Interkosmos

For the 2006 film, see Interkosmos (film).
Interkosmos program
Интеркосмос Космическая Программа
Interkosmos Kosmicheskaya Programma
Interkosmos patch
Program overview
Country
Organization
Purposecrewed and uncrewed space mission for Soviet allies
StatusCompleted
Program history
Duration1967–1994
First flight
  • Vertikal 1
  • November 28, 1970 (1970-11-28)
First crewed flight
Last flight
  • Interkosmos 26
  • March 2, 1994 (1994-03-02)
Launch site(s)Baikonur
Part of a series of articles on the
Soviet space program
Human spaceflight programs
Space probes
Expendable launch vehicles
Notable figures
Cosmonauts

Interkosmos (Russian: Интеркосмос) was a Soviet space program, designed to help the Soviet Union's allies with crewed and uncrewed space missions.

The program was formed in April 1967 in Moscow.[1][2] All members of the program from USSR were given the Hero of the Soviet Union medal or the Order of Lenin. The program included the allied east-European states of the Warsaw Pact, Eastern Bloc, CoMEcon, and other socialist states like Afghanistan, Cuba, Mongolia, and Vietnam. Non-aligned states such as India and Syria participated,[3][4] and capitalist states such as the United Kingdom, France and Austria.[5][6]

Following the Apollo–Soyuz mission, there were talks between NASA and Interkosmos in the 1970s about a "Shuttle-Salyut" program to fly Space Shuttle missions to a Salyut space station, with later talks in the 1980s even considering flights of the future Buran-class orbiter to a future US space station.[7] Whilst the Shuttle-Salyut program never materialized during the existence of the Soviet Interkosmos program, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union the Shuttle–Mir Program would follow in these footsteps in the mid-1990s and eventually pave the way to the International Space Station.

Beginning in April 1967 with unpiloted research satellite missions, the first crewed Interkosmos mission occurred in February 1978.[6] Joint crewed spaceflights enabled 14 non-Soviet cosmonauts to participate in Soyuz space flights between 1978 and 1988. The program was responsible for sending into space the first citizen of a country other than the US or USSR: Vladimír Remek of Czechoslovakia.[5] Interkosmos also resulted in the first black and Hispanic person in space, Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez of Cuba, and the first Asian person in space, Phạm Tuân of Vietnam. Of the countries involved, only Bulgaria sent two cosmonauts to space, although the second one did not fly under the Interkosmos program, and the French spationaut Jean-Loup Chrétien flew on two flights.[8]

The Soviet Union also made offers of joint human spaceflight on a commercial basis to the United Kingdom and Japan resulting in the first British and Japanese cosmonauts. In the early 1980s, an offer was made to Finland as well, with test pilot Jyrki Laukkanen mentioned as one of the potential Finnish cosmonauts. The pilots of the Test Flight (Koelentue) refused on the grounds that participation would not benefit the flight or test pilot activity in any way. No further offers were made to Finland.[9][10]

  1. ^ Bergess, Colin; Vis, Bert (2015). Interkosmos - The Eastern Bloc's Early Space Program. New York: Springer Praxis. p. 11. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-24163-0. ISBN 978-3-319-24161-6. LCCN 2015953234.
  2. ^ Matignon, Louis de Gouyon (2019-04-05). "The Interkosmos space program". Space Legal Issues. Archived from the original on 2020-06-22. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
  3. ^ "INDIAN JOINS SOVIET PAIR IN 8-DAY SPACE MISSION". The New York Times. 1984-04-04. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
  4. ^ Garthwaite, Rosie (2016-03-01). "From astronaut to refugee: how the Syrian spaceman fell to Earth". the Guardian. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
  5. ^ a b Sheehan, Michael (2007). The international politics of space. London: Routledge. pp. 59–61. ISBN 978-0-415-39917-3.
  6. ^ a b Burgess, Colin; Hall, Rex (2008). The first Soviet cosmonaut team: their lives, legacy, and historical impact. Berlin: Springer. p. 331. ISBN 978-0-387-84823-5.
  7. ^ Wikisource:Mir Hardware Heritage/Part 2 - Almaz, Salyut, and Mir#2.1.6 Shuttle-Salyut .281973-1978.3B 1980s.29
  8. ^ Pinkham, Sophie (2019-07-16). "How the Soviets Won the Space Race for Equality". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
  9. ^ "Jyrki Laukkasesta piti tulla Suomen ensimmäinen kosmonautti – kieltäytyi kutsusta, kun siitä ei olisi ollut mitään hyötyä" (in Finnish). Yle.fi. 10 July 2019. Retrieved July 26, 2020.
  10. ^ "Jyrki Laukkanen" (in Finnish). Suomen Tietokirjailijat ry. Retrieved July 26, 2020.