Salyut 7 cosmonauts open module’s doors

Press, 2 July 1983, Page 10

Salyut 7 cosmonauts open module’s doors

NZPA-Reuter Moscow Two Soviet cosmonauts in orbit aboard the Salyut 7 space station yesterday opened doors to an auto-matically-linked module in a new stage in the Soviet space programme. The module, Cosmos 1443, launched two months ago and docked by remote control with Salyut 7, was revealed to be a two-part spacecraft, with its own manoeuvring jets and a section that can be sent back to Earth with experimental data. A report by the official

news agency Tass said that Cosmos 1443 was made up of an orbital module and a descent module. The latter, Tass said, could return to Earth with the results of experiments along with instruments no longer needed on board. Tass said that the two cosmonauts, Vladimir Lyakhov and Alexander Alexandrov, opened the hatch connecting Cosmos 1443 and began cheeking its systems and cargo. It described the module as a “space tugboat” with jets that could be used to alter the orbit of the entire

complex — module, Salyut 7 and the cosmonauts’ spacecraft, Soyuz T 9. Yesterday’s announcement seemed to confirm American rumours that the Soviet space programme was not primarily concerned with the development of large space stations. The two cosmonauts will not go for a new space endurance record, reports "Pravda.” The Communist Party daily said that the two would be aboard for a shorter period than its previous occupants.