Cosmos 1267

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Mission dates
Mission: Cosmos 1267
Crew: unmanned
Target: Salyut 6
Start vehicle: Proton K
Start on: April 25, 1981 / Baikonur
Coupling on: June 19, 1981
Decoupling on: not happened
Re-entry on: July 29, 1982
Flight duration: 460 days
burns up over: South pacific
Earth orbits: around 7,300
previous DCS mission :

Cosmos 929

following DCS mission :

Cosmos 1443

On April 25, 1981, a Soviet spaceship of the TKS series was launched under the name Kosmos 1267 . Originally, the TKS ships, which are quite large at around 20 tons, were planned as space shuttles for transporting people in the military Almaz program (for comparison: the Soyuz spaceships for transporting two to three people weigh less than eight tons). Manned flights were never realized with TKS. The TKS-2 ferry was converted and launched unmanned as Kosmos 1267 to reach the Salyut 6 space station to provide supplies and fuel. Various flight maneuvers were previously tested in earth orbit, so that Kosmos 1267 only docked after 55 days of autonomous flight on June 19, 1981 in an automatic coupling maneuver at the front coupling port of the Salyut 6 space station. With the docked module Kosmos 1267, Salyut 6 was the forerunner of a modular space station .

The module could not be used by the crew of a space station, however, as the last crew left Salyut 6 before the docking of Kosmos 1267 and Salyut 6 was not manned again after docking with Kosmos 1267. But even without a crew, Kosmos 1267 contributed to the testing of important principles for building a modular space station. In addition to testing the flight characteristics of the TKS ship, it was proven for the first time that large modules can be automatically coupled to one another in orbit. In addition to a mechanical coupling, an electrical connection was also automatically established so that Kosmos 1267 ensured the complex was supplied with electricity via its own solar cells while it was docked. In addition, in 1267 Kosmos carried out maneuvers to control altitude and attitude using its own engines. An exchange of fuel between the two spacecraft could not take place because the front coupling adapter of Salyut 6 was not equipped with the necessary fuel lines.

In space in 1267, Kosmos separated the landing capsule originally intended for the crew, which landed on it in Kazakhstan and demonstrated the functionality of the landing capsule with the flight. The return capsule returned to Earth on May 24, 1981. The remaining part of Kosmos 1267 remained coupled to Salyut 6 and the complex was initially held in reserve in the event of problems with the subsequent Salyut 7 space station . After the successful start of the successor station Salyut 7, however, no further crews went on board. After 405 days in space, Kosmos 1267, together with Salyut 6, was brought down in a controlled manner over the South Pacific on July 29, 1982 .

On the basis of the TKS ferry, modules were later developed for permanent stay at the Mir space stations (e.g. Kwant-2 ) and ISS (e.g. Sarja ).