Chapter 2
Strange choice of the Soyuz 19 Commander

Commander of the Soyuz 19

According to the official ASTP program, the Soyuz 19 was supposed to carry out two dockings with the Apollo craft. In these docking manoeuvres Apollo was to be the active spacecraft. But the experience and skill of the Soyuz 19 crew ought to have contributed towards the success of these docking manoeuvres.

On each mission cosmonauts did something for the first time. But when it came to the initial international flight, the number of these "firsts" was kept to minimum. Docking was always carried out by a commander of the crew. Hence our interest in Alexey Leonov the appointed commander of the Soyuz 19. In the opinion of the author, the Soyuz 19 commander should have gained the following hands-on experience from his previous missions:

a) in being a mission commander;
b) in changing the orbital parameters of a spacecraft;
c) in rendezvous with another craft;
d) in docking with another craft;
e) of flying on Soyuz craft or preferably on a Soyuz-M;
f) in participating in the dress rehearsal of the Soviet part of ASTP (as commander).
Such a dress rehearsal took place in December 1974 during the eight-day flight of the Soyuz 16/Soyuz-M. However, neither A. Leonov nor his flight engineer V. Kubasov participated in this rehearsal;
g) experience of multi-day in-orbit missions, since Soyuz 19 was planned as a six-day mission;
h) the commander’s previous space flight should have been relatively recent, so that the commander of the Soyuz 19 had fresh experience of working in space and with current space equipment.

Notwithstanding these eight key requirements, Alexey Leonov didn't meet any of them in July 1975. In fact A. Leonov had never been a commander of any spacecraft. He flew only once as a co-pilot in the capsule of Voskhod 2; Voskhod 2 only made a single flight. His flight mission did not include:

• Any in-orbit spacecraft manoeuvring;
  
• Any rendezvous with another craft;
  
• Any docking manoeuvres with another craft.

Since 1968 Soviet cosmonauts only flew on Soyuz craft, which were radically different from the Voskhod-type capsule. The prospective Soyuz 19 commander flew neither on a normal Soyuz nor on an updated Soyuz-M.

A. Leonov did not have any experience of multi-day missions, his Voskhod 2 mission lasted just one day and it took place ten years prior to the ASTP.

And Leonov did not participate in the dress rehearsal of the Soviet part of ASTP (Soyuz 16/Soyuz-M).

What practical experience did other cosmonauts have on the eve of ASTP?

Perhaps, among other members of the cosmonaut detachment, very few met the stated requirements? No, not at all. This fact is confirmed by Table 1 below. It contains a sample of flights carried out by Soviet cosmonauts prior to the ASTP mission, compiled from the Chronicle of Manned Spaceflights.¹

The table lists 11 flights of Soviet cosmonauts, although by July 1975 cosmonauts had carried out 26 space flights. Of these 26 flights the sample does not include flights Nos. 1-7, as conducted on the first generation craft, Vostok and Voskhod, since the Soviet part of ASTP was built on Soyuz-M spacecraft, based on the Soyuz. An exception was made for the Voskhod 2 mission, which was launched with the participation of A. Leonov. The flights of Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11, that both ended with disasters, are not included either.

Of all successful Soyuz missions only those are included in which spacecraft rendezvous and dockings were practiced. This is because it was rendezvous and docking of Soyuz and Apollo that was the key feature of the ASTP mission.

Table 1. Selected Soviet flights for the period March 1965-December 1974

Note: *At the 35th orbit cosmonauts A. Yeliseyev and Y. Khrunov left Soyuz 5 and transferred to Soyuz 4

Counting repeated flights, up until January 1975, 23 Soviet cosmonauts flew on Soyuz. The art of in-orbit manoeuvring and rendezvous with another craft (or space station) was mastered by eight craft commanders (including V. Shatalov – three times). Spacecraft docking was carried out by three commanders. Commander B. Volynov had the least flight experience (3 days, only Leonov had fewer); and the most experienced was commander A. Filipchenko (11 days). Special mention should be made of the Soyuz 16/Soyuz-M crew members A. Filipchenko (commander) and N. Rukavishnikov (flight engineer).

Their space flight was the only one treated as a dress rehearsal of the Soviet part of ASTP. Therefore, prior to his appointment as Soyuz 19 commander, A. Leonov was the most inexperienced of all the cosmonauts in terms of the practical experience necessary for a successful accomplishment of the joint Soyuz-Apollo flight.

How does Leonov explain his appointment as Soyuz 19 commander?

Apparently other researchers other than this author have questioned A. Leonov's appointment as the Soyuz 19 commander. On July 15, 2005, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the ASTP, a journalist of the daily newspaper Izvestia asked the cosmonaut the following question:²

Izvestia: "There were so many strong contenders in the cosmonaut detachment. Why was this task, where so much was at stake, assigned to you?"
Leonov: "I think they were looking for a cosmonaut who, more often than others, had found himself in a critical situation. Back then I was the only one who had been on a spacewalk."

Was the leadership of the country looking for a man capable of "more often than others, finding himself in a critical situation" to be the commander of the Soviet part of this international spaceflight? It would seem that for an international mission a man was needed who was likely to avoid any anomalous situations. Yet, apparently A. Leonov possessed the "talent" of creating abnormal situations, since he preferred to disregard instructions given to him by Ground Control.³

A. Leonov’s assignment during the Voskhod 2 mission was to conduct a spacewalk. He accomplished this task, but in doing so created two consecutive emergency situations. During the first of which he could have died, and in the second, both he, and the commander of the craft P. Belyaev could have died along with the demise of the craft itself.³ And all of this was due to his ignoring instructions. The following is what the spacesuit designers said about this matter in the weekly newspaper Argumenty Nedeli.⁴

Figure 1. Creators of Soviet spacesuits:
(left to right) Lead designer Isaac Abramov, general designer of the company NPP Zvezda professor Guy Severin, first deputy general designer Vitaly Svershchek.

Argumenty Nedeli: "How did it come about that Leonov's spacesuit was inflated, and Alexei Arkhipovich returned to the spacecraft only after having applied very considerable effort?"
Spacesuit designers: Contrary to instructions, he entered the airlock chamber head first. And then, having hardly turned over in a soft lock chamber (if there had been a rigid design, the cosmonaut would have been doomed), managed to close the hatch; the spacesuit had nothing to do with it, the design worked properly. A spacesuit, like a soccer ball, cannot swell more than it was permitted by the fundamental design."

Leonov’s statement that "back then I was the only one who made a spacewalk" is also surprising. First, six years before the ASTP, in January 1969, cosmonauts Khrunov and Yeliseyev each made a spacewalk, leaving Soyuz 5 and transferring to Soyuz 4. It was the very first ship-to-ship transfer. Secondly, the experience in spacewalking was absolutely useless for accomplishment of the ASTP mission. This program did not include any EVAs at all.

During the Voskhod 2 mission there were other problems. But it wasn’t A. Leonov who was getting out of trouble. It was necessary to execute the re-entry into the atmosphere in manual mode. The spacecraft landed in winter taiga, far from the target area.³ But in any event, it was the commander P. Belyaev who controlled the descent from orbit and not the second pilot A. Leonov.

It is clear that this was a questionable choice of commander for the Soyuz 19 flight. Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that the ASTP mission itself was also rather strange. In reality this had nothing to do with the way it was presented by the leaders of the USA, the USSR, or by the ever-unquestioning media.

More on this matter in the next chapter.

ISBN: 978-1-898541-19-6
Aulis Publishers, September, 2018
English translation from the Russian by BigPhil

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References

Internet links validated January 10, 2018

1. The Chronicle of Manned Spaceflights
   
2. Alexey Leonov, "After the flight with Americans, they decided to expel me from the Party", A. Leonov’s interview for Izvestia, Sergei Leskov, July 15, 2005
   
3. Alexey Arkhipovich's recollections of his first space flight
4. Argumenty Nedeli, No.39 (581), October 5-11, 2017, Article Golden Star, p.8, photograph from p.9
   

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