Soyuz 6

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Mission dates
Mission: Soyuz 6
COSPAR-ID : 1969-085A
Spacecraft: Soyuz 7K-OK ( GRAY index  11F615)
serial number 14
Dimensions: 6577 kg
Launcher: Soyuz (GRAY index 11A511)
Call sign: Антея (Anteja - " Antaios ")
Crew: 2
Begin: October 11, 1969, 11:10:00  UTC
Starting place: Baikonur 31/6
Landing: October 16, 1969, 09:52:47 UTC
Landing place: 180 km northwest of Karaganda
Flight duration: 4d 22h 42min 47s
Earth orbits: 80
Rotation time : 88.7 min
Orbit inclination : 51.7 °
Apogee : 231 km
Perigee : 192 km
◄ Before / After ►
Soyuz 5
(manned) 		Soyuz 7
(manned)

Soyuz 6 is the mission name for the flight of a Soviet Soyuz spaceship that started on October 11, 1969 . It was the 14th flight in the Soviet Soyuz program.

crew

Main crew

Schonin belonged to the First Cosmonaut Group of the Soviet Union , Kubassow was a civil engineer at the Central Design Office for Experimental Mechanical Engineering .

The science cosmonaut Vladimir Fartuschnui was originally also intended for the flight. He came from the Paton Institute and was an expert on the volcano welding machine. Ultimately, the crew was reduced from three to two spacemen, and Fartuschnui was scheduled for a later flight. After a car accident in 1971, he left the cosmonaut group in 1973 without having completed a space flight.

The team began their training on April 10, 1969.

Replacement crew

Kuklin , Grechko , Chrunow and Kolodin were nominated as replacements for Soyuz 6, Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8 . In the summer of 1969, however, there were significant changes. After a centrifuge test, Kuklin was classified as unfit to fly and Chrunow was taken out of the team because of a car accident with a hit and run. Nikolayev as designated Soyuz-8 commander did not convince during the training and was replaced by Shatalov in August, also Nikolayev's flight engineer Sevastyanov by Jelissejew. Shatalow and Jelissejew were eventually assigned as substitutes for Soyuz 6.

preparation

After the successful double flight of Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5, a triple flight with Soyuz 6, Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8 was planned for the first time . In contrast to the previous mission, there was no change from one spaceship to the other. What was new was that coupling and decoupling should be filmed from a third spaceship. In contrast to Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8, Soyuz 6 was not equipped with a proximity system or a coupling adapter.

At that time, the USA had already carried out a manned moon landing with Apollo 11 , on three flights astronauts had transferred from the Apollo spacecraft through a tunnel to the lunar module.

The Vulkan device was built into the orbital module , with which welding work could be carried out in weightlessness and in a vacuum. The device was developed by the Paton Institute in Kiev. Another apparatus on board Soyuz 6 was Swinets , a device that allows you to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles could watch. The contact device was initially intended as a proximity system. However, since this was not yet finished, the existing Igla system was used.

Never before had three spaceships been in space at the same time. With regard to track tracking and radio traffic, this made new demands on the Soviet ground stations. In addition to the radio stations on Soviet territory, the communications ship cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was used.

In September there was a dysentery epidemic in Baikonur. The cosmonauts stayed in isolated areas and only people who showed no symptoms were allowed to approach them.

Mission history

begin

Schonin and Kubassow started with Soyuz 6 on October 11, 1969 from ramp 31 in Baikonur . As is customary in the Soviet Union, the mission was not announced until after the successful launch; the press releases did not yet mention the other two spaceships.

In the first two days, before the start of Soyuz 8, biomedical experiments were carried out, including measurements on the inner ear. The cosmonauts also photographed the earth. On the night of October 12, three were from Baikonur total intercontinental ballistic missiles of the type R16 started. Schonin observed the traces of light with the Swinets apparatus.

Unsuccessful coupling maneuver

After Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8 had started one day apart , the orbits of the three spaceships could be aligned with various course corrections. Kubassow in Soyuz 6 and Jelissejew in Soyuz 8 used a new sextant to determine the orbit independently of the ground stations.

On October 14, Soyuz 8 began to approach Soyuz 7. However, the Igla automatic proximity system did not lock the target correctly. Later manual control maneuvers were unsuccessful. During the night the spaceships drifted apart, so that valuable time passed the next day until the orbits could be adjusted again. Soyuz 8 failed to approach or couple with Soyuz 7. At times Schonin and Kubassow tried to bring their Soyuz 6 closer to Soyuz 7 using hand controls, even though their spaceship was not equipped with a coupling adapter. The minimum distance was 800 m.

While there was visual contact between the three spaceships, experiments on the visibility of spaceships and optical communication could be carried out.

Welding in space

On October 16, Schonin and Kubassow carried out the welding work with the Vulkan device. This was located in the orbital module that was evacuated for the work. The machine worked fully automatically and was operated by Kubassow from the landing module, the data was sent directly to earth.

The cosmonauts performed three welding methods: electron beam , low pressure plasma and normal manual arc welding with one electrode. Titanium , aluminum alloys and stainless steel were used as materials . This was the first material processing in space.

It was only many years later that it became known that the welding work had almost led to a disaster when a misdirected beam hit the partition wall of the two Soyuz modules and almost burned a hole in it. The cosmonauts only became aware of this when they brought the material samples from the orbital module back into the landing module.

landing

Shortly after the end of the welding work, the return to earth was initiated by a brake ignition. Soyuz 6 landed in cold and windy weather at 09:52 UTC in the steppe of Kazakhstan. When a helicopter arrived 10 minutes later, Schonin and Kubassow had already left the landing capsule on their own.

Effects

The triple flight was officially rated as a success, a coupling or even a change was never publicly announced as a destination. Internally, however, it was clear that the mission was a failure. The welding work in weightlessness could be rated as a success. Similar experiments were carried out in 1984 by the cosmonauts Dzhanibekov and Zavizkaya outside the Salyut 7 space station .

Others

The photographs that were taken during the mission have not yet been published.

literature

  • Asif A. Siddiqi: Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union And The Space Race 1945- 1974. NASA History Division, Washington DC 2000.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.x-libri.ru: Kamanin diaries, entry from October 6, 1969 (Russian)