Soyuz 9

Launch Success

Liftoff Time (GMT)

19:00:00

Monday June 1, 1970

Mission Details

Launch Notes

Last flight of the first Soyuz 7K-OK version. First crewed flight to be launched at night. To date, Soyuz 9 marks the longest crewed flight by a solo spacecraft. The cosmonauts named the spacecraft Сокол ("Sokol" → "Falcon").

Soyuz 9

Wiki

Soyuz 9 was a 1970 Soviet crewed space flight. The two-man crew of Andrian Nikolayev and Vitali Sevastyanov broke the five-year-old space endurance record held by Gemini 7, with their nearly 18-day flight. The mission paved the way for the Salyut space station missions, investigating the effects of long-term weightlessness on crew, and evaluating the work that the cosmonauts could do in orbit, individually and as a team. Commander Andriyan Nikolayev and flight engineer Vitaly Sevastyanov spent 18 days in space conducting various physiological and biomedical experiments on themselves, but also investigating the social implications of prolonged spaceflight. The cosmonauts spent time in two-way TV links with their families, played chess with ground control, and voted in a Soviet election. The mission set a new space endurance record and marked a shift in emphasis away from spacefarers merely being able to exist in space for the duration of a long mission to being able to live in space. The mission took an unexpected physical toll on the cosmonauts; in order to conserve attitude control gas during the lengthy stay in orbit, Soyuz 9 was placed in a spin-stabilization mode that made Nikolayev and Sevastyanov dizzy and space sick. When landing finally came, they required help exiting the descent module and were virtually unable to walk for a few days. This is Soyuz's 15th flight, and 8th 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

6,590 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 31/6

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

Fastest Turnaround

47 hr 9 min

Stats

Soyuz


17th

Mission

1st

Mission of 1970

OKB-1


486th

Mission

28th

Mission of 1970

1970


44th

Orbital launch attempt