40 years of the first docking of two manned vehicles in space

[SiberianTiger]

On January 16th, 1969, the Soyuz-4 with Vladimir Shatalov on board has successfully docked to Soyuz-5 manned by Boris Volynov, Alexey Yeliseev and Evgeny Khrunov. The two space ships were launched from Baikonur with one day gap. This docking followed a failed attempt of Georgy Beregovoy to dock his Soyuz-3 to unmanned Soyuz-2 several months ago and was a step in the Lunar Space race between the USSR and the USA ensuring the capability of Soviets to rendez-vous and dock in space after a lunar ascent.

After the two ships docked, Yeliseev and Khrunov made a spacewalk in their Yastreb (meaning Hawk) spacesuits to traverse from Soyuz-5 to Soyuz-4 (the Soyuz ships of the time did not have an internal passage in their docking ports). They've delivered some symbolic items with them (letters and newspapers).

After undocking, Soyuz-4 landed first on January 17, carrying the three Cosmonauts. Their landing was smooth. Quite contrary, Volynov had problems landing the next day: his Soyuz's service module failed to detach from the reentry capsule and the stack reentered in the dangerous hatch-first attitude. The memory of Vladimir Komarov's death in the fatal Soyuz-1 mission during his landing has been very fresh then, so Boris, unable to use his radio, made a short written report on the cause of the ongoing abnormal situation and stowed the note in a possible fire secure place inside his seat, so it might be possibly recovered after his anticipated crash.

Fortunately, however, the backup separation mechanism worked the last moment, allowed the descent capsule to acquire the correct reentry attitude and deploy the parachute. The landing was hard due to additional failure of the soft landing engines, which resulted in Volynov's injures. This forced him to have a big recovering delay before he could go to space again.

In the quick pace of the Space Race which it was, the event was quickly dwarfed by the LEO and lunar Apollo missions.

Pic: the plaque memorizing Soyuz-4 and -5 joint flight:

 

[Andy44]

I thought the Gemini spacecraft were doing docking operations prior to this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_8

 

[Urwumpe]

Well, first docking between two manned spacecraft and that only by a few weeks - Apollo 9 tested the Lunar Module in March 1969. The Gemini program had been faster by years for docking between two spacecraft, March 19, 1966.

 

[NukeET]

I thought the Gemini spacecraft were doing docking operations prior to this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_8

I wish Andy44...it was just the first orbital rendezvous.

 

[Hielor]

I wish Andy44...it was just the first orbital rendezvous.

Nope, Gemini VIII actually docked with the target vehicle. They then went into an uncontrollable spin and had to abort.

 

[Linguofreak]

One of the Gemini missions, though, did involve a rendezvous, but not docking, of manned spacecraft.

 

[tblaxland]

One of the Gemini missions, though, did involve a rendezvous, but not docking, of manned spacecraft.

Gemini 6 & 7:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gemini6.jpg

 

[SiberianTiger]

I stand corrected about the title. The lesson learnt: check the facts with maximum scrutiny.

 

[gimp1992]

Your title is right Siberian Tiger.

 

[Hielor]

Your title is right Siberian Tiger.

Now it is.

 

[SpaceCowboy]

That was quite an accomplishment back then, now dockings are almost "routine". As routine as flying in space at 17,500 mph can be.