Soyuz

Flight Details 3

Soyuz 21 (Salyut 5)

Mission Statistics:

• Date: 07/06/76
• Flight Time: 049d 06h 24m
• Number of Orbits: 0797 orbits

Cosmonaut Crew:

• Boris V. Volynov
• Vitali M. Zholobov

EVA's:

• None

Payloads:

• None

Mission Highlights: After the unmanned flight of Soyuz 20, this mission conducted scientific and material processing experiments aboard the Salyut 5 space station (launched 6/22/76). The cosmonauts also conducted agricultural experiments to test the effect of zero gravity on various plants. There was speculation that this mission was cut short because of psychological problems suffered by the crew after their lengthy stay in space.

Soyuz 22

Mission Statistics:

• Date: 09/15/76
• Flight Time: 007d 21h 52m
• Number of Orbits: 0128 orbits

Cosmonaut Crew:

• Valeri F. Bykovsky
• Vladimir V. Aksenov

EVA's:

• None

Payloads:

• None

Mission Highlights: This short flight did not include a docking with Salyut 5. The primary experiments centered on the use of an East German camera for photographing the Earth in six spectral ranges.

Soyuz 23

Mission Statistics:

• Date: 10/14/76
• Flight Time: 002d 00h 07m
• Number of Orbits: 0032 orbits

Cosmonaut Crew:

• Vyacheslav D. Zudov
• Valeri I. Rozhdesvensky

EVA's:

• None

Payloads:

• None

Mission Highlights: This mission ended prematurely after failure to dock with Salyut 5. The landing apparently took place under emergency conditions, with the Soyuz landing in a lake at night and during a heavy blizzard. The crew was recovered safely.

Soyuz 24 (Salyut 5)

Mission Statistics:

• Date: 02/07/77
• Flight Time: 017d 17h 26m
• Number of Orbits: 0287 orbits

Cosmonaut Crew:

• Viktor V. Gorbatko
• Yuri N. Glazkov

EVA's:

• None

Payloads:

• None

Mission Highlights: This mission represented the second and final mission aboard Salyut 5. The crew performed biomedical and Earth resources experiments during their relatively short stay in the space station.

Soyuz 25

Mission Statistics:

• Date: 10/08/77
• Flight Time: 002d 00h 45m
• Number of Orbits: 0033 orbits

Cosmonaut Crew:

• Vladimir V. Kovalenok
• Valeri V. Ryumin

EVA's:

• None

Payloads:

• None

Mission Highlights: Soviet problems with docking their Soyuz and Salyut craft continued with this mission. After unsuccessful attempts at docking with Salyut 6 (launched 9/20/77), the crew returned to Earth after only 2 days in orbit.

Soyuz 26 (Salyut 6)

Mission Statistics:

• Date: 12/09/77
• Flight Time: 096d 10h 00m
• Number of Orbits: 1560 orbits

Cosmonaut Crew:

• Yuri V. Romanenko
• Georgi M. Grechko

EVA's:

• 01h 28m - stand-up EVA

Payloads:

• None

Mission Highlights: With this mission aboard Salyut 6, the Soviet Union surpassed the flight record set by the Skylab 3 crew in 1973. During the flight, the cosmonauts conducted a stand-up EVA to examine the main docking collar on the Salyut. However, Romanenko, untethered, slipped out of the hatch and had to be pulled back in by Grechko. This mission also marked the first use of the unmanned Progress spacecraft to resupply the Salyut space station.

Soyuz 27 (Salyut 6)

Mission Statistics:

• Date: 01/10/78
• Flight Time: 005d 22h 59m
• Number of Orbits: 0096 orbits

Cosmonaut Crew:

• Vladimir A. Dzanibekov
• Oleg G. Makarov

EVA's:

• None

Payloads:

• None

Mission Highlights: This was the first of two flights to visit the Salyut station during the long-duration mission of Soyuz 26. Dzanibekov and Makarov returned to Earth in the Soyuz 26 spacecraft, leaving the fresher Soyuz 27 for the long-duration crew.

Soyuz 28 (Salyut 6)

Mission Statistics:

• Date: 03/02/78
• Flight Time: 007d 22h 16m
• Number of Orbits: 0128 orbits

Cosmonaut Crew:

• Alexei A. Gubarev
• Vladimir Remek (Czekoslovakia)

EVA's:

• None

Payloads:

• None

Mission Highlights: Soyuz 28 carried the first non-Russian cosmonaut, in the form of Czekoslovakian Remek. During the next few years, several non-Russians would pay visits to long-duration crews aboard the Salyut stations.

Soyuz 29 (Salyut 6)

Mission Statistics:

• Date: 06/16/78
• Flight Time: 139d 14h 48m
• Number of Orbits: 2259 orbits

Cosmonaut Crew:

• Vladimir V. Kovalenok
• Alexander S. Ivanchenkov

EVA's:

• 02h 05m - space walk

Payloads:

• None

Mission Highlights: This mission aboard Salyut 6 surpassed the flight record of Soyuz 26. During the long flight, the crew conducted materials processing and Earth resources experiments. Ivanchenkov performed a space walk to collect experiment samples from the exterior of Salyut 6. The Salyut station was resupplied by two Progress craft during this mission, and two other Soyuz crews also made visits during the flight.

Soyuz 30 (Salyut 6)

Mission Statistics:

• Date: 06/28/78
• Flight Time: 007d 22h 03m
• Number of Orbits: 0128 orbits

Cosmonaut Crew:

• Pytor I. Klimuk
• Miroslaw Hermaszenski (Poland)

EVA's:

• None

Payloads:

• None

Mission Highlights: The crew on this flight included the Polish cosmonaut Hermaszenski. They assisted the Soyuz 29 crew in the conduct of photographic and biomedical experiments aboard Salyut 6.

| Home | Intro | Ventures | Sea | Air | Space | SciFi | Racing | Movies | Art | Travel | Exit |

| Intro | X-15 | Mercury | Gemini | Apollo | Skylab | Apollo-Soyuz | Shuttle | Space Station |
| Vostok | Voskhod | Zond | Salyut/Mir | Soyuz | Buran | Shenzhou |
| Photo Album | Fallen Heroes | Unmanned Probes | Bibliography |

Last Updated: January 1, 2003