Commemoration stamp of Vyacheslav Zudov and Valery Rozhdestvensky | |
Operator | Soviet space program |
---|---|
COSPAR ID | 1976-100A |
SATCAT no. | 09477 |
Mission duration | 2 days 6 minutes 35 seconds |
Orbits completed | 32 |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft | Soyuz 7K-T No.10 |
Spacecraft type | Soyuz 7K-T/A9 |
Manufacturer | NPO Energia |
Launch mass | 6750 kg [1] |
Landing mass | 1200 kg |
Crew | |
Crew size | 2 |
Members | Vyacheslav Zudov Valery Rozhdestvensky |
Callsign | Радон (Radon - "Radon") |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 14 October 1976, 17:39:18 UTC |
Rocket | Soyuz |
Launch site | Baikonur, Site 1/5[2] |
End of mission | |
Landing date | 16 October 1976, 17:45:53 UTC |
Landing site | Lake Tengiz, Kazakhstan |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric orbit[3] |
Regime | Low Earth orbit |
Perigee altitude | 243.0 km |
Apogee altitude | 275.0 km |
Inclination | 51.6° |
Period | 89.5 minutes |
![]() Vimpel Diamond patch |
Soyuz 23 (Russian: Союз 23, Union 23) was an October 1976, Soviet crewed space flight, the second to the Salyut 5 space station. Cosmonauts Vyacheslav Zudov and Valery Rozhdestvensky arrived at the station, but an equipment malfunction did not allow docking and the mission had to be aborted.[4]
The crew returned to Earth, but landed on partially frozen Lake Tengiz, the first crewed splashdown in the Soviet space program. While there was no concern about any immediate threat to the crew, the capsule sank under the surface of the frozen lake, and recovery took nine hours owing to fog and other adverse conditions. The landing marked the only example of an unintentional splashdown of a crewed spacecraft to date.
Display
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Trajectory
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).