The Second Orbital Flight

8/8/2019 The Second Orbital Flight

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NASA TECHNICAL TRANSLATION NASA TT F-15,076

THE SECOND ORBITAL FLIGHTA. Nikolayev

Translation of "Vo Vtorom Orbital"nom ,"Aviatsiya i Kosmonavtika, No. 7, July 1973, pp. 32-34.

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATIONWASHINGTON, D.C. 20546 SEPTEMBER 1973


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NASA TT F-15,076THE SECOND ORBITAL FLIGHT

A. Nikolayev1

Thus, eigh t years following my flight aboard the "Vostok-3" spacec raft, I was once again to have a meeting with space. The long awaited day of thelaunching of the "Soyuz-9" spacecraft 1 June 1970 differed in no particularway from any other day. Get up at nine in the morning, then the medicalexamination, then a short work-out before breakfast.

Between breakfast and lunch we once again examined the voluminous 50 0pages spacecraft logs they contain the upcoming 18 days of flight scheduledby the hours and by the minutes. We repeat the sequence of the prelaunchsystems check in the equipment of the spacecraft, "playing out" in thoughtone of the most complex stages of the flight bringing the spacecraft intoorbit.

According to the order of the day, following lunch, a rest period isplanned and we lie down to sleep. Vitally, obviously, has no objection to"expanding this part of the program" and, in any case, after the establishedtwo and one-half hours the alarm bell of the alarm clock rings, but producesno particular impression on him. One is forced to assist the alarm clock.

And the doctors are already waiting for us. They generously equip uswith sensors and electrodes and record the original physiological indices, inorder later to compare them with our post-fligh t condition.

Finally this procedure is concluded and we climb into our spacesuits andreceive our identification cards as pilot cosmonauts of the USSR.

Night. But on the launching pad it is as bright as day. Particularlyeffective in appearance is the snow-wh ite beautiful rocket pointed into the

General, Air Force, Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR, twice hero of theSoviet Union.*Numbers in the margin indicate pagination of the foreign text.


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dark sky and illuminated by the powerful rays of searchlights. Not far awayare many people: scientists, cosmonaut*%raining supervisors, ground servicespecial]sts.

Saying farewell to our friends and back-ups, Vitally and I walk away fromthe bus and toward the Chairman of the State Commission.

"Comrade Chairman of the State Commission," I report, "the crew of the'Soyuz-9' spacecraft is ready for making its flight!"

In August 1962, when the "Vostok-3" carried me up into orbit, and wh enthe "Vostok-4" turned up directly adjacent to me one day later, piloted byPavel Popovich, we knew very little about space. However, our group flight wasan important step along the path to taking two spacecraft into orbit a shortdistance apart from each other, docking the spacecraft, and consequently, tothe creation of an orbital space station.

Proportional to the increase in duration of spaceflights, it has becomeclear that there are going signs that weightlessness is far from such a harm-less thing as it seemed earlier. The American cosmonaut, Cooper, for example,following his 18 day flight observed changes in the composition of his blood:the volume of the red blood c ells underwent a 30% decrease, their mass decreasedby 20%, and the amount of plasma decreased by 8%.

Following the 14 day long flight, the American cosmonauts were observedto have a decreased amount of calcium in their bones, a decrease in tonus wasobserved, as well as dehydration of the organism and loss in weight...

And now our 18 day long flight, filled with scientific investigations,tests and experiments...

How would space greet us this time, what surprises had weig htlessness instore for us?

Vitaliy and I are sitting in the cockpit seats of "Soyuz-9." The seat beltsare tight, the medical sensors are hooked up to the on-board Telemetry system,bilateral radio communications is established with "Zarya" (the Earth). Therocket has already been filled with the fuel components, however there is still


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quite a bit of time until launch and we s t i l l have to check all the on-boardsystems and equipment of the craft up to the time the five-minute readinessi s declared.

Having completed the check, we turn in our seats. The last few minutespass slowly. Finally, the count-down of the last few seconds begins: "ten,nine... three, two, launch!" In columns of fire and smoke our giant begins togain altitude.

The spacecraft is flying in the vastness of space. Its illuminatorsshine brightly, but these lights are not visible on the Earth. Only a youngmoon hangs in space, and the stars converse with one another in their secretlanguage.

Aboard the spacecraft the transition of day and night occurs muc h morerapidly than it does on the Earth. We will have only just emerged on thenight side of the planet when a minute later the Sun bursts through the cabinwindows. For me this picture is already a familiar one, Vitaliy however isentirely enraptured by his meeting with his first space sunrise.

"Andrey," he shouts with surprise, "look, what an astonishing sunrise!"I understand his amazement, but just at this moment, from the right side of thewindow, where Vitaliy is sitting, the final stage of our rocket appears. Iquickly grab the movie camera and pass it to Vitaliy so that he can shoot a fewframes, but unfortunately the Sun interferes with this photography...

I become accustomed to weightlessness comparatively easily, probably toa certain extent this is explained by the fact that we are very carefullyprepared for our meeting with it while still on the Earth. All the same, whenexperiencing weightlessness for the first time one senses the flow of bloodto the head, the face becomes puffy and acquires a crimson hue. We haveencountered a similar phenomenon when, during the training period we slept inbeds with a negative incline to the head portion. We succeeded in determiningbody position quite rapidly, and during this process the condition to whichwe are unaccustomed becomes less noticeable. As it turned out, it is quiteadequate during a turn of the spacecraft to have one's legs averted toward the "ceiling" of the orbital cabin, since such sensations have almost entirelydisappeared.

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And we must turn the spacecraft almost everyday. In order to b u i l d upreserves of electrical energy, it is necessary to turn the spacecraft in sucha way that the Solar rays strike the Solar panels in a perpend icular fashion,thus supplying current to the buffer batteries.

The consumption of electrical energy in fligh t does not always remain att h e same l e v e l , occasionally l e s s is expended, and then, for supplying e l e c -t r i c a l energy of the craft, it is more efficient to make a so-called "indirect"roll, i.e., to turn toward the Sun at a slig ht ang le.

The fligh t program, spec ifically, provides for the development of am e t h o d of making such twisting rolls by the aid of an optical wide-ang le visor.This task was successfully accomplished. It should be said that the manualregime of control requires a great deal of attention and accuracy, inasmuch asa l l maneuvers expend fuel, and in a long flight it is particularly importantto expend fuel economically.

The flight program was filled with many experimental and investigativestudies. We were aware that our flight was the decisive step on the verydifficult path to the conquest of space. However, we also no less clearlyunderstood another fact: in flight it is necessary to fulfill everythingwh ich has been planned in as good and complete a fashion as possible, in orderto provide answers to the many questions of scientists and maximally to easethe tasks of those who are to follow us.

"Sokol! This is Zarya!" "Contact! How do you read me?""This is Sokol1" "I read you five by!"This is how our conversations with the flight control center began.At the beginning of the flight, in one of the communications sessions,

I reported that all of the physical exercises planned for loading the muscularapparatus under conditions of weightlessness could not be carried out by usin the thirty minutes provided for by the program.

From the ground they ask: how much time is needed to carry out thephysical exercises7

About 50 minutes is required instead of the 30 minutes.


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A l l right, we w i l l see here how much additional t i m e can be set aside.V i t a l l y and I began to carry out the physical exercises more energetic ally,

but, apparently, not quite so intensively as the m e d i c a l specialists wouldl i k e . The air composition sensors in the spacecraft found that the cabinatmosphere of the spacecraft contained less carbon d i o x i d e than would be thecase during intensive crew work. On the Earth it was assumed that we werephysically "underloaded." I must agree. And once again the question arose:how could we increase loading.

Yevgeniy Khrunov advises jokingly from the control center:"You are to increase your exercises while eating breakfast. Chew more

rapidly..."We answered that our appetite was excellent and that his suggestion could

not be accepted.I n the end the specialist slig htly "extended" the program and set aside

50 minutes. It was far from simple to do this.On the Earth, during exercise, the muscles of the arms, legs and of the

body as a wh ole receive a good loading. But in weig htlessness, those samearms and legs weig h absolutely nothing. Therefore the muscles do not have anyforce to work against.

For carrying out physical exercises in fligh t, a special suit was manu^factured. Elastic elements were included in the cloth of this suit which aidedin uniformly loading the muscles of the body. In such suits, attached by meansof rubber-bands to a special area, Vitaliy and I walked, and ran in place, didsit-ups and exercises with the expander.

In one of the communications sessions the conversations once againconcerned physical exercises. They were interested in whether or not fullharmony had been achieved between the program requirements and the capacitiesof the cosmonauts with respect to time and stress.

"Subjective concern of self estimation confirms that we are both in goodshape, that the assignment for physical exercise, in our opinion, is high,"


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V i t a l i y Sevast'yanov answered them, "it could be that it should be cut downa l i t t l e . "

Knowing how the doctors would react to this, I c a l l e d them down abit-"Now we are carrying out the assignment fully and are voluntarily not g o i n g tochange anything. But Vitaliy, obviously, is right."

Several d a > s remain to the end of the flight. By our activity we havealready completed several dozen experiments. The pages of the on-board logbook are f i l l e d with writing.

And yet one investig ation knows no interruption and w i l l be concluded onlymuch later than the end of our flight. This is the investigation of ourcondition. We are under the constant control of the space medic ine specialists.B y telemetry, information concerning all of the most important functions of theorganism is relayed to the center.

From conversations with the supervisors of the medical control group, agreat deal has been made clear to us. We discovered that adaptation toweightlessness is endured well and went forth at a new l e v e l characteristicfor the conditions of spaceflight and completely stabilized . To it, ourcondition was best of all attested to by the good state of our general healthand by adequately high working capacity. I am not saying that we would nottire by the end of the flight, but this fatigue was entirely natural.

The days fly by. And now the on-board log contains an entry written inhugh letters by Vitaliy Sevast'yanov: "The eighteenth day of the flight.Home soon!!!" Our mood is elevated and we more and more think thoughts aboutour relatives and those near to us, we recall our accustomed terrestrialhappinesses and concerns. However, before us there is a great deal of workand the responsible conclusive stage of the flight landing.

We began to gather the exposed cassettes with photographic and movie film,spectrograph film, magnetic tape cassettes, capsules containing seeds, instru-ments, and equipment in a word all that must be returned to the Earth.

And now we are in the prelanding orbit. Following the next passage of thespacecraft into the daytime side of the Earth we will turn it about in such away as to locate the engine along the direction of motion (for creating


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braking impulse). We observe our final space sunrise and once again emergeon the daytime side of the Earth. We check the correctness of the spacecraftorientation. The Earth flies into the visor screen we are over the AtlanticOcean, in the region of South Africa. At the assigned time the landing enginei s turned on. We hear the characteristic hissing, similar to the sound of anoperating Primus [Translator's note' Primus is a make of portable Swed ishstove utilizing bottled gas]. And immediately we beg in to sense a hardlynoticeable but very welcome g-force.

Preparing to separate the launching apparatus from the instrument-aggregateand orbital sections, we are more closely pushed down into the seats, and westrain against the seat belts. A sharp jolt and then through the windows wecan see the separated sections. The instrument panel blinks with the "separ-ation" l i g h t and the automatic landing system cuts in.

One can clearly hear the valves of the engines of the launch controlsystem working. Down below past the deserts and oases of Africa and finallythe Black Sea. We are over our own territory. Home!

With a further descent the spacecraft begins to vibrate, but the tremblingl i k e I experienced aboard the "Vostok-3" is not sensed by us. A yellowfluorescence passed by the window and gradually changes to an orange hue.Near by broken bits of some material fly by in a fashion similar to tracerbullets. A barely noticeable flame appears.

Proportional to entry into the dense layers of the atmosphere, thevelocity of the landing apparatus gradually decreases to a sonic velocity. Wehear a h i g h pitched w histle which gradually increases, changing into a howland a rumble. The g-forces grow and grow, but do not reach hig h magnitudes.I estimate the g-forces to be 4 g's. Later it was established that they didnot even reach this magnitude.

The top of the parachute container flew off. F l i g h t g-forces wereexperienced during the opening of the drag parachute, the braking parachuteand the basic parachute. The spacecraft, swaying g ently, hangs in the air.A t the command of the automatic control device, the funnel heat screen is blownaway and the force is equally absorbed by the shock absorbers of the cabinseats.

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The breathing valve is open. The sensation is that cabin became f i l l e dwith vapor, however, one immediately senses the aroma of the fresh Kazakhstanair. We pass through a layer of clouds and see an aircraft circling not faraway with a helicopter of the search group. And finally, we make contact withthe Earth. The spacecraft, tilted a little, comes to rest in a freshly plowedfield of a state farm. Hello, Earth!

I would l i k e more quic kly to leap out and rush up to those greeting us,however the after-effects of the long flight do not immediately permit one torealize his own strength. It is difficult to rise from the seat: the body isas heavy as lead, the legs are like cotton. Somehow it is very exasperatingto perceive the terrestrial gravity.

Having arisen with difficulty, I - f e e l how rapidly my heart is pounding,the blood running away from the head, and a gray shroud appears before the eyes,I sit back down in the chair and it becomes easier to endure. However I haveto shoot the communications radio antenna away from the spacecraft. Stickingthe upper part of my body out of the cabin I ask everyone to step away fromthe spacecraft.

Through the hatch I pass the space "baggage" to those who have come togreet us. All of the objects seem very heavy. It is difficult to lift thespacecraft log book in one hand. Vitaliy drops the helmet he has in his hand.We are helped out of the spacecraft by our comrades.

I t seems that weightlessness is quite a severe thing . The medical examin-ation showed that during the flight I lost about 3 kg, Vitaliy nearly 4, andnot only as the result of dehydration of the organism, but also as the resultof the deterioration of muscle and fat tissue. Moreover, a number of otherchanges in the organism were noted.

Three years have past since our flight aboard "Soyuz-9." During this timeastronautics has advanced quite far. The "Salyut" orbital stations have beencreated which permit one to conduct long-term and varied investigations innear-Earth orbits. "Soyuz" has been converted into a transport spacecraftcalled upon to deliver crews aboard the orbital station.


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In technology the next q ualitative leap forward has been made, but theproblem of weightlessness continues firmly to be studied by scientists.

The primary result of our flight consists in the fact that in practicei t was shown possible for man to successfully live not only for days, but forweeks to live and work in outer space. But today this is already inadeq uate.Science in the national economy has placed to the fore ever new and complextasks which require a longer stay in orbit. In the final analysis the essenceof matters pertains to the fact that man could work in space as much as isnecessary for the solution of assigned tasks.

Translated for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under ContractNo. NASw-2485 by Techtran Corporation, P.O. Box 729, Glen Burnie, Maryland,2T061; translator: Samuel D. Blalock, Jr.


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