Salyut 5 at 50: The Soviet space station that sickened one crew and nearly drowned another

Salyut 5 at 50: The Soviet space station that sickened one crew and nearly drowned another

It is half a century since the Soviet Union launched the final crewed Almaz space station, also known as Salyut 5, which was home to two crews, while a third mission failed to dock and nearly came to a watery end. The Almaz stations were launched for the Soviet military and are better known as Salyut 2, 3, and 5. There were additional stations under construction, but the crewed program was canceled after Salyut 5. While we hesitate to use the wo…