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Salyut Home
Salyut 6 Expedition 1
Salyut 6 Expedition 2
Salyut 6 Expedition 3
Salyut 6 and Soyuz-T
Salyut 6 Expedition 4
Salyut 6 and Soyuz T-3
Salyut 6 Expedition 5
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Expedition 5 (1981) and The End
1981 saw the final round of Salyut 6 visits. Towards the end, the space station was docked with another, similar sized, 20 tonne spacecraft - Cosmos 1267. It arrived and docked just over a month after the last cosmonauts departed, having been in orbit for two months in its own right. It was one of a series of large, manoeuvrable spacecraft, some of which (Cosmos 1267 included) were equipped with a crew cabin capable of returning to Earth. None, however, carried cosmonauts.
These were the 'TKS' spacraft from the Chelomei Design Bureau that had originally been intended to operate with the 'Almaz' type space stations. When the Almaz programme was cancelled, some of the TKS vehicles were re-routed in the the Korolyov Bureaus's DOS programme.
Cosmos 1267 remained with Salyut 6 until the end, just over a year after the departure of the last crew. Mid-1982, the combination spacecraft was guided to a destructive re-entry over the southern Pacific Ocean to avoid the possibility of it re-entering naturally and hitting an inhabited part of the Earth.
Date (UTC) |
Time (UTC) |
Event |
1981 Jan 24 |
14:18 |
Progress 12 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Soyuz rocket into 190 x 289 kilometre orbit |
1981 Jan 26 |
15:56 |
Progress 12 docks at the aft port of Salyut 6 - orbit is 294 x 319 kilometres |
1981 Mar 12 |
19:00 |
Soyuz T-4 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Soyuz rocket into 185 x 222 kilometre orbit with Vladimir Kovalyonok and Viktor Savinikh aboard |
1981 Mar 13 |
20:33 |
Soyuz T-4 docks at the forward port of Salyut 6 - orbit is 338 x 350 kilometres |
1981 Mar 19 |
18:14 |
Progress 12 undocks |
1981 Mar 20 |
16:59 |
Progress 12 fires its manoeuvring engine to initiate re-entry |
1981 Mar 20 |
17:45 |
Approx time - Progress 12 enters the Earth atmosphere above the southern Pacific Ocean and is destroyed by frictional heating |
1981 Mar 22 |
14:58 |
Soyuz 39 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Soyuz rocket into 198 x 249 kilometre orbit with Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Jugderdimidyn Gurragcha (Mongolia) aboard |
1981 Mar 23 |
16:28 |
Soyuz 39 docks at the aft port of Salyut 6 - orbit is 336 x 350 kilometres |
1981 Mar 30 |
09:57 |
Soyuz 39 undocks with Dzhanibekov and Gurragcha aboard |
1981 Mar 30 |
11:40 |
Soyuz 39 lands - 170 kilometres south-east of Dzhezhkazgan |
1981 Apr 25 |
02:00 |
Cosmos 1267, a 20 tonne TKS spacecraft carrying cargo, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Proton rocket into 192 x 260 kilometre orbit - it spends two months in independent flight before docking with Salyut 6 - 1981 Jun 19 |
1981 May 12 |
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Kovalyonok and Savinikh dismantle the docking probe of Soyuz T-4 as an experiment to demonstrate the ability to change it to a passive type docking receptor |
1981 May 14 |
17:16 |
Soyuz 40 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Soyuz rocket into 192 x 270 kilometre orbit with Leonid Popov and Dmitriu Prunariu (Roumania) aboard |
1981 May 15 |
18:50 |
Soyuz 40 docks at the aft port of Salyut 6 - orbit is 331 x 345 kilometres |
1981 May 22 |
10:37 |
Soyuz 40 undocks |
1981 May 22 |
13:58 |
Soyuz 40 lands - 125 kilometres east of Dzhezhkazgan |
1981 May 26 |
09:20 |
Approx time - Soyuz T-4 undocks with Kovalyonok and Savinikh aboard |
1981 May 26 |
12:37 |
Soyuz T-4 lands - 125 kilometres east of Dzhezhkazgan |
1981 Jun 19 |
06:52 |
Cosmos 1267 docks at the forward port of Salyut 6 after nearly two months of independent flight - orbit is 333 x 361 kilometres |
1982 Jul 28 |
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Salyut 6/Cosmos 1267 orbit is 318 x 324 kilometres - a firing of Salyut 6 engine reduces the height |
1982 Jul 29 |
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A firing of Cosmos 1267 engine results in the space complex re-entering the Earth atmosphere - both Salyut 6 and Cosmos 1267 are destroyed by frictional heating |
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