Soyuz 33

Launch Success

Liftoff Time (GMT)

17:34:34

Tuesday April 10, 1979

Mission Details

Soyuz 33

Wiki

Soyuz 33 was a 1979 Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the ninth mission to the orbiting facility, but an engine failure forced the mission to be aborted, and the crew had to return to Earth before docking with the station. It was the first failure of a Soyuz engine during orbital operations. Soyuz 33 descent module in Aviation museum Plovdiv The two-man crew, commander Nikolai Rukavishnikov and Bulgarian cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov, suffered a steep ballistic re-entry, but were safely recovered. The original intention of the mission had been to visit the orbiting crew for about a week and leave a fresh vehicle for the station crew to return to Earth in. The mission failure meant that the orbiting Salyut 6 crew lacked a reliable return vehicle as their Soyuz had the same suspect engine as Soyuz 33. A subsequent crewed flight was canceled and a vacant craft with a redesigned engine was sent for the crew to use. This is Soyuz's 51st flight, and 32nd 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

6,860 kilograms

Rocket

Retired
Soyuz U

Active 1973 to 2017

RKK Energiya logo

Manufacturer

RKK Energiya

Price

$20.00 million

Rocket

Height: 51.32m

Payload to Orbit

LEO: 6,860 kg

GTO: 0 kg

Liftoff Thrust

4,456 Kilonewtons

Fairing

Diameter: 3m

Height: 15.59m

Stages

3

Strap-ons

4

Launch Site

Site 1/5

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

Fastest Turnaround

23 hr 32 min

Stats

Soyuz U


143rd

Mission

12th

Mission of 1979

RKK Energiya


1306th

Mission

24th

Mission of 1979

1979


30th

Orbital launch attempt