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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz 28

Soyuz 28The Soviet Union launches the Soyuz 28 mission, the first manned flight in its Interkosmos series of international space missions. Cosmonaut Vladimír Remek is the first Czech in space, as well as the first space traveler not born in the Soviet Union or the United States; along with Soyuz 28 mission commander Alexei Gubarev, Remek visits the Salyut 6 space station for several days, though is presence is purely political showmanship; Remek later reveals that he had few actual functions to perform during the flight. Soyuz 28 spends a total of nearly eight days in space before returning to Earth.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz 29

Soyuz 29The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 29 on a mission to berth at space station Salyut 6 for a period of around four months. Cosmonauts Vladimir Kovalyonok and Aleksandr Ivanchenkov are aboard, and they eventually set a new space endurance record, remaining in orbit for 139 days. Numerous material science experiments are carried out, as well as a spacewalk to retrieve samples of various materials left exposed to space outside the station. The crew is also assigned to take on a more rigorous exercise program. They will return to Earth in November after swapping vehicles with the crew of Soyuz 31.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz 30

Soyuz 30Soyuz 30 lifts off en route to a brief visit with the crew of space station Salyut 6. This is the second manned Interkosmos mission, with cosmonaut Pyotr Klimuk and the first Polish cosmonaut, MirosÅ‚aw Hermaszewski, aboard. They dock at Salyut 6 after two days in orbit, and spend a total of eight days in space. Though some joint experiments are conducted among the four occupants of the station, the Soyuz 30 crew frequently has to perform experiments in its own Soyuz vehicle to avoid getting in the station crew’s way, and the mission is kept short to free up the second docking port for a Progress unmanned supply vehicle launched four days after Soyuz 30 returns to Earth.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz 31

Soyuz 31The Soviet Union’s Soyuz 31 mission to the Salyut 6 space station lifts off, with cosmonauts Valery Bykovsky and Sigmund Jahn (the first East German space traveler) aboard. The crews are segregated less than on previous Interkosmos flights, and the Soyuz 31 crew is in space for over a week. They leave their vehicle at Salyut 6 and return in the Soyuz 29 vehicle on September 3rd.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz 32

Soyuz 32The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 32 on a long-duration mission to space station Salyut 6, with cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin aboard. Over a record-setting 175 days, the new station crew conducts necessary repairs and upgrades to the station’s hardware, as well as conducting various experiments. With the arrival of equipment sent in the unmanned Progress 5 freighter in March, this is the first space crew to have a means to see ground controllers via a video link, rather than talking to them via radio; the cosmonauts also look forward to seeing family members during planned teleconferences. This is also the first crew to vacation in space, permitted a five-day break over May Day. Due to a major technical problem in the next manned Soyuz flight, the crew of Salyut 7 sets its duration record without a single visit from another cosmonaut.

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Crewed Spaceflight Soyuz

Soyuz 33: Soviet space snafu

Soyuz 33The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 33, intended to take cosmonauts Nikolai Rukavishnikov and Georgi Ivanov (the latter of whom is the first Bulgarian space traveler) to space station Salyut 6. But Soyuz 33 never reaches its destination. At a distance of 3,000 feet from Salyut, Soyuz 33’s main engine fails to fire – the first time such a failure has ever occurred in over a decade of Soyuz flights. Soyuz 33 is recalled to Earth at the earliest opportunity, leaving the station crew with no visits from any other human beings during their two-man, 175-day stay in orbit. It is later discovered that Soyuz 33’s engine could have exploded, causing critical damage to the entire vehicle – and ground controllers now focus their attention on Soyuz 32, docked at Salyut with an engine of identical design which could also fail.

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Crewed Spaceflight Soyuz

Soyuz 34: ghost rider in the sky

Salyut 6The Soviet Union launches a redesigned vehicle, Soyuz 34, with no crew aboard. Under automated control, Soyuz 34 docks with space station Salyut 6, where it provides cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin with a more reliable return capsule. Their original vehicle Soyuz 32 capsule is loaded with material to be returned to Earth, and it lands – unoccupied and without incident – on June 13th, and the station crew returns to Earth aboard Soyuz 34 in August.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz 35

Soyuz 35The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 35 en route to space station Salyut 6 for a long-duration stay. Cosmonauts Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin set a new space endurance record with their 185-day stay, lasting until October 1980. Ryumin had been a member of the last Salyut 6 crew as well, having stayed on the station for six months in 1979, and was not originally scheduled for this mission, rotated into the prime crew due to the illness of the originally assigned crew member. Four other crews visit Salyut 6 during the Soyuz 35 crew’s stay. By the end of this mission, Ryumin holds a personal record for the most time accrued in space by a human being – 352 days, barely two weeks short of a full year of spaceflight experience.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz 36

Soyuz 36Soyuz 36 is launched by the Soviet Union on a one-week mission to space station Salyut 6. The crew consists of Apollo-Soyuz veteran Valery Kubasov and the first Hungarian in space, Bertalan Farkas. During the crew’s week-long visit to Salyut 6, they undertake an exhaustingly jam-packed series of experiments before swapping Soyuz vehicles with the long-duration station crew – technically, the Soyuz 36 crew returns in the Soyuz 35 vehicle on June 6th.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz T-2

Soyuz T-2An advanced version of a new Soviet Soyuz spacecraft is launched with a crew for the first time. Soyuz T-2 is launched on a three-day mission to visit the Salyut 6 space station, with its primary goal to test a new automated approach and docking system for use with the Salyut space stations. After spending almost four days in orbit, cosmonauts Yuri Malyshev and Vladimir Aksyonov return to Earth; due to their vehicle’s flight test status, the T-2 crew does not swap spacecraft with the Salyut 6/Soyuz 35 crew.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz 37

Soyuz 37The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 37 on a week-long mission to visit space station Salyut 6. Part of the Interkosmos series, Soyuz 37 carries an international crew consisting of veteran cosmonaut Viktor Gorbatko and the first Vietnamese space traveler, Pham Tuan. Joint experiments are conducted with the long-duration crew of Salyut 6/Soyuz 35, and the Soyuz 37 crew departs in the Soyuz 36 capsule on July 31st, leaving the station crew with a fresh vehicle with which to make their own return home.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz 38

Soyuz 38The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 38 on a mission to the Salyut 6 space station, carrying cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko and the first Cuban in space, Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez. The week-long flight includes docking maneuvers with Salyut 6 in pitch blackness, guided only by the lights on both the Soyuz vehicle and the station, and experiments aboard Salyut. Since the long-duration Salyut 6/Soyuz 35 crew is due to leave the station soon, the Soyuz 38 crew departs in the same vehicle in which it arrived.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz T-3

Soyuz T-3Soyuz T-3 lifts off from the Soviet Union’s Baikonur Cosmodrome launch complex, carrying the first three-man Soviet space crew since the early days of the Soyuz in 1971. Cosmonauts Leonid Kizim, Oleg Makarov and Gennady Strekalov also become the first three-man space station crew since the ill-fated crew of the first Salyut. Over a period of nearly two weeks, the crew conducts extensive repairs and upgrades to Salyut 6, readying the station for its next long-duration crew before departing on December 10th.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz T-4

Soyuz T-4The Soyuz T-4 mission lifts off from the Soviet Union, carrying a two-man crew to space station Salyut 6. Cosmonauts Vladimir Kovalyonok and Viktor Savinykh remain about the station for 75 days, and are the last long-duration crew to occupy Salyut 6. Since they are still in orbit in April, they become the first Soviet crew to orbit the Earth at the same time as an American manned space vehicle since 1975, though the two never interact with each other at any point. The Soyuz T-4 capsule remains at the station as the escape vehicle until this crew departs in May.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz 39

Soyuz 39Soyuz 39 lifts off from the Soviet Union, carrying its two-man crew on a week-long spaceflight including a visit to space station Salyut 6. The crew consists of cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Jugderdemidiin Gurragchaa, the first Mongolian in space. In conjunction with the resident Salyut 6/Soyuz T-4 crew, they conduct scientific and engineering experiments, some of them studying the state of Salyut 6 after several years in orbit. The Soyuz 39 crew returns to Earth on March 30th.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz 40

Soyuz 40The final first-generation Soyuz spacecraft, Soyuz 40, is launched on a week-long spaceflight by the Soviet Union. With Leonid Popov and Romanian cosmonaut Dumitru Prunariu aboard, Soyuz 40 visits space station Salyut 6 for several days, and is the last spacecraft to dock at the five-year-old space station. The Soyuz 40 crew returns to Earth on May 22nd. Future Soyuz launches will use the upgraded Soyuz-T vehicles.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz T-5

Soyuz T-5Soyuz T-5 lifts off from the Soviet Union, carrying its crew of two to the new Salyut 7 space station for a long-term stay. Cosmonauts Anatoli Berezovoy and Valentin Lebedev become Salyut 7’s first occupants, remaining aboard the station for a record-setting 211 days (almost seven months), not returning until December 1982. During that time, the two cosmonauts host two other visiting crews and launch a small amateur radio communications satellite by ejecting it from a small airlock.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz T-6

Soyuz T-6The Soviet Union launches the Soyuz T-6 mission on a week-long flight into orbit, including a visit to space station Salyut 7. Cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Aleksandr Ivanchenkov and Jean-Loup Chretien – the latter being the first Frenchman in space – spend several days aboard Salyut 7 performing experiments. Chretien would fly on later missions aboard Mir and the American Space Shuttle.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz T-7

Soyuz T-7The Soviet Union’s Soyuz T-7 mission lifts off from Baikonur Cosmodrome for a week-long stay in space, including a visit to space station Salyut 7. The three-person Soyuz crew includes the first woman in space since 1963. Cosmonauts Leonid Popov, Aleksandr Serebrov and Svetlana Savitskaya deliver supplies to Salyut 7 and perform experiments while docked to the station; on August 27th, they depart from the station aboard the Soyuz T-5 vehicle, leaving the newer T-7 capsule for the station crew’s use.

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Crewed Spaceflight Soyuz

Soyuz T-8

Soyuz T-8Soyuz T-8 lifts off from the Soviet Union, intended to dock with space station Salyut 7. Cosmonauts Vladimir Titov, Gennady Strekalov and Aleksandr Serebrov are due to take up residence on the station, but discover that the ejection of the nose cone of the Soyuz rocket – which protects the non-aerodynamic Soyuz vehicle during launch – has caused critical damage to the vehicle’s communication equipment. The mission is called off for safety reasons, and the crew returns to Earth after only two days.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz T-9

Soyuz T-9Soyuz T-9 lifts off from the Soviet Union, bringing a new long-term crew to space station Salyut 7. Cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Aleksandr Aleksandrov take up residence on Salyut 7 for a 150-day stay, including work aboard the recently-docked Kosmos 1443 temporary space station module. The disastrous failure of the next Soyuz mission to reach orbit means that Lyakhov and Aleksandrov spend their entire stay in orbit with no visits from other crews. They return to Earth on November 23rd.

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Crewed Spaceflight Soyuz

Soyuz T-10-A: launch pad disaster

SoyuzFor the first time in history, a launch abort escape system saves its crew from a doomed launch. When a fuel spill is ignited at the base of the launch vehicle for Soyuz T-10-A – an otherwise routine mission to Soviet space station Salyut 7 – the entire rocket catches fire, and ground controllers quickly discover that cables running from their bunker to the vehicle have been severed, preventing them from remotely activating the launch escape tower. A radio frequency backup system finally sends the signal, and the tower blasts the Soyuz capsule free of its doomed rocket just two seconds prior to a massive explosion on the pad. The capsule brings the crew to a safe, but rough, landing a few miles away, while the launch pad fire burns out of control for nearly a day.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz T-10

Soyuz T-10Delayed many months during the investigation into the causes of the Soyuz T-10a near-disaster in 1983, Soyuz T-10 lifts off from the Soviet Union. Cosmonauts Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov and Oleg Atkov take up residence on space station Salyut 7 for a 236-day stay – the longest duration crew of the entire Salyut space station program – during which they have to conduct repairs to the station both inside and outside in a series of spacewalks. Left unoccupied months longer than expected, the station has powered down and must be reactivated, a process taking nearly ten days. A fuel line break on the exterior of the station must be repaired as well. The crew remains aboard Salyut 7 through October.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz T-11

Soyuz T-11The Soviet Union launches Soyuz T-11 en route to space station Salyut 7. Spending nearly eight days in orbit, cosmonauts Yuri Malyshev, Gennady Strekalov and the first space traveler from India, Rakesh Sharma, perform experiments aboard the station as well as bringing supplies. They return to Earth on April 11th aboard the station crew’s Soyuz T-10 capsule, leaving the newer Soyuz T-11 docked at Salyut 7 for the station crew’s use.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz T-12

Soyuz T-12The Soviet Union launches Soyuz T-12 on a mission to space station Salyut 7. Cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Svetlana Savitskaya and Igor Volk visit the station crew and test new equipment during a three-hour spacewalk. Savitskaya becomes the first woman to fly in space twice as well as the first female spacewalker, an assignment that seems to have been devised purely for the political purpose of beating NASA to that first (the American space agency having announced in 1983 that an upcoming shuttle mission would feature a female spacewalker). Volk’s presence aboard the mission ensures that he has spaceflight experience ahead of his next mission, believed to be the first manned flight of the Soviet Buran shuttle. The Soyuz T-12 crew is in space for almost 12 days, returning to Earth on July 29th.

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz T-13: saving Salyut 7

Soyuz T-13The Soviet Union launches Soyuz T-13 on a mission to salvage space station Salyut 7, which has gone unoccupied for more than half a year and has lost power and attitude control. Cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh find the station dead in space, tumbling slowly, forcing them to use their Soyuz vehicle’s thrusters to match the station’s erratic motion to allow a manual docking. Inside the station, the crew finds frigid but breathable air, and again the Soyuz engines are fired to orient the station so its solar panels catch enough sunlight to charge its batteries. After a week of work carried out in bulky clothing befitting a Russian winter, the cosmonauts reactivate the station fully, scoring a major space first – the first-ever docking with, and repair of, a fully deactivated space station. For the first time, a Salyut crew spends some overlap time with the next long-term crew, a step toward the uninterrupted occupancy that will become commonplace aboard Mir, Salyut’s successor. Savinykh remains aboard Salyut 7 for 168 days, overlapping into the next long-term station crew, while Dzhanibekov departs 110 days into his stay.

Hear about it on the Sci-Fi 5 podcast

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Crewed Spaceflight Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz T-14

Soyuz T-14The Soviet Union launches the Soyuz T-14 mission, carrying a crew of three cosmonauts intended to become the next long-term occupants of space station Salyut 7. The crew consists of Vladimir Vasyutin, Georgi Grechko and Alexander Volkov, though Grechko only remains until September 26th, returning to Earth with the Soyuz T-13 crew. Two months into the crew’s stay on Salyut, however, Vasyutin becomes seriously ill. Communications between the station and ground controllers are carried out on a scrambled frequency for a week, at which point the crew is recalled to Earth, ending an occupancy that was meant to last for half a year. Soyuz T-14 returns to Earth, carring Vasyutin, Volkov and Soyuz T-13 crew member Viktor Savinykh home on November 21st, once again leaving Salyut 7 unoccupied for several months.

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Crewed Spaceflight Mir Salyut Soyuz

Soyuz T-15 / Mir Expedition 1

MirThe Soviet Union launches Soyuz T-15 on an unprecedented mission into orbit. Cosmonauts Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov become the first occupants of the newly-launched Mir space station on March 15th, where they remain until early May, at which time they undock the Soyuz T-15 vehicle from Mir and visit the powered-down Salyut 7 space station, becoming its final occupants until they return to Mir in late June, bringing several pieces of equipment and experiments cannibalized from Salyut back with them. The crew spends a total of 125 days in space, at the end of which Kizim is the most-traveled man in space, having accumulated over a year of total space travel time. Soyut T-15 is the last second-generation Soyuz vehicle to fly, returning to Earth on July 16th.

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Crewed Spaceflight Mir Soyuz

Soyuz TM-2 / Mir Expedition 2

Soyuz TM-2The Soviet Union launches Soyuz TM-2, the first manned launch of a newly uprated version of the Soyuz capsule. Cosmonauts Yuri Romanenko and Aleksandr Laveykin travel to the Mir space station, where Laveykin remains for 174 days before departing in July, but Romanenko sets a new space endurance record, remaining in orbit for 326 days. Romanenko’s return to Earth just before the end of 1987 marks the end of Expedition 2’s occupancy of Mir.

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Crewed Spaceflight Mir Soyuz

Soyuz TM-3

Soyuz TM-3The Soviet Union launches Soyuz TM-3 on an eight-day mission into space which includes a visit to space station Mir. Cosmonauts Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Muhammed Faris (the latter of whom is the first Syrian space traveler) return to Earth at the end of the mission, along with Mir crew member Yuri Romanenko, while Alexander Viktorenko takes Romanenko’s slot on Mir. In order to leave the newer vehicle docked to Mir as an escape craft, the Soyuz TM-3 crew returns aboard Soyuz TM-2.