a difficult assignment

[awwitaken]

hi do u know wat spaceship was the one that got stranded and saved by the russians called ?

[awwitaken]

can any1 tell me plz ?

[LunarOrbit]

Maybe it's because it's 2am and I'm tired, but I don't recall a time when a Russian spacecraft was used to rescue another stranded spacecraft. Maybe someone else knows the answer, but give it time... most of the members of this forum are in North America (and sleeping).

[Jirnsum]

I am truly at a loss here. There's some urban legends about Russian spacecraft getting lost in space, but those do not involve a rescue.

[Ottawan]

The only one I can even remotely think of is the one piloted by the crew of Ironman 1 in the movie "Marooned".

I don't believe it has ever happened in real life.

[LunarOrbit]

I was thinking of Marooned too, Ott.

awwitaken, as far as I can remember there have been no rescue missions in space. Are you maybe thinking of The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project? That was not a rescue, but it's the only time prior to the first Shuttle/Mir docking that a Russian spacecraft was docked to an American spacecraft.

[Simkid]

There have most definatly not been any rescure missions, but there was some talk around ASTP that the technology developed for the mission could be used for that in future.  Only other thing that comes to mind is the Soyuz flight that launched to Mir, tranferred to Salyut 7, and back during one mission, but that was all planned.

[LunarOrbit]

Didn't NASA almost have to launch a rescue capsule for one of the Skylab missions?

[LunarOrbit]

This is what I was thinking of:

During Skylab 3, one of the thruster quads of the Apollo service module developed leaks. When the same problem developed with a second quad, the possibility existed that the spacecraft would not be maneuverable. Preparation work began to fit out a rescue CSM, and astronauts Vance Brand and Don Lind began preparations to rescue astronauts Bean, Garriott, and Lousma aboard the station. However the problem was localized, work arounds were developed, and the first space rescue mission was not necessary. The Skylab 3 crew returned successfully in their own Apollo CSM at the end of their 59 day mission.

From The Encyclopedia Astronautica