Soyuz 9

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Mission dates
Mission: Soyuz 9
COSPAR-ID : 1970-041A
Spacecraft: Soyuz 7K-OK ( GRAY index  11F615)
serial number 17
Dimensions: 6590 kg
Launcher: Soyuz (GRAY index 11A511)
Call sign: Сокол (Sokol - " falcon ")
Crew: 2
Begin: June 1, 1970, 19:00:00  UTC
Starting place: Baikonur 31/6
Landing: June 19, 1970, 01:58:55 UTC
Landing place: 75 km W of Karaganda
50 ° N, 72 ° E
Flight duration: 17d 16h 58m 55s
Earth orbits: 288
Rotation time : 88.5 min
Orbit inclination : 51.6 °
Apogee : 227 km
Perigee : 176 km
◄ Before / After ►
Soyuz 8
(manned)
Soyuz 10
(manned)

Soyuz 9 is the mission name for the flight of a Soviet Soyuz spaceship that started on June 1, 1970 . It was the 17th manned space mission in the Soviet Union. With this flight, a new record was set for the longest space flight. It was the last all-time record that was set entirely in a spaceship.

crew

the occupation on a Soviet postage stamp (1970)

With Nikolayev, a Vostok cosmonaut came on a second mission for the first time . Komarov , Shatalov and Jelissejew had already made two space flights before him .

Substitute team

Support team

preparation

At the end of 1969, the idea arose to fly a long-term flight on Lenin's 100th birthday on April 22, 1970. This would wrest the Americans from the current long-term record of 13 days that Frank Borman and Jim Lovell had set in 1965 with Gemini 7 , while Soviet space travel had not yet got past 5 days.

The launch of a Salyut space station was planned for the end of 1970 . In order to prepare for long-term stays of several weeks, biological data were still required because the Soviet Union had little experience of the health effects of prolonged weightlessness . It was also important how the team works together in orbit and what social effects the long stay in space has.

The Vostok 3 veteran Andrijan Nikolajew was nominated as the commander for Soyuz 9 . Space novice Vitaly Sevastyanov became a flight engineer . Nikolayev and Sevastyanov were previously Soyuz 8's substitute team . At times, Pyotr Kolodin and Georgi Grechko were also in discussion as crew for Soyuz 9.

The launch was initially scheduled for April and then was postponed to May and finally to June 1st.

Flight history

The launch took place on June 1, 1970 at 19:00 GMT. It was the first night launch of manned space travel.

On the fourth day of the flight it turned out that the solar cells were not delivering enough electricity. Should the batteries discharge prematurely as a result, the mission would have to be shortened. The spaceship was set in a slow rotation so that the solar cells were facing the sun for as long as possible.

On the fifth day, the cosmonauts discussed emergency landing measures with the ground station, because if the battery voltage fell below a critical value, Soyuz 9 had to return to Earth within two hours, possibly outside the Soviet Union. However, a reading error on the instruments could not be ruled out.

By the seventh day the problem seemed to be over. The crew were in good shape and consideration was given to extending the mission to 20 days. In the evening Nikolayev spoke to his wife Valentina Tereschkowa , who had been the first woman in space with Vostok 6 , and his daughter, who turned six the next day, over the radio .

From the ninth day of the flight, the condition of the cosmonauts deteriorated again. They did not drink enough fluids and used too little oxygen. The tenth day was a rest day on which the crew did not have to supervise any experiments. She played correspondence chess over the radio with the cosmonaut Gorbatko in the ground station.

From the 13th day, Nikolayev and Sevastyanov began to show signs of fatigue. They made some mistakes. The ground station decided to constantly monitor the weather conditions in the intended landing areas so that a landing could be initiated quickly, but the condition of the cosmonauts improved the following day.

On the 15th day of the flight, Sevastyanov accidentally activated the automatic landing system. This did not have any consequences, but the same operating error had already occurred with Soyuz 7 and the requested fuse had not been attached. In the afternoon, the atmosphere on board deteriorated: the air we breathed contained too little oxygen and too much carbon dioxide. Replacing the cartridges in the life support system returned the atmosphere to normal.

On the 19th day of flight, the cosmonauts had meanwhile broken the old record of 1965, the landing of the Soyuz spacecraft was initiated. Since the flight path led over the Aral Sea, additional rescue workers had to be on hand on ships and in helicopters.

The landing took place on June 19 at 11:59 GMT without any problems. From an altitude of 83 km, a Soviet radar station had located the landing capsule; later, helicopters were in visual contact while the capsule was still falling on the parachute. Rescue teams were at the capsule just a minute after landing. However, the condition of the cosmonauts was shockingly bad. Nikolayev and Sevastyanov could not stand on their feet without help and had to be supported. A plane took them to Moscow, where they first reported to the State Commission before being taken to a hospital for examination.

Effects

Nikolayev and Sevastyanov stayed in a hospital for several days for rest and observation. They only slowly got used to earthly gravity again, which was mainly expressed through rapid fatigue. It was not until July 3, two weeks after landing, that they appeared in public. The two astronauts had sacrificed some of the time they had reserved for recreational sports for scientific work in orbit. The reaction of their bodies showed how important exercise stress is in weightlessness.

With Soyuz 9 at the latest, the focus of manned space travel was shifted from manned moon landing to long-term stays in Earth orbit. In the period that followed, both the USSR and the USA concentrated on building and operating space stations.

Soyuz 9's record was the last to be set in a spacecraft that did not dock with a space station. The next endurance record was set in June 1971 by the Soyuz 11 crew , who were in space for 23 days, mostly on board Salyut 1 .

See also

Web links