Soyuz 37 (russian: Союз 37, ''Union 37'') was a 1980

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

crewed space flight to the

Salyut 6 Salyut 6 (russian: Салют-6; lit. Salute 6), DOS-5, was a Soviet orbital space station, the eighth station of the Salyut programme. It was launched on 29 September 1977 by a Proton rocket. Salyut 6 was the first space station to recei ...

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 ...

. It was the 13th mission to and 11th successful docking at the orbiting facility. The Soyuz 37 crew were the third to visit the long-duration Soyuz 35 resident crew.Spaceflight mission report: Soyuz 37
/ref> Soyuz 37 carried Soviet

Viktor Gorbatko Viktor Vasilyevich Gorbatko (russian: Ви́ктор Васи́льевич Горбатко́; 3 December 1934 – 17 May 2017) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 7, Soyuz 24, and Soyuz 37 missions. Early life Viktor Vasilievich Go ...

and Pham Tuân, the first

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

n and first

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

ese

cosmonaut 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 ...

, into space. They swapped Soyuz craft with the long-duration crew and returned to Earth in Soyuz 36, the resident crew later used their craft to return to Earth.

Crew

Backup crew

Mission parameters

*Mass: *Perigee: *Apogee: *Inclination: 51.61° *Period: 89.12 minutes

Mission highlights

Pham Tuan of

arrived with Commander Viktor Gorbatko aboard Salyut 6 in Soyuz 37; they both returned to Earth in the Soyuz 36 spacecraft approximately eight days later. Tuan's 30 experiments involved observing Vietnam from space,

life science Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...

s (including tests of growth of Vietnamese

azolla ''Azolla'' (mosquito fern, duckweed fern, fairy moss, water fern) is a genus of seven species of aquatic ferns in the family Salviniaceae. They are extremely reduced in form and specialized, looking nothing like other typical ferns but more rese ...

water ferns, with application to future closed-loop

life support system A life-support system is the combination of equipment that allows survival in an environment or situation that would not support that life in its absence. It is generally applied to systems supporting human life in situations where the outsid ...

s), and materials processing. The long-duration crew launched in Soyuz 35 returned to Earth in the Soyuz 37 spacecraft at the end of their 186-day mission.

References

External links

Soyuz 37 Part of Salyut Family

{{Interkosmos Crewed Soyuz missions 1980 in the Soviet Union 1980 in Vietnam Soviet Union–Vietnam relations Spacecraft launched in 1980 Spacecraft which reentered in 1980 Spacecraft launched by Soyuz-U rockets