News
June 30, 2011.
Red Square, Moscow - S.P. Korolev RSC Energia,
Korolev, Moscow region
A delegation of the S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia lead by the head of the Corporation Flight Test Center cosmonaut A.Y. Kaleri laid flowers to the Kremlin wall at the burial site of hero cosmonauts G.T. Dobrovolski, V.N. Volkov and V.I. Patsaev - the crew of manned spacecraft Soyuz-11, who were tragically killed 40 years ago when returning to Earth after completing the program of a 22 day mission onboard the world's first scientific orbital station Salyut.
Flowers were also laid to the burial place of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev - an outstanding scientist, farther of our country's rocket technology and space flight, Chief Designer of the legendary Special Design Bureau No.1 (OKB-1), the man who directed the work on the development of the first long-range ballistic missiles in our country, Earth artificial satellites, manned spacecraft, unmanned interplanetary probes.
The team of RSC Energia treasure the memory of space pioneers who dedicated their lives to the development of rocket and space technology and the exploration of space.
For reference:
- Spacecraft Soyuz-11 with a crew consisting of G.T. Dobrovolsky (commander); V.N. Volkov (flight engineer) and V.I. Patsaev (flight engineer-2), call signs "Ambers", was launched from the Baikonur launch site on June 6, 1971, and docked with the long-term orbital station Salyut on June 7. Having completed their program of activities onboard the space station the crew transferred to the spacecraft and undocked it from Salyut on June 29, at 21:28. During reenty, after the spacecraft separated into individual modules, the descent vehicle cabin experienced off-nominal depressurization cased by inadvertent opening of the valve intended for equalizing pressure between the cabin and Earth atmosphere during the final phase of descent and landing (at the altitude of 4 km). The loss of pressure integrity resulted in a quick drop of pressure inside the cabin, leading to the death of all the three cosmonauts. The descent vehicle made a normal landing in its designated landing area on June 30 at 2:15 Moscow Time. All attempts by doctors to resuscitate the crew failed.
- Cosmonauts V.N. Volkov and V.I. Patsaev were employees of TsKBEM (now RSC Energia), cosmonaut G.T. Dobrovolsky was a serviceman on the staff of the Cosmonaut Training Center.
- The program of the crew activities onboard Salyut space station included scientific, engineering and medical experiments, for which purpose it was outfitted with about 1.5 tons of equipment, including solar and X-ray telescopes, infrared spectrometer/telescope, 60-X power sighting device and other hardware.
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