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missions. However, the remaining Original Soyuz craft were “re-assigned for the performance of engineering experiments in a group flight . . . and in a longduration flight.”[1] These were the Soyuz 6, 7, and 8 and Soyuz 9 missions, respectively. |}


Soyuz 6 October 11-16, 1969
Georgi Shonin, Valeri Kubasov
Crew code name—Antey
Soyuz 7 October 12-17, 1969
Anatoli Filipchenko, Viktor Gorbatko, Vladislav Volkov
Crew code name—Buran
Soyuz 8 October 13-18, 1969
Vladimir Shatalov, Alexei Yeliseyev
Crew code name—Granit

A unique joint flight of three Original Soyuz spacecraft carrying a total of seven cosmonauts. Soyuz 6 was a test of equipment to be used on future space stations. It carried welding equipment in its orbital module and had no docking apparatus. It was also intended to photograph the docking between Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8, which did not occur.[2]

Soyuz 9 June 1-19, 1970
Andrian Nikolayev, Vitali Sevastyonov
Crew code name–Sokol

Remained aloft for 17 days, 17 hr, beating the U.S. space endurance record set by the Gemini 7 astronauts in 1965. The mission gathered biomedical data in support of future space station missions.

1.4 L1 (Zond): Circumlunar Spacecraft (1967-1969)

The L1 (Zond) (figure 1-9) was meant to carry one or two cosmonauts on a circumlunar flight. It never flew manned, but did complete several unmanned circumlunar missions.

Figure 1-9. L1 (Zond) circumlunar spacecraft.

  1. Afanasyev, 1991, pp. 6-7.
  2. Payson, March 22, 1994, p. 1.