Soyuz 31

Mission emblem

Mission dates

Mission:

Soyuz 31

COSPAR-ID :

1978-81

Spacecraft:

Soyuz 7K-T ( GRAY index 11F615A8)
serial number 47

Dimensions:

6800 kg

Launcher:

Soyuz U (GRAY index 11A511U)

Call sign:

Outward flight: Ястреб (Jastreb - " Habicht ")
Return flight: Фотон (" Photon ")

Begin:

August 26, 1978, 14:51:30 UTC

Starting place:

Baikonur 1/5

Space station:

Salyut 6

Coupling:

August 28, 1978, 16:37:37 UTC

Decoupling:

November 2, 1978, 07:46 UTC

Landing:

November 2, 1978, 11:04:17 UTC

Landing place:

180 km southwest of Djeskazgan

Flight duration:

67d 20h 12m 47s

Earth orbits:

1069

Rotation time :

88.8 min

Apogee :

260 km

Perigee :

197 km

Team photo

Valery Bykowski and Sigmund Jähn

◄ Before / After ►

Soyuz 30 (manned)	Kosmos 1074 (unmanned)
Next manned mission:
	Soyuz 32

Soyuz 31 is the mission name for the flight of a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft to the Soviet space station Salyut 6, which started on August 26, 1978 . It was the sixth visit by a Soyuz spacecraft to this space station and the 50th flight in the Soyuz program. Sigmund Jähn was the first German to fly into space as part of the Interkosmos space program . The spacecraft was brought to the space station by the fourth visiting crew Salyut 6 EP-4 and served the second long-term crew Salyut 6 EO-2 to return.

crew

Starting crew

Valery Fyodorovich Bykowski (3rd space flight), commander

Sigmund Jähn (1st space flight), research cosmonaut ( GDR )Germany Democratic Republic 1949

After Schatalow (1971), Jelissejew (1971) and Klimuk (1978), Bykowski was the fourth cosmonaut to make three space flights. This flight was also the last to use a veteran of the Vostok program.

Substitute team

Viktor Wassiljewitsch Gorbatko , commandant

Eberhard Köllner , research cosmonaut ( GDR )Germany Democratic Republic 1949

Return crew, launched on Soyuz 29

Wladimir Wassiljewitsch Kowaljonok (2nd space flight), commander
Alexander Sergejewitsch Ivantschenkow (1st space flight), flight engineer

Mission overview

After Bykowski and Jähn docked with the Salyut 6 space station on August 28, 1978, they were greeted there by the regular crew of Kowaljonok and Ivanchenkov. Numerous scientific experiments were carried out over the next seven days. These included scientific and technical experiments with the MKF 6 multispectral camera for remote sensing of the earth, material science experiments, experiments on crystallization , shape cultivation and recrystallization as well as cultivation of a monocrystalline , medical experiments, investigation of the effects of weightlessness on speech, work psychological investigations, examination of the hearing threshold of the regular crew, biological experiments on cell growth in weightlessness and on the connection of microorganisms with organic polymers and inorganic substances.

After the departure of Bykowski and Jähn on September 3, Soyuz 31 remained at the rear coupling connection of the Salyut as a return spacecraft for Kowaljonok and Ivanchenkov. This port was necessary for the expected Transporter Progress 4 , because only from there could the delivered fuel be pumped into the Salyut tanks. So the two cosmonauts went into the spaceship on September 7th, disconnected and set back a few hundred meters. The ground station rotated Salyut 6 half a turn so that the Soyuz spacecraft could dock with the forward port. This was the first time in the history of space travel that a spaceship decoupled from a space station.

On November 2, 1978, Kowaljonok and Ivanchenkov went back to their spaceship and returned to Earth.