Soyuz Spacecraft in Orbit - GPN-2002-000155

Kosmos 638 (russian: Космос 638) was an uncrewed test of the 1975

Apollo–Soyuz Test Project Apollo–Soyuz was the first crewed international space mission, carried out jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union in July 1975. Millions of people around the world watched on television as a United States Apollo spacecraft docked ...

Soyuz. It carried an

APAS-75 The terms Androgynous Peripheral Attach System (APAS), Androgynous Peripheral Assembly System (APAS) and Androgynous Peripheral Docking System (APDS), are used interchangeably to describe a family of spacecraft docking mechanisms, and are also som ...

androgynous docking system. This was followed by another uncrewed test of this spacecraft type,

Kosmos 672 Kosmos 672 (russian: Космос 672 meaning ''Cosmos 672'') was the second uncrewed test of the ASTP Soyuz spacecraft. Also had APAS-75 androgynous docking system. This was preceded by another uncrewed test of this spacecraft type, Kosmos 638 ...

. It was a

Soyuz 7K-TM The 1975 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project version of the Soyuz spacecraft (Soyuz 7K-TM) served as a technological bridge to the third generation Soyuz-T (T - транспортный, ''Transportnyi'' meaning transport) spacecraft (1976–1986). T ...

spacecraft. When the air was released from the orbital module (which is ejected before re-entry of the capsule) it caused unexpected motions with the spacecraft. This led to the next test also being uncrewed.

Mission parameters

*Spacecraft: Soyuz-7K-TM №71 *Mass: 6510 to 6680 kg *Crew: None *Launched: April 3, 1974 *Landed: April 13, 1974

References

*Mir Hardware Heritage
''Mir Hardware Heritage'' (NASA report RP 1357) (PDF format)
** ''Mir Hardware Heritage'' (NASA report RP 1357) (Wikisource) Kosmos 0638 1974 in the Soviet Union Spacecraft launched in 1974 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project Soyuz uncrewed test flights {{USSR-spacecraft-stub