Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!ROD@SU-AI From: ROD%SU-AI@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.space Subject: Cosmonauts returning Message-ID: <13587@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Sat, 12-Nov-83 17:22:00 EST Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.13587 Posted: Sat Nov 12 17:22:00 1983 Date-Received: Mon, 14-Nov-83 23:44:10 EST Lines: 36 From: Rod Brooks a016 0113 12 Nov 83 PM-Cosmonauts,290 Cosmonauts Reportedly Plan Return WASHINGTON (AP) - Two Soviet cosmonauts who have been in space since June are planning a descent to Earth later this month in a spacecraft that may be in danger of losing its fuel, according to a published report. The Washington Post reported today that the Soyuz 9 spacecraft carrying cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Alexander Alexandrov will have been docked at the Salyut space station for 149 days before it returns to Earth. The newspaper, which quoted unidentified U.S. intelligence sources, said the Soyuz 9's batteries are running down and its volatile hypergolic fuels, which ignite on mixing, have been evaporating to the point that the spacecraft's fuel tanks could be almost empty. Previous Soyuz crews have returned to Earth in spacecraft flown to the Salyut space station by an exchange crew, which stays aboard Salyut for a week or two until another, long-term crew arrives. This way, there is always a crew aboard the Salyut to tend its long-term experiments. The suggestion that Lyakhov and Alexandrov will return to Earth aboard their own Soyuz means that no exchange of crews is contemplated, the Post said. According to the newspaper, this indicates that the launch pad explosion in September that almost killed two cosmonauts who were to take Lyakhov and Alexandrov's places was as serious a setback to the manned Soviet space program as any accident the Soviets have suffered in the past 20 years. The Soviet news agency Tass reported Thursday that the cosmonauts had begun medical preparations for their return and U.S. sources told the Post that the two men had been talking with their flight directors about returning Nov. 24, Nov. 25 or Nov. 26. ap-ny-11-12 0412EST ***************