Kosmos 496 (russian: Космос 496 meaning ''Cosmos 496'') was an unmanned test of the redesigned

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз ( Russian and Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Сою́з Сове́тских Социалис ...

ferry. The redesign may have involved changes to the Salyut/Soyuz hatch. It did not dock with any space station. After the

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 Dobrov ...

disaster the third seat was removed because the space was need for the two crewmen in space suits and their equipment. Kosmos 496 retained its solar arrays.

Mission parameters

*Spacecraft: Soyuz-7K-T *Mass: 6800 kg *Crew: None *Launched: June 26, 1972. *Launch site:

Baikonur Baikonur ( kk, Байқоңыр, ; russian: Байконур, translit=Baykonur), formerly known as Leninsk, is a city of republic significance in Kazakhstan on the northern bank of the Syr Darya river. It is currently leased and administered ...

. *Orbit 195 x 343km. *Inclination 51 degrees.Janes Spaceflight Directory (1987) ISBN 0 7106-0838 1 p206 *Landed: July 2, 1972

References

*Mir Hardware Heritage
Mir Hardware Heritage - NASA report (PDF format)
** Mir Hardware Heritage (wikisource) 1972 in spaceflight Kosmos 0496 Kosmos 0496 1972 in the Soviet Union Spacecraft launched in 1972 {{USSR-spacecraft-stub