Soyuz 3

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Mission emblem
Soyuz 3 Mission emblem
Mission dates
Mission: Soyuz 3
COSPAR-ID : 1968-094A
Spacecraft: Soyuz 7K-OK (A) ( GRAU index  11F615)
Serial number: 10
Dimensions: 6575 kg
Launcher: Soyuz (GRAY 11A511)
Call sign: Russian Аргон (" argon ")
Crew: 1
Begin: October 26, 1968, 08:34:18  UTC
Starting place: Baikonur 31/6
Space station: Soyuz 2
Landing: October 30, 1968, 07:25:03 UTC
Landing place: 70 km north of Karaganda
Flight duration: 3d 22h 50min 45s
Earth orbits: 64
Rotation time : 88.3 min
Apogee : 203 km
Perigee : 177 km
◄ Before / After ►
Soyuz 2
(unmanned) 		Soyuz 4
(manned)
Previous manned mission:
Soyuz 1

Soyuz 3 was the second manned flight of the Soviet spaceship Soyuz, starting on October 26, 1968, and the first since the accident on April 24, 1967, which killed the cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov on board Soyuz 1 . Overall, it was the eleventh flight in the Soviet Soyuz program.

crew

Substitute team

Unmanned test flights

After the crash of Soyuz 1 in April 1967, in which, among other things, the parachutes failed, various design changes were made to the Soyuz spacecraft .

Two unmanned Soyuz spaceships carried out the first automatic coupling in Earth orbit on October 30, 1967 , under the code names Kosmos 186 and 188 . Nevertheless, this mission was not a complete success: firstly, too much fuel was consumed, secondly the coupling mechanism jammed and thirdly there were problems with the attitude control when re-entering , with Kosmos 186 very long delays and Kosmos 188 deviating so far off course that it had to be blown up.

Soviet space management decided to conduct another double unmanned mission in March or April 1968 before attempting a manned mission in May or June.

Kosmos 212 and 213 performed an error-free automatic coupling on April 15, 1968, and the landing also went very well. However, problems caused the parachutes, which did not detach from the return capsule after landing.

A final unmanned test of the Soyuz spacecraft was carried out using Kosmos 238 . This flight from August 28, 1968 to September 1, 1968 went without any problems.

Preparation of the manned flight

As with the planned double flight of Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 2A , two Soyuz spaceships were to couple in Earth orbit and two cosmonauts would transfer from one to the other spaceship on the next manned space flight. That would have finally given the Soviet Union a first-class achievement in space travel.

As with Soyuz 2A, Yevgeny Khrunov and Alexei Yelissejew were planned as cosmonauts for the space exit . Chrunow was a member of the first cosmonaut group, Yelissejew was previously an engineer in the design office and only joined the cosmonauts in 1966 at the urging of the designer Sergei Korolev .

On the other hand, it was unclear who should control the two spaceships. Boris Wolynow and Georgi Beregovoy in particular came into question for this. Volynov was a member of the first cosmonaut group, but the Central Committee was opposed to him because of his Jewish origins. Beregovoi had been accepted into the cosmonaut team at the intercession of Korolev and was very unpopular there.

In the spring of 1968, after the successful test flight of Kosmos 212 and 213, it was not even clear how many crew members would take off and land in the spaceships. A landing with three cosmonauts on board could be fatal due to problems with the reserve parachutes. Therefore, it was considered to start two crew members at a time, but not to let anyone change in the event of a coupling.

Another possibility came up that Yelissejew could take off with Wolynov and transfer to Khrunov in orbit. Chrunow had no training as a spaceship commander.

A launch with only one cosmonaut and coupling to an unmanned spaceship was also proposed. This would postpone the exit in space until later. Vasily Mishin , the head of the Soviet design office, demanded that the designer Konstantin Feoktistow , who was already in space with Vozhod 1 as a science cosmonaut, should control the spaceship. On the other hand, however, said that Feoktistow had been training for space exits for some time, but had no training as a pilot. His health was also critical, and he suffered from stomach ulcers.

In the theoretical cosmonaut test on September 28, 1968, Beregowoi performed best and was thus nominated for the next manned flight. The other two test participants, Schatalow and Wolynow, became substitutes .

Flight history

The unmanned spacecraft Soyuz 2 took off on October 25, 1968 at 09:00 UT. Soyuz 3 with Beregowoi on board followed on October 26 at 08:34 UT. Upon reaching orbit, the distance to Soyuz 2 was only 11 km.

Soyuz 3 approached Soyuz 2 initially fully automatically using the Igla approach system . When the distance was still 200 meters, Beregowoi switched to manual control as planned. At a distance of 30 to 40 meters he broke off the approach because the position lights on Soyuz 2 indicated that the spaceships were misaligned.

Soyuz 2 had two steady lights above and two flashing lights below. Either these were incorrectly fitted or adjusted, or Beregowoi had mixed them up. Since the approach was on the night side of the earth, Beregovoi wanted to wait until the spaceships emerged from the earth's shadow again.

When the sun lit them up again, they had twisted against each other. Beregowoi did not manage to align Soyuz 3 correctly with the remaining fuel, so the coupling attempt had to be canceled.

It was later found that the automatic steering used 30 kg of fuel in 20 minutes. Then Beregowoi used the hand control 40 kg in 2 minutes.

Beregovoi remained in orbit for several days. Among other things, he tested the attitude control system, which was based on a star. To do this, Beregowoi switched the system off briefly, turned the spaceship towards the sun and switched the system on again. The automatic tried to bring the spaceship back to its previous position, but failed because the system could no longer find the star.

Soyuz 3 landed on October 30, 1968 at 07:25 UT, missing the target point by only 10 km.

Soyuz 2 had previously landed on October 28 at 07:51 UT.

Impact on the Soyuz program

In the run-up it was controversial whether the approach and the coupling should be carried out automatically or manually. The positive experiences of Kosmos 212 and 213 as well as the failure of Soyuz 2 and 3 clearly showed that the IGLA automatic was superior to a pilot.

However, the attitude control system was not yet fully developed and had to be improved.

The next Soyuz double flight was then to carry out the coupling of two manned spaceships planned for April 1967, during which two cosmonauts were to transfer from Soyuz 5 to Soyuz 4 .

They were not satisfied with Beregowoy's performance. He was not nominated for another flight.

The American Apollo program had recently carried out the first manned flight of the new Apollo spacecraft with Apollo 7 . Shortly thereafter, NASA announced that in December 1968, Apollo 8 would be the first manned flight to the moon.

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