Soyuz 8

This article is about a 1969 spaceflight. For the mission identified by NASA as ISS Soyuz 8, see Soyuz TMA-4.

Soyuz 8
Shatalov and Yeliseyev on 1969 commemorative stamp of Soviet Union
Mission typeTest flight
OperatorSoviet space program
COSPAR ID1969-087A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.04126
Mission duration4 days 22 hours 50 minutes 49 seconds
Orbits completed80
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftSoyuz 7K-OK No.16[1]
Spacecraft typeSoyuz 7K-OK (passive)
ManufacturerExperimental Design Bureau (OKB-1)
Launch mass6646 kg [2]
Landing mass1200 kg
Crew
Crew size2
MembersVladimir Shatalov
Aleksei Yeliseyev
CallsignГранит (Granit - "Granite")
Start of mission
Launch date13 October 1969, 10:19:09 GMT[3]
RocketSoyuz
Launch siteBaikonur, Site 31/6[4]
End of mission
Landing date18 October 1969, 09:09:58 GMT
Landing siteKazakh Steppe, Kazakhstan
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric orbit[5]
RegimeLow Earth orbit
Perigee altitude201.0 km
Apogee altitude227.0 km
Inclination51.65°
Period88.72 minutes
← Soyuz 7
Soyuz 9 →

Soyuz 8 (Russian: Союз 8, Union 8) was part of an October, 1969, joint mission with Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 7 that saw three Soyuz spacecraft in orbit together at the same time, carrying a total of seven cosmonauts.

The crew consisted of commander Vladimir Shatalov and flight engineer Aleksei Yeliseyev, whose mission was to dock with Soyuz 7 and transfer crew, as the Soyuz 4 (involving, among others, these two cosmonauts) and Soyuz 5 missions did. Soyuz 6 was to film the operation from nearby.

However, this objective was not achieved due to equipment failures. Soviet sources were later to claim that no docking had been intended,[citation needed] but this seems unlikely, given the docking adapters carried by the spacecraft, and the fact that both Shatalov and Yeliseyev were veterans of the previous successful docking mission. This was the last time that the Soviet-crewed 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 Granit, meaning Granite. This word is apparently used as the name of a reactive or defensive squadron in Soviet military training, and, just like the Soyuz 5, it was constructed and its crew was trained to be the responsive (not entirely passive) or female spacecraft in its docking. Giving military names to the spacecraft was probably a response to an appeal that the commander of the Soyuz 5 made. Further, the word was probably chosen as it begins with a letter following that sequence starting with Antey (meaning Antaeus) and Buran (meaning Blizzard); Г (G) is the fourth letter of the Russian alphabet.

  1. ^ Soyuz spacecraft conduct triple mission www.russianspaceweb.com, accessed 27 December 2022
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Display was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Launchlog". Jonathan's Space Report. 28 September 2020. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  4. ^ "Baikonur LC31". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 4 September 2003. Retrieved 4 March 2009.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Trajectory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).