The famous Russian scientist and theoretician Constantine Tsiolkovsky in
an article at the start of the 20th century titled Objectives of Space
travel wrote about the strategy of space exploration. He believed that
populating near earth by Space dwellers could be more beneficial and effective.
As history has shown however prophesies rarely come to pass one hundred
per cent. But Mr. Tsiolkovsky was right in many ways. The Soviet orbiting
station Salut was launched in April 1971 the first of a number of such
devices, the prototype of the future space dwellers about which Mr. Tsiolkovsky
dreamed.
The development of Salut and the new multipurpose Soyuz space ship capable
of complicated operations in space – approaching and docking with other
ships and space objects was one of the most important stages in the development
of Soviet space technology.
Salut-1 was put in space by the rocket booster Proton and it was equipped
with  one
docking unit and didn’t have a refilling device. Salut-1 consisted of 3
main sections: transit from the docking unit, working section with several
experimental equipment and control system and units. The rocket’s engine
was in this section. The size of Salut-1 was huge for that time with a
length of 21,4 metres and a weight of more than 25 tons.
In an interview for the voice of Russia radio one of the chiefs of Russia’s
space corporation Energia - Leonid Gorshkov has this to say:
“Salut was meant to stay in orbit for only 3 months. It was a single module
station and only one ship could dock with it. Three months flight was then
considered a long period since until then we only had an 18 month stay
in orbit. Salut was a huge construction and in an enormous drop in temperature
any of the several units could malfunction and the Soviet Union had not
yet acquired sufficient experience about the danger of a meteorite”.
It is to the credit of Soviet designers and developers that Salut withstood
the trial and came out tops.
The first crew of Vladimir Shatalov, Aleksei Yeliseyev and Nikolai
Rukavishnikov left for the Salut station on April the 23rd 1971. Their
ship Soyuz-10  was
upgraded and refurbished. It was fitted with a docking unit allowing for
a transfer from ship to station without going into open space as was the
case in the first docking by Soyuz ships. The ship was also fitted with
an automatic approach and docking system. But as the ship touched the station
it was discovered that the docking unit was malfunctioning due to a miscalculation
making a transfer inside the station impossible. Attempts to move away
from the station failed the first time and the crew made several rounds
trying to move away from the station and land. The crew came back to earth
only after 2 days .
On June the 6th 1971 another crew consisting of cosmonauts Georgy Dobrovolsky,
Vladimir Volkov and Viktor Patsayev flew in Soyuz to Salut. The following
day they successfully docked with the station and went inside it. They
began working and this gave birth to the first long period orbiting scientific
station. The cosmonauts stayed in space for nearly one month and carried
out a series of scientific experiments. But on their return to earth on
June the 30th all the crew members perished due to the malfunctioning of
the hermetical cabin of the Soyuz ship.
There were no further flights to Salaut-1amd after 5 plus months of the
launch of the station it was sunk in the Ocean.
The Salut programme began experiencing a series of failures and the next
orbiting station to be launched to space in July 1972 failed to reach its
destination because of an accident in the booster. The 3rd Salut also failed.
It was launched in May 1973 and spent a few days in space and due to a
fault in the orientation system the entire fuel in the station was used
up. Officially Moscow called that station sputnik 557. The US was conned
into trying to figure out what sort of a military sputnik, weighing 20
tons the Soviet had put in space.
Another Salut was launched in June 1974 and spent 213 days in space. A
military crew consisting of cosmonauts Pavel Popovich and Yury Artyukhin
spent 2 weeks in the station. A unique complex of optical intelligence
gathering device was installed on board and photographs taken by the device
were sent back to earth by a special capsule dropped from the station during
its flight over Soviet territory. That station successfully passed the
summer programme of trial.
Salut-4 was launched in December 1974 and stayed in space until 1977 receiving
two expeditions of 2 cosmonauts each. They carried out scientific experiment
for 28 and 63 days respectively.
Salut-5 went into orbit in June 1976 and spent 441 days with 2 military
expeditions visiting it.
Salut-6 was launched in September 1977 and was in space until July 1982
but was sunk on instruction from earth. For 617 days the station received
16 expeditions consisting of 34 cosmonauts including 8 foreigners.
Salut-7 of a new type was launched on April the 19th 1982 and remained
in orbit until February 1991and for 1075 days played host to 9 expeditions
consisting of 27 cosmonauts including 3 foreigners
And finally the first living module of Mir (a modernized version of Salut)
was launched in February 1986 and for 15 years in space Mir was visited
by 104 cosmonauts including 62 foreigners. 28 space expeditions went to
Mir and 24 international programmes of scientific experiments were carried
out.
On exhausting its capacity Mir was sunk in the Ocean on orders from earth.
How will the future orbiting station look like?
We do not believe it is necessary to build new large stations investing
more money on them Leonid Gorshskov said in an interview with the Voice
of Russia world service. The new orbiting station to be built should be
small and cheaper and that’s our strategy. Moreover Mir-2 forms the base
of the Russian segment of the international orbiting station.
We developed Salut for permanent work in space and we worked on it virtually
without a break Our stations before Mir were Salut but with different names.
You gain experience as you launch a new station or satellite and then we
are no longer satisfied. A new station is launched and again we want a
new one. Mir was the zenith of our search Even Mir stopped satisfying us.
It had many imperfections: We never overcame energy shortages in space
despite the existence in Mir of many solar batteries. We failed to use
them effectively. Mir-2 forming the base of the Russian segment in the
international space station has learned from the mistake of its predecessor.
Salut-1 was the first of a number of Soviet space devices which began a
qualitatively new phase in space exploration. It is inseparably linked
to man’s permanent presence in space a cardinal direction in the current
stage of space technology.
The valuable experience gained in Salut and Mir has become the pillar for
man’s next step - the international space orbiting station in which Russia,
America and many other countries are collaborating.
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