On April 10, 1979 at 20:34 a spaceship was launched with the first Bulgarian cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov
1979, at 20:34 Moscow time, the spacecraft "Soyuz 33" was launched into space, carrying the first Bulgarian cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov. The flight commander is Nikolay Rukavishnikov.
The main goal is docking with the “Salyut 6” station, where Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin are located. After that, the implementation of 28 scientific experiments is planned, including the purpose-built all-Bulgarian systems and instruments “Specter 15”, “Sredets” and “Pirin”. According to the plan, the crew should exchange their capsule with the station-attached capsule of “Soyuz 32” and to land with her.
After the successful launch from Baikonur at 20:34 (Moscow time), the ship spent the first 24 hours as planned in refining its orbit and preparing for approach and docking with the “Salyut 6” station.
Due to a technical malfunction, the ship failed to dock with the orbital station “Salyut 6”. After approaching 3 km and establishing visual contact, the main engine of the “Soyuz 33” craft suddenly failed. It is supposed to run for 6 seconds, but it shuts down after the first 3 seconds, and the crew on the Salyut 6 station watching the docking attempt saw a spark from the main engine in the direction of the backup at the time of the unexpected shutdown. The “Igla” system also refuses. The next three attempts to start the main engine were unsuccessful.
12 hours pass in rest for the crews, while they decide on the further actions from the ground. As expected, the docking was canceled so as not to somehow crash the space station as well. The crew of “Soyuz 33” begins to prepare to return to Earth.
The chief designer of the ship, Yuri Simeonov, decides not to do a three-second test of the spare engine, but to turn it on directly and proceed to landing. The backup engine kicks in but doesn't turn itself off after 188 seconds as expected. Commander Rukavishnikov waits the maximum allowable additional time of 25 seconds, then manually stops the engine. As a result of the excessively strong impulse, the capsule entered the atmosphere on a ballistic curve at a very sharp angle.
On reaching the denser air layers, the acceleration increases to 10G (98 m/s²) in over two minutes. Astronauts endure this acceleration thanks to brutal ground training during their training. When they landed, they were 320 km southeast of Dzhezkazgan. They have made 31 complete orbits around the Earth. They spend 1 day, 23 hours and 1 minute in space.
The cause of the accident remains unknown, as the module with the engines separated from the capsule upon entering the atmosphere, blogger Dani Ivanov recalls.
The scientific experiments that failed to be carried out by “Soyuz 33” were subsequently successfully carried out on the station by Lyakhov and Ryumin. The results were also handed over to the specialists from the BAS. Today, the lander of the Soyuz 33 spacecraft is kept in the Aviation Museum near Plovdiv.
On April 10, 1979 at 20:34 a spaceship was launched with the first Bulgarian cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov
1979, at 20:34 Moscow time, the spacecraft "Soyuz 33" was launched into space, carrying the first Bulgarian cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov. The flight commander is Nikolay Rukavishnikov.
The main goal is docking with the “Salyut 6” station, where Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin are located. After that, the implementation of 28 scientific experiments is planned, including the purpose-built all-Bulgarian systems and instruments “Specter 15”, “Sredets” and “Pirin”. According to the plan, the crew should exchange their capsule with the station-attached capsule of “Soyuz 32” and to land with her.
After the successful launch from Baikonur at 20:34 (Moscow time), the ship spent the first 24 hours as planned in refining its orbit and preparing for approach and docking with the “Salyut 6” station.
Due to a technical malfunction, the ship failed to dock with the orbital station “Salyut 6”. After approaching 3 km and establishing visual contact, the main engine of the “Soyuz 33” vessel suddenly failed. It is supposed to run for 6 seconds, but shuts down after the first 3 seconds, and the Salyut 6 crew watching the docking attempt saw a spark from the main engine in the direction of the backup at the time of the unexpected shutdown. The “Igla” system also refuses. The next three attempts to start the main engine were unsuccessful.
12 hours pass in rest for the crews, while they decide from the ground about the further actions. As expected, the docking was canceled so as not to somehow crash the space station as well. The crew of “Soyuz 33” begins to prepare to return to Earth.
The chief designer of the ship, Yuri Simeonov, decides not to do a three-second test of the spare engine, but to turn it on directly and proceed to landing. The backup engine kicks in but doesn't turn itself off after 188 seconds as expected. Commander Rukavishnikov waits the maximum allowable additional time of 25 seconds, then manually stops the engine. As a result of the excessively strong impulse, the capsule enters the atmosphere on a ballistic curve at a very sharp angle.
On reaching the denser air layers, the acceleration increases to 10G (98 m/s²) in over two minutes. Astronauts endure this acceleration thanks to brutal ground training during their training. When they landed, they were 320 km southeast of Dzhezkazgan. They have made 31 complete orbits around the Earth. They spend 1 day, 23 hours and 1 minute in space.
The cause of the accident remains unknown, as the module with the engines separated from the capsule upon entering the atmosphere, blogger Dani Ivanov recalls.
The scientific experiments that failed to be carried out by “Soyuz 33” were subsequently successfully carried out on the station by Lyakhov and Ryumin. The results were also handed over to the specialists from the BAS. Today, the lander of the spacecraft “Soyuz 33” is kept in the Aviation Museum near Plovdiv.