Soyuz 7

Infobox Space mission
mission_name = Soyuz 7
insignia = Soyuz-7-patch.png sign = Буран (Buran - "Blizzard")
crew_members = 3
launch = October 12, 1969
10:44:42 UTC
Gagarin's Start
landing = October 17, 1969
09:25:05 UTC
duration = 4d/22:40:23
orbits = 80
next =
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Soyuz 7 was part of a joint mission with Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 8 that saw three Soyuz spacecraft in orbit together at the same time, carrying seven cosmonauts.

The crew consisted of commander Anatoli Filipchenko, flight-engineer Vladislav Volkov and research-cosmonaut Viktor Gorbatko, whose mission was to dock with Soyuz 8 and transfer crew, as the Soyuz 4 and 5 missions did. Soyuz 6 was to film the operation from nearby.

However, this objective was not achieved due to equipment failures. Soviet sources later claimed that no docking had been intended, but this seems unlikely, given the docking adapters carried by the spacecraft, and the fact that the Soyuz 8 crew were both veterans of the previous successful docking mission. This was the last time that the Soviet manned Moon landing hardware was tested in orbit, and the failure seems to have been one of the final nails in the coffin of the programme.

The radio call sign of the spacecraft was "Buran", meaning 'blizzard', which years later was re-used as the name of the entirely different spaceplane Buran. This word is apparently used as the name of an active or aggressive squadron in Soviet military training, and, just like the Soyuz 4, it was constructed and trained to be the active or male spacecraft in its docking. Further, the word was probably chosen as it begins with the second letter of the alphabet.

Crew

Number in parentheses indicates number of spaceflights by each individual prior to and including this mission.
*Anatoli Filipchenko (1) - Commander
*Vladislav Volkov (1) - Flight Engineer
*Viktor Gorbatko (1) - Research Engineer

Backup Crew

*Vladimir Shatalov - Commander
*Aleksei Yeliseyev - Flight Engineer
*Pyotr Kolodin - Research Engineer

Reserve Crew

*Andriyan Nikolayev - Commander
*Georgi Grechko - Flight Engineer

Mission parameters

*Mass: 6570 kg
*Perigee: 210 km
*Apogee: 223 km
*Inclination: 51.7°
*Period: 88.8 min