On Sept. 29, 1977, the Soviet Union launched its Salyut 6 space station into orbit.
This was the eighth space station the Soviet Union launched under its Salyut program and the first second-generation Salyut space station. Unlike its predecessors, Salyut 6 was able to accommodate long-duration crewed missions. It launched into orbit on a Proton-K rocket.
Over the course of its five years in operation, 16 cosmonaut crews visited the station. The longest anyone stayed there was 185 days. The space station deorbited in 1982 and burned up in Earth’s atmosphere.
The Salyut 6 space station in orbit. (Image credit: NASA/Roscosmos)Why it mattered
Salyut 6 may have been the Soviet Union’s eighth space station, but it was the first of a new generation of orbital outposts designed for long-term life off planet Earth.
The station carried many advancements over its predecessors, including two docking ports (instead of the standard one), which allowed Salyut 6 to host a prime cosmonaut crew, as well as welcome automated Progress cargo ships for resupply or even another Soyuz spacecraft crew for joint operations.
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Salyut 6 also included an airlock for spacewalks, allowing cosmonauts to work outside more regularly. In all, 16 Soyuz crews carrying two cosmonauts each, some from visiting countries under the Soviet Union’s Interkosmos program, visited Salyut 6 during its five-year mission life. Three spacewalks were performed, one each in 1977, 1978 and 1979. The last Salyut 6 crew visited the station in May 1981.
Soyuz 26 crewmates Yuri Romanenko and Georgi Grechko are seen as members of the Salyut 6 space station’s first long-duration crew. (Image credit: Roscosmos)
It was reportedly a mold problem on Salyut 6 that led Soviet space officials to decide to end the station’s mission. Salyut 6 fell to Earth after being intentionally deorbited on July 29, 1982.
Salyut 6 set a new standard for how long space crews could stay in orbit. It’s legacy lives on in the International Space Station, a partnership of five space agencies (NASA, Russia’s Roscosmos, and the space agencies of Europe, Canada and japan) that has spent nearly 28 years in orbit and hosted missions of up to a year.
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