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The Soviet space agency, and development and testing of Energia/Buran between 1977 and 1980
Boris Chertok's quiet takeover of TskBEM in November 1973 was the last thing many in the Soviet aerospace hierarchy wanted. For one thing,it meant that from now on the military would have less and less say in the management of the manned space program. However,the successful operation of Salyuts 3,4,and 5 during Chertok's early years helped shape the hierarchy's opinion in his favor. Another helping point was the death of Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin's ascension to the post of General Secretary. Kosygin,unlike most,favored increased civilian space activity. The Soviet-American space cooperation pact signed by Nixon and Brezhnev on May 24,1972 was renewed by Rockefeller (since Ford was touring Canada) and Kosygin on July 10,1977, at Athens.
The renewal of the space cooperation agreement guaranteed six personnel exchanges between NASA and NPO Energia between 1979 and 1987,the addition of an American-made video spectrometer to the Venera 13 and 14 Venus orbiters (1), the use of the NASA tracking stations at Canberra and Goldstone to provide backup tracking data for Soviet space probes,a technical exchange in 1984 or 1985 involving data for potential second generation robotic lunar landers, and kept open the option of future manned cooperative missions,although no such missions were planned at that time. A renewal clause at the end stated that the first option for renewal was in 1984,and renewal opportunities every two years thereafter through the end of the century were provided.
(From Asif Siddiqi, Challenge to Shuttle (and cooperation on Earth), the Soviet space program 1974-1986, Government Printing Office, 2005, rev.2011,2019.)
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Throughout the late 70s,Energia development continued apace. The first test firings of the new RD-250 engines provided much valuable data,and by 1982, with Energia's debut set for 1984 (the Zenit booster modules) and 1985 (Energia itself), much risk had been retired. The announcements of the development approval of the Energia-M (medium) variant in 1980 and the Energia-T (heavy) variant in 1984 were greeted both with apprehension and with excitement.
Buran was also under devleopment. Metal bending for the first orbiter began at the end of 1976, and construction of the second commenced in early 1979. The debut of the former was set for 1985,the latter 1988,and soon two more orbiters would be assembled in the Podlipki jigs. The first Buran astronaut corps was selected in 1978,and Chertok hoped to select the second in 1981, which would include two women. The first group was weighted heavily towards pilots,but Chertok planned that subsequent groups would each have 10 pilots and 12 mission specialists.
List of the GKNI-1 cosmonaut group,with their spaceflights