Soyuz T-11 was the sixth expedition to the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Salyut 7 Salyut 7 (), also known as DOS-6 (Durable Orbital Station 6) was a space station in low Earth orbit from April 1982 to February 1991. It was first crewed in May 1982 with two crew via Soyuz T-5, and last visited in June 1986, by Soyuz T-15. Va ...

space station A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft which remains orbital spaceflight, in orbit and human spaceflight, hosts humans for extended periods of time. It therefore is an artificial satellite featuring space habitat (facility), habitat ...

, which in 1984 carried the first Indian

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

along with Soviet crew members. Salyut 7 was uncrewed after the undocking of Soyuz T-11 in October 1984 until Soyuz T-13 docked with the station in June 1985. Salyut 7 developed problems during the time it was uncrewed, which meant that the crew of Soyuz T-13 had to perform a manual docking and do repairs to the station.

Crew

Backup crew

Mission parameters

*Mass: 6850 kg *Perigee: 195 km *Apogee: 224 km *Inclination: 51.6° *Period: 88.7 minutes

Mission highlights

Rakesh Sharma, aboard Salyut 7 for 7 days, 21 hours, and 40 minutes, conducted an Earth observation program concentrating on

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He also did life sciences and materials processing experiments, including silicium fusing tests. He is also reported to have experimented with practicing

yoga Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...

to deal with the effects of prolonged orbital spaceflight. The Soyuz T-11 launch crew Malyshev, Strekalov, and Sharma returned from space in the Soyuz T-10 spacecraft on 11 April 1984.

References

{{Orbital launches in 1984 Crewed Soyuz missions 1984 in spaceflight 1984 in the Soviet Union India–Soviet Union relations Spacecraft launched in 1984