Mission Highlights
Soyuz 10 was launched 22 April 1971 with the plan to dock to Salyut 1. The spacecraft was the first of the upgraded Soyuz 7K-OKS, featuring the new "probe and drogue" docking mechanism with internal crew transfer, intended for visits of space stations.
The cosmonauts Vladimir Shatalov, Aleksei Yeliseyev, and Nikolai Rukavishnikov were able to navigate their Soyuz 10 spacecraft to the Salyut 1 station, yet during docking they ran into problems. While the Soyuz crew was able to achieve "soft dock" with Salyut though the "probe and drogue" docking mechanism, it failed to achieve "hard dock" by securing the docking collar – it was not possible for the crew to enter the station safely.
The mission was aborted, yet the technical problems did not cease and the Soyuz spacecraft had difficulties detaching from the Salyut 1 space station. After finally undocking, one last hitch presented itself when toxic fumes began to fill the capsule during re-entry, causing the cosmonaut Rukavishnikov to pass out – all three crew members were recovered unscathed however.
Read more about this topic: Soyuz 10
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“The mission of men there seems to be, like so many busy demons, to drive the forest all out of the country, from every solitary beaver swamp and mountain-side, as soon as possible.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)