Lunares
Well, Frank, my thoughts are very similar. The vast loneliness up here at the moon is awe-inspiring, and it makes you realize what you have back there on earth. The earth from here is a grand oasis in the big vastness of space
Jim Lovell
Space Legend of the week
Happy Birthday Monday September 10th
1933 – Yevgeni Vassilyevich Khrunov, Russian colonel and astronaut (d.2000)
He was born in Prudy, Tula Oblast
Khrunov was initially interested in pursuing farming in studies.
His interest in flying would soon follow after he watched the planes during wartime
In 1952 Krhunov was also drafted into the Soviet Army where he would follow his interests in becoming a pilot and apply for pilot school
Upon graduation he would receive the ranking of Lieutenant. Khrunov later received another promotion to senior lieutenant on August 6, 1958
The following year Khrunov was interviewed along with Gorbatko in regards to becoming a cosmonaut although they were not expressly told that was what they were being interviewed for
He went up on Soyuz 5 ( Union 5) a Soyuz mission using the Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union on 15 January 1969, which docked with Soyuz 4 in orbit
Soyuz 4 (Union 4) was launched day before on 14 January 1969
on 16 January It was the first-ever docking of two manned spacecraft of any nation, and the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another of any nation, the only time a transfer was accomplished with a space walk – two months before the US Apollo 9 mission performed the first ever internal crew transfer of Aleksei Yeliseyev and Yevgeny Khrunov
A connecting tunnel for the docking mechanism had not yet been developed, unlike apollo
This required Yevgeny Khrunov and Aleksei Yeliseyev to spacewalk from one vehicle to the other, On their 35th revolution of Earth. Only poor video footage exists due to Yeliseyev being distracted.
Bet they were glad to go home on the Soyuz 4 !!!!
Souy 5 service module did not separate, so it entered the atmosphere nose-first, leaving cosmonaut Boris Volynov hanging by his restraining straps. As the craft aerobraked, the atmosphere burned through the module. But the craft righted itself before the escape hatch was burned through. Then, the parachute lines tangled and the landing rockets failed, resulting in a hard landing which broke Volynov's teeth.
The previous three Soyuz flights were also docking attempts but all had failed for various reasons.
The radio call sign of the crew was Amur, while Soyuz 5 was Baikal. This referred to the trans-Siberian railway project called the Baikal-Amur Mainline, which was under construction at the time.
The crew were to meet Leonid Brezhnev during a lavish ceremony at the Kremlin, but this was prevented by an attempted assassination of the Soviet leader. A man shot eight times at the motorcade but aimed at the car containing Georgi Beregovoi, Alexei Leonov, Andrian Nikolayev, and Valentina Tereshkova. They were unharmed but Brezhnev's car was forced to speed away past the waiting Soyuz 4/5 crews on the podium
The news agency TASS stated that: "there was a mutual mechanical coupling of the ships . . . and their electrical circuits were connected. Thus, the world’s first experimental cosmic station with four compartments for the crew was assembled and began functioning."
Also 10th Sep - 1945 – Mike Mullane, American colonel and astronaut
STS-41D Space Shuttle Discovery launched August 30, 1984
STS-27 Space Shuttle Atlantis launched December 2, 1988
STS-36 Space Shuttle Atlantis launched February 28, 1990
Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut
Don Eyles book about his Apollo days
On this day!!
1988 – Abdul Ahad Mohmand, the first Afghan in space, returns aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz TM-5 after nine days on the Mir space station.
Space Word of the week
Boilerplate: (mass simulator)
A metal replica of a spacecraft but usually heavier and cruder for test purposes. non-functional craft, system, or payload which is used to test various configurations and basic size, load, and handling characteristics
Kate Timohhina - Lunares
LEARN is a Moon simulation mission taking place 25 Aug - 9 Sep at the Lunares habitat in Pila, Poland. Experiments in psychology, bio-medicine, telerobotics, geology, and plant-growth will add to the overall knowledge sum for lunar exploration.