Soyuz 31

Soyuz 31

Bykowski (above) and Jähn (below)
COSPAR ID	1978-081A
SATCAT no.	11010
Mission duration	67 days, 20 hours, 12 minutes, 47 seconds
Orbits completed	124
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type	Soyuz 7K-T
Manufacturer	NPO Energia
Launch mass	6,800 kilograms (15,000 lb)
Crew
Crew size	2
Launching	Valery Bykovsky Sigmund Jähn
Landing	Vladimir Kovalyonok Aleksandr Ivanchenkov
Callsign	Ястреб (Yastreb - "Hawk")
Start of mission
Launch date	26 August 1978, 14:51:30 (1978-08-26UTC14:51:30Z) UTC
Rocket	Soyuz-U
Launch site	Baikonur 1/5[1]
End of mission
Landing date	2 November 1978, 11:04:17 (1978-11-02UTC11:04:18Z) UTC
Landing site	140 kilometres (87 mi) SE of Dzhezkazgan
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Perigee altitude	196.8 kilometres (122.3 mi)
Apogee altitude	259.9 kilometres (161.5 mi)
Inclination	51.64 degrees
Period	88.81 minutes
Docking with Salyut 6
Docking port	Aft port
Docking date	28 August 1978, 16:37:37 UTC[2]
Undocking date	07 September 1978, 16:37:37 UTC[3]
Time docked	10d
Redocking with Salyut 6
Redocking port	Front port
Redocking date	07 September 1978, 16:37:37 UTC[3]
Unredocking date	02 November 1978, 11:04:17 UTC[2]
Time redocked	55d 18h 26m
Soyuz programme (Crewed missions) ← Soyuz 30 Soyuz 32 →

Soyuz 31 (Russian: Союз 31, Union 31) was a 1978 Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station.^[2] It was the seventh mission to and sixth successful docking at the orbiting facility. The Soyuz 31 crew were the second to visit the long-duration Soyuz 29 resident crew.

Soyuz 31 carried Valery Bykovsky and Sigmund Jähn, the first German cosmonaut, into space. They swapped Soyuz craft with the long-duration crew and returned to Earth in Soyuz 29, the resident crew returned to Earth in Soyuz 31.

Crew

Position	Launching crew	Landing crew
Commander	Valery Bykovsky Third and last spaceflight  Soviet Union	Vladimir Kovalyonok Second spaceflight  Soviet Union
Research Cosmonaut/Flight Engineer	Sigmund Jähn Only spaceflight  East Germany	Aleksandr Ivanchenkov First spaceflight  Soviet Union

Backup crew

Position	Crew
Commander	Viktor Gorbatko  Soviet Union
Research Cosmonaut	Eberhard Köllner  East Germany

Mission parameters

• Mass: 6,800 kg (15,000 lb)
• Perigee: 196.8 km (122.3 mi)
• Apogee: 259.9 km (161.5 mi)
• Inclination: 51.64°
• Period: 88.81 minutes

Mission highlights

Soyuz 31, the third Intercosmos flight, was launched 26 August 1978. Cosmonauts Bykovsky and Jähn were greeted by resident crew Vladimir Kovalyonok and Aleksandr Ivanchenkov when they docked at the aft port of the Salyut 6 space station the next day. The visitors brought with them fresh onions, garlic, lemons, apples and other food for the long-duration crew, then in space for more than two months.^[4]

The presence of the East German cosmonaut was seen as significant because of the presence of the MKF-6M camera on the space station, built by the Carl Zeiss works at Jena.^[5] Medical and biological experiments were carried out, including an audio experiment which tested sound and noise perception limits.^[4] An experiment called Berolina used the Splav furnace to process an ampoule of bismuth and antimonide with the material between two plates in the ampoule. The tree structure which resulted was four to six times larger than what had been produced on the ground.^[4] Another experiment tested using different photographic films on the station's interior.

The Soyuz 31 crew swapped craft with the Soyuz 29 crew so as to supply the long-duration crew with a fresh craft. On September 2, the engines of Soyuz 29 were tested, 25 experiment containers with 100 experimental results were transferred, along with exposed film, and seat liners and centering weights were exchanged. The Soyuz 31 crew left in Soyuz 29 the next day and landed 140 km southeast of Dzhezkazgan.^[4]

The standard recovery procedure was changed with this flight, observers noted.^[5] In the past, the recovery of a civilian Salyut crew had been made on the orbit following the one which provided a nominal launch opportunity to Salyut. With this and subsequent flights, the landing occurred during the orbit which provided the nominal launch opportunity. The effect of this change was to have a landing window open some two to three days earlier than otherwise.^[5]

The crew on the station subsequently boarded the Soyuz 31 vehicle and redocked it to the forward port, thus freeing the aft port for a forthcoming Progress supply ship. They returned to Earth 2 November in the craft after setting a new space-endurance record of 139 days.

References

• v
• t
• e

Soyuz programme

• List of Soyuz missions
• List of Soviet human spaceflight missions
• List of Russian human spaceflight missions

Main topics

• Soyuz (rocket family)
• Soyuz (spacecraft)
• Baikonur Cosmodrome
  • Site 1/5
  • Site 31/6
• Soyuz abort modes
• Cosmonaut ranks and positions

Past missions
(by spacecraft type)

Soyuz 7K-OK (1966–1970)	Kosmos 133† Soyuz 7K-OK No.1† (uncrewed) Kosmos 140 Soyuz 1† Kosmos 186 188 212 213 238 Soyuz 2 (uncrewed) 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Soyuz 7K-L1 (1967–1970) (Zond lunar programme)	Kosmos 146 154† Zond 1967A† 1967B† Zond 4 1968A† 1968B† 5 6 1969A† Zond-M 1† M 2† Zond 7 8 9 10
Soyuz 7K-L1E (1969–1970)	Soyuz 7K-L1E No.1† Kosmos 382
Soyuz 7K-LOK (1971–1972)	Soyuz 7K-LOK No.1† No.2†
Soyuz 7K-OKS (1971)	Soyuz 10† 11†
Soyuz 7K-T (1972–1981)	Kosmos 496 573 Soyuz 12 Kosmos 613 Soyuz 13 Kosmos 656 Soyuz 14 15† 17 18a† 18 20 (uncrewed) 21 23† 24 25† 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 (uncrewed landing) 33† 34 (uncrewed launch) 35 36 37 38 39 40
Soyuz 7K-TM (1974–1976)	Kosmos 638 672 Soyuz 16 19 (Apollo–Soyuz) 22
Soyuz 7K-S (1974–1976)	Kosmos 670 772† 869†
Soyuz-T (1978–1986)	Kosmos 1001† 1074 Soyuz T-1 (uncrewed) T-2 T-3 T-4 T-5 T-6 T-7 T-8† T-9 T-10a† T-10 T-11 T-12 T-13 T-14 T-15
Soyuz-TM (1986–2002)	Soyuz TM-1 (uncrewed) TM-2 TM-3 TM-4 TM-5 TM-6 TM-7 TM-8 TM-9 TM-10 TM-11 TM-12 TM-13 TM-14 TM-15 TM-16 TM-17 TM-18 TM-19 TM-20 TM-21 TM-22 TM-23 TM-24 TM-25 TM-26 TM-27 TM-28 TM-29 TM-30 TM-31 TM-32 TM-33 TM-34
Soyuz-TMA (2002–2012)	Soyuz TMA-1 TMA-2 TMA-3 TMA-4 TMA-5 TMA-6 TMA-7 TMA-8 TMA-9 TMA-10 TMA-11 TMA-12 TMA-13 TMA-14 TMA-15 TMA-16 TMA-17 TMA-18 TMA-19 TMA-20 TMA-21 TMA-22
Soyuz-TMA-M (2010–2016)	Soyuz TMA-01M TMA-02M TMA-03M TMA-04M TMA-05M TMA-06M TMA-07M TMA-08M TMA-09M TMA-10M TMA-11M TMA-12M TMA-13M TMA-14M TMA-15M TMA-16M TMA-17M TMA-18M TMA-19M TMA-20M
Soyuz MS (2016–present)	Soyuz MS-01 MS-02 MS-03 MS-04 MS-05 MS-06 MS-07 MS-08 MS-09 MS-10† MS-11 MS-12 MS-13 MS-14 (uncrewed test flight) MS-15 MS-16 MS-17 MS-18 MS-19 MS-20 MS-21 MS-22 (uncrewed landing) MS-23 (uncrewed launch) MS-24

Current missions

• MS-25

Future missions

• 2024
  • MS-26

Uncrewed missions are designated as Kosmos instead of Soyuz; exceptions are noted "(uncrewed)".
The † sign designates failed missions. Italics designates cancelled missions.