Soyuz 28

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Soyuz 28 Союз-28
Mission insignia
Mission statistics
Mission name	Soyuz 28 Союз-28
Spacecraft name	Soyuz 7K-T
Spacecraft mass	6,800 kg (15,000 lb)
Crew size	2
Call sign	Зенит (Zenit - "Zenith")
Launch pad	Gagarin's Start[1]
Launch date	March 2 1978 15:28 (1978-03-02T15:28) UTC
Landing	March 10 1978 13:44 (March 10 1978 13:44) UTC 51°N 67°E / 51°N 67°E / 51; 67
Mission duration	7d/22:16
Apogee	275.6 km (171.2 mi)
Perigee	198.9 km (123.6 mi)
Orbital period	88.95 minutes
Orbital inclination	51.65°
Related missions
Previous mission Next mission Soyuz 27 Soyuz 29

Soyuz 28 (Russian: Союз 28, Union 28) was launched March 2, 1978, and was the third mission to dock with Salyut 6. Vladimír Remek from Czechoslovakia became the first person launched into space who was not a citizen of the United States or the Soviet Union. It was the first mission in the Intercosmos program that gave Eastern Bloc and other Communist countries access to space through manned and unmanned launches.

Contents 1 Crew 1.1 Backup crew 2 Mission parameters 3 Mission Highlights 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Crew

Position	Cosmonaut
Commander	Aleksei Gubarev EP-2 Second spaceflight
Research Cosmonaut	Vladimír Remek, IK EP-2 First spaceflight

[edit] Backup crew

Position	Cosmonaut
Commander	Nikolai Rukavishnikov
Research Cosmonaut	Oldřich Pelčák, IK

[edit] Mission parameters

• Mass: 6,800 kg (15,000 lb)
• Perigee: 198.9 km (123.6 mi)
• Apogee: 275.6 km (171.2 mi)
• Inclination: 51.65°
• Period: 88.95 minutes

[edit] Mission Highlights

The Soyuz 28 crew docked with Salyut 6, which was already occupied by Georgi Grechko and Yuri Romanenko. Like all Intercosmos missions it was 7 days and 21.5 hours plus or minus 1 hour in length. This meant that no Eastern Bloc nation could take offense that another had a longer flight (and possibly perceive that the Soviet Union favored that country). Most of the guest cosmonauts were trained as military pilots within the Soviet Union and spoke excellent Russian.

The mission's purpose was mainly political. The four crew members aboard Salyut 6 received messages from Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev and Gustáv Husák, the leader of Czechoslovakia. It was hoped that the Intercosmos flights would help prop up some of the failing communist regimes in the Bloc. Husák was unpopular in Czechoslovakia after reversing the reforms of his predecessor (who had been ousted by Warsaw Pact countries). Romanenko spoke on behalf of the crew saying:

"We shall apply all our strengths and knowledge to defend the great honour of this international crew, which has started to carry our this joint program of socialist countries' research and utilization of outer space for peaceful purposes."

Experiments were standardized in all Intercosmos missions. There were a variety of medical experiments, some multispectral photography of the visitor's home country, and one or two experiments developed by scientists in the visiting cosmonaut's country. On Remek's mission these were material processing.

Romanenko, one of the long-duration crew members, had developed an excruciating toothache and there was little remedy on the station. All doctors at mission control could suggest was that he wash his mouth with warm water and keep warm. By the end of the mission -- only six days after the Soyuz 28 crew's landing -- a nerve had been exposed.

The crew landed 135 km (84 mi) north of Arkalyk in the Soyuz 28 spacecraft. A joke appeared soon after the mission that Remek's hand had mysteriously turned red. He informed the doctors, the joke goes, that this was because every time he went to touch something, the Russian crewmembers would slap his hand and yell, "Don't touch that!"

[edit] External links

• http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-28.htm
• http://www.terra.es/personal/heimdall/eng/soyuz28.htm
• http://www.spacepatches.info/salyut/s28.html
• http://www.astronautix.com/flights/salt6ep2.htm
• http://books.nap.edu/books/0309085489/html/index.html

[edit] References

v • d • e Soyuz programme Planned TMA-16 · TMA-17 · TMA-18 · TMA-19 · TMA-01M · TMA-20 · TMA-21 · TMA-02M Current TMA-14 · TMA-15 Soyuz-TMA (2003–) 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 Soyuz-TM (1986–2003) 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-T (1976–1986) T-2 · T-3 · T-4 · T-5 · T-6 · T-7 · T-8 · T-9 · T-10-1 · T-10 · T-11 · T-12 · T-13 · T-14 · T-15 Soyuz 7K-TM (1975–1976) 19 · 22 Soyuz 7K-T (1973–1981) 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18a · 18  · 21 · 23 · 24 · 25 · 26 · 27 · 28 · 29 · 30 · 31 · 32 · 33 · 34 · 35 · 36 · 37 · 38 · 39 · 40 Soyuz 7K-OKS (1971) 10 · 11 Soyuz 7K-OK (1966–1971) 1 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 Unmanned Cosmos 133 · Cosmos 140 · Cosmos 186 · Cosmos 188 · Cosmos 212 · Cosmos 213 · Cosmos 238 · Soyuz 2 · Cosmos 379 · Cosmos 396 · Cosmos 398 · Cosmos 434 · Cosmos 496 · Cosmos 573 · Cosmos 613 · Cosmos 638 · Cosmos 656 · Cosmos 670 · Cosmos 672 · Cosmos 772 · Soyuz 20 · Cosmos 869 · Cosmos 1001 · Cosmos 1074 · Soyuz T-1 · Soyuz TM-1