Soyuz 7

Launch Success

Liftoff Time (GMT)

10:44:42

Sunday October 12, 1969

Mission Details

Launch Notes

First time three crewed ships have been in orbit. First time seven cosmonauts are in orbit at the same time. The cosmonauts named the spacecraft Буран ("Blizzard in the steppe").

Soyuz 7

Wiki

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 a total of seven cosmonauts. The crew consisted of commander Anatoly 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 Soyuz 5 missions did. Soyuz 6 was to film the operation from nearby. However, this objective was not achieved due to equipment failures. Soviet sources later claimed 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. This is Soyuz's 13th flight, and 6th crewed flight. The Soyuz is a Soviet crewed spaceship, developed to made manned lunar missions. This version called 7K will fly 4 times on the giant launcher N1, and several tens of times on Proton to fly over the Moon, which will be successful during the mission Zond 4. Soyuz will become the first spacecraft to transport living beings to the Moon during the flight of Zond 5, with two turtles. Subsequently, it is adapted to low orbit and will fly on the Soyuz launcher to serve the Salyut and Mir stations and the ISS.

Low Earth Orbit

1 Payload

6,570 kilograms

Rocket

Retired
Soyuz

Active 1966 to 1976

OKB-1 logo

Manufacturer

OKB-1

Rocket

Height: 48.47m

Payload to Orbit

LEO: 6,640 kg

GTO: 0 kg

Liftoff Thrust

4,456 Kilonewtons

Fairing

Diameter: 3m

Height: 12.8m

Stages

3

Strap-ons

4

Launch Site

Site 1/5

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

Fastest Turnaround

23 hr 32 min

Stats

Soyuz


15th

Mission

4th

Mission of 1969

OKB-1


436th

Mission

62nd

Mission of 1969

1969


99th

Orbital launch attempt