International Efforts in Space

Human Space Exploration Becomes a Global Event

While NASA was working on the space shuttle program, Russian cosmonauts were pushing the boundaries of spaceflight endurance aboard the Salyut space stations. Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin spent 185 days aboard Salyut in 1980. In 1984, a three-man crew remained in orbit aboard Salyut 7. The cosmonauts on these flights suffered from the psychological stress of isolation, which was relieved only by occasional visits from Soyuz ferry crews, with shipments of such things as fresh fruit and letters from home. Daily exercise sessions became mandatory when it was discovered that long-term weightlessness would cause the cosmonauts’ bones to lose minerals, their muscles to atrophy and their cardiovascular systems to weaken.

Cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh proved themselves to be heroes when they rescued Salyut 7, which had lost contact with Earth after the previous crew departed. Dzhanibekov and Savinykh arrived on Salyut 7 in June 1985. Once there, they noticed that the solar arrays had malfunctioned, starving the station of power. The space station had become so cold that the walls and equipment were covered with frost. They spent weeks recharging the batteries, thawing frozen water tanks and making repairs, all while wearing winter clothing, including fur-lined hats. The station was in working order weeks later.

Russia launched a new space station called Mir (peace) in 1986. Mir was the first modular space station. It was designed to be expanded by the addition of new modules for scientific purposes. The crews of the Mir would have much more space to live and work in than those of the Salyut. In 1988, another endurance record was broken as Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov completed a year-long mission aboard the Mir. The Russians hoped that lessons learned from these marathon voyages in space would help make sending human beings to Mars a possibility.

Meanwhile, both Russia and America continued their exploration of the universe. American and Russian spacecraft used radar-imaging systems to give scientists their first detailed look at Venus’ surface features. In 1981, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 explored the rings of Saturn as well as its many moons. Voyager 2 then used the Grand Tour planetary alignment to fly by Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989. Both Voyager probes were ultimately destined to leave the solar system, traveling further out into space.

In 1986, robotic explores surveyed Halley’s comet during its passage around the Sun. Russian spacecraft provided glimpses of the comet’s solid nucleus. A pair of Japanese probes monitored Halley’s halo of gas and dust. NASA’s International Cometary Explorer was targeted to fly through the comet’s tail. Europe’s Giotto probe managed to snap the first detailed images ever of a comet’s nucleus. The nucleus was discovered to be a dark, irregularly shaped lump of ice and dust, about nine miles long and five miles wide. Scientists believed that Halley’s nucleus was a relic from the birth of the solar system.

China launched its first satellite in 1970, and launched additional satellites, for weather and scientific studies, communications and military reconnaissance. China also launched a family of powerful launch vehicles called Long March. Japan and India became launching nations in the 1970s. In 1988, Israel launched its first satellite.

Europe developed its own space program. In 1975, ten nations formed the European Space Agency (ESA). Currently, the ESA has 16 Member States: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Luxembourg is expected to become a member of ESA in 2005. Canada, Hungary and the Czech Republic participate in some ESA projects under cooperation agreements. ESA developed the Ariane series of boosters, which were first launched in 1970 from a specially built facility in French Guiana. Ariane found success as a commercial launch vehicle.

The Space Shuttle Discovery logged a successful mission in September 1988, and NASA’s piloted space flight program was back on track. Russia launched its own shuttle orbiter, named Buran (snowstorm), in October. It was powered by a new, powerful booster called Energia. Buran was flown unpiloted on its maiden voyage. While it was designed to launch and inspect satellites and ferry cosmonauts to and from the Mir space station, the Mir was essentially a military vehicle, built to deter an American shuttle from threatening Russia’s military space activities. Budgetary problems killed the program, however, and Buran’s first flight was also its last.