Launch Success
Liftoff Time (GMT)
07:25:00
Monday May 27, 1974
Uncrewed test flight of the Soyuz vessel.
Cosmos 656 was an uncrewed test of the Soyuz 7K-T, a variant of the Soyuz spacecraft. This Soyuz variant was intended for flights to the Almaz military space stations This is Soyuz's 23th 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
6,675 kilograms
25th
Mission
1st
Mission of 1974
839th
Mission
29th
Mission of 1974
39th
Orbital launch attempt