SALIOUT 1 THE FIRST SPACE STATION

Saliout 1 is put in orbit on April 19, 1971. It is equipped with a large quantity of instruments according to the fact that as an orbital station, it is supposed to stay in orbit for a long time. It is launched with nobody on board. Soyouz station are foreseen to moor to it with cosmonauts transferred from the Soyouz to the orbital station. The length of the Saliout is 14 meters with a weight of 19 metric tons. It is the first worldwide orbital station two years ahead of the american Skylab. Soyouz 10 was the first to join Saliout 1. It succeeded to moor to the station but failed to enter it due to a pressurization problem. Finaly, it was Soyouz 11 which succeded both mooring and entering the station on June 7,1971 for a lenght of 23 days.

Saliout 1 (DOS 1) the first orbital station approached by Soyouz 11 in Back in USSR

On June 7, 1971 Soyouz 11 is mooring to the Saliout 1 orbital station. The cosmonauts Dobrovolksy, Volkov and Patseyev get out of the Soyouz and enter The Saliout using the hatchway located in the Saliout front nooze. They were the only one who ever occupied Saliout 1, their dramatic return to Earth delayed the Russian space conquest and condemned the Saliout 1 station.

THE SOYOUZ 11 DRAMATIC RETURN TO EARTH

The return to Earth in planned on June 29 with Dobrovolksy, Volkov and Patseyer on board. Till now the mission has been fully succesful and they are bringing back a lot of date recorded during the flight. However, the landing module release shock triggers the opening of the valve which depressurized the module in less than one minute. The three cosmonauts who did not carry their space-suits are falling unconscious and die of hypoxia. However, the landing is processed normally and the module lands at the foreseen place and the three corps are found in the undamaged cabin. After the accident a new Soyouz model will be designed and this flight will be the last for the Soyouz 7K-OK.

THE CELESTIA SALIOUT 1 SOYOUZ 11 ADD-ON

In the current version of the Celestia add-on, I provide both Saliout 1 and Soyouz 11 vessels. The ssc files are elaborated according to the references given in the following hereunder link. In Celestia, we can follow Soyouz 11 approaching in real-time and the mooring to Saliout 1 along with its release. the computing for the remaining flight is not finish yet, but I am preparing a script with the exit of the cosmonauts moving from Soyouz 11 to Saliout 1.

I have been able to find data and maps for positionning of the vessels on the following WEB pages

http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/trackind/S11Morse/S11Morse.htm

http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/trackind/salyut1/salyut1.html

Click HERE to download the pack. Use the URL page to locate yourself close to the vessels in Celestia

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