Soviet Setbacks

The U.S. is not alone in its space troubles. Two weeks ago, the Russians orbited an unmanned spacecraft that they identified only as Cosmos 557. Last week U.S. intelligence sources reported that the mysterious Cosmos was in fact an unmanned Soyuz spacecraft that appears to have been launched as the intended docking target for a second manned Soyuz. The two ships, in effect, would have formed a mini-space station in earth orbit. But a failure apparently occurred aboard Cosmos, and the scheduled manned launch had to be scrubbed. Thus the Russians appear to have suffered a second major setback in space only weeks after their Salyut space station was crippled in orbit.

Launched last month in an effort to beat the larger Skylab into orbit, Salyut 2 was to have marked the resumption of the manned Soviet space effort after an interruption of nearly two years, in time for the big Communist May Day celebrations. It was in June 1971 that three cosmonauts perished when the hatch of their Soyuz space craft failed while they were returning from a highly successful 24-day mission aboard Salyut 1. Since then, the Russians have thoroughly redesigned Soyuz and were expected to use it to ferry men to the new orbital workshop.

Yet after last month's launch of Salyut 2 into orbit, days and eventually weeks slipped by without a manned launch.

Finally, the Russians made a cryptic announcement that Salyut's mission had been completed.

Floating Debris. That, it seems, was a gross understatement. According to Western radar trackers, Salyut be gan spinning wildly out of control.

Pieces were torn off the 24-ton ship -- including the large winglike solar panels that, like Skylab's, were vital to its electrical supply. Eventually, as many as two dozen pieces of debris were spot ted floating near the disabled craft.

The cause of the mishap is still in doubt. One U.S. theory was that the third stage of Salyut's large booster may have exploded after rocketing the spaceship into orbit, possibly because of an excess of unburned fuel. Drifting only a short distance away, the booster may have sent fragments ripping into Salyut, thereby badly damaging the gyroscopic controls and thrusters that help maintain the ship's stability. Another possible explanation was that one of the Soviet Union's oceangoing tracking ships inadvertently fired one of Salyut's thrusters, sending it into an uncontrollable spin -- 30 revolutions per minute, according to last count by U.S. trackers. That, too, could have caused the ship to break up in orbit.

Salyut was not the only source of problems for Russian rocketeers. Four weeks ago a giant Proton booster -- the largest Soviet rocket -- apparently failed during liftoff, sending its payload crashing into the Pacific off eastern Siberia. U.S. space observers believe that the cargo, destined for the moon, included an improved version of the highly successful Soviet lunar rover.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.