On April 3, 1973, the Soviet Union launched a small space station called Salyut 2.
This was the second space station ever launched and the first military space station. The Soviet Union told the rest of the world that Salyut 2 was a civilian space station built for scientific research, but it was secretly intended to be a crewed military reconnaissance station. No crews ever made it to Salyut 2, though. Less than two weeks after it launched, its attitude control system stopped working, and it started tumbling around in space. Mission control noticed that pressure inside the station had dropped for no apparent reason. They later found out that a small explosion had happened in the station's propulsion system several days earlier. The damaged station was slowly falling apart. Bits and pieces of Salyut 2 fell back to Earth and burned up in the atmosphere.
This was the second space station ever launched and the first military space station. The Soviet Union told the rest of the world that Salyut 2 was a civilian space station built for scientific research, but it was secretly intended to be a crewed military reconnaissance station. No crews ever made it to Salyut 2, though. Less than two weeks after it launched, its attitude control system stopped working, and it started tumbling around in space. Mission control noticed that pressure inside the station had dropped for no apparent reason. They later found out that a small explosion had happened in the station's propulsion system several days earlier. The damaged station was slowly falling apart. Bits and pieces of Salyut 2 fell back to Earth and burned up in the atmosphere.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:03On April 3rd, 1973, the Soviet Union launched a small space station called Salyut 2.
00:09This was the second space station ever launched and the first military space station.
00:13The Soviet Union told the rest of the world that Salyut 2 was a civilian space station built for scientific research,
00:18but it was secretly intended to be a crewed military reconnaissance station.
00:22No crews ever made it to Salyut 2, though.
00:25Less than two weeks after it launched, its attitude control system stopped working and it started tumbling around in space.
00:31Mission control noticed that pressure inside the station had dropped for no apparent reason.
00:36They later found out that a small explosion had happened inside the station's propulsion system several days earlier.
00:41The damaged station was slowly falling apart. Bits and pieces of Salyut 2 fell to Earth and burned up in the atmosphere.
00:47And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:55NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology