Soyuz | Soyuz 18

Soviet Space Program · Soyuz · 1/5, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
Soviet Space Program's 918th launch · 32nd this year · humanity's 1,698th orbital launch attempt
The launch vehicle successfully inserted its payload(s) into the target orbit(s).
Window: May 24, 14:58 – May 24, 14:58 UTC
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Soyuz 18
Soyuz 18 was the second and final crew to man the Salyut 4 space station. The mission began on May 24th 1975 at 1458:10 UTC, launching Commander Pyotr Klimuk & Flight Engineer Vitali Sevastyanov into orbit docking with Salyut 4 2 days later. They stayed on the station for 63 days setting a new Soviet space endurance record at the time. Klimuk & Sevastyanov were the back-up crew for the failed Soyuz 18a mission so their mission goals included completing the goals of Soyuz 18a, continuing the work of Soyuz 17 & fixing or replacing equipment. They replaced a gas analyzer, switched a pumping condenser in the water regeneration system with a hand pump & fixed a spectrometer. Mostly the experiments were biological & medical but they also studied stars, planets, earth and its atmosphere with roughly 2000 photographs of Earth and 600 of the sun taken. The mission concluded with a safe landing on June 26th 1975 at 1418:18 UTC.
Human Exploration · Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
Crew
Pyotr KlimukCommander · RFSA
Vitaly SevastyanovFlight Engineer · RFSA
Booster
No booster details available.
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Pad — 1/5
Local pad time: May 24, 7:58 PM GMT+5
487 launches from this pad · 1,564 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
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