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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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More Tests of Soyuz-T - Nov to Dec 1980
More work was in train to test-out Soyuz-T so, after the main Salyut 6 crew left for Earth at the end of Expedition 4, the space station was used again as a host for a Soyuz-T mission. This time the purpose of the test was to prove the ability to carry a crew of three.
Soyuz T-3 carried the first Soviet three-cosmonaut crew since 1971, when three crew had died following an air leak during the return to Earth from Salyut 1 of Soyuz 11 - they were not wearing space suits. Subsequently, Soyuz crews wore suits on the ascent and descent - the extra weight and space penalties meant reducing the crew to two. Soyuz-T’s improved performance compared with the old design meant that the change could be reversed. The improvement cam in part through a slight increase in mass, and partly through re-design and miniaturisation, or eleimination of systems.
Date (UTC) |
Time (UTC) |
Event |
1980 Nov 27 |
14:18 |
Soyuz T-3 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Soyuz rocket into 196 x 236 kilometre orbit with Leonid Kizim, Oleg Makarov and Gennady Strekalov aboard - it is the first three-person Soyuz crew since Soyuz 11 in 1971 |
1980 Nov 28 |
15:54 |
Soyuz T-3 docks at the forward port of Salyut 6 - orbit is 286 x 300 kilometres |
1980 Dec 9 |
10:23 |
Progress 11 undocks |
1980 Dec 10 |
06:10 |
Soyuz T-3 undocks with Kizim, Makarov and Strekalov aboard |
1980 Dec 10 |
09:26 |
Soyuz T-3 lands - 130 kilometres east of Dzhezhkazgan |
1980 Dec 11 |
14:00 |
Progress 11 fires its manoeuvring engine to initiate re-entry |
1980 Dec 11 |
14:45 |
Approx time - Progress 11 enters the Earth atmosphere above the southern Pacific Ocean and is destroyed by frictional heating |
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