KSI

Russian logistics spacecraft. Study 1977. Capsule designed to return film and data materials from the Almaz military space station.

The capsule could be loaded manually by cosmonauts aboard the station, or film could be loaded automatically when the station was unmanned.

The capsule came in two parts: a re-entry protection shell, and an internal payload.

At capsule ejection the Almaz pointed down at an 8:00 angle from the horizontal. The capsule was ejected at a 5:00 angle. After separation it spun up, fired the retro, and then spun down, all at the 5:00 angle. It then separated the retro assembly. Following reentry, it deployed a small drogue chute, followed by a main chute. The reentry shell was separated before the main chute, and only the internal payload landed separately.

The outer heat shield was as follows:

       Lift eye-bolts (4)        ------------------
                /           /\      Gone         |
            O               --    /              |
             \             |  |                  | 1
                          /|  |\                 | 3
           ---     --------------------    ----  | 5
         C  |      --------------------      |   | 0
         a  |       \                /       |   |
         p  |       |               |      8 |   |
         s  |       |               |      3 |   |
         u  |       |               |      8 |   |
         l  |       |               |        |   |
         e  |        \             /         |   |
           ---         -----------       -----------
                           780
                    |---------------|   Payload volume ....  90 cu cm
                           850
                   |-----------------|  Payload mass ......  120 kg

The interior section was:

                                        ____ beacon
                                      /
                         ________   o
                    |o| /      |o|\||
                    |o|--------|o|--
                    |o|        |o|  |  ---- cloth covered
                   ===================
                    |               |
                    |               |  ---- cloth covered
                     \             /
                       ------------

The return capsule from Salyut 5 was sold at a Sotheby's auction in the early 1990's. The shell shad a dent in the bottom: not very big, surprisingly. Internally, there was the label with the serial number 11F76-0505. This Earth Return Capsule was launched into space with the Salyut 5 space station on 22 June 1976 and returned to earth on 26 February 1977. The estimated price was $80,000-$100,000. The actual price as sold was $48,875. The engineers at the auction indicated that the plan was to eventually have six of these return capsules on board each Almaz.