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Intercosmos
Intercosmos was a space exploration program of
the Soviet Union designed to include members of military forces of
allied Warsaw Pact countries in manned and unmanned missions. The
participation of countries which were not Soviet allies, such as
India, Syria and France was a reflection of non-aligned politics
during the Cold War.
Begun in April 1967 with unmanned research
satellite missions, the first manned mission occurred in February
1978. Intercosmos missions enabled 14 non-Soviet cosmonauts to
participate in Soyuz space flights between 1978 and 1988. The
program was responsible for sending into space the first citizen of
a country other than the USA or USSR; Vladimir Remek of
Czechoslovakia. Intercosmos also resulted in the first black and
hispanic person in space, Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez of Cuba, and the
first Asian person in space, Phm Tuan of Vietnam. Of the countries
involved, only Bulgaria sent two cosmonauts in space.
Soyuz 31
Soyuz 31 (Russian: Союз
31, Union 31) was a 1978 Soviet manned space flight to the Salyut 6
space station. It was the seventh mission to and sixth successful
docking at the orbiting facility. The Soyuz 31 crew were the second
to visit the long-duration Soyuz 29 resident crew.
Soyuz 31 carried Valery Bykovsky and Sigmund
Jahn, the first German cosmonaut, into space. They swapped Soyuz
craft with the long-duration crew and returned to earth in Soyuz
29, the resident crew returned to earth in Soyuz 31.
Position Launching Crew Landing Crew
Commander Valery Bykovsky
Third spaceflight
Soviet Union Soviet Union Vladimir Kovalyonok
Second spaceflight
Soviet Union Soviet Union
Research Cosmonaut/Flight Engineer Sigmund Jahn
First spaceflight
East Germany East Germany Aleksandr Ivanchenkov
First spaceflight
Soviet Union Soviet Union
[edit] Backup crew
Position Crew
Commander Viktor Gorbatko
Soviet Union Soviet Union
Research Cosmonaut Eberhard Kollner
* Mass: 6,800 kg (15,000 lb)
* Perigee: 196.8 km (122.3 mi)
* Apogee: 259.9 km (161.5 mi)
* Inclination: 51.64°
* Period: 88.81 minutes
Soyuz 31, the third Intercosmos flight, was
launched 26 August 1978. Cosmonauts Bykovsky and Jahn were greeted
by resident crew Vladimir Kovalyonok and Aleksandr Ivanchenkov when
they docked at the aft port of the Salyut 6 space station the next
day. The visitors brought with them fresh onions, garlic, lemons,
apples and other food for the long-duration crew, then in space for
more than two months.
The presence of the East German cosmonaut was
seen as significant because of the presence of the MKF-6M camera on
the space station, built by the Carl Zeiss works at Jena. Medical
and biological experiments were carried out, including an audio
experiment which tested sound and noise perception limits. An
experiment called Berolina used the Splav furnace to process an
ampoule of bismuth and antimonide with the material between two
plates in the ampoule. The tree structure which resulted was four
to six times larger than what had been produced on the ground.
Another experiment tested using different photographic films on the
station's interior.
The Soyuz 31 crew swapped craft with the Soyuz
29 crew so as to supply the long-duration crew with a fresh craft.
On September 2, the engines of Soyuz 29 were tested, 25 experiment
containers with 100 experimental results were transferred, along
with exposed film, and seat liners and centering weights were
exchanged. The Soyuz 31 crew left in Soyuz 29 the next day and
landed 140 km southeast of Dzhezkazgan.
The standard recovery procedure was changed with
this flight, observers noted. In the past, the recovery of a
civilian Salyut crew had been made on the orbit following the one
which provided a nominal launch opportunity to Salyut. With this
and subsequent flights, the landing occurred during the orbit which
provided the nominal launch opportunity. The effect of this change
was to have a landing window open some two to three days earlier
than otherwise.
The crew on the station subsequently boarded the
Soyuz 31 vehicle and redocked it to the forward port, thus freeing
the aft port for a forthcoming Progress supply ship. They returned
to earth 2 November in the craft after setting a new
space-endurance record of 139 days.
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