mission that almost ended in disaster when the two cosmonauts involved landed in darkness in a blizzard-swept lake. A senior Government official has described the rescue of the two men and their descent craft as “a heroic operation by waterborne and helicopter-borne crews working in the dark and in temperatures around minus 15 degrees Celsius.” , The cosmonauts had been ordered back to Earth less than two days after blast-off from the Baikonur launch site, the automatic-approach-control systems having failed on their Soyuz 23 craft as they were preparing to dock with an orbiting laboratory.

As their parachute-sup-ported capusle dropped towards the normal recovery area in Central Asia, it was hit by a blizzard blowing

across the steppes, and was apparently swept off course. Instead of touching down on solid ground, the capsule splashed into Lake Tengiz, south-west of the town of Tselinograd, where the blizzard was blowing with full force. It was the first time in the 15-year history of manned space flight that Russian cosmonauts had splashed down at the end of a mission, although this is the technique preferred by American astronauts.

General Vladimir Shatalov, who commands the entire Soviet space team, told Moscow television viewers last night that the rescue crews had to show “high courage, heroism, and strength of Will” in recovering the cosmonauts and their capusle. The two spacemen, Vyacheslav Zudov and Valery Rozhdestvensky, were back at Baikonur and feeling well, General Shatalov said, adding that their observations would be vital in helping scientists to establish what went wrong on the flight.