Red Stars over the Cosmos

By Frederic Golden

Science

A record-setting mission underscores the Soviet space drive

Question: Why did the Soviet-trained Cuban Cosmonaut Arnaldo Mendez return from his recent trip into space with red hands?

Answer: The Soviets aboard the ship were so worried about being hijacked to Cuba that they slapped his hands every time he reached for the controls.

That little joke is currently making the rounds at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. But the troubling fact is that U.S. officials have little to smile about when they look at the burgeoning Soviet space program. The faltering U.S. effort has been plagued by repeated delays of the space shuttle (now scheduled for launch no earlier than next March), while the Soviets have been forging steadily onward, setting the stage for permanent occupation of space.

The latest evidence of Soviet ambitions comes with the return to earth of Cosmonauts Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin from a record-breaking 185 days aboard the Salyut 6 space station. Their successful mission not only eclipsed the Soviets' earlier endurance mark of 175 days in orbit but was 101 days longer than the stay by U.S. astronauts aboard the Skylab space station in 1974. Says retired U.S. Air Force Lieut. General Thomas Stafford, a former astronaut who commanded the orbital linkup with the Soviets in 1975, the last manned American mission: "The Soviets are challenging the U.S. in space, and they are achievers."

So they are. Though Salyut 6 may be smaller and more primitive than Skylab, which tumbled back to earth last year, the samovar-shaped space station has performed impressively. Launched three years ago, it weighs 20 tons, has as much room as a small dacha (the amenities: a shower, 20 view ports, sleeping facilities for four), and has been occupied for 578 days, a little more than half its time aloft. The Soviets, using their new breed of Progress spacecraft--small, automated single-shot ferry ships--have repeatedly refueled and re-equipped Salyut, with a total overhaul of its inventory of more than two tons of scientific equipment.

Some of this gear seems to be military. Circling at an altitude of about 320 km (200 miles), Salyut provides an ideally situated outpost for keeping an eye on military-related activities on the earth. Indeed, U.S. intelligence sources note that the Soviets have sent four unmanned satellites into orbit during the past three weeks, including one electronic eavesdropping vehicle. The frenzy is presumably part of their effort to keep tab on the war in the Persian Gulf.

As important as spy-in-the-sky activity may be to the Soviet space effort, Salyut's latest cosmonauts plainly had their hands full. In fact, they may have set a record for doing science in space. According to the Soviets, the experiments included physiological and biological stress tests, notably monitoring the skeletal changes that occur during prolonged exposure to weightlessness. The cosmonauts made extensive surveys of the earth, looking for oil deposits, checking crops and forests, and seeking untapped sources of fresh water. They cultured yeast cells and grew layers of gallium arsenide crystals, an important component of computer chips and lasers. The objective: to test the zero g environment for possible use in future space manufacturing facilities.

Such facilities may not be far off.Though Soviet spokesmen frequently talk of ambitious projects like manned exploration of the moon or a mission to Mars, U.S. space watchers are convinced that the Soviets have a more immediate goal: orbiting a permanent twelve-man space station by the middle of the decade. The 110-ton-plus station would be sent aloft by a giant booster with nearly twice the thrust of the huge Saturn 5 rockets that launched Americans on their voyages to the moon. To rendezvous with such a platform, the Soviets have hinted they are working on a new vehicle that sounds somewhat reminiscent of NASA'S abandoned "Dyna-Soar" project. It seems to be a delta-winged spacecraft, designed to glide smoothly to the ground like the space shuttle rather than come down to a bumpy landing under a parachute, as did Popov and Ryumin on the steppe of Kazakhstan in central Asia in their Soyuz space capsule.

Launching payloads of all kinds at ten times the rate of the U.S., the Soviets are slowly closing the gap with the U.S., not by great leaps but by tortoise-like persistence. Says the Library of Congress's veteran space watcher Charles Sheldon: "They keep plugging away at very practical things, gaining an enormous amount of experience. Certainly, reliability has increased tremendously in their programs." Thus, even without a reusable vehicle like the U.S. space shuttle, the Soviets show every sign of being able to ferry a steady stream of men and material between earth and orbit for both civilian and military objectives. Adds Sheldon: "I'm obviously concerned."

Like their country's space program, Salyut 6's latest occupants were dogged performers. Popov, 34, a space rookie, ably took last-minute command of the ship when one of the original crewmen injured his leg just before launch. Ryumin, 41, the flight engineer, is a three-mission veteran who has now logged nearly 240 million km (150 million miles) in space, a record. Besides all the science efforts, the cosmonauts did well at the usual public relations functions, like fashioning a makeshift Misha bear, the symbol of the Moscow Olympics. They exerted themselves more strenuously than previous cosmonaut teams -- by doing long stretches on a treadmill, for example. Nor did they stint on food. Each registered a weight gain -- Popov 3 kg (7 lbs.), Ryumin 4.5 kg (10 Ibs.) -- a new phenomenon for space travelers. The pair apparently felt so good that after landing, Ryumin coolly got out of the spacecraft and jauntily walked off unaided.

-- By Frederic Golden. Reported by Jerry Hannifin/Washington

With reporting by Jerry Hannifin

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