Soyuz 17

Soyuz 17 mission is the designation for the flight of a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft to the Soviet space station Salyut 4 This was the first visit by a Soyuz spacecraft in this space station and the 32th flight in the Soviet Soyuz program.

Crew

Main occupation

  • Alexei Alexandrovich Gubaryov ( first space flight), Commander
  • Georgi Mikhailovich Grechko ( 1 space flight), flight engineer

Backup crew

  • Vasily Grigoryevich Lazarev, commander
  • Oleg Grigoryevich Makarov, Flight Engineer

The support team consisted of Pyotr Klimuk and Vitaly Sevastyanov.

Mission overview

Focus of the work were astronomical and astrophysical studies. Here, the mirror of the main instrument for solar observation had to be re-coated.

The orbital altitude of the Salyut 4 was about 350 km above the Earth ( convenient in terms of astronomical observations), so maneuvers were to approach the station needed.

With a flight time of 29 days, a new Soviet long- time record was set. The Americans, however, had spent with Skylab 4 almost three months in a space station.

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