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Soyuz-T 8 failure. The Soviets attempted to man Salyut 7 with the threeperson crew of Soyuz-T 8 on April 21. However, the Soyuz Igla approach system antenna was damaged during ascent. The crew attempted a manual docking, but were forced to call it off and return to Earth. Further attempts to man Salyut 7 could not take place for 2 months because of launch and abort lighting constraints.^[1] |}

2.8.3.2 Salyut 7 Principal Expedition 2

Vladimir Lyakhov and Alexandr Alexandrov
Crew code name—Proton
Soyuz-T 9, June 27-November 23, 1983
149 days in space

		Soyuz-T 9 • Salyut 7 • Cosmos 1443	June 28-August 14, 1983
		Protons unload Cosmos 1443. Almost immediately after docking at Salyut 7’s aft port, the Protons entered Cosmos 1443 and commenced transferring the 3.5 tons of cargo lining its walls to Salyut 7. Window impact. On July 27 a small object struck a Salyut 7 viewport. It blasted out a 4-mm crater, but did not penetrate the outer of the window’s two panes. The Soviets believed it was a member of the Delta Aquarid meteor shower, though it may have been a small piece of orbital debris.[2]

		Soyuz-T 9 • Salyut 7	August 14-16, 1983
		Casting off Cosmos 1443. The Protons loaded Cosmos 1443’s Merkur capsule with 350 kg of experiment results and hardware no longer in use. It could have held 500 kg, had they had that much to put in. Cosmos 1443 then undocked, in spite of Western predictions that the FGB component would remain attached to Salyut 7 as a space station module. The Merkur capsule soft-landed on August 23, and the FGB component continued in orbit until it was deorbited over the Pacific Ocean on September 19.[3]

		Soyuz-T 9 • Salyut 7	August 16-19, 1983
		Port Transfer. Soyuz-T 9 was repositioned by rotating Salyut 7, freeing the aft port for Progress 17.

		Soyuz-T 9 • Salyut 7 • Progress 17	August 19-September 17, 1983
		Salyut 7 propulsion system failure. During refueling by Progress 17, the main oxidizer line of the Salyut 7 propulsion system ruptured. The seriousness of the malfunction was not immediately apparent in the West. However, after the malfunction, Salyut 7 had to rely on the main propulsion systems of visiting Progress freighters for maintaining orbital altitude.

1. Nicholas Johnson, The Soviet Year in Space: 1983, Teledyne Brown Engineering, 1984, P.41
2. David S. F. Portree and Joseph P. Loftus, Jr., Orbital Debris and Near-Earth Environmental Management: A Chronology, NASA RP 1320, December 1993, p. 43.
3. Johnson, 1984, p. 43.