Cosmonauts found in dense fog

Press, 13 December 1982, Page 1

Cosmonauts found in dense fog

NZPA Moscow Dense fog and snow hampered the recovery of the Soviet cosmonauts, Valentin Lebedev and Lieu-tenant-Colonel Anatoly Berezovoy, when they returned to Earth after the longest space flight, the news agency, Tass, reports. The latest report on the recovery was in sharp contrast to what Tass said after the two cosmonauts returned to Earth on Saturday after 211 days in space. The initial report said that the weather in Soviet Kazakhstan was good — the temperature -15 deg., the wind moderate, and clouds light and thin. But yesterday Tass said that there had been problems. "All of a sudden dense fog covered the steppe and it began to snow. This made more difficult the search for the landing apparatus of the Soyuz T 7 spaceship and the evacuation of the cosmonauts. "Doing justice to the ballisticians, it should be pointed out that their calculations were very accurate, and the difference between the calculated landing point and the area where the apparatus actually landed did not exceed several kilometres.” Tass said that the cosmonauts were removed from the landing site overland instead of by helicopter because of the fog. A vehicle with a "special salon for rest” had been used for the first leg of the journey to the Baikonur space centre and that the record-shattering spacemen had spent their first night in it. Tass said that the medical check of the cosmonauts at the landing site had showed that “they withstood well the prolonged stay in conditions of weightlessness.” Soviet space experts have questioned the value of extended stays in space, and scientists have issued warnings that it might even be harmful. Valery Ryumin, one of the cosmonauts who in 1986 set the last endurance

record of 185 days, said that four months was optimal. Colonel Berezovoy and Mr Lebedev blasted off on May 13 and the next day they docked with Salyut 7, which is now under automatic control and continuing its flight. The two cosmonauts were congratulated on their return by the Soviet Communist Party's central committee for their achievement and both were given high Government awards. “The long, successful work of the crew aboard the orbital Salyut 7 has been a vivid demonstration of the increased potentialities of Soviet space equipment," Tass quoted a message of greeting as saying. • Salyut 7 had two notable visitors while Colonel Berezovoy and Mr Lebedev were aboard. The first was Commandant Jean-Loup Chretien, in June, who became the first Frenchman in space. Then in August the two crew had female company — Svetlana Savitskaya, aged 34. the second woman to go into space — who spent a week aboard Salyut 7 mainly monitoring the reaction of her body to weightlessness.