Prior to the conduct of ASTP, the astronauts and cosmonauts visited each other's space centers and became familiar with the spacecraft of the other country. The first visit was by the Russians to Johnson Space Center in July 1973, followed by a U.S. visit to Moscow in November 1973. In late April and early May 1974, the Russian flight crews returned to Johnson Space Center, and the U.S. crews went to Moscow in June and July 1974. The Russian crew made a third trip to the United States in September 1973 and came for the fourth and last time in February 1975. The U.S. crew visited the Soviet Union in late April and early May 1975 and became the first Americans to see the Russian launch facilities at Tyuratam on April 28, 1975.
One question: when was it known that Progress featured an escape tower on top? Was that something they knew or was it common knowledge by that time?
QuoteOne question: when was it known that Progress featured an escape tower on top? Was that something they knew or was it common knowledge by that time?The Progress version has never featured an escape tower. Why would it? - it's unmanned.It's always been known that the Soyuz manned spacecraft had an escape tower. Even Airfix had the basic configuration correct when it released the Vostok/Voskhod/Soyuz launcher kit in1969.Keith
“The presence of an escape tower atop the payload indicates that it is an SL-04 launch vehicle with a Progress/Soyuz payload.”
It does have an inert one!
@Blackstar - I would skeptically question an authenticity of "Keep your fingers crossed" photo. It's a typical western gesture that most likely would not be used in Russian culture before 90s...
It made me wonder about how much the US intelligence on the Soviet manned program changed after ASTP. Weren't there various NASA liaisons to the Soviet Union, including Baikonur, during ASTP? Did the intelligence descriptions of the facilities suddenly improve?
Quote from: fregate on 07/09/2013 03:17 am@Blackstar - I would skeptically question an authenticity of "Keep your fingers crossed" photo. It's a typical western gesture that most likely would not be used in Russian culture before 90s... That picture may have been a still image taken from this footage:The part in question starts at the 36 second mark. It is hard for me to see if they are making any gestures with their hands or not.
That's cool. Great find, thanks!Looks like there is one or two new pieces of launch video footage. Unfortunately, no photos of the destroyed pad or the recovered Soyuz.
1-but what about footage of the damage to the pad, the recovered Soyuz etc.? I wonder why nothing new has been released more than 30 years after the accident. Is that footage still classified, is it too difficult to track down in the archives or what? The same question can be asked about footage of many other Soviet space missions. 2-It is claimed in the documentary that the Americans initially believed three cosmonauts had died in the accident. I do remember there were Western reports about three cosmonauts being on board, but I don't think there ever were rumours that they had died. That certainly doesn't emerge from the declassified CIA documents described by Dwayne Day in "The Space Review" last year. 3-The documentary is quick to add that the Americans failed to draw the necessary lessons from the accident by not equipping the Space Shuttle with a crew escape system...