Soviet Space Program

Soyuz 23

Soyuz

SUCCESS
Success

Thursday, October 14, 1976 · 17:39 UTC

Mission

/01

Soyuz 23 was meant to be the second crewed flight to the Salyut 5 military space station. The mission began on October 14, 1976, 17:39:18 UTC, launching Commander Vyacheslav Zudov and Flight Engineer Valery Rozhdestvensky into orbit. They arrived at the station, but equipment malfunction did not allow docking and the mission had to be aborted Soyuz 23 returned to Earth on October 16, 1976, 17:45:53 UTC, with an unintended splashdown in partially frozen Lake Tengiz. The capsule sunk, and due to fog and other adverse conditions it took nine hours for the rescue team to recover the capsule and crew.

Mission Type

Human Exploration

Orbit

Low Earth Orbit (LEO)

Probability

N/A

Status

Launch Successful

Vehicle & Pad

/02

Rocket

Soyuz

Launch Pad

1/5

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

45.920° N, 63.342° E

157

Pad Launches

467

Location Launches

1055

Agency Launches

103

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