Soyuz T-12

Soyuz T-12 mission is the designation for the flight of a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft to the Soviet space station Salyut 7 It was the seventh visit of a Soyuz spacecraft in this space station and the 73rd flight of Soviet Sojusprogramm. As a fourth visit to the mission team had the designation Salyut 7 EP- fourth

• 2.1 Start and coupling
• 2.2 experiments
• 2.3 spacewalk
• 2.4 Decoupling and landing

Crew

Main occupation

• Vladimir Alexandrovich Dzhanibekov (4th space flight), Commander
• Svetlana Evgenevna Sawizkaja ( second space flight ), aircraft engineer
• Igor Petrovich Volk ( first space flight), Research Cosmonaut

Dzhanibekov sat with his fourth space flight set a new record for Soviet spacemen. Before him, only four U.S. astronauts ( Lovell, Young, Conrad and Stafford) had reached this threshold. Sawizkaja had two years previously made ​​her first space flight and was the second wife have been in space. Both Dzhanibekov as well as for each Sawizkaja it was the second visit to Salyut 7 Wolk was intended as a pilot for future space shuttle Buran.

Backup crew

• Vladimir Vladimirovich Vasyutin, Commander
• Yekaterina Alexandrovna Ivanova, board engineer
• Viktor Petrovich Savinykh, Research Cosmonaut

Mission History

Start and coupling

The launch took place on 17 July 1984. During the approach phase at Salyut 7, the telemetry data of the Soyuz spacecraft have been the first time not only transmitted to the ground station, but also directly to the space station. It was also the first time that an occupied with three people Soyuz - T spacecraft docked with a space station without their orbit was lowered before.

On board the Salyut 7, the three cosmonauts from the third long- time crew ( Salyut 7 EO -3) were welcomed: Commander Kizim, Flight Engineer Solovyov and ship's doctor Atkow.

Experiments

Throughout the week, many experiments were carried out from different fields. In the scientific airlock material samples were exposed to the vacuum and direct sunlight up to 40 hours and then cooled. With the photometer EFO -1, the upper layers of the atmosphere have been studied. The immediate environment of the space station could be examined with the camera Astra -1 for gases and particles. Routinely also the breath samples were taken to analyze them on the earth.

Wolk was subject for the study of how weightlessness affects the flight ability of pilots. With him, adapting to weightlessness has been deliberately obstructed and delayed, also he ran less sport than his teammates.

Spacewalk

Dzhanibekov and Sawizkaja conducted on July 25 by a spacewalk to test new tools and procedures. First Dzhanibekov remained in the airlock and filmed Sawizkajas exit. She tested a multifunction device for material processing in a vacuum. The device consisted of a large base unit and a handset connected to cables, like a double-barreled gun signal.

The run was used for cutting and electron beam welding. Sawizkaja used titanium and stainless steel of half a millimeter thickness for editing, as Lot was tin and lead. With the other running material could be coated. Sawizkaja used this to spray on a silver aluminum layer. The temperature of the material measured it with a non-contact infrared thermometer.

After Sawizkaja had carried out this work, she traded places with Dzhanibekov. Later they took the experiment Expositsija samples, to return it to Earth. After 3.5 hours of the spacewalk was completed.

This was the first spacewalk of a woman. The United States moved to three months later, as Kathy Sullivan left the Space Shuttle mission STS -41 in -G.

It had been in conversation that Dzhanibekov and Sawizkaja should also perform the final exterior work on the cracked fuel line. Kizim and Solovyov had put a new line in four exits, but the old one was not yet completely disconnected because they had been missing to the tool. Dzhanibekov and Sawizkaja had the necessary equipment and training, but Kizim Solovyov and insisted that they should even complete the repair started. So Dzhanibekov and Sawizkaja reported the crew with video simulations in the necessary work.

Decoupling and landing

These short-term mission was not planned for a spaceship exchange, so could Dzhanibekov, Sawizkajaund Wolk return with the same spacecraft to Earth. Before decoupling the orbit of Salyut space station was raised with the engines of the Soyuz. The landing took place on July 29. Shortly after landing Wolk's airworthiness was investigated.