Human Spaceflights

International Flight No. 75

Soyuz T-4

Photon

USSR

Launch, orbit and landing data

Launch date:  12.03.1981
Launch time:  19:00 UTC
Launch site:  Baikonur
Launch pad:  1
Altitude:  245 - 315 km
Inclination:  51,61°
Docking Salyut 6:  13.03.1981, 20:33 UTC
Undocking Salyut 6:  26.05.1981, 09:20 UTC
Landing date:  26.05.1981
Landing time:  12:37 UTC
Landing site:  125 km E of Dzheskasgan

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alternate crew photo

alternate crew photo

alternate crew photo

alternate crew photo

alternate crew photo

alternate crew photo

Crew

No.   Surname Given names Position Flight No. Duration Orbits
1  Kovalyonok  Vladimir Vasiliyevich  Commander 3 74d 17h 37m  1178 
2  Savinykh  Viktor Petrovich  Flight Engineer 1 74d 17h 37m  1178 

Crew seating arrangement

Launch
1  Kovalyonok
2  Savinykh
Landing
1  Kovalyonok
2  Savinykh

Animations: Soyuz

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Double Crew

No.   Surname Given names Position
1  Zudov  Vyacheslav Dmitriyevich  Commander
2  Andreyev  Boris Dmitriyevich  Flight Engineer

Flight

Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing 125 km east of Dzheskasgan.

Following a one day solo flight Soyuz T-4 docked with Salyut 6 on March 13, 1981. The docking with Salyut 6 was delayed after the onboard Argon computer determined it would occur outside of radio range with the TsUP. The cosmonauts became the fifth and final resident crew of the Salyut 6 space station.

In mid-May 1981, Vladimir Kovalyonok and Viktor Savinykh replaced the Soyuz T-4 probe with a Salyut drogue. This may have been an experiment to see if a Soyuz-T docked to a space station could act as a rescue vehicle in the event that an approaching Soyuz-T equipped with a probe experienced docking difficulties and could not return to Earth.

Visiting crews were the Interkosmos missions Soyuz 39 on March 23, 1981 and Soyuz 40 on May 15, 1981, resulting in common science research onboard the station. One of the first mission objectives of this crew was, to unload the earlier launched Progress 12 spacecraft. Meteorological studies from the Bermuda triangle were conducted too.

Photos / Drawings


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Last update on March 30, 2013.