DOS-2 designation given to a
space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station ...
, launched as part of the
Salyut program
The ''Salyut'' programme (russian: Салют, , meaning "salute" or "fireworks") was the first space station programme, undertaken by the Soviet Union. It involved a series of four crewed scientific research space stations and two crewed m ...
me, which was lost in a launch failure on 29 July 1972, when the failure of the second stage of its
Proton-K
The Proton-K, also designated Proton 8K82K after its GRAU index or SL-12 after its model number, 8K82K, was a Russian, previously Soviet, carrier rocket derived from the earlier Proton. It was built by Khrunichev, and launched from sites 81 an ...
launch vehicle prevented the station from achieving orbit. It instead fell into the Pacific Ocean. The station, which would have been given the designation Salyut 2 had it reached orbit, was structurally identical to
Salyut 1
Salyut 1 (DOS-1) (russian: Салют-1) was the world's first space station launched into low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on April 19, 1971. The Salyut program followed this with five more successful launches of seven more stations. The f ...
, as it had been assembled as a backup unit for that station.
Four teams of cosmonauts were formed to crew the station, of which two would have flown:
*
Alexei Leonov
Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov. (30 May 1934 – 11 October 2019) was a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut, Air Force major general, writer, and artist. On 18 March 1965, he became the first person to conduct a spacewalk, exiting the capsule during th ...
and
Valeri Kubasov
Valery Nikolaevich Kubasov (russian: Вале́рий Никола́евич Куба́сов; 7 January 1935 – 19 February 2014) was a Soviet/Russian cosmonaut who flew on two missions in the Soyuz programme as a flight engineer: Soyuz 6 and S ...
*
Vasily Lazarev and
Oleg Makarov
*
Aleksei Gubarev and
Georgi Grechko
Georgy Mikhaylovich Grechko (russian: Георгий Михайлович Гречко; 25 May 1931 – 8 April 2017) was a Soviet cosmonaut. He flew to space on three missions, each bound for rendezvous with a different Salyut space station.< ...
*
Pyotr Klimuk
Pyotr Ilyich Klimuk ( be, Пётр Ільіч Кліму́к; russian: Пётр Ильич Климу́к; born 10 July 1942) is a former Soviet cosmonaut and the first Belarusian to perform space travel. Klimuk made three flights into space. F ...
and
Vitaly Sevastyanov
Vitaly Ivanovich Sevastyanov (russian: Вита́лий Ива́нович Севастья́нов; 8 July 1935 – 5 April 2010) was a Soviet cosmonaut and an engineer who flew on the Soyuz 9 and Soyuz 18 missions.
He trained as an engi ...
Whilst Salyut 1 has been attempted to be visited by two three-man crews (
Soyuz 10 and
Soyuz 11), following modifications to the
Soyuz 7KT-OK spacecraft (resulting in the new model
Soyuz 7K-T
The second generation of the Soyuz spacecraft, the ''Soyuz 7K-T'', comprised Soyuz 12 through Soyuz 40 (1973-1981). In the wake of the Soyuz 11 tragedy, the spacecraft was redesigned to accommodate two cosmonauts who would wear pressure ...
) following the deaths of the crew of Soyuz 11, the spacecraft could only carry two cosmonauts, thus DOS-2 would have been manned by two crews of two. Following the loss of the station, the crews were transferred to the
DOS-3 programme.
References
Salyut program
Space stations
Satellite launch failures
1972 in the Soviet Union
Spacecraft launched in 1972
Rocket launches in 1972
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