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backup engine (with KDU system, attitude thrusters can draw on main propellant supply and thereby deorbit Soyuz-T, removing the need for a separate backup main engine).
  • Jettisonable covers for portholes which permitted crew to look out of the spacecraft after reentry. On earlier flights a black coating
formed on the portholes during reentry and prevented crews from looking outside during descent and on the surface.
  • A lighter launch escape system.
  • Improved telemetry capabilities.
  • More powerful land landing system solid rocket motors. This made for a gentler touchdown,
important for the health and safety of the cosmonauts after a long-duration flight.
  • Sufficiently different from the Soyuz Ferry that crews required more than a year of special training to be able to fly it. This accounted in part for the gradual introduction of Soyuz-T, while Soyuz Ferries continued to fly.[1]

1.12.3 Soyuz-T Mission Descriptions


Dates are launch to landing.

1.12.3.1 Soyuz-T Test Missions


For information on Salyut operations during the Soyuz-T 1 mission, see section 2.7.3.3.

Cosmos 1001 April 4-15, 1978
Unmanned Soyuz-T test.


Cosmos 1074 January 31-April 1, 1979
Unmanned Soyuz-T test.


Soyuz-T 1 December 16, 1979-March 25, 1980
Docked unmanned with Salyut 6 on December 19, after overshooting the station on December 18.

1.12.3.2 Soyuz-T Missions to Salyut 6


For information on Salyut operations during these Soyuz missions, see sections 2.7.3.4 through 2.7.3.6.

Soyuz-T 2 June 5-9, 1980
Yuri Malyshev, Vladimir Aksyonov
Crew code name—Yupiter

First manned Soyuz-T mission. Its crew of two took over from the Argon computer system during final approach to the station, after it committed a guidance control error.


Soyuz-T 3 November 27-December 10, 1980
Leonid Kizim, Oleg Makarov, Gennadi Strekalov
Crew code name—Mayak

First Soyuz since 1971 to carry three cosmonauts. It constituted a Salyut 6 refurbishment mission.

  1. Langereux, p. 1.