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Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 -
First Docking In Space In 1969, two Soviet-built spacecraft met
in space, docked together, and formed what was termed "the world's first
space station" with a crew of four aboard. The remained docked for four
and a half hours - three orbits of the Earth. During that time, two cosmonauts
'space walked' from Soyuz 4 to Soyuz 5, becoming the first spacefarers to
return to Earth in a different spacecraft from the one in which they went
into space. It was not until 1978 that this was repeated - when the Soyuz 27
crew returned to Earth aboard Soyuz 26. The Soyuz 4/Soyuz 5 docking manoeuvre had
been practised twice before - in 1967 and 1968. On each occasion, a pair of
Soyuz craft had docked together under fully automatic control. In October
1967, it was the turn of Cosmos 186 and Cosmos 188, and the spring of 1968
saw Cosmos 212 and Cosmos 213 repeat the exercise. Later the same year, Soyuz
2 and Soyuz 3 approached each other but did not complete a docking. These missions followed the April 1967
death of Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov who orbited the Earth in an ill-prepared
Soyuz. Soviet technologists needed to continue Soyuz development, but at the
same time, it had not been rated for crew operations in the wake of Soyuz 1 -
hence the Cosmos flights. Late in 1968 - Georgi Beregovoi had piloted Soyuz 3 to a rendezvous with Soyuz 2 (which had no crew) in a final check-out of Soyuz prior to the Soyuz 4/5 mission. |
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Soyuz 4 Mission Statistics |
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Launched: |
1969 Jan 14, 07:30 GMT from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome |
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Soyuz 5 Mission Statistics |
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Launched: |
1969 Jan 15, 07:05 GMT from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome |
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Lt -Colonel Vladimir Aleksandrovich
Shatalov |
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Lt-Colonel Boris Valentinovich Volynov |
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Candidate Alexei Stanislavovich Yeliseyev |
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Lt-Colonel Yevgeni Vasilyevich Khrunov |
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A description of the mission including the cosmonauts speaking about the flight and the space walk in their own words |
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