Spacewalkers and Salyut-7: Moscow, We Have a Problem

Mankind never gains anything without cost. There never has been a bloodless victory over nature.     
                                              —Yuri Gagarin, first cosmonaut in outer space

Many Quadrant readers will remember the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Through films like The Right Stuff (1983), about Chuck Yeager’s first sound barrier breakthrough in 1947 and the Mercury Seven, the first human space flight by the US; First Man (2018), covering Neil Armstrong’s NASA career; and Apollo 13 (1995), about the 1970 US spacecraft crisis, Hollywood has shown us those ground-breaking and dangerous times from the Western perspective.

Two Russian films, Spacewalkers (also known as The Age of Pioneers) and Salyut-7, both made in 2017, give us the Space Race from the Russian point of view. Where one might expect heavy-handed political bias, there is not much propaganda in either of these movies.

What is refreshing is a look at the human drama of the resourceful pilots who took these first leaps into the unknown. Both films are two-handers: essentially, two cosmonauts in a tin can and their relationship with ground control.

The Space Race was a competition between the Russia and the United States between 1955 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It was one of the defining markers of the Cold War and the ideological struggle between communism and capitalism.

It originated in the nuclear arms race after the Second World War and began with artificial satellites and moved on to low-orbit space flight, the moon landings and space stations. Sputnik 1 (Russian: fellow traveller), the first artificial earth satellite, was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin, piloting Vostok 1, became the first man in space. Gagarin was the first Soviet cosmonaut (Greek: sailor of the universe). Later that year, Alan Shepard became the first American astronaut (Greek: star sailor) and the first to exercise manual control over attitude and retro-rocket firing. Russian Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in 1963. Bernard Baruch wrote in New York Herald Tribune:

While we devote our industrial and technological power to producing new model automobiles and more gadgets, the Soviet Union is conquering space … it is Russia, not the United States, who has had the imagination to hitch its wagon to the stars and the skill to reach for the moon and all but grasp it. America is worried. It should be.

In 1965, the USSR launched the two-cosmonaut Voskhod 2, with Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov. Medical science had no idea what would happen to the human body in space until Leonov performed the first-ever spacewalk (aka EVA: extravehicular activity) as part of the mission.

Gus Grissom, US Mercury Seven astronaut, once said, “If we die, do not mourn for us. This is a risky business we’re in, and we accept those risks.” In 1961 Grissom piloted the Liberty Bell 7 on a suborbital flight, and was the second American to fly into space. Selected as commander of Apollo 1, he died, along with Ed White and Roger B. Chaffee, in the 1967 pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The Soviet Union was the clear leader in the Space Race until the USA landed Apollo 11 on the moon in 1969. At that point, the Soviets gave up attempting a moon landing and concentrated on building space stations for strategic purposes.

In Spacewalkers, the story is about the first walk in space in 1965, and in Salyut-7, how a damaged Soviet space station, originally scheduled to be blown out of the sky to keep it from falling into US hands, was repaired in 1985, at the last hour, by a rescue mission, Salyut-T13.

Spacewalkers begins when the engine of an experimental jet catches fire during a test flight. The pilot, Alexei Leonov, has been ordered to eject but his ejector seat malfunctions. He cuts the engines, extinguishing the fire, and begins a downward plunge. Dangerously near the ground, he restarts the engines and clumsily lands the plane. His embarrassed commanding officer tells a visiting general, who has come to witness the flight, that Leonov is a bit insane. The general replies, “Insane is what we’re looking for.”

At the USSR Institute for Experimental Research, the 1967 deadline for the first attempt at walking in space has been moved forward by two years to 1965: the Americans had previously moved their own date for a spacewalk and the Soviets were intent on beating the US, even it if posed a danger to their cosmonauts.

Leonov and his best friend and partner, Second World War pilot Pavel Belyayev, are both scheduled for the Voskhod 2 flight, but during training, while parachuting in dangerous weather, Belyayev lands incorrectly, injuring his leg, effectively removing him from the program. He is discouraged and resigned to admitting defeat, but Leonov refuses to accept this and inspires him to train and rehabilitate himself enough to re-qualify.

Two weeks remain until the actual flight and many technical problems still remain but Secretary Brezhnev insists to the head of the mission, Sergei Korolev, that the flight schedule must go ahead, despite the risks.

The launch is successful. The cosmonauts prepare to make their first walk into space and the airlock is extended and pressurised. Leonov, as senior pilot, exits successfully, becoming the first man to walk in zero gravity in space.

As he is taking photographs, excess pressure over-inflates his suit, making it difficult for him to move and to re-enter the airlock. Mission control has protocol that in the event of this kind of thing the airlock must be jettisoned, also abandoning the cosmonaut, so as not to risk the ship and life of the second pilot. The ship enters a dead zone, where no communication with the ground is possible, and during the blackout, Leonov manages to squeeze into the airlock, but incorrectly. The time required for him to correct his position causes him to run out of oxygen and pass out. His partner, Belyayev, begins punching him in the chest and revives him.

The capsule will now orbit fifteen times in the next twenty-two hours until the automatic landing system is engaged. A leak is detected, pumping pure oxygen into the cabin, and both cosmonauts are now in danger of oxygen poisoning. As they attempt to re-wire the components, they begin to hallucinate. They succeed in disconnecting the damaged sensor cable but both lose consciousness.

When they come to, an unexpected rotation of the ship has put it off course. They are instructed to use manual controls to land it in the Soviet Union. No one has ever previously landed a spaceship manually.

The ship re-enters the atmosphere above the Ural Mountains, far from their target zone. Mission control cannot locate them but their distress signal is picked up by an amateur radio enthusiast who notifies the space agency. The cosmonauts have landed, but in a frozen life-threatening wilderness. A rescue helicopter is dispatched and just as it is about to run out of fuel and abandon the search, they spot Leonov’s flare.

Spacewalkers was directed by Dmitriy Kiselev. The cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was a consultant for the film. He was selected to be the first Soviet cosmonaut to land on the moon, but the project was cancelled. The opening sequence of Leonov’s “insane” jet landing is suggestive of the opening scenes of Chuck Yeager’s experimental sound barrier flight in the Bell X-1 at the beginning of The Right Stuff.

In Salyut-7, the year is 1985. Three cosmonauts are working on the outside of the Salyut-7 space station. Svetlana Lazareva, the first female spacewalker, gets a small hole in her glove. The pressure in her suit begins to drop and her partner, Vladimir Fyodorov, helps her back into the spacecraft. As he follows her in, he becomes mesmerised by something he sees glowing off in the distance.

Back on earth, Fyodorov can’t explain to the authorities what he saw but won’t deny seeing it, saying, “What if I saw angels?” He is considered unstable and is banned from flying.

A minor asteroid storm damages the space station, cutting communication with the ground. Without control, the station will make a slow descent and crash, possibly in the US. They have three months to solve the problem.

Word has been received that NASA is planning to launch Challenger, a ship large enough to capture the Soviet station, and there is a fear that the Americans will seize Salyut-7 for its technology. The Soviets begin to make plans to shoot it down, but first they send a two-man crew up to dock with the station and repair it.

Because the station is now in rotation, the difficulty is how to make the docking without crashing into it. This kind of manoeuvre in space—known as “docking with a non-cooperative object”—has never been attempted before and the most skilled cosmonaut likely to succeed, Fyodorov, has been grounded.

A series of other pilots attempt the docking in a simulator, but all fail. Finally, Fyodorov is approached by the flight director, Valeriy Shubin, and agrees to go as long as his partner, Viktor Alyokhin, can accompany him.

The rescue ship, Salyut-T13, is launched successfully but they are cautioned that they only have enough fuel for three docking attempts. The first attempt fails. Fyodorov wants to try the second one at a much higher speed, against advice. If this attempt fails, at this speed it will collide with the station. He is ordered by Shubin at ground control to abort the attempt. Fyodorov continues, despite the order, and is successful.

Having docked with the space station, the cosmonauts enter and find ice build-up everywhere due to a water tank having exploded, assessing two days to thaw it out. They have a ten-day food supply but, without power or heat, can only survive seven. They find that the solar panel sensor on the exterior of the station has been damaged, and this could be why the panels will not activate. A decision is made by ground control to dump the damaged space station into the ocean. Fyodorov and Alyokhin ask for two days to try to repair it. They are given five.

The US believe the repair mission will fail as “technology does not yet exist to make the repairs”. The American media is stirring up fears that the Soviet space station could carry nuclear weapons, triggering a doomsday scenario. Challenger is preparing its launch, but the Soviets will not allow it to capture Salyut-7.

An attempt is made to repair the sensor which could give them the power, heat and oxygen they require. Fyodorov goes outside to examine it and discovers the sensor housing has been bent by the asteroid strike, referring to it as a “fender bender”.

While he is outside, a fire starts inside the ship, burning Alyokhin badly. Fyodorov returns and extinguishes the fire. From inside the cabin, both men watch the plumes of the Challenger launch far away on Earth. The station has now become too fire-damaged to ditch in the ocean and, with renewed fears that it will fall into US hands, plans are put in motion to shoot it down.

Alyokhin has an oxygen-deprivation hallucination that Challenger has docked with them and is there to rescue them. He deliriously attempts to open the hatch, which would be fatal, but Fyodorov stops him. Ground control determines that they have only enough oxygen to bring back one person. As captain, Fyodorov decides he will remain behind with the ship, but Alyokhin refuses to leave him.

They go back outside the ship together and make another attempt to remove the damaged solar panel sensor. Fyodorov begins hitting the cover with a hammer, trying to dislodge it, but is unsuccessful. As the ship begins to enter the earth’s shadow, they feel it will soon be too cold to work, but Fyodorov remembers that the colder the temperature, the more brittle metal becomes, and he resumes hammering at the sensor cover. This time he is successful, freeing it, and the solar panels become activated.

From outside, they see Challenger approaching very close off their bow and the pilots exchange salutes.

The film ends with both men staring off into space at the mysterious and unexplained light that Fyodorov originally saw on his previous voyage.

Salyut-7 was based on the diaries of a cosmonaut, Viktor Savinykh. Unlike Spacewalkers, the actors play fictionally-named characters: the character of Vladimir Fyodorov is based on the actual mission commander, Vladimir Dzhanibekov; the co-pilot Viktor Alyokhin is based on Viktor Savinykh, and Valeriy Shubin is based on flight director, Valery Ryumin. Nickolai Belakovski, of Ars Technica, suggests that perhaps the reason the names were changed was to further fictionalise aspects of the story that might have been an embarrassment to the Soviet space program: that human error caused the station’s failure, not an asteroid strike, as depicted in the film. Belakovski writes:

On February 11, 1985, while Salyut 7 was in orbit on autopilot awaiting its next crew, mission control noticed something was off. Station telemetry reported that there had been a surge of current in the electrical system, which led to the tripping of overcurrent protection and the shutdown of the primary radio transmitter circuits … Mission controllers, very tired now that the end of their 24-hour shift was approaching, made a note to call specialists from the design bureaus for the radio and electrical systems … without waiting for the specialists to arrive, or perhaps not bothering to call them in the first place, the controllers on the next shift decided to reactivate the primary radio transmitter … the controllers, acting against established tradition and procedures of their office, sent the command to reactivate the primary radio transmitter. Instantly, a cascade of electrical shorts swept through the station, and knocked out not only the radio transmitters, but also the receivers. Salyut 7 fell silent and unresponsive.

Jaime Healy of the Radio Times said, “The ever-present fear of displeasing the Soviet Central Committee—and what might happen as a result—looms large over everybody’s heads, adding further tension to the story.”

For over seventy years, beginning with and throughout the Cold War, Hollywood has produced films with Russians portrayed as gangsters, stereotypes or caricatures. One of the earliest was Boris and Natasha, in the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon series in 1959. Russian spies Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale are forever attempting to outwit and catch “Moose and Squirrel”. The James Bond franchise had an array of Russian bad guys and sexy spies with Bond’s girlfriend Tatiana Romanova in From Russia with Love (1963), Xenia Onatopp, a former Soviet test pilot, now a terrorist, in GoldenEye (1995) and Mikhail Gorevoy, an evil Russian scientist, in Die Another Day (2002).

There has also been a fair share of rebel Russians in Hollywood submarine films, such as Sean Connery’s rogue communist naval captain who wants to defect to the West in The Hunt for Red October (1990), Harrison Ford as the commander of a Soviet ballistic missile submarine trying to avert a nuclear disaster in K-1: The Widowmaker (2002), Ed Harris, in Phantom (2013), portraying the captain of a Soviet nuclear submarine trying to prevent a rogue KGB agent on board from starting a nuclear war, and Hunter Killer (2018) where the Russian president is overthrown by the Minister of Defence who wants to trigger a nuclear war.

It is high time we looked at the Space Race from the other side of the curtain. Film-making in Russia has a long and illustrious pedigree. Sergei Eisenstein directed the classic 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin. Genius film-maker and theorist Andrei Tarkovsky made Andrei Rublev (1966), Solaris (1972), Mirror (1975) and Stalker (1979). The Cranes Are Flying (1957), directed by Georgian-born Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov, about the Second World War (known in the Soviet Union as the Great Patriotic War), won the Palme d’Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival. War and Peace (1965) was directed by Sergey Bondarchuk, and Dersu Uzala (1975), by Akira Kurosawa. Both received Oscars. Burnt by the Sun (1994) directed by Nikita Mikhalkov, won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and the Grand Prix at Cannes. Stalingrad (2013), directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk, broke box-office records, costing $30 million to make and grossing $80 million, and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan (2014) was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.

Critics have been generally positive about Spacewalkers and Salyut-7. Jason Best, of whatsontv, called Spacewalkers “the Russian equivalent of Apollo 13”. Daniel M. Kimmel, editor of the Jewish Advocate, said:

The actors are well-known to Russian audiences, but … will be unknown to American viewers. That works to the film’s advantage, as we don’t have any expectations based on their roles elsewhere. The special effects are realistic and up to Hollywood standards … an impressive drama capturing a key chapter of the space race that needed to be told from the Russian side.

Maya Dodd, of Janks Reviews, wrote:

Director Dmitry Kiselev reveals a strength to the Russians that truly becomes them. He portrays them as stubborn, loyal and incredibly brave. Spacewalkers is a beautifully poignant film that emphasises the wonder of human potential and the strength that we possess to survive.

But Simon Storey, of Film Blerg, summed up succinctly the conflict most of us still have in the West about speaking in any positive way about the achievements of the Soviets:

One of the most interesting details about [Salyut-7], and one that might be contentious for Western audiences, is the nostalgia it seems to have for the Soviet Union. For those of us who grew up post the wall coming down, a lot of what we know about the USSR concerns Stalinist terror, disastrously planned economies and the phenomenal levels of human rights abuses that happened behind the Iron Curtain.

Yet modern Russia does seem to have a certain level of sentimentality for the old system. [Vladimir] Putin himself once said that “anyone who doesn’t miss the Soviet Union has no heart, yet anyone who wants it restored has no brain”.

The USSR was dissolved in 1991 and the remains of its space program passed to Russia. The United States and Russia have worked together in space with the Shuttle–Mir Program, and again with the International Space Station. Beginning in 2011, the United States relied on Russian Soyuz rockets to launch their astronauts into orbit but this ended in 2020, with Elon Musk’s company SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft taking over flights to the space station.

In August 2020, Putin announced a breakthrough by Russian scientists in the “global vaccine race”: an experimental Covid vaccine named Sputnik V, in honour of the first orbital satellite.