Smooth Sailing for Companions in Orbit

Since the death of three cosmonauts on their way back to earth in June 1971, the Soviet Union has had little to boast about in its manned space program. Last week finally brought some good news from Moscow. For the second time in three months, a two-man spaceship was successfully launched from the Baikonur space complex in Soviet Central Asia. Barely two hours after Soyuz 13's liftoff, Soviet officials took the unusual step of showing live television pictures of the rookie cosmonauts: Air Force Major Pytor Klimuk and Aviation Engineer Valentin Lebedev. That was a sure sign of renewed confidence among Soviet officials in the capability of their basic space vehicle.

U.S. space officials had every reason to be equally pleased. The Soyuz spacecraft, extensively modified since the hatch failure that caused the 1971 accident, will be used by the Russians in their proposed 1975 linkup with a U.S. Apollo spaceship. (U.S. astronauts who will participate in that flight recently completed a two-week stint at Star City, the Soviet cosmonaut training center outside Moscow, where they demonstrated their skills on Soyuz simulators.) Thus NASA wants every possible assurance that Soviet engineers have eliminated all Soyuz design bugs. Indeed, Western observers, noting that the Soviets had said that the main purpose of the latest flight was to test Soyuz systems, speculated that they were trying to assure the U.S. as much as themselves about the spacecraft's capabilities.

Merely by getting into orbit, the cosmonauts helped set a record of sorts: for the first time in history U.S. and Soviet crews were in space at the same time. About 100 miles higher than the smaller Russian ship, Skylab's three astronauts were beginning their second month of a scheduled 84-day flight. Radioed Skylab's skipper, Gerald Carr:

"We wish them smooth sailing."

After an indifferent start, the Skylab mission was also sailing smoothly. The astronauts had recovered from a bout of space sickness and were learning to live with a balky gyroscope, one of the three essential for maneuvering and maintaining the stability of the ship. One gyro had already broken down, and failure of a second might force curtailment of the mission. But as long as it continued to function, the astronauts had a steady platform in the sky; they made good use of it by photographing everything from simmering volcanoes on earth to giant storms on the sun and the ever-brightening comet Kohoutek. During their observations of Kohoutek, they have watched its tail double in length to more than 10 million miles. The science also had some light moments. In a radio conversation with his wife, Carr told her that some of the gypsy moth larvae that the crew had carried into space had finally hatched. "Good, you are a father again," replied the mother of six.

Testy Exchanges. Earlier the poky performance of the all-rookie crew had caused concern. The astronauts were sleeping longer than previous crews, complaining about their workload, having testy exchanges with Mission Control and making careless errors like forgetting to put essential filters on their cameras. Now the three men had settled their differences with Mission Control, and seemed to have adjusted to their cramped life-style--though not without some physical changes. Doctors estimated that the astronauts had grown an inch or more in height, yet had shrunk around the waist and chest, apparently because of shifts in body fluids in the weightless environment.

On Christmas Day and again on Dec. 29, the Skylab astronauts will take two long space walks outside their ship.

Chief purpose of the sorties: to photograph Kohoutek with a variety of sophisticated instruments--including ultraviolet and X-ray cameras--immediately before and after the comet makes its hairpin turn around the sun. That dramatic passage on Dec. 28 will bring Kohoutek within 13 million miles of the sun. It will come so close, in fact, that the sun's heat and gravity may cause violent changes in the structure and chemistry of the comet. In their unique perch above the atmosphere, the astronauts may have a rare opportunity to record those changes as they actually occur and to secure for themselves a permanent niche in the history of astronomy.

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