Russian space programs history

At this point, the Soviets decided to move on from Salyut 3 and upgrade their troublesome docking mechanisms. Here: The crew of the Soviet space mission Soyuz 14, Cmdr.

Pavel Popovich left and engineer Yuri Artyukhin right are pictured before entering their Soyuz spacecraft prior to launch, on July 3, A successor to Salyut 1 had been in the works for some years. After two failed launches in and , another station — Salyut 4 — finally reached orbit in December Salyut 4 was little more than a slight upgrade to Salyut 1's design.

It was fitted with a variety of telescopes : one pointed at the sun and two others watching the universe for X-rays. And it held a little garden for cosmonauts to grow peas and onions in space. Two different crewed missions visited Salyut 4. Soyuz 17 docked in January with cosmonauts Aleksei Gubarev and Georgy Grechko, who stayed for about a month.

By the end of its lifetime, the station was becoming uninhabitable: its life support was failing and its walls were coated with mold. Regardless, Salyut 4 stayed in orbit until The third and last of the Almaz launches, the station named Salyut 5 entered orbit in June Compared to Salyuts 2 and 3, it proved only somewhat longer-lasting.

The Soyuz 21 crew, cosmonauts Boris Volynov and Vitaly Zholobov, were Salyut 5's first visitors and had to leave early when a fuel leak contaminated the station's air during their July mission. Next came Soyuz 23, a mission carrying cosmonauts Vyacheslav Zudov and Valery Rozhdestvensky to Salyut 5 in October , but that mission was cut short after failing to dock, and the crew went straight back to Earth. Finally, in February , came the Soyuz 24 crew — cosmonauts Viktor Gorbatko and Yuri Glazkov — who managed to vent the station's air and freshen it up before entering and staying for a few weeks.

The station's plans called for a fourth mission, but by mid, the station had already begun to run low on necessary fuel. It was deorbited that August. Here: Soyuz 24 Cmdr. Viktor Gorbatko left and flight engineer Yuri Glazkov wave goodbye prior to their flight to the Salyut 5 space station, on Feb. The Soviet space station program really began to hit its stride with Salyut 6. In many ways, Salyut 6 was the first truly long-lasting space station.

Launched in September , Salyut 6 welcomed dozens of cosmonauts during its five-year lifetime. In a major improvement over its predecessors, Salyut 6 had two docking ports. That allowed some cosmonauts to reside on Salyut 6 long-term: as much as half a year, often sustained by uncrewed cargo resupply launches.

Meanwhile, other crews could visit the station for shorter stays. Salyut 6 had an advanced telescope and an Earth-facing camera that cosmonauts used to help the Soviet Ministry of Agriculture examine crop sites.

Salyut 6's living standards were also a huge upgrade over its spartan predecessors. Now, Soviet space station-dwellers could avail themselves of sound-insulated walls , a gymnasium, a shower and cots for relatively comfortable sleep. And in , Salyut 6's crew greeted the opening ceremony of that year's Summer Olympics in Moscow.

Salyut 7 was quite similar to Salyut 6; in fact, it was originally Salyut 6's backup. It launched in April , and like its predecessor, welcomed dozens of cosmonauts over the next several years, supported by uncrewed resupply missions. Salyut 7's living conditions took yet another giant leap.

Cosmonauts now had ergonomic seats, hot water, a refrigerator, and windows with shades. Portholes let in ultraviolet light to disinfect the interior. And Salyut 7's science experiments included the first plants to flower in space. Impressively, the next crew — Soyuz T — manually docked with the misbehaving station and, in sub-zero temperatures without life support, restored its power: an act which saved the station for another several years. Soviet planners wanted to retrieve Salyut 7 in the s with a Buran space shuttle, but the Buran program was shuttered before that could happen.

Ultimately, it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere in The Salyut launches were all just a prelude to the Soviet Union's and, later, Russia's most ambitious space project yet. Much like today's International Space Station ISS or China's Tiangong space station, Mir was modular: it was assembled in space, one piece at a time, between and And at its heart was a retrofitted Salyut capsule.

That central module was home to Mir's crew. Mir is the only space station that was built by one country's regime and then run by the successor to that regime. It happened when the Soviet Union dissolved in and formed the Russian Federation. The Soviet space program faced interesting times as Union began to crumble in the late s and early s. Instead of the Soviet space agency, Mir and its Soviet cosmonauts who became Russian citizens when the country changed came under the aegis of Roscosmos, the newly formed Russian space agency.

Many of the design bureaus that had dominated space and aerospace design were either shut down or reconstituted as private corporations. The Russian economy went through major crises, which affected the space program. Eventually, things stabilized and the country moved ahead with plans to participate in the International Space Station , plus resume launches of weather and communications satellites.

Today, Roscosmos has weathered changes in the Russian space industrial sector and is moving ahead with new rocket designs and spacecraft.

It remains part of the ISS consortium and has announced Instead of the Soviet space agency, Mir and its Soviet cosmonauts who became Russian citizens when the country changed came under the aegis of Roscosmos, the newly formed Russian Space Agency.

It has announced interest in future lunar missions and is working on new rocket designs and satellite updates. Eventually, the Russians would like to go to Mars, as well, and continue solar system exploration.

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By Carolyn Collins Petersen. Carolyn Collins Petersen. Carolyn Collins Petersen is an astronomy expert and the author of seven books on space science. She previously worked on a Hubble Space Telescope instrument team. Learn about our Editorial Process. Featured Video.

Cite this Article Format. Petersen, Carolyn Collins. The Future of Human Space Exploration. The History of the European Space Agency. The History of Space Shuttle Challenger. The History of the Chinese Space Program. Apollo 8 Brought to a Hopeful End.

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