Soyuz 34

Soyuz 34 (Russian: Союз 34, Union 34) was a 1979 Soviet unmanned space flight to the Salyut 6 space station.^[1] It was sent to supply the resident crew a reliable return vehicle after the previous flight, Soyuz 33, suffered an engine failure.

Mission control decided to re-design the engine used on Soyuz craft as a result of the Soyuz 33 failure, and to return the Soyuz 32 craft which transported Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin to the space station to earth unmanned as it had the same suspect engine as Soyuz 33. Soyuz 34 successfully returned the crew to earth 73 days after launching.

Crew

Mission parameters

• Mass: 6,800 kg (15,000 lb)
• Perigee: 199 km (124 mi)
• Apogee: 271.5 km (168.7 mi)
• Inclination: 51.62°
• Period: 88.91 minutes

Mission highlights

Soyuz 34 had been intended to have been launched around 6 June 1979 with a two-man Hungarian/Soviet crew. That crew would have presumably returned in Soyuz 33 which had been planned to be docked at the Salyut 6 space station. Suspicions this was originally to be a Hungarian/Soviet flight were confirmed in 1980 when press releases for an upcoming joint mission were still dated June 1979.^[2]

However, the engine failure during Soyuz 33's flight in April necessitated a shuffling of planned missions. Because the engine used in that flight was the same model already docked at the space station on Soyuz 32 and the resident crew of Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin needed a reliable craft to return to Earth in, it was decided that the engine needed to be modified and a fresh return vehicle sent to the station - vacant.^[3]

Soyuz 34 was launched unmanned on 6 June, and docked at the aft port of the space station on 9 June. The flight itself was a test of the new engine and its success meant the crew had a reliable return craft. Since the craft was unmanned, some biological samples for experiments were included on the flight.^[3]

Soyuz 32 was loaded with 130 kg of replaced instruments, processed materials, exposed film and other items with a total weight equal to that of the two cosmonauts. On 13 June, it undocked and returned to Earth unmanned 295 km northwest of Dzhezkazgan. The craft was found to be in good condition.^[2] The next day, the crew redocked Soyuz 34 at the forward port to clear the aft port for Progress 7, a supply tanker.^[3]

On 19 August, the resident crew returned to earth in Soyuz 34, establishing a new space-endurance record of 175 days, surpassing the 139-day mission by the Soyuz 29 crew in 1978.^[2]

References

Soyuz human spaceflight programme
Main topics	Soyuz (rocket family) Soyuz (spacecraft) Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 1/5 Site 31/6 List of Soyuz missions List of Soviet manned space missions List of Russian manned space missions
Current missions	Soyuz MS-02 MS-03
Future missions	2017 Soyuz MS-04 MS-05 MS-06 MS-07 2018 Soyuz MS-08 MS-09 MS-10
Past missions (by spacecraft type)	Soyuz 7K-OK (1966–1970) Kosmos 133† Soyuz 7K-OK No.1† Kosmos 140 Soyuz 1† Kosmos 186 188 212 213 238 Soyuz 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Soyuz 7K-L1 (1967–1970) (Zond lunar programme) Kosmos 146 154† Zond 1967A† 1967B† Zond 4 1968A† 1968B† 5 6 1969A† Zond-M 1† M 2† Zond 7 8 9 10 Soyuz 7K-L1E (1969–1970) Soyuz 7K-L1E No.1† Kosmos 382 Soyuz 7K-LOK (1971–1972) Soyuz 7K-LOK No.1† No.2† Soyuz 7K-OKS (1971) Soyuz 10† 11† Soyuz 7K-T (1972–1981) Kosmos 496 573 Soyuz 12 Kosmos 613 Soyuz 13 Kosmos 656 Soyuz 14 15† 17 18a† 18 20 (uncrewed) 21 23† 24 25† 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 (uncrewed landing) 33† 34 (uncrewed launch) 35 36 37 38 39 40 Soyuz 7K-TM (1974–1976) Kosmos 638 672 Soyuz 16 19 (Apollo–Soyuz Test Project) 22 Soyuz 7K-S (1974–1976) Kosmos 670 772† 869† Soyuz-T (1978–1986) Kosmos 1001† 1074 Soyuz T-1 (uncrewed) T-2 T-3 T-4 T-5 T-6 T-7 T-8† T-9 T-10a† T-10 T-11 T-12 T-13 T-14 T-15 Soyuz-TM (1986–2002) Soyuz TM-1 (uncrewed) TM-2 TM-3 TM-4 TM-5 TM-6 TM-7 TM-8 TM-9 TM-10 TM-11 TM-12 TM-13 TM-14 TM-15 TM-16 TM-17 TM-18 TM-19 TM-20 TM-21 TM-22 TM-23 TM-24 TM-25 TM-26 TM-27 TM-28 TM-29 TM-30 TM-31 TM-32 TM-33 TM-34 Soyuz-TMA (2002–2012) Soyuz TMA-1 TMA-2 TMA-3 TMA-4 TMA-5 TMA-6 TMA-7 TMA-8 TMA-9 TMA-10 TMA-11 TMA-12 TMA-13 TMA-14 TMA-15 TMA-16 TMA-17 TMA-18 TMA-19 TMA-20 TMA-21 TMA-22 Soyuz-TMA-M (2010–2016) Soyuz TMA-01M TMA-02M TMA-03M TMA-04M TMA-05M TMA-06M TMA-07M TMA-08M TMA-09M TMA-10M TMA-11M TMA-12M TMA-13M TMA-14M TMA-15M TMA-16M TMA-17M TMA-18M TMA-19M TMA-20M Soyuz MS (2016–present) Soyuz MS-01
Uncrewed missions are designated with Kosmos numbers; crewed missions get a Soyuz number. Failed missions are denoted with a † symbol. Cancelled missions are in italics.