Salyut Space Stations - Technical Details
Salyut One
Salyut One, also known as DOS-1 (Durable Orbital Station 1), was the world's first space station. It was launched into low Earth orbit on April 19, 1971. It was a modification of the Soviet military's Almaz space stations, Salyut Two, Three and Five that were flown later.
After the U.S. landed Apollo 11 on the Moon in July 1969, the Soviets began shifting the primary emphasis of their crewed space program to orbiting space stations to facilitate possible lunar landing. The other motivation for the space station program was a desire to beat the U.S. which had the Skylab program in development.
Civilian Soviet space stations were internally referred to as DOS (Durable Orbital Station) with the purpose of testing the systems of a space station and to conduct scientific research and experiments.
Nonetheless several military experiments were carried on Salyut 1, including the OD-4 optical visual ranger, the Orion ultraviolet instrument for characterizing rocket exhaust plumes, and the highly classified Svinets radiometer.
Reference: Wikipedia - Salyut 1
The table below summarizes the two crewed missions were flown to Salyut One.
| Launch | Spacecraft | Crew No. |
Duration (Days) |
Mission Notes | |
| Year | Date | ||||
| 1971 | Apr 19 | Salyut 1 | - | 175 | World's first space station. |
| Apr 23 | Soyuz 10 | 3 | 2 | Soyuz 10 failed to dock and returned to Earth. | |
| Jun 6 | Soyuz 11 | 3 | 24 | Crew lost during re-entry. |
Salyut One comprised five components: a transfer compartment, a main compartment, two auxiliary compartments, and the Orion 1 Space Observatory. Three were pressurized (100 m3 total), and two could be entered by the crew.
The transfer compartment was equipped with Salyut One's only docking port, which could accommodate one Soyuz 7K-OKS crewed spacecraft. It was the first use of the Soviet SSVP docking system, for internal crew transfer, which is still in use. The docking cone had a 2 m front diameter and a 3 m aft diameter.
The compartment was about 4 m in diameter. It had space for eight large chairs (seven at work consoles), several control panels, and 20 portholes. The interior design used various colors (light and dark gray, apple green, light yellow) for supporting the cosmonauts' orientation in weightlessness.
The third pressurized compartment contained the control and communications equipment, the power supply, the life support system, and other auxiliary equipment.
The fourth compartment (unpressurized) was about 2 m in diameter and contained the engine installations and associated control equipment. It was based on the service module of a Soyuz crew craft.
The astrophysical Orion 1 Space Observatory was installed in Salyut One. Ultraviolet spectrograms of stars were obtained with the help of a mirror telescope and a spectrograph using film sensitive to the far ultraviolet. Slitless spectrograms were obtained of the stars Vega and Beta Centauri. This was telescope to be operated outside of the Earth's atmosphere.
Launch: April 19, 1971
Carrier rocket: Proton-K No. 254-01
Launch pad: Baikonur, Site 81/24
Re-entry: October 11, 1971
Perigee altitude: 200 km
Apogee altitude: 222 km
Orbital inclination: 51.6°
Orbital period: 88.5 minutes
Days in orbit: 175 days
No. of orbits: 2,929
Length: 15.8 m
Diameter: 4.2 m
Habitable volume: 90 m3
Mass at Launch: 18,900 kg
Wingspan: 10 m (2 pair of solar arrays)
Solar Array Area: 28 m3
Docking Ports: 1