salyut 2

font size="+1">Salyut 2
olspan="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FFDEAD"\|Mission Insignia
olspan="2" align="center"\|
olspan="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FFDEAD"\|Mission Statistics
b>Mission Name:	Salyut 2
b>Call Sign:	Salyut 2
b>Launch:	April 4, 1973 09:00:00 UTC Baikonur, U.S.S.R
b>Reentry:	May 28, 1973
b>Crews:	0
b>Occupied:	0 days
b>In Orbit:	54 days
b>Number of Orbits:	866
b>Apogee:	173 mi (278 km)
b>Perigee:	160 mi (257 km)
b>Period:	89.8 min
b>Inclination	51.6 deg
b>Distance Traveled:	~21,849,604 mi (~35,163,530 km)
b>Orbital Mass:	18,500 kg
olspan="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FFDEAD"\|Salyut 2

Salyut 2 was launched April 4, 1973. It was not really a part of the same program as the other Salyut space stations, instead being the highly classified prototype military space station Almaz. It was given the designation Salyut 2 to conceal its true nature. Despite its successful launch, within two days the as-yet-unmanned Salyut 2 began losing pressure and its flight control failed; the cause of the failure was likely due to shrapnel piercing the station when the discarded Proton rocket upper stage that had placed it in orbit later exploded nearby. On April 11 the station lost four solar panels and all onboard power. Salyut 2 reentered on May 28, 1973.