Soyuz 9

Soyuz 9

Andriyan Nikolayev and Vitaly Sevastyanov on the 1971 commemorative stamp "424 Hours On Earth's Orbit" of Soviet Union
Mission type	Test flight
Operator	Soviet space program
COSPAR ID	1970-041A
SATCAT no.	04407
Mission duration	17 days, 16 hours, 58 minutes, 55 seconds
Orbits completed	288
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Soyuz 7K-OK No.17[1]
Spacecraft type	Soyuz 7K-OK
Manufacturer	Experimental Design Bureau (OKB-1)
Launch mass	6460 kg [2]
Landing mass	1200 kg
Crew
Crew size	2
Members	Andriyan Nikolayev Vitaly Sevastyanov
Callsign	Сокол (Sokol – "Falcon")
Start of mission
Launch date	1 June 1970, 19:00:00 GMT
Rocket	Soyuz
Launch site	Baikonur, Site 31/6[3]
End of mission
Landing date	19 June 1970, 11:58:55 GMT
Landing site	Steppes in Kazakhstan
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit[4]
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Perigee altitude	207.0 km
Apogee altitude	220.0 km
Inclination	51.70°
Period	88.59 minutes
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Soyuz 9 (Russian: Союз 9, Union 9) was a June, 1970, Soviet crewed space flight. The two-man crew of Andriyan Nikolayev and Vitaly Sevastyanov broke the five-year-old space endurance record held by Gemini 7, with their nearly 18-day flight. The mission paved the way for the Salyut space station missions, investigating the effects of long-term weightlessness on crew, and evaluating the work that the cosmonauts could do in orbit, individually and as a team. It was also the last flight of the first-generation Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft, as well as the first crewed space launch to be conducted at night. In 1970, Soyuz 9 marks the longest crewed flight by a solo spacecraft.