Soyuz 7
Soyuz 7
| Mission Statistics |
| Mission Name: | Soyuz 7 |
| Call Sign: | Буран (Buran - "Blizzard") |
| Number of Crew Members: | 3 |
| Launch: | October 12, 1969 10:45 UTC Baikonur LC1 |
| Landing: | October 17, 1969 09:26 UTC |
| Duration: | 4 days, 22 hours, 41 minutes |
| Number of Orbits: | 80 |
Soyuz 7 was part of a joint mission with Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 8
that saw three Soyuz spacecraft in orbit together at the same time, carrying seven cosmonauts.
The crew consisted of commander Anatoli Filipchenko, flight-engineer Vladislav Volkov and research-cosmonaut Viktor Gorbatko,
whose mission was to dock with Soyuz 8 and transfer crew, as the Soyuz 4 and
5 missions did. Soyuz 6 was to film the operation from nearby.
However, this objective was not achieved due to equipment failures. Soviet sources were later
to claim that no docking had been intended, but this seems unlikely, given the docking adapters
carried by the spacecraft, and the fact that the Soyuz 8 crew were both veterans of the previous
successful docking mission. This was the last time that the Soviet crewed Moon landing hardware
was tested in orbit, and the failure seems to have been one of the final nails in the coffin
of the programme.
Crew
Mission Parameters
- Mass: 6570 kg
- Perigee: 210 km
- Apogee: 223 km
- Inclination: 51.7°
- Period: 88.8 minutes
Referenced By
Anatoli Filipchenko | List of crewed space missions chronologically | List of human spaceflights, 1961-1986 | List of human spaceflights by program | List of human spaceflights chronologically | List of manned space missions chronologically | Soyuz 6 | Soyuz 8 | Soyuz program | Soyuz programme | Viktor Gorbatko | Vladislav Volkov
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