Salyut 7 - Crews and Missions

Crews and Missions

Following up the use of Kosmos 1267 on Salyut 6, the Soviets launched Kosmos 1443 on 2 March 1983, from a Proton SL-13. It docked with the station on 10 March, and was used by the crew of Soyuz T-9. It jettisoned its recovery module on 23 August, and re-entered the atmosphere on 19 September. Kosmos 1686 was launched on 27 September 1985, docking with the station on 2 October. It did not carry a recovery vehicle, and remained connected to the station for use by the crew of Soyuz T-14. Ten Soyuz T crews operated in Salyut 7. Only two Interkosmos "guest cosmonauts" worked in Salyut 7. The first attempt to launch Soyuz T-10 was aborted on the launch pad when a fire broke out at the base of the vehicle. The payload was ejected, and the crew was recovered safely.

Salyut 7 had six resident crews.

• The first crew, Anatoli Berezovoy and Valentin Lebedev, arrived on 13 May 1982 on Soyuz T-5 and remained for 211 days until 10 December 1982.
• On 27 June 1983, the crew of Vladimir Lyakhov and Alexander Alexandrov arrived on Soyuz T-9 and remained for 150 days, until 23 November 1983.
• On 8 February 1984, Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov and Oleg Atkov began a 237 day stay, the longest on Salyut 7, which ended on 2 October 1984.
• Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh (Soyuz T-13) arrived at the space station on 6 June 1985.
• On 17 September 1985, Soyuz T-14 docked with the station carrying Vladimir Vasyutin, Alexander Volkov and Georgi Grechko. Eight days later Dzhanibekov and Grechko left the station and returned to Earth after 103 days, while Savinyikh, Vasyutin and Volkov remained on Salyut 7 and returned to Earth on 21 November 1985 after 65 days.
• On 6 May 1986, Soyuz T-15 carrying Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov docked with the space station. The Soyuz had come from the Mir space station and returned to Mir after 50 days on Salyut.

There were also four visiting missions, crews which came to bring supplies and make shorter duration visits with the resident crews.