Crewed flight of the Soyuz programme
This article is about a 1974 spaceflight. For the mission identified by NASA as ISS Soyuz 16, see
Soyuz TMA-12
.
Soyuz 16
(
Russian
:
Союз 16
,
Union 16
) was a December, 1974, crewed test flight for a joint
Soviet
-United States
space flight
which culminated in the
Apollo?Soyuz
mission in July 1975. The two-man Soviet crew,
Anatoly Filipchenko
and
Nikolai Rukavishnikov
, tested a docking ring and other systems to be used in the joint flight.
Crew
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Backup crew
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Reserve crew
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Mission parameters
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- Mass:
6,680 kg (14,730 lb)
[1]
- Perigee:
177.0 km (110.0 mi)
[3]
- Apogee:
223.0 km (138.6 mi)
- Inclination:
51.7°
- Period:
88.4 minutes
Background
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The Soyuz 16 mission was the final rehearsal and first crewed mission in a program which culminated in the
Apollo?Soyuz
(ASTP) mission seven months later.
[4]
The
Soviet Union
and the United States,
Cold War
rivals, had signed several
arms control
treaties in the 1960s and 1970s, and had entered into a period of
detente
by the early 1970s. In 1972, a treaty was signed to participate in a joint crewed space flight as a symbol of this detente.
[5]
Early concepts for a joint flight included the docking of a
Soyuz
craft to the American
Skylab
space station, or an
Apollo vehicle
docking with a
Salyut
space station. Once the Americans abandoned their Skylab station in 1974, the Apollo-Salyut concept seemed to be the logical choice, but since the Soviets had started to develop a universal docking adapter for the mission and feared having to publicly reveal details of their military-focused Salyut missions, the two powers opted to link a Soyuz spacecraft with an Apollo spacecraft.
[5]
Three test flights of an uncrewed version of the
ASTP
spacecraft were flown:
Kosmos 638
, launched 3 April 1974;
Kosmos 652
, launched 15 May 1974; and
Kosmos 672
, launched 12 August 1974. These three flights, and Soyuz 16, were all launched with an improved version of a
Soyuz booster
.
[5]
Mission highlights
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In an unprecedented move, Soviet planners offered to inform their
NASA
counterparts of the time of the launch, as long as they did not reveal that time to the press. NASA officials refused to agree to that condition and, accordingly, were informed of the launch an hour after it occurred, on 2 December 1974.
[4]
During the flight,
Cosmonauts
Anatoly Filipchenko
and
Nikolai Rukavishnikov
tested the androgynous docking system to be used for the ASTP mission by retracting and extending a simulated 20 kg American docking ring.
[4]
[5]
The crew also tested modified environmental systems, new
solar panels
and improved control systems, as well as a new
radar
docking system.
Air pressure
was reduced from 760 mm to 540 mm and
oxygen
raised from 20% to 40% to test reducing the planned transfer time to Apollo from two to one hour.
[5]
On 7 December 1974, the docking ring was jettisoned with
explosive bolts
to test emergency measures if the capture latches got stuck during the ASTP flight.
The craft landed 8 December 1974, near
Arkalyk
and was hailed a complete success.
[5]
The mission duration, six days, matched the ASTP mission duration to within 10 minutes.
[4]
References
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External links
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Uncrewed missions are designated as
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instead of
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; exceptions are noted "(uncrewed)".
The † sign designates failed missions.
Italics
designates cancelled missions.
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Payloads are separated by bullets ( · ), launches by pipes ( | ). Crewed flights are indicated in
underline
. Uncatalogued launch failures are listed in
italics
. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are denoted in (brackets).
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