This is CBSI on the world. I'm John Batchel. It is April, 1975. We're at Turatam,

aka Bikinor, the Russian space program launch site. And we're there with Anatoly Zach,

who keeps the very helpful, extremely romantic Russian space web,

which I recommend highly as a subscription site, because he tells not only current stories of

Rus cosmos and its ambitions and its plans for the Earth, Moon system, and beyond, but also

stories from my youth during the Cold War

when information from the Soviet Union was very rare and usually colored with propaganda

and not trustworthy. Well, Anatoly has done us the favor of going to a mission, a Soyuz mission,

18-stroke 1, that took off April 5th, 1975, Moscow time,

about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. And then, Anatoly, a very good evening to you. The capsule is

filled with Vasily Lazarov, the commander, and Oleg Makarov, the flight engineer.

What was the purpose of this mission in April of 1975?

Good evening to you.

Hello, John.

So, the Soyuz 18 mission, or as it became known, 181, it was essentially second expedition

to the Salute 4 space station.

So at that time, Soviet Union was actively developing space station program,

and they successfully operated Salute 4 during the first expedition.

And just a couple of months later, they sent the second crew.

And that crew was supposed to operate the station again for a month or two.

And of course, that flight, Soyuz 181, ended up in a major, major accident.

Yes.

...