Soyuz 17 (russian: Союз 17, ''Union 17'') was the first of two long-duration missions to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Salyut 4 Salyut 4 (DOS 4) (russian: Салют-4; English translation: Salute 4) was a Salyut space station launched on December 26, 1974 into an orbit with an apogee of 355 km, a perigee of 343 km and an orbital inclination of 51.6 degrees. It ...

space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...

in 1975. The flight by cosmonauts

Aleksei Gubarev Aleksei Aleksandrovich Gubarev (russian: Алексе́й Алекса́ндрович Гу́барев; 29 March 1931 – 21 February 2015) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on two space flights: Soyuz 17 and Soyuz 28. Biography Gubarev grad ...

and

Georgy Grechko Georgy Mikhaylovich Grechko (russian: Георгий Михайлович Гречко; 25 May 1931 – 8 April 2017) was a Soviet cosmonaut. He flew to space on three missions, each bound for rendezvous with a different Salyut space station.

set a Soviet mission-duration record of 29 days, surpassing the 23-day record set by the ill-fated

Soyuz 11 Soyuz 11 (russian: link=no, Союз 11, lit=Union 11) was the only crewed mission to board the world's first space station, Salyut 1 ( Soyuz 10 had soft-docked, but had not been able to enter due to latching problems). The crew, Georgy Dob ...

crew aboard

Salyut 1 Salyut 1 (DOS-1) (russian: Салют-1) was the world's first space station launched into low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on April 19, 1971. The Salyut program followed this with five more successful launches of seven more stations. The f ...

in 1971.

Crew

Backup crew

Reserve crew

Mission parameters

*Mass: *Perigee: *Apogee: *Inclination: 51.6° *Period: 91.7 minutes

Mission highlights

was launched 26 December 1974, and Soyuz 17, with

cosmonauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

and

as its first crew, was launched 16 days later on 10 January 1975. Gubarev manually docked Soyuz 17 to the station on 12 January 1975, and upon entering the new station he and Grechko found a note from its builders which said, "Wipe your feet"! Salyut 4 was in an unusually high circular orbit of when Soyuz 17 docked with the station. Salyut designer Konstantin Feoktistov said this was to ensure propellant consumption would be half of what was needed for lower-altitude Salyuts. The crew worked between 15 and 20 hours a day, including their 2 hour exercise period. One of their activities included testing communication equipment for tracking ships and contacting mission control via a

Molniya Molniya (Russian for ''lightning'') may refer to: * Molniya (satellite), a Soviet military communications satellite ** Molniya orbit * Molniya (explosive trap), a KGB explosive device * Molniya (rocket), a variation of the Soyuz launch vehicle * OKB ...

satellite.

Astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

was a major component of the mission, with the station's

solar telescope A solar telescope is a special purpose telescope used to observe the Sun. Solar telescopes usually detect light with wavelengths in, or not far outside, the visible spectrum. Obsolete names for Sun telescopes include heliograph and photoheliograph ...

activated on 16 January 1975. The crew later discovered that the main mirror of the telescope had been ruined by direct exposure to sunlight when the pointing system failed. They resurfaced the mirror on 3 February 1975 and worked out a way of pointing the telescope using a stethoscope, stopwatch, and the noises the moving mirror made in its casing. On 14 January 1975, a ventilation hose was set up from Salyut 4 to keep the Soyuz ventilated while its systems were shut down. On 19 January 1975, it was announced that

ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...

sensors were being used to orient the station, a system described as being more efficient. A new

teleprinter A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations. Initia ...

was used for communications from the ground crew, freeing the Salyut crew from constant interruptions during their work. The cosmonauts began powering down the station on 7 February 1975 and they returned to

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

in the Soyuz capsule two days later, on 9 February 1975. They safely landed near

Tselinograd Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, thou ...

in a snowstorm with winds of 72 km/h and wore gravity suits to ease the effects of re-adaptation. Soyuz-17 Cliff in Antarctica is named after the mission.

References

{{Orbital launches in 1975 Crewed Soyuz missions 1975 in the Soviet Union Spacecraft launched in 1975 Spacecraft which reentered in 1975 Spacecraft launched by Soyuz rockets