Exactly 40 years ago, on July 17, 1975, a historic handshake took place in orbit. On this day, Soyuz-19, with a crew of Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov, docked with the Apollo spacecraft carrying Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand and Donald Slayton.

A plan to launch a joint Soviet-American manned mission began to be worked out in 1970. After a positive reaction from the authorities, in May 1972, an agreement was signed on the experimental Apollo-Soyuz flight (since the Soyuz-Apollo sounds much simpler, I will stick to it).

The main difficulty on the path of the mission was the incompatibility of the Soviet and American atmosphere. No, this is not about the atmosphere of freedom, but about the composition of the atmospheres on spaceships. The Apollo atmosphere consisted of pure oxygen, its pressure was 0.35 of the earth's. The atmosphere of the "Union" in its composition and pressure was similar to the earth. So it was impossible to just knock and open the hatch - it was necessary to create a sealed docking compartment that would play the role of a decompression chamber.

As a result, a similar compartment was built: it weighed two tons and had a length of three meters and went into space with the Apollo.

The spaceships themselves also underwent certain modifications and were equipped with specially designed new docking nodes.

In the course of the work, the engineers had a number of rather unexpected questions, such as changing the composition of the material from which the suits of Soviet crews were made - because in an oxygen atmosphere it became a fire hazard.

The flight was preceded by joint training of the American and Soviet crews in the USSR and the USA.

In addition, the Soviet Union conducted several test flights of a modified version of the Soyuz intended for the mission.

Both ships launched on July 15, 1975. First went Soyuz-19.

Behind him "Apollo".

The spacecraft docked in orbit on July 17, 1975.

Shortly after the historic handshake, Leonov stunned the Americans with a proposal, in accordance with the good Russian tradition, to drink vodka (from tubes). They broke for a long time, but then agreed. In the end, it all turned out to be a hoax, because there was borscht in the tubes. Upon learning this, the Americans were upset.

During the flight, the astronauts were called into orbit by President Harrison Ford.

The joint flight of the two ships lasted 44 hours. On July 19, the vehicles undocked, and the Apollo was used in an experiment to create an artificial solar eclipse: it covered the Sun, allowing the Soyuz crew to make observations of the solar corona.

After two orbits, another docking was made in order to better work out the technology - but without the transfer of crews from ship to ship. Two more orbits later, the Soyuz and Apollo undocked for the last time.

Soyuz-19 landed on July 21, 1975. The Apollo landed three days later on July 24, 1975. It really almost ended in tragedy. Due to a crew error, toxic fumes of dinitrogen tetrakoscide, which was used as fuel in the ship's attitude control system, began to be sucked into the capsule. On top of that, the capsule capsized during splashdown. Inhaling vapors, Vance Brand lost consciousness, but the situation was saved by Commander Thomas Stafford, who promptly pulled oxygen masks on everyone. As a result, the astronauts spent the next two weeks after landing in a hospital in Honolulu.

Soyuz - Apollo was the last mission to use the Apollo spacecraft. Shortly after the completion of the flight, the conversion of NASA infrastructure for future reusable spacecraft began. However, due to a number of delays and an increase in the cost of the program, the shuttles first went into space in 1981 - so the Americans did not fly into space for almost 6 years.

It is also interesting that Donald Slayton, for whom the Apollo Soyuz was the first and last flight into space, was one of the seven members of the very first American astronaut squad (the so-called Mercury Seven) recruited back in 1959. Thus, it took him 16 years to still go into space.

Apollo Soyuz Model at the Smithsonian Museum

The Soyuz-Apollo flight is considered the informal end of the classic space race between the USSR and the USA. True, there were still Star Wars ahead and a rather senseless attempt to create our own Soviet reusable system as an answer to the shuttle. The next joint manned missions took place only in the 1990s as part of the Mir-Shuttle program.

On July 15, 1975, the launch of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft in the USSR and Apollo in the United States began the first joint space flight in the history of mankind between representatives of different countries.

Contacts between Soviet and American scientists in the field of space exploration began immediately after the launches of the first artificial earth satellites. At that time, they were reduced mainly to the exchange of scientific results obtained at various international conferences and symposiums.

A shift towards the development and deepening of Soviet-American cooperation in space exploration was outlined in 1970-1971, when a number of meetings of scientists and technical specialists from both countries took place.

On October 26-27, 1970, the first meeting of Soviet and American specialists on the problems of compatibility of means of rendezvous and docking of manned spacecraft and stations was held in Moscow. At the meeting, working groups were formed to develop and agree on technical requirements to ensure the compatibility of these tools.

Handshake in space: Soyuz-Apollo program in archival footage

© RIA Novosti

Handshake in space: the Soyuz-Apollo program in archival footage

On April 6, 1972, the final document of the meeting of representatives of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) laid the practical foundation for the Apollo-Soyuz experimental project (ASTP).

On May 24, 1972, in Moscow, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Alexei Kosygin and US President Richard Nixon signed the "Agreement between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America on cooperation in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes", which provided for docking during 1975 the Soviet Soyuz-type spacecraft and the American Apollo-type spacecraft in open space with the mutual transfer of cosmonauts.

The main objectives of the program were the creation of a promising universal rescue equipment, the development of technical systems and methods of joint flight control, the implementation of joint scientific research and experiments.

Especially for the joint flight, they developed a universal docking port - petal or, as it is also called, "androgynous". The spade connection was the same for both docking ships, which made it possible not to think about compatibility in an emergency.

A major problem in the docking of ships was the question of the general atmosphere. The Apollo was designed for an atmosphere of pure oxygen at low pressure (280 millimeters of mercury), while Soviet ships flew with an onboard atmosphere close in composition and pressure to the earth's. To solve this problem, an additional compartment was attached to the Apollo, in which, after docking, the parameters of the atmosphere approached the atmosphere in the Soviet spacecraft. In Soyuz, because of this, the pressure was reduced to 520 millimeters of mercury. At the same time, the Apollo command module with one astronaut remaining there had to be sealed.

Soyuz-Apollo

© RIA Novosti, Infographics

Soyuz-Apollo mission

In March 1973, NASA announced the composition of the crews of the Apollo spacecraft. The main crew included Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand and Donald Slayton, while the backup crew included Alan Bean, Ronald Evans and Jack Lousma. Two months later, the crews of the Soyuz spacecraft were determined. The first crew - Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov, the second - Anatoly Filipchenko and Nikolai Rukavishnikov, the third - Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Boris Andreev, the fourth - Yuri Romanenko and Alexander Ivanchenkov. At the same time, it was decided that each ship would be controlled by its own MCC (Mission Control Center).

On December 2-8, 1974, in accordance with the Soviet program of preparation for a joint space experiment, the flight of the modernized Soyuz-16 spacecraft was carried out with the crew - Anatoly Filipchenko (commander) and Nikolai Rukavishnikov (flight engineer). During this flight, tests of the life support system, testing of the automatic system and individual components of the docking unit, testing of the methodology for performing joint scientific experiments, etc., were carried out.

On July 15, 1975, the final stage of the project began with the launch of the Soyuz-19 and Apollo spacecraft. At 15:20 Moscow time, the Soyuz-19 spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov on board. And seven and a half hours later, the Apollo spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral (USA) with astronauts Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand and Donald Slayton.

On July 16, the crews of both spacecraft were engaged in repair work: on the Soyuz-19, a malfunction was discovered in the television system, and on the Apollo, an error was made during the assembly of the docking mechanism on the ground. Cosmonauts and astronauts managed to eliminate the malfunctions.

At this time, there were maneuvers and the approach of two spacecraft. Two orbits before docking, the Soyuz-19 crew set the spacecraft's orbital orientation using manual control. It was maintained automatically. In the area of ​​rendezvous of the ships, during the preparation for each maneuver, control was provided by the jet system and the Apollo digital autopilot.

July 17 at 18.14 Moscow time (MSK) began the final phase of the rendezvous of the ships. Apollo, which used to catch up with Soyuz-19 from behind, came out 1.5 kilometers ahead of it. The docking (touching) of the Soyuz-19 and Apollo spacecraft was recorded at 19.09 Moscow time, the compression of the joint - at 19.12 Moscow time. The ships docked, becoming the prototype of the future international space station.

After a rough check of the tightness in the Soyuz-19 spacecraft, the hatch between the descent module and the service compartment was opened, and a precise check of the tightness was started. Then the tunnel between the Apollo docking module and the Soyuz household compartment was pressurized to 250 millimeters of mercury. The cosmonauts opened the hatch of the Soyuz's amenity compartment. A few minutes later, the hatch of the Apollo docking module was opened.

The symbolic handshake of the ship commanders took place at 22.19 Moscow time.

The meeting of Alexei Leonov, Valery Kubasov, Thomas Stafford and Donald Slayton in the Soyuz-19 spacecraft was observed on Earth on television. During the first transition, the planned TV reports, filming, the exchange of the USSR and the USA flags, the transfer of the UN flag, the exchange of souvenirs, the signing of the International Aviation Federation (FAI) certificate on the first docking of two spacecraft of different countries in orbit, a joint lunch were held.

The next day, the second transition was carried out - astronaut Brand transferred to the Soyuz-19, and the commander of the Soyuz-19, Leonov, to the Apollo docking compartment. The crew members were familiarized in detail with the equipment and systems of another ship, joint TV reports and filming, physical exercises, etc. were made. Later, two more crossings were made.

The world's first international press conference in space took place aboard the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft, during which the cosmonauts and astronauts answered questions by radio from the Earth from the Soviet and American press centers.

The flight of the spacecraft in the docked state lasted 43 hours 54 minutes 11 seconds.

The ships undocked on July 19 at 15.03 Moscow time. Then the Apollo retreated 200 meters from the Soyuz-19. After the experiment

"Artificial solar eclipse" spaceships approached again. A second (test) docking occurred, during which the Soyuz-19 docking unit was active. The docking device worked without comment. After carrying out all the checks at 18.26 Moscow time, the divergence of the spacecraft began. The second time the ships were docked for two hours 52 minutes 33 seconds.

Upon completion of the joint and own flight programs, the Soyuz-19 crew successfully landed on July 21, 1975 near the city of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan, and on July 25 the command module of the Apollo spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. During landing, the American crew confused the sequence of switching procedures, as a result of which poisonous fuel exhaust began to be sucked into the cockpit. Stafford managed to get oxygen masks and put them on for himself and his unconscious comrades, and the efficiency of the rescue services also helped.

The flight confirmed the correctness of technical solutions to ensure the compatibility of rendezvous and docking facilities for future manned spacecraft and stations.

Today, the docking systems developed for the Soyuz-19 and Apollo spacecraft are used by almost all participants in space flights.

The success of the program was largely due to the extensive experience of the crews of the American and Soviet ships.

The experience of the successful implementation of the Soyuz-Apollo program served as a good basis for subsequent international space flights under the Mir-Shuttle program, as well as for the creation with the participation of many states of the world and the joint operation of the International Space Station (ISS).

Apollo (mythology) (Phoebus) god of the Sun in Ancient Greece. Apollo Belvedere famous statue of the god Apollo, located in the Vatican. Apollo (port.) A well-built, handsome man. Apollo series American ... ... Wikipedia

Flight data of the ship Name of the ship Soyuz 17 Launch vehicle Soyuz Flight of the Soyuz No. 17 Launch pad Baikonur site 1 Launch January 11, 1975 2 ... Wikipedia

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Patch on the suit of the crew Experimental flight "Apollo" "Soyuz" (abbr. ASTP; more common name is the program "Soyuz Apollo"; English Apollo Soyuz Test Project (AST ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see Apollo (meanings). Apollo Emblem ... Wikipedia

Experimental flight "Apollo" "Soyuz" (ASTP, or the more common name of the program "Soyuz" "Apollo"; English Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP)) the program of the joint experimental flight of the Soviet spacecraft "Soyuz 19" and ... Wikipedia

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This article is about a successful spaceflight. For an unsuccessful launch, known by the same number, see Soyuz 18 1 Soyuz 18 Emblem ... Wikipedia

Soyuz (space)- Docked ships Soyuz and Apollo. National Air and Space Museum. Washington, USA. "Soyuz" (cosm.) SOYUZ, 1) multi-seat spacecraft for flights in near-Earth orbit, created in the USSR. Maximum weight is about 7 tons, volume ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Books

• Soyuz and Apollo. Tell Soviet scientists, engineers and cosmonauts - participants in joint work with American specialists,. This book is about how the preparation and implementation of the joint flight of the ships - "Soyuz" and "Apollo" took place. Its authors are those who, together with American specialists, prepared this unique ...
• The Soyuz-Apollo program: a scam on a cosmic scale? , . In July 1975, the whole world discussed an event of international significance - the first joint flight of the Soviet Soyuz and the American Apollo. The goal of the project was declared "accumulation of experience ...

In July 1975, 40 years ago, at an altitude of 200 kilometers above the Earth, two spacecraft met: Soyuz and Apollo. The preparation of the experiment lasted 3 years. A universal docking mechanism and a special transfer compartment were developed for the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft. The crews literally learned to breathe the same air: before this flight, there was no unified life support system. The meeting in orbit was the beginning on the Mir space complex, and later on the International Space Station.

July 15, 1975 Two Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft docked in neutral space. At an altitude of 200 kilometers above the Earth, two political systems, two different worlds, met.

Here it is - the first one-to-one space train - a bunch of two completely different ships. That's what they looked like in a bunch in orbit. The ASTP program, the Apollo-Soyuz experimental flight, was destined to become the prototype of the International Space Station and a symbol of cooperation in space.

Docking systems engineer Viktor Pavlov, head of mission control Viktor Blagov and cosmonaut Alexander Ivanchenkov. Then hundreds of people began to work on the most important project so that a historic meeting could take place!

“Instead of engaging in the Cold War, we engaged in cooperation in space. I note that the only industry that has gained such courage is the space industry,” recalls Viktor Blagov, flight director.

In 1972, the US and the USSR agreed to create joint systems for rescuing crews in space. The development of docking stations and the adaptation of radio communication systems began on two continents.

"Of course, there was colossal ground preparation, colossal work on interfacing interfaces, and it all worked," says Viktor Pavlov, head of testing, deputy head of RSC Energia RSC.

In order for the docking to be successful, the spaceships were seriously modified. The fact is that the internal atmosphere of the ships differed: so American equipment and people worked in a purely oxygen environment, Soviet devices worked on air-gas mixtures, that is, in ordinary air.

“Now the Americans fly with air, just like we do,” says Viktor Blagov.

The docking points did not fit together. The docking system has been redesigned. They made APAS - an androgynous-peripheral docking unit.

“The systems are incompatible, pin-cone systems. Who to be a pin and who to be a cone was a problem. And it was difficult to agree on this. Everyone wants to be active, everyone wants to be strong, everyone wants to be pins,” explains Viktor Pavlov, head of testing, Deputy Head of STC RSC Energia.

On July 15, 1975, the Soyuz-19 spacecraft with Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov took off from Baikonur.

A few hours later, Apollo 18 took off from Florida, carrying Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand, and Donald Slayton.

The color camera on the Soviet ship failed. It was an emergency. For the first time, Moscow broadcast the launch and the flight live to the whole world. We decided to repair the equipment already in space. It didn't work out for the Americans either. When re-docking the airlock compartment, it became clear that the historic meeting was on the verge of failure. The opening of the hatches is hindered by the cable.

“This meant that we were docking, but the transition would not work, we would enter the airlock, but we would not enter Apollo,” says Viktor Blagov, RSC Energia flight director.

Docked in orbit twice. The first time is July 17th. The node of the American ship was active. This first docking went down in history.

“I open the hatch and see the smiling face of Tom Stafford in front of me. I took his hand, and I dragged him into my ship,” recalls Alexei Leonov, cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union.

After this flight, the crews became best friends. And in 2004, Thomas Staffort adopted two Russian boys from an orphanage. Every time they meet, all participants in that historic event note: without the Soyuz-Apollo docking, there would be no Mir-Shuttle program, no ISS, no particularly trusting relationship between Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts.

The program was approved on May 24, 1972 by the Agreement between the USSR and the USA on cooperation in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes.

The main objectives of the program were:

• testing elements of a compatible orbital rendezvous system;
• testing of an active-passive docking unit;
• verification of machinery and equipment to ensure the transition of astronauts from ship to ship;
• accumulation of experience in conducting joint flights of spacecraft of the USSR and the USA.

In addition, the program involved studying the possibility of controlling the orientation of docked ships, checking intership communications and coordinating the actions of the Soviet and American mission control centers.

Training

External images
Technical documentation
(from official NASA materials)
	flight profile
	Docking, service and command modules

The initiator of the joint flight of the American and Soviet manned spacecraft with docking in orbit was NASA. This idea was expressed by the director of NASA Thomas Paine in early 1970 during a correspondence with Mstislav Keldysh, President of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Working groups were formed to agree on the technical requirements to ensure the compatibility of the Soviet and American ships existing at that time - the Soyuz and the Apollo. On October 26-27, 1970, the first meeting of Soviet and American specialists on the problems of compatibility of means of rendezvous and docking of manned spacecraft took place in Moscow. The implementation of the project became possible after the signing on May 24, 1972 in Moscow by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Alexei Kosygin and US President Richard Nixon "Agreement on Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes". Article number 3 of the agreement provided for an experimental flight of the ships of the two countries with docking and mutual transfer of astronauts in 1975.

For the ASTP program, both sides developed special modifications of the spacecraft of the Soyuz and Apollo series. While the Soyuz-series ship underwent outwardly minor changes (with the exception of the fact that it became a two-seater, solar panels appeared, its carrying capacity and propulsion systems changed), it was equipped with an androgynous-peripheral docking station APAS-75 participating in the docking. And the remaining unchanged Apollo spacecraft of the near-Earth version (without the lunar module) was supplemented with a special docking and airlock transitional compartment, which in turn contained a docking port designed and manufactured in the USSR. Similar compartments were used in all subsequent joint programs.

The Soviet side manufactured six copies of the 7K-TM ships for the program, of which four flew under the ASTP program. Three ships made test flights: two unmanned under the names " Cosmos-638», « Cosmos-672 in April and August 1974 and one Soyuz-16 manned flight in December 1974. The fifth copy was prepared for an immediate launch if a rescue expedition was needed during the days of the joint flight and was installed together with the launch vehicle at the launch site of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and was later dismantled into components for the next ships of the series. The sixth instance was later equipped with a powerful multispectral Earth remote sensing camera and made in September 1976 the last Soyuz-22 manned flight for the ships of the series without docking with the orbital station.

The American side did not perform rehearsal flights and reserve ships under the program. At this time, from May 1973 to February 1974, she made three manned flights under the Skylab program.

Soviet and American crews underwent joint training on spacecraft simulators at the Cosmonaut Training Center. Yu. A. Gagarin (USSR) and at the Space Center. L. Johnson (USA) .

Solving technical problems

External images
	Group photo of participants in the ASTP program

Mixed Soviet-American working groups were created to jointly develop technical solutions. Soviet and American scientists and designers faced the need to solve a set of problems related to ensuring the compatibility of means of mutual search and rendezvous of spacecraft, their docking units, LSS and equipment for mutual transition from one ship to another, means of communication and flight control, organizational and methodological compatibility .

Atmosphere on ships and transition compartment

The life support systems (LSS) of the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft were incompatible, primarily because of the difference in the atmosphere. In the Apollo, people breathed pure oxygen under reduced pressure (≈0.35 atmospheric pressure), while on the Soyuz, an atmosphere similar to that of the earth in composition and pressure was maintained. Air circulation and air conditioning systems were built on different principles. Communication between the atmospheres of the ships would lead to a breakdown in the automatic regulation of these systems. Direct transfer from ship to ship was impossible for these reasons. Simple locking could not be used due to decompression sickness during the transition from the Soyuz to the Apollo.

To ensure the compatibility of the LSS and the means of transition, a special docking and airlock transition compartment was created, which was launched into orbit along with the Apollo and allowed cosmonauts and astronauts to move from ship to ship. The transition compartment was a cylinder more than 3 meters long, with a maximum diameter of 1.4 meters and a mass of 2 tons. To create the transition compartment, developments on the lunar module were used, in particular, the same docking port was used to connect to the ship. After entering the orbit, Apollo, just as it “picked up” the lunar module in lunar flights, turned 180 degrees and docked with the transfer compartment, “picking up” it from the second stage of the “Saturn”, but in the process of docking and undocking with “ Soyuz" this node was not used.

During the transfer of crews from ship to ship, an atmosphere was created in the transition compartment that corresponded to the atmosphere of the ship into which the transition was made. To reduce the difference in atmospheres, the pressure in the Apollo was slightly raised - up to 258 mm Hg. Art. , and in the "Union" was reduced to 520 mm Hg. Art. , increasing the oxygen content to 40%. As a result, the duration of the desaturation process during locking was reduced from eight hours to three, during which the astronauts' stay in the transfer compartment made it possible to avoid decompression and perform sufficient desaturation. Slayton's role was referred to as "transition bay pilot".

Ordinary suits of Soviet cosmonauts became flammable in the Apollo atmosphere due to the increased oxygen content in it. To solve the problem in the Soviet Union, in the shortest possible time, a heat-resistant polymer was developed that surpassed foreign analogues described in the literature (oxygen index was 79, and for fibers produced by DuPont - 41). From this polymer, the heat-resistant Lola fabric was created for the suits of Soviet cosmonauts. The initial monomers for obtaining a heat-resistant polymer were synthesized with the active participation and guidance of the famous Soviet chemist E. P. Fokin.

Docking units

The compatibility of docking units required the consistency of their concept, the geometric dimensions of the mating elements, the loads acting on them, the unification of the design of power locks, sealing devices. The regular docking units, which were equipped with the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft, made according to the asymmetric paired active-passive "pin-cone" scheme, did not meet these requirements. Therefore, for docking on ships, a new APAS-75 unit specially developed at the Energia Design Bureau was installed.

This development is one of the few created within the framework of the ASTP project, the basic elements of which are still in use. Modern modifications of APAS, produced in Russia, allow docking to Russian docking nodes (both active and passive) spacecraft of other countries, as well as docking these ships with ISS modules, provided that they have two such compatible units.

Crews

Chronology of joint flight

Start

• On July 15, 1975, at 15:20, Soyuz-19 was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome;
• At 22:50, Apollo was launched from the Cape Canaveral spaceport (using the Saturn-1B launch vehicle)

Maneuvers in orbit

• On July 17, at 19:12, the Soyuz-19 and Apollo were docked (the 36th orbit of the Soyuz);

External video files
	Docking and handshake

The docking of the ships took place two days after the launch. Active maneuvering was carried out by Apollo, the speed of approach of the spacecraft upon contact with the Soyuz was approximately 0.25 m/s. Three hours later, after the opening of the hatches of the Soyuz and Apollo, a symbolic handshake took place between the commanders of the ships Alexei Leonov and Thomas Stafford. Then Stafford and Donald Slayton made the transition to the Soviet ship. During the flight of the ships in the docked state, four transitions of crew members between the ships were carried out. .

• On July 19, the ships were undocked (the 64th circuit of the Soyuz), after which, after two turns, the ships were re-docked (the 66th circuit of the Soyuz), after another two turns, the ships finally undocked (the 68th circuit " Union").

Flight time

• Soyuz-19 - 5 days 22 hours 31 minutes;
• Apollo - 9 days 1 hour 28 minutes;
• The total flight time in the docked state is 46 hours 36 minutes.

Landing

• Soyuz-19 - July 21, 1975
• "Apollo" - July 24, 1975

Experiments

During the joint flight, several scientific and technical experiments were carried out:

• Artificial solar eclipse - study from Soyuz