Soyuz 7
Soyuz 7
| Mission Statistics |
| Mission Name: | Soyuz 7 |
| Call Sign: | Буран (Buran - "Blizzard") |
| Number of Crew Members: | 3 |
| Launch: | October 12, 1969
10:44:42 UTC
Baikonur LC1 |
| Landing: | October 17, 1969
09:25:05 UTC |
| Duration: | 4 days, 22 h, 40 min, 23 s |
| Number of Orbits: | 80 |
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 seven cosmonauts.
The crew consisted of commander Anatoli 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 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 manned 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.
Crew
Mission Parameters
- Mass: 6570 kg
- Perigee: 210 km
- Apogee: 223 km
- Inclination: 51.7°
- Period: 88.8 min
