Soyuz 4

Soyuz 4
Model of Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 after performing the first docking of two crewed spacecraft on 16 January 1969.
Mission typeTest flight
OperatorSoviet space program
COSPAR ID1969-004A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.03654
Mission duration2 days 23 hours 20 minutes 47 seconds
Orbits completed54 [1]
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftSoyuz 7K-OK No.12[2]
Spacecraft typeSoyuz 7K-OK (active)
ManufacturerExperimental Design Bureau (OKB-1)
Launch mass6625 kg
Landing mass2800 kg
Dimensions7.13 m long
2.72 m wide
Crew
Crew size1 up
3 down
MembersVladimir Shatalov
LandingVladimir Shatalov
Aleksei Yeliseyev
Yevgeny Khrunov
CallsignАмур (Amur – "Amur River")
Start of mission
Launch date14 January 1969, 07:30:00 GMT
RocketSoyuz
Launch siteBaikonur, Site 31/6[3]
End of mission
Landing date17 January 1969, 06:50:47 GMT
Landing site100 km at the southwest of Karaganda, Kazakhstan
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric orbit[4]
RegimeLow Earth orbit
Perigee altitude205.0 km
Apogee altitude223.0 km
Inclination51.73°
Period88.72 minutes
Docking with Soyuz 5
Docking date16 January 1969, 08:20 GMT
Undocking date16 January 1969, 12:55 GMT
Time docked4 hours 35 minutes
← Soyuz 3
Soyuz 5 →
 

Soyuz 4 (Russian: Союз 4, Union 4) was launched on 14 January 1969, carrying cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov on his first flight. The aim of the mission was to dock with Soyuz 5, transfer two crew members from that spacecraft, and return to Earth. The previous Soyuz flight (Soyuz 3) was also a docking attempt but failed for various reasons.

The radio call sign of the crew was Amur, while Soyuz 5 was Baikal. This referred to the trans-Siberian railway project called the Baikal-Amur Mainline, which was in development at the time.

  1. ^ "Display: Soyuz 4 1969-004A". NASA. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 17 October 2020. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. ^ "Soyuz-4 and -5 crews perform docking, spacewalk between ships". www.russianspaceweb.com. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  3. ^ "Baikonur LC31". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 4 September 2003. Retrieved 4 March 2009.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Trajectory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).