The Igla (russian: Игла, "Needle") docking system was a Soviet radio telemetry system for automated docking of

Soyuz spacecraft Soyuz () is a series of spacecraft which has been in service since the 1960s, having made more than 140 flights. It was designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolev Design Bureau (now Energia). The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraf ...

. The first prototypes were made in late 1965. On 30 October 1967, the first automated docking of Soyuz unmanned spacecraft took place.

Problems

* The

Soyuz 15 Soyuz 15 (russian: Союз 15, ''Union 15'') was an August, 1974, crewed space flight which was to have been the second mission to the Soviet Union's Salyut 3 space station with presumably military objectives. Launched 26 August 1974, the S ...

mission was aborted when the system failed to dock to the

Salyut 3 Salyut 3 (russian: Салют-3; en, Salute 3; also known as OPS-2 or Almaz 2Portree (1995).) was a Soviet space station launched on 25 June 1974. It was the second Almaz military space station, and the first such station to be launched successf ...

, on 26 August 1974. There was no manual backup system. *

Salyut 5 Salyut 5 (russian: Салют-5 meaning ''Salute 5''), also known as OPS-3, was a Soviet space station. Launched in 1976 as part of the Salyut programme, it was the third and last Almaz space station to be launched for the Soviet military. Two Soy ...

, launched on June 22, 1976, was equipped with an improved radio system. On July 6, 1976,

Soyuz 21 Soyuz 21 (russian: Союз 21, ''Union 21'') was a 1976 Soviet crewed mission to the Salyut 5 space station, the first of three flights to the station. The mission's objectives were mainly military in scope, but included other scientific work. ...

had problems undocking automatically, but was able to undock manually.

Soyuz 23 Soyuz 23 (russian: Союз 23, ''Union 23'') was an October, 1976, Soviet crewed space flight, the second to the Salyut 5 space station. Cosmonauts Vyacheslav Zudov and Valery Rozhdestvensky arrived at the station, but an equipment malfunction ...

failed to dock, ran out of fuel to manual dock, and returned to Earth. *The Igla docking system suffered an engine failure on

Soyuz 33 Soyuz 33 (russian: Союз 33, ''Union 33'') was an April, 1979, Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station.The mission report is available here: http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-33.htm It was the ninth mission to the ...

on 10 April, 1979. After consideration by ground crews, the mission was aborted by firing the back up engines and initiating a ballistic reentry.

Kurs

In 1986 Igla was succeeded by the Kurs docking system, first used on

Soyuz TM-2 Soyuz TM-2 was a crewed spaceflight to the Soviet Union, Soviet space station Mir, which was uncrewed at the time. TM-2 was launched on February 5, 1987, and it was first crewed spaceflight of the Soyuz-TM spacecraft, and the List of human spac ...

References

External links

Russian space history questions from Zeb Ottobre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Igla docking system Soyuz program Spacecraft docking systems