Soyuz 33
Soyuz 33
| Mission Statistics
|
| Mission Name: | Soyuz 33
|
| Call Sign: | Saturn
|
| Number of Crew Members: | 2
|
| Launch: | April 10, 1979
17:34:34 UTC
Baikonur LC1
|
| Landing: | April 12, 1979
16:35:40 UTC
320 km SE of Dzhezkazgan
|
| Duration: | 1 d 23 h 1 min 06 s
|
Number of
Orbits: | 31
|
Crew
Mission Parameters
- Mass: 6860 kg
- Perigee: 198.6 km
- Apogee: 279.2 km
- Inclination: 51.63°
- Period: 88.99 minutes
Mission Highlights
Intercosmos mission to Salyut 6 with Bulgarian cosmonaut. Failed to dock with
Salyut 6 due to main engine fault. Retro burn with reserve engine. Reentry acceleration of 10 G (98 m/s²).
Failed to dock with Salyut 6. Fired its main engine while closing to within 4 km of the station. The burn, the sixth of the flight, was to have lasted 6 s, but the engine shut down after 3 s. The Igla docking system also closed down. The Proton crew aboard Salyut 6 reported flames shooting sideways from the main engine, toward the backup engine, at the time of the shutdown.
The docking was called off and the Saturns made ready to return to Earth. The backup engine fired, but did not shut off at the end of the planned 188 s burn. Rukavishnikov, uncertain if the engine operated at the proper thrust, determined to let it burn an additional 25 s before shutting it down manually. As a result, Soyuz 33 made a steep ballistic reentry with acceleration up to 10 G (98 m/s²). Because the service module was discarded after deorbit burn, examination of the failed engine was impossible. The Soyuz 33 crew was to have traded its spacecraft for Soyuz 32
