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Old April 22nd 05, 01:26 AM
Jim Oberg
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Default Soyuz battery worry may force landing 1 rev early

Soyuz battery worry may force landing 1 rev early

From April 21 On-Orbit Status Report (courtesy spaceref.com),
"Soyuz-215/9S Status: The backup/reserve battery of the Soyuz 9S vehicle is
known to be degraded, with some unquantifiable charge remaining. TsUP/Moscow
is considering a modified return/descent plan by reducing the time between
undocking and landing, requiring lower-than-nominal battery capacity to
reduce reliance on the reserve battery. This would involve switching to
spacecraft internal power at undocking (not some time before as usual) and
landing on the first orbit, but keeping the backup battery online during the
descent, as done normally, with software enabled to activate the reserve
battery automatically if required."