The Igla (, "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 uncrewed spacecraft took place.

Problems

* The

Soyuz 15 Soyuz 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 Soyuz spacecraft arriv ...

mission was aborted when the system failed to dock to the

Salyut 3 Salyut 3 (, also known as OPS-2 or Almaz 2Portree (1995).) was a Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental coun ...

, on 26 August 1974. There was no manual backup system. * Salyut 5, launched on June 22, 1976, was equipped with an improved radio system. On July 6, 1976,

Soyuz 21 Soyuz 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. The mission ended ...

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

Soyuz 23 Soyuz 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 did not allow do ...

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 (, ''Union 33'') was an April, 1979, Soviet Union, Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the ninth mission to the orbiting facility, but an engine failure forced the mission to be aborted, and the crew had to r ...

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-1.Soviet automated rendezvous and docking system overview.
NASA Automated Rendezvous and Capture Review. Executive Summary p 34-35.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Igla docking system Soyuz program Spacecraft docking systems