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Soyuz 33

Soyuz-U

Soviet Space Program

Launch Status
Success

Crew


Nikolay Rukavishnikov

Nikolay Rukavishnikov

  • Birthday: 09/18/1932
  • Role: Commander
  • Nationality: Soviet
  • First Flight: 04/22/1971
  • Last Flight: 04/10/1979

Nikolay Nikolayevich Rukavishnikov was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew three space missions of the Soyuz programme: Soyuz 10, Soyuz 16, and Soyuz 33. Two of these missions, Soyuz 10 and Soyuz 33 were intended to dock with Salyut space stations, but failed to do so.

Georgi Ivanov

Georgi Ivanov

  • Birthday: 07/02/1940
  • Role: Research Cosmonaut
  • Nationality: Bulgarian
  • First Flight: 04/10/1979
  • Last Flight: 04/10/1979

Major general Georgi Ivanov Kakalov (Bulgarian: Георги Иванов Какалов; born July 2, 1940) is a Bulgarian former military officer who was the first Bulgarian cosmonaut.

Ivanov, along with Soviet cosmonaut Nikolai Rukavishnikov, was launched into space as part of the Soyuz 33 mission from Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 10, 1979, at 17:34 (GMT). The scientific program for the flight was prepared entirely by Bulgarian scientists, along with some of the equipment.

Though take-off was smooth, the mission was a disaster, with severe damage of the engine preventing docking in orbit to Salyut 6 orbital station as it was initially planned. A premature return to Earth became the only possible decision for Ivanov and Rukavishnikov. Due to some additional technical problems landing was difficult to endure-more than 9Gs. When Soyuz 33 finally landed, it was 320 kilometres (200 mi) southeast of Dzhezkazgan. It completed 31 orbits, and was in space for 1 day, 23 hours, and 1 minute. The flight remains the only example for manual landing and is thus quoted in every astronautic textbook.

Mission


Soyuz 33

  • Type: Human Exploration
  • Orbit: Low Earth Orbit

Soyuz 33 would have been the eighth crew to dock to the Salyut 6 space station and was meant to visit the long-duration resident crew of the station. The mission began on April 10, 1979, 17:34:34 UTC, launching Commander Nikolai Rukavishnikovv and Research Cosmoanut Georgi Ivanov, the first Bulgarian cosmonaut, into orbit. They were going to dock with the station the next day, but engine failure forced mission to be aborted.
The mission concluded with a rough return and landing back on Earth on April 12, 1979, 16:35:40 UTC.

Location


1/5

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

1/5 has witnessed the launch of 487 rockets, including 487 orbital launch attempts, while Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan, has been the site for 1547 rocket launches.

1/5

Rocket


Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) Soyuz U

Soyuz U

Agency


Soviet Space Program

The Soviet space program, was the national space program of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) actived from 1930s until disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The Soviet Union’s space program was mainly based on the cosmonautic exploration of space and the development of the expandable launch vehicles, which had been split between many design bureaus competing against each other. Over its 60-years of history, the Russian program was responsible for a number of pioneering feats and accomplishments in the human space flight, including the first intercontinental ballistic missile (R-7), first satellite (Sputnik 1), first animal in Earth orbit (the dog Laika on Sputnik 2), first human in space and Earth orbit (cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1), first woman in space and Earth orbit (cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova on Vostok 6), first spacewalk (cosmonaut Alexei Leonov on Voskhod 2), first Moon impact (Luna 2), first image of the far side of the Moon (Luna 3) and unmanned lunar soft landing (Luna 9), first space rover (Lunokhod 1), first sample of lunar soil automatically extracted and brought to Earth (Luna 16), and first space station (Salyut 1). Further notable records included the first interplanetary probes: Venera 1 and Mars 1 to fly by Venus and Mars, respectively, Venera 3 and Mars 2 to impact the respective planet surface, and Venera 7 and Mars 3 to make soft landings on these planets.

Soviet Space Program
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