Soyuz T-9 (
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
: Союз Т-9, Union T-9) was the 4th expedition to
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 ...
following the failed docking of
Soyuz T-8. It returned lab experiments to
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
. The next mission,
Soyuz 7K-ST No.16L (Soyuz 10a), had exploded and thus failed to launch.
Soyuz T-9 achieved successful docking with the station, although the mission was bracketed by the failed attempt of Soyuz T-8 and the launch pad abort of Soyuz T-10 which would follow immediately.
Crew
Backup crew
Mission parameters
* Mass: 6850 kg
* Perigee: 201 km
* Apogee: 229 km
* Inclination: 51.6°
* Period: 88.6 minutes
Mission highlights
Fourth expedition to
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 ...
. Its mission was heavily impacted by the
Soyuz T-8 docking failure and the
Soyuz T-10a
Soyuz 7K-ST No.16L, sometimes known as Soyuz T-10a or Soyuz T-10-1, was an unsuccessful Soyuz mission intended to visit the Salyut 7 space station, which was occupied by the Soyuz T-9 crew. However, it never finished its launch countdown; th ...
Soyuz booster failures which bracketed it.
Almost immediately after docking at Salyut 7's aft port, the crew entered
Kosmos 1443 and commenced transferring the 3.5 tons of cargo lining its walls to Salyut 7.
[ ]
On 27 July 1983, a small object struck a Salyut 7 viewport. It blasted out a 4-mm crater, but did not penetrate the outer of the window's two panes. The Soviets believed it was a member of the
Delta Aquariid meteor shower
A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate, or originate, from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at ext ...
, though it may have been a small piece of
orbital debris
Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, space garbage, or cosmic debris) are defunct human-made objects in spaceprincipally in Earth orbitwhich no longer serve a useful function. These include dere ...
.
The crew loaded Cosmos 1443's
VA capsule with 350 kg of experiment results and hardware no longer in use. It could have held 500 kg, had they had that much to put in. Cosmos 1443 then undocked, in spite of Western predictions that the
FGB component would remain attached to Salyut 7 as a space station module. The VA capsule soft-landed on 23 August 1983, and the FGB component continued in orbit until it was deorbited over the Pacific Ocean on 19 September 1983.
The crew also filmed scenes for the movie ''
Return from Orbit''.
Vozvrashchenie s orbity (1984) - Trivia
- IMDb
See also
* List of human spaceflights to Salyut space stations
* List of Salyut expeditions
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soyuz T-09
Crewed Soyuz missions
1983 in spaceflight
1983 in the Soviet Union
Spacecraft launched in 1983