Engineering:Soyuz 14

Short description: 1974 Soviet crewed spaceflight to Sayut 3

Soyuz 14

Mission type	Docking with Salyut 3
Operator	Soviet space program
COSPAR ID	1974-051A
SATCAT no.	07361
Mission duration	15 days 17 hours 30 minutes 28 seconds
Orbits completed	255
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Soyuz 7K-T No.3
Spacecraft type	Soyuz 7K-T/A9
Manufacturer	Experimental Design Bureau (OKB-1)
Launch mass	6570 kg
Landing mass	1200 kg
Crew
Crew size	2
Members	Pavel Popovich Yuri Artyukhin
Callsign	Беркут (Berkut - "Golden Eagle")
Start of mission
Launch date	3 July 1974, 18:51:08 UTC
Rocket	Soyuz
Launch site	Baikonur, Site 1/5
End of mission
Landing date	19 July 1974, 12:21:36 UTC
Landing site	140 km at the southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Perigee altitude	250.0 km
Apogee altitude	277.0 km
Inclination	51.60°
Period	89.70 minutes
Docking with Salyut 3
Docking date	3 July 1974
Undocking date	19 July 1974
Time docked	15 days 17 hours
Vimpel Diamond for entrainment patch Soyuz programme

Soyuz 14 (Russian: Союз 14, Union 14) was a July, 1974, crewed spaceflight to the Salyut 3 space station. Soyuz 14 is also the name given to the Soyuz spacecraft which was used to bring the cosmonauts to and from the station. The mission was part of the Soviet Union's Almaz program to evaluate the military applications of crew spaceflight. The mission's crew members were cosmonauts Pavel Popovich and Yuri Artyukhin. At the time, the military nature of this mission and the station itself were not acknowledged by Soviet authorities.

The flight was the first successful mission to a space station by the Soviets. The mission proved to be the only one for Salyut 3 as Soyuz 15 failed to dock with the station in August 1974 and the station was de-orbited in January 1975. With the United States Skylab missions now complete, the flight marked the start of the monopoly of crewed space activities by the Soviets until the 1981 launch of STS 1, the first Space Shuttle flight, save for the joint Apollo–Soyuz flight of 1975.

Crew

Position	Cosmonaut
Commander	Pavel Popovich Second and last spaceflight
Flight Engineer	Yuri Artyukhin Only spaceflight

Backup crew

Position	Cosmonaut
Commander	Gennady Sarafanov
Flight Engineer	Lev Dyomin

Reserve crew

Position	Cosmonaut
Commander	Boris Volynov
Flight Engineer	Vitaly Zholobov

Mission parameters

• Mass: 6,570 kg (14,480 lb)
• Perigee: 250.0 km (155.3 mi)
• Apogee: 277.0 km (172.1 mi)
• Inclination: 51.60°
• Period: 89.70 minutes

Mission highlights

With the Salyut 3 space station successfully launched on 24 June 1974, Soyuz 14 was sent into orbit nine days later, on 3 July 1974. The craft docked with the space station the next day, performing a manual approach for the last 100 metres. The crew tested the suitability of Salyut 3 as a crewed military reconnaissance platform. They also tested Almaz station systems, such as the solar arrays. Increased solar activity raised safety issues, but it was decided radiation levels were within safe limits, so the flight continued.

Experiments were described by the Soviets, but analysts presumed that much time was taken up with unreported military activities. Claims were made in the aerospace press that objects were laid out at the Baikonur Cosmodrome to photograph to test a high-resolution camera system on board. Some of the experiments the Soviets described included studies of the heart and circulatory systems in orbit, studies of intracranial pressure, monitoring of blood composition, measuring of lung capacity and inhalation/exhalation rates and the testing of a water purification system which condensed moisture from the station's atmosphere.

The cosmonauts exercised for two hours each day to counter the effects of weightlessness. Because of this, they were able to climb from their Soyuz descent module without assistance when their flight ended on 19 July 1974. The crew left enough supplies on Salyut 3 to last the next crew at least six months.