Soyuz 22
| Mission type | Earth observation |
|---|---|
| COSPAR ID | 1976-093A |
| Mission duration | 7 days, 21 hours, 52 minutes, 17 seconds |
| Orbits completed | 127 |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft type | Soyuz 7K-TM |
| Manufacturer | NPO Energia |
| Launch mass | 6,510 kilograms (14,350 lb) |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 2 |
| Members |
Valery Bykovsky Vladimir Aksyonov |
| Callsign | Ястреб (Yastreb - "Hawk") |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | September 15, 1976, 09:48:30 UTC |
| Rocket | Soyuz-U |
| Launch site | Baikonur 1/5 |
| End of mission | |
| Landing date | September 23, 1976, 07:40:47 UTC |
| Landing site | 150 kilometres (93 mi) NW of Tselinograd |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Perigee | 185 kilometres (115 mi) |
| Apogee | 296 kilometres (184 mi) |
| Inclination | 64.8 degrees |
| Period | 89.3 minutes |
|
Soyuz programme
(Manned missions) |
|
Soyuz 22 (Russian: Союз 22, Union 22) was a 1976 Soviet manned spaceflight. It was an Earth-sciences mission using a modified Soyuz spacecraft, and was also, some observers speculated, a mission to observe NATO exercises near Norway.
The spacecraft was a refurbished Soyuz that had served as a backup for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission the previous year.
Cosmonauts Valery Bykovsky and Vladimir Aksyonov spent a week in orbit photographing the surface of the Earth with a specially-built camera.
Soyuz 22 was launched to orbit 15 September 1976 at the unusually high inclination of 64.75°, not used since the Voskhod program. The orbiting Salyut 5 space station was at the standard 51.8° inclination, which led some observers to conclude that this solo Soyuz mission was chiefly intended to observe NATO's Exercise Teamwork, taking place in Norway, well above 51° latitude and therefore outside good visual range of the space station. However, the particular camera used, an MKF-6 multi-spectral Carl Zeiss camera which allowed six simultaneous photographs to be taken, suggested to others that reconnaissance, if part of the mission, was a minor part of it. Soyuz 22's orbital inclination maximized ground coverage, especially of the former East Germany. There were two orbit changes within 24 hours of launch. The first came on the fourth orbit and changed the orbit to 280 by 250 kilometres (170 by 160 mi). The second, on the sixteenth orbit, circularized the orbit to 257 by 251 kilometres (160 by 156 mi).
The mission's stated objectives were to "check and improve scientific and technical methods and means of studying geological features of the Earth's surface in the interests of the national economies of the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic."
...
Wikipedia