Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Salyut 4
26 December 1974:
Salyut 4 ("Salute 4") lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Proton-K rocket; A.K.A. D.O.S.-4, this was a civilian space station like
Salyut 1 (D.O.S.-1);
Salyut 4 carried the O.S.T.-1 solar telescope, two X-ray telescopes, a cosmic ray detector, visual cameras, & infrared & ultraviolet spectrometers;
Salyut 4 burned up upon re-entry, 3 February 1977.
Commentary: Salyut 4
paralleled the American Skylab: it hosted its first crew for one month (twenty-nine days; Skylab 2: twenty-eight days) & its second crew for two months (sixty-three days; Skylab 3: fifty-eight days). Here the two stations part ways: Skylab hosted a third crew for three months (eighty-three days) while Saylut 4
hosted the uncrewed Soyuz 20
for three months. Skylab hosted nine astronauts for one hundred sixty-nine days; Saylut 4
hosted four cosmonauts for ninety-two days.
Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Saylut 4
Leonard Rosenman, "Chekov's Run" from
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home—Music from the Motion Picture (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)
Semper exploro.
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