The Explorers' Club, № MCLXXXVII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Age—The 50th Anniversary of Soyuz 23
14-16 October 1976: Soyuz 23 lifted off from Baikonur, carrying CDR Vyacheslav Zudov & F.E. Valery Rozhdestvensky aboard a Soyuz 7K-T capsule atop a Soyuz rocket; call sign Radon; the duo tried but failed to dock with the Salyut 5 space station; after 32 orbits, Soyuz 23 splashed down on a frozen Lake Tengiz, broke through the ice, & sank; after nine hours underwater, the duo were recovered.

Bonus! Space Age Song o'the Day: Soyuz 23
Bombskare, "Sink or Swim" from A Million Ways to Die (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MCLXVII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Age—The 50th Anniversary of Soyuz 21
6 July-24 August 1976: Soyuz 21 lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome, with CDR Boris Volynov & F.E. Vitaly Zholobov aboard a Soyuz 7K-T capsule atop a Soyuz rocket; call sign Baikal (Lake Baikal); the duo docked with & boarded the Salyut 5 space station; after forty-eight days, due to toxic fumes in Salyut 5, they emergency evacuated & landed in the Kazakh S.S.R.

Commentary: Soyuz 21 was the Soviets' first crewed flight in almost a year, since the landings of Soyuz 19 (Apollo-Soyuz Test Project) on 21 July 1975 & Soyuz 18 (from Salyut 4) on 26 July 1975. Soyuz 20 was an uncrewed flight that spent three months docked to Salyut 4 (17 November 1975-16 February 1976); this was unusual because most uncrewed test flights of Soyuz spacecraft were given the generic Kosmos designation.

Zholobov's illness from the toxic fumes was worse than Volynov's, & the next crew to visit Salyut 5 wore breathing appartus & vented the contaminated atmosphere into space. There are contrary reports that nothing was wrong with the station's atmosphere & Volynov & Zholobov deteriorated from a lack of exercise & sleep; or, the duo experienced a severe but unspecified interpersonal conflict. Maybe some combination of all three theories? The Soviet space program was always secretive, & a military spy mission like Soyuz 21 all the more so; so, we may never know for sure.

Bonus! Space Age Song o'the Day: Soyuz 21
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Toxic Toast" from Question the Answers (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MCLXIV

Operation AXIOM: The Space Age—The 50th Anniversary of Salyut 5
22 June 1976: Salyut 5 lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Proton-K rocket; "Salyut 5" was a cover name for a military Almaz ("Diamond") spy station, O.P.S.-3, the third & last Almaz station; Salyut 5 was equipped with a KSI descent capsule, to return research materials to Earth; two crews spent sixty-five days aboard; Salyut 5 burned up upon re-entry, 8 August 1977.

Commentary: Photographs of the Soviet space program are hard enough to come by under the best of circumstances, but are even more rare when dealing with an uncrewed flight & a secret military mission. The launch of Salyut 5 checks both of those boxes.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Saylut 5
The Aquabats!, "Hi-Five City!" from Charge!! Special One Year Anniversary Edition (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MXC

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Soyuz 18
24 May-26 July 1975: Soyuz 18 lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur, with CDR Pyotr Klimuk & F.E. Vitaly Sevastyanov aboard a Soyuz 7K-T capsule atop a Soyuz rocket; call sign Kavkaz ("Caucasus"); the duo docked with & boarded the Salyut 4 space station; after sixty-three days of experiments, with the station's environmental systems degrading, they landed in the Kazakh S.S.R.

Commentary: Soyuz 18 remained on orbit throughout the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (15-24 July 1975). Klimuk & Sevastyanov set a new Soviet endurance record, more than doubling the Soyuz 17 crew's twenty-nine days in space. As with the Soyuz 9 cosmonauts (1-19 June 1970), the Soyuz 18 duo returned to Earth in worse physical condition than long-duration American astronauts who had spend as long or even longer in microgravity.

Bonus! Space Race Song o'the Day: Soyuz 18
The Littlest Man Band, "Stayed Away Too Long" from Better Book Ends (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MLXVII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Soyuz 17
10 January-9 February 1975: Soyuz 17 lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur, with CDR Aleksei Gubarev & F.E. Georgy Grechko aboard a Soyuz 7K-T capsule atop a Soyuz rocket; call sign Zenit ("Zenith"); the duo docked with & boarded the Salyut 4 space station, finding a note from its builders: "Wipe your feet;" after twenty-nine days of astrophysical research, they landed in the Kazakh S.S.R.

Commentary: Complicating the search for photographs of Soyuz 17 is that there were also missions designated Soyuz TMA-17 (2009-2010) & Soyuz MS-17 (2020-2021), flights to the International Space Station. Also, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project dominates 1975 in the photo search results.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Soyuz 17
Lenka, "Here to Stay" from Two (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MLXVI

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.

The Explorers' Club, № MXXXIII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Salyut 3
25 June 1974: Salyut 3 lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Proton-K rocket; "Salyut 3" was a cover name for a military Almaz ("Diamond") spy station, O.P.S.-2, which was equiped with a Rikhter R-23 autocannon; the gun was fixed in place, so that the whole station moved to aim it; Salyut 3's low orbit, military crews, & communications activity betraying its secret purpose.

Commentary: An earlier, civilian-model space station that would have been designated "Salyut 3," but it failed to achieve its proper orbit & so was given the generic satellite designation "Kosmos 557." Kosmos 557's brief orbital career overlapped with Skylab being in orbit by eight days (14-22 May 1973), but was not acknowledged by the Soviets until much later. Thus, this military-model Salyut 3 & Skylab marked the first time two acknowledged space stations were in low Earth orbit simultaneously.

No cosmonauts ever boarded Salyut 3. The station was de-orbited over the Pacific Ocean on 24 January 1975.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Salyut 3
Robert Duncan, "Gunfight Epiphany (Theme from Terriers)" from the Gunfight Epiphany single (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № CMXL

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Salyut 2
3 April-28 May 1973: Salyut 2 lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Proton-K rocket; "Salyut 2" was a cover name for a military Almaz ("Diamond") spy station, O.P.S.-1; thirteen days after launch, debris from the exploded Proton booster depressurized the hull & tore off the solar panels; O.P.S.-1 lost power & attitude control, & its orbit decayed, burning up on re-entry.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Salyut 2
A New Found Glory, "Failure's Not Flattering" from Catalyst (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCCXLIV

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Salyut 1, Part II
11 October 1971: Following the Soyuz 11 disaster in June, the Salyut 1 had been remotely raised to a higher orbit, but with continued delays to the redesign of the Soyuz capsule & the station's propellant running low, the decision was made to conduct a controlled de-orbit of the station; after one hundred seventy-five days in orbit, the world's first space station burned up during re-entry over the Pacific.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Salyut 1
Blues Traveler, "Crash & Burn" from Four (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCCXXVII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Soyuz 11, Part II
29 June 1971: The Soyuz 11 crew set a new spaceflight endurance record, twenty-two days, including surviving a fire aboard Salyut 1 on the eleventh day; after separation from the station, their Soyuz's air was vented into space & Dobrovolsky, Volkov, & Patsayev asphyxiated to death, while the capsule re-entered the atmosphere automatically; recovery forces found the three cosmonauts dead.

Commentary: Amongst other memorials to the Soyuz 11 trio, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, & Viktor Patsayev are the namesakes of the craters Dobrovol'skiy, Volkov, & Patsaev on the far side of the Moon.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: The Soyuz 11 Disaster
The Phenomenauts, "Heroes" from For All Mankind (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCCXXIII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Soyuz 11, Part I
6-28 June 1971: Soyuz 11 lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome, with CDR Georgy Dobrovolsky, Flight Engineer Vladislav Volkov, & Research Engineer Viktor Patsayev aboard a Soyuz 7K-OKS capsule atop a Soyuz rocket; the trio successfully docked with & boarded the Salyut 1 space station, & hosted daily "Cosmovision" T.V. broadcasts that made them famous in the U.S.S.R.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Soyuz 11
The Phenomenauts, "Fly through the Sky" from the Electric Sheep E.P. (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCCXIII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Soyuz 10
22-24 April 1971: Soyuz 10 lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying CDR Vladimir Shatalov, Flight Engineer Aleksei Yeliseyev, & Systems Engineer Nikolai Rukavishnikov aboard a Soyuz 7K-OKS capsule atop a Soyuz rocket; their attempt to dock with & board Salyut 1 failed; during reentry & landing, toxic fumes in the capsule overcame Rukavishnikov, but not fatally.

Commentary: In typical Communist fashion, after Soyuz 10 failed to dock with the Salyut station, Soviet officials claimed the Soyuz 10 cosmonauts had never been intended to board the Salyut, merely to rendezvous as a "dress rehearsal" for Soyuz 11. Had the docking been successful, it would have allowed for the Soviets' first internal crew transfer, like American astronauts did between the Apollo Command & Lunar Modules. All previous Soviet crew transfers had involved spacewalks.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Soyuz 10
The Hold Steady, "Stuck Between Stations" from Boys and Girls in America (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.