World's First Space Station...Triumph and Tragedy - George L Johnson - August 1971

George L Johnson

Though the flight ended in tragedy, the Soviets recently accomplished another space first. Will it affect present U.S. space policy with military considerations, forcing another crash space program? Or will public pressure prevent it? Soviet space technology recently scored another impressive first. Three Russian cosmonauts, Lieutenant Colonel Georgi Dobrovolsky in command; Viktor Patsayev, flight engineer, and Vladislav Volkov, test engineer, manned the world's first space station - about two years before the United States is scheduled to put its first space station into orbit. However, the success of Russia's latest space triumph was marred by the tragic deaths of the three cosmonauts. - Information Supplied By: Herbert W Armstrong Library