Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing
170 km southeast of Dzheskasgan.
The Mongolian contribution for this
mission had begun in 1967, when the president of the Mongolian Academy of
Sciences Bazaryn Shirendev attended a conference of scientists from socialist
countries in Moscow, where the Intercosmos project was announced.
Soyuz
39 marked the eighth Interkosmos mission (with Zhugderdemidiyn
Gurragcha, the first cosmonaut from Mongolia). Following a
one day solo flight Soyuz 39 docked with the Salyut 6 space station on March
23, 1981. During the next days the crew performed common scientific work with
the
fifth resident
crew.
The cosmonauts installed cosmic ray detectors in the work and
transfer compartments. They also performed the Illyuminator ("viewing port")
experiment, which studied the degradation of the station's viewports. Vladimir
Kovalyonok and Viktor
Savinykh also used the Gologramma ("hologram") apparatus to
image a viewing port damaged by micrometeoroids. They also collected samples of
the station's air and microflora and removed the cosmic ray detectors for
return to Earth. Experiments of Earth science were also performed, especially
studies of Mongolia from space.
