Soyuz 9

Soyuz 9
Andriyan Nikolayev and Vitaly Sevastyanov on the 1971 commemorative stamp "424 Hours On Earth's Orbit" of Soviet Union
Mission typeTest flight
OperatorSoviet space program
COSPAR ID1970-041A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.04407
Mission duration17 days, 16 hours, 58 minutes, 55 seconds
Orbits completed288
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftSoyuz 7K-OK No.17[1]
Spacecraft typeSoyuz 7K-OK
ManufacturerExperimental Design Bureau (OKB-1)
Launch mass6460 kg [2]
Landing mass1200 kg
Crew
Crew size2
MembersAndriyan Nikolayev
Vitaly Sevastyanov
CallsignСокол (Sokol – "Falcon")
Start of mission
Launch date1 June 1970, 19:00:00 GMT
RocketSoyuz
Launch siteBaikonur, Site 31/6[3]
End of mission
Landing date19 June 1970, 11:58:55 GMT
Landing siteSteppes in Kazakhstan
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric orbit[4]
RegimeLow Earth orbit
Perigee altitude207.0 km
Apogee altitude220.0 km
Inclination51.70°
Period88.59 minutes

Vimpel Diamond for entrainment patch
← Soyuz 8

Soyuz 9 (Russian: Союз 9, Union 9) was a June, 1970, Soviet crewed space flight. The two-man crew of Andriyan Nikolayev and Vitaly Sevastyanov broke the five-year-old space endurance record held by Gemini 7, with their nearly 18-day flight. The mission paved the way for the Salyut space station missions, investigating the effects of long-term weightlessness on crew, and evaluating the work that the cosmonauts could do in orbit, individually and as a team. It was also the last flight of the first-generation Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft, as well as the first crewed space launch to be conducted at night. In 1970, Soyuz 9 marks the longest crewed flight by a solo spacecraft.

  1. ^ Soyuz-9 embarks on a record-breaking 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. ^ "Baikonur LC31". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 4 September 2003. Retrieved 4 March 2009.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Trajectory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).