Salyut 6

was a Soviet orbital station launched. It was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on September 29, 1977. With Salyut-6, the Soviet space station program evolved from short-duration to long-duration stays.

The station had two docking ports, which permitted refueling and resupply by automated Progress freighters. Progress docked automatically at the aft port, and was then opened and unlocked by cosmonauts on the station. Transfer of fuel to the station took place automatically under supervision from the ground. The second docking port allowed the long-duration resident crews to receive visiting short-duration crews.

Salyut 6 was visited by five long-duration crews and eleven short-term crews. Short-duration crews often included cosmonaut-researchers from Soviet bloc countries or countries sympathetic to the Soviet Union. Vladimir Remek of Czechoslovakia, the first space traveler not from the U.S. or U.S.S.R., visited Salyut 6 in 1978. The station also hosted cosmonauts from Hungary, Poland, Romania, Cuba, Mongolia, Vietnam, and East Germany.

An experimental transport logistics spacecraft called Cosmos 1267 docked with Salyut 6 in 1982. Originally designed for the Almaz program, Cosmos 1267 proved that large modules could dock automatically with space stations, a major step toward the multimodular Mir station and the International Space Station.

The station was deorbited on July 29, 1982.

Specifications

Length: 15.8 meters
Maxim