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 |
| Spacecraft type | Soyuz 7K-OK |
| Manufacturer | Experimental Design Bureau (OKB-1) |
| Launch mass | 6460 kg |
| 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 |
| End of mission | |
| Landing date | 19 June 1970, 11:58:55 GMT |
| Landing site | Steppes in Kazakhstan |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric orbit |
| Regime | Low Earth orbit |
| Perigee altitude | 207.0 km |
| Apogee altitude | 220.0 km |
| Inclination | 51.70° |
| Period | 88.59 minutes |
Vimpel Diamond for entrainment patch | |
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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.