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World's First Space Station...
Triumph
and Trage
y
Though the flight
ended
in tragedy, the Soviets recently
accomplished another space first . Wi/1 it affect present U.S .
space policy with military considerations, forcing another
crash space
program? Or
wi/1 public pressure prevent it?
by
George
L.
Johnson
S
OVIET SPACE
technology recently
scored aoother impressive first.
Three Russian cosmonauts, Lieu–
tenant Colonel Georgi Dobrovolsky in
command; Viktor Patsayev, flight engi–
neer, and Vladislav Volkov, test engi–
neer, manned the world's first space
station - about two years before the
United States is scheduled to put its
fi rst space station into orbit.
However, the success of Russia's latest
space triumph was marred by the tragic
deaths of the three cosmooauts.
A Tragic End
After speoding a record breaking
24
days in space, the cosmonauts returocd
to their space capsule for the trip back
to earth. Everything weot well until
"black out" time - the point in the
reeotry procedure when the heat build·
up oo the space vehicle becomes so
great that radio contact with earth is
impossible.
At the end of the "black out"
period, Soviet Space officiaJs were un–
able to regain radio contact with the
cosmonauts. Wheo the recovery heli–
copter reached the capsule, the recovery
team found the three cosmonauts dead.
lt
was a tragic end to a triumphant
space first.
By early July, Soviet space authorities
had pinpointed the cause of the three
Soyuz
11
cosmonauts' death. The three
had apparently died of embolism -
air bubbles in the blood. EmboJism was
caused by a sudden depressurization of
their space capsule.
The depresssurization occurred due to
a leak which developed in the airtight
hatch between the reentry cabin and the
orbital compartment of the spacecraft.
Sorne sources attributed the leak to
a small holc in the landing cabin. The
hole could have been caused by a slight
damage in the process of cabin separa·
tion from the Soyuz orbital compart·
meo
t.
Whatever the cause, the sudden de–
pressurization resulted in a space ver–
sion of the "bends" - a problem most
often faced by deep sea divers. The sud–
den depressurization causes air bubbles
in the bloodstream that can block the
Row of blood to vital orgaos. The con–
dition can
be
fatal within a matter of
seconds.
The cosmooauts were not wearing
pressurized space suits. Had they been
protected by such space suits, the cos–
monauts would have survived the de–
pressurization.
Will this tragic accident temporarily
halt the Soviet space efforts? Not if the
majority of Soviet cosmonauts havc