Soyuz 28

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Soyuz 28
COSPAR ID1978-023A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.10694
Mission duration7 days, 22 hours, 16 minutes
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type
NPO Energia
Launch mass6,800 kilograms (15,000 lb)
Crew
Crew size2
MembersAleksei Gubarev
Vladimír Remek
CallsignЗенит (Zenit – "Zenith")
Start of mission
Launch date2 March 1978, 15:28 (1978-03-02UTC15:28Z) UTC
Rocket
1/5[1]
End of mission
Landing date10 March 1978, 13:44 (1978-03-10UTC13:45Z) UTC
Landing site51°N 67°E / 51°N 67°E / 51; 67
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric
RegimeLow Earth
Perigee altitude198.9 kilometres (123.6 mi)
Apogee altitude275.6 kilometres (171.2 mi)
Inclination51.65 degrees
Period88.95 minutes
Docking with Salyut 6
Soyuz programme
(Crewed missions)
 

Soyuz 28 (Russian: Союз 28, Union 28) was a March 1978 Soviet crewed mission to the orbiting Salyut 6 space station.[2] It was the fourth mission to the station, the third successful docking, and the second visit to the resident crew launched in Soyuz 26.

communist states access to space through crewed and uncrewed
launches.

Crew

Position Cosmonaut
Commander
EP-2

Second and last spaceflight
Research Cosmonaut
EP-2

Only spaceflight

Backup crew

Position Cosmonaut
Commander Nikolai Rukavishnikov
Research Cosmonaut Oldřich Pelčák, IK

Mission parameters

  • Mass: 6,800 kg (15,000 lb)
  • Perigee: 198.9 km (123.6 mi)
  • Apogee: 275.6 km (171.2 mi)
  • Inclination: 51.65°
  • Period: 88.95 minutes

Mission highlights

Prague Aviation Museum, Kbely

The Soyuz 28 mission was the first Intercosmos flight, whereby military pilots from Soviet bloc nations were flown on flights of about eight days to a Soviet space station. Pilots from other nations would eventually also fly. The program was a reaction to American plans to fly Western Europeans on Space Shuttle missions.[3]: 182 

Vladimir Remek, the first non-Soviet, non-American to travel to space, was launched aboard Soyuz 28 on 2 March 1978, after a three-day delay of unspecified cause. The Soyuz commander was Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Gubarev. The crew docked with the orbiting Salyut 6 space station, and greeted the occupants

Georgi Grechko and Yuri Romanenko who had arrived on Soyuz 26 in December. Gubarev and Grechko had previously flown together on Soyuz 17 to the Salyut 4 space station in 1975.[4]
: 179 

The day after the docking, the Soyuz 26 crew celebrated their breaking of the space endurance record of 84 days, set by the Skylab 4 crew in 1974.[4]: 109 

While the mission had a political purpose, scientific experiments were carried out, including one which monitored the growth of

human tissue.[3]
: 183 

On 10 March, the Soyuz 28 crew prepared for their return to Earth, packing experiments and testing systems. They undocked from the station and landed 310 kilometres (190 mi) west of

Tselinograd later that day.[3]
: 184 

A joke appeared soon after the mission that Remek's hand had mysteriously turned red. He informed the doctors, the joke goes, that this was because every time he went to touch something, the Soviet crewmembers would slap his hand and yell, "Don't touch that!"[5]

References

  1. ^ "Baikonur LC1". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 2009-04-15. Retrieved 2009-03-04.
  2. ^ The mission report is available here: http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-28.htm
  3. ^ .
  4. ^ .
  5. . Retrieved 5 August 2012.

External links