Adrift in Orbit

A cosmonaut is nearly lost

In the sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey, a space-walking astronaut is separated from his ship and sent hurtling off to his death in space by an intelligent but deranged computer. Last week, in spite of Russian efforts to keep the incident quiet, Western sources reported that a Soviet cosmonaut narrowly avoided a similar fate in February. The near mishap apparently resulted from an unauthorized space walk by Cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko, 33, during last spring's record-breaking 96-day orbital flight aboard the Salyut 6 space station.

Only Cosmonaut Georgi Grechko, 46, had been slated to make a space walk; Romanenko was to remain behind at Salyut's open hatch. Both were wearing a new type of space suit equipped with a radio and an hour's supply of oxygen. Thus when cosmonauts are working outside an orbiting spacecraft, they require no umbilical link to the mother ship other than a simple tether to keep them from drifting off. Everything was going smoothly during Grechko's extraterrestrial stroll until Salyut passed over the western Pacific Ocean--out of range of Soviet ground stations. Suddenly, Romanenko, who was not tethered, jumped out of the hatch.

Why Romanenko took this daring plunge remains unknown. "Perhaps he got 'space rapture' or something," speculates a U.S. space official. In any case, Grechko reacted quickly. Making his way hand over hand along Salyut's rail, he managed to grab the end of Romanenko's safety line just in time. By then his comrade had floated about four meters (13 ft.) from Salyut. A few seconds later, Romanenko would have been beyond reach of his comrade's helping hand, drifting hopelessly in space.

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