Soyuz 12

Soyuz 12 (Russian: Союз 12, Union 12) was a 1973 manned test flight by the Soviet Union of the newly-redesigned Soyuz 7K-T spacecraft that was intended to provide greater crew safety in the wake of the Soyuz 11 tragedy. The flight marked the return of the Soviets to manned space operations after the 1971 accident. The crew capacity of the capsule had been decreased from three to two cosmonauts to allow for space suits to be worn during launch, re-entry and docking. It was the first time pressure suits were used for reentry since the Voskhod 2 flight.

Cosmonauts Vasili Lazarev and Oleg Makarov spent two days in space testing the new craft.