Soyuz 28 (Russian: Союз 28, Union 28) was a March 1978 Soviet crewed mission to the orbiting Salyut 6 space station.[2] It was the fourth mission to the station, the third successful docking, and the second visit to the resident crew launched in Soyuz 26.
COSPAR ID | 1978-023A ![]() |
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SATCAT no. | 10694 |
Mission duration | 7 days, 22 hours, 16 minutes |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft type | Soyuz 7K-T |
Manufacturer | NPO Energia |
Launch mass | 6,800 kilograms (15,000 lb) |
Crew | |
Crew size | 2 |
Members | Aleksei Gubarev Vladimír Remek |
Callsign | Зенит (Zenit – "Zenith") |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 2 March 1978, 15:28 (1978-03-02UTC15:28Z) UTC |
Rocket | Soyuz-U |
Launch site | Baikonur 1/5[1] |
End of mission | |
Landing date | 10 March 1978, 13:44 (1978-03-10UTC13:45Z) UTC |
Landing site | 51°N 67°E |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric |
Regime | Low Earth |
Perigee altitude | 198.9 kilometres (123.6 mi) |
Apogee altitude | 275.6 kilometres (171.2 mi) |
Inclination | 51.65 degrees |
Period | 88.95 minutes |
Docking with Salyut 6 | |
![]() Soyuz programme (Crewed missions) |
Cosmonaut Vladimír Remek from Czechoslovakia became the first person launched into space who was not a citizen of the United States or the Soviet Union. The other crew member was Aleksei Gubarev. The flight was the first mission in the Intercosmos program that gave Eastern Bloc and other communist states access to space through crewed and uncrewed launches.
Position | Cosmonaut | |
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Commander | Aleksei Gubarev EP-2 Second and last spaceflight | |
Research Cosmonaut | Vladimír Remek, IK EP-2 Only spaceflight |
Position | Cosmonaut | |
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Commander | Nikolai Rukavishnikov | |
Research Cosmonaut | Oldřich Pelčák, IK |
![]() | This article cites its sources but does not provide page references. (March 2022) |
The Soyuz 28 mission was the first Intercosmos flight, whereby military pilots from Soviet bloc nations were flown on flights of about eight days to a Soviet space station. Pilots from other nations would eventually also fly. The program was a reaction to American plans to fly Western Europeans on Space Shuttle missions.[3][page needed]
Vladimir Remek, the first non-Soviet, non-American to travel to space, was launched aboard Soyuz 28 on 2 March 1978, after a three-day delay of unspecified cause. The Soyuz commander was Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Gubarev. The crew docked with the orbiting Salyut 6 space station, and greeted the occupants Georgi Grechko and Yuri Romanenko who had arrived on Soyuz 26 in December. Gubarev and Grechko had previously flown together on Soyuz 17 to the Salyut 4 space station in 1975.[4][page needed]
The day after the docking, the Soyuz 26 crew celebrated their breaking of the space endurance record of 84 days, set by the Skylab 4 crew in 1974.[4][page needed]
While the mission had a political purpose, scientific experiments were carried out, including one which monitored the growth of chlorella algae in zero gravity, another which used the on-board Splav furnace to melt glass, lead, silver, and copper chlorides, and an experiment called Oxymeter which measured oxygen in human tissue.[3][page needed]
On 10 March, the Soyuz 28 crew prepared for their return to Earth, packing experiments and testing systems. They undocked from the station and landed 310 kilometres (190 mi) west of Tselinograd later that day.[3][page needed]
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 Soviet crewmembers would slap his hand and yell, "Don't touch that!"[5]
Soyuz programme | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Past missions (by spacecraft type) |
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Future missions |
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Uncrewed missions are designated as Kosmos instead of Soyuz; exceptions are noted "(uncrewed)". The † sign designates failed missions. Italics designates cancelled missions. |
Interkosmos programme | ||
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Satellites |
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Manned flights |
← 1977 · Orbital launches in 1978 · 1979 → | |
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Kosmos 974 | Intelsat IVA F-3 | Soyuz 27 | Kosmos 975 | Kosmos 976 · Kosmos 977 · Kosmos 978 · Kosmos 979 · Kosmos 980 · Kosmos 981 · Kosmos 982 · Kosmos 983 | Kosmos 984 | Kosmos 985 | Progress 1 | Molniya-3 No.20 | Kosmos 986 | Fanhui Shi Weixing 4 | IUE | Kosmos 987 | Kyokko | Kosmos 988 | OPS 6291 | Kosmos 989 | Ume 2 | Kosmos 990 | OPS 5111 | OPS 6031 | Kosmos 991 | Soyuz 28 | Molniya-1-39 | Kosmos 992 | Landsat 3 · OSCAR 8 · PIX-1 | Kosmos 993 | Kosmos 994 | OPS 0460 · OPS 7858 | Kosmos 995 | OPS 9439 · OPS 9440 | Kosmos 996 | Kosmos 997 · Kosmos 998 | Kosmos 999 | Kosmos 1000 | Intelsat IVA F-6 | Kosmos 1001 | Kosmos 1002 | OPS 8790 | Yuri 1 | Kosmos 1003 | HCMM | OPS 6183 | Kosmos 1004 | OTS-2 | Kosmos 1005 | Kosmos 1006 | OPS 5112 | Kosmos 1007 | Kosmos 1008 | Kosmos 1009 | Pioneer Venus Orbiter | Kosmos 1010 | Kosmos 1011 | Kosmos 1012 | Ekran No.13L | Molniya-1-40 | Kosmos 1013 · Kosmos 1014 · Kosmos 1015 · Kosmos 1016 · Kosmos 1017 · Kosmos 1018 · Kosmos 1019 · Kosmos 1020 | Kosmos 1021 | OPS 9454 | Kosmos 1022 | OPS 4515 | Soyuz 29 | GOES 3 | Kosmos 1023 | Seasat | Soyuz 30 | Kosmos 1024 | Kosmos 1025 | Comstar 1C | Kosmos 1026 | Progress 2 | GEOS-2 | Molniya-1-41 | Gran' No.14L | Kosmos 1027 | OPS 7310 | Kosmos 1028 | Progress 3 | Pioneer Venus Multiprobe | ISEE-3 | Ekran No.15L | Molniya-1-41 | Soyuz 31 | Kosmos 1029 | Kosmos 1030 | Venera 11 | Kosmos 1031 | Venera 12 | Jikiken | Kosmos 1032 | Kosmos 1033 | Progress 4 | Kosmos 1034 · Kosmos 1035 · Kosmos 1036 · Kosmos 1037 · Kosmos 1038 · Kosmos 1039 · Kosmos 1040 · Kosmos 1041 | Kosmos 1042 | OPS 5113 | Kosmos 1043 | Molniya-3 No.22 | TIROS-N | Kosmos 1044 | Ekran No.14L | Nimbus 7 · CAMEO | Interkosmos 18 · Magion 1 | Kosmos 1045 · RS-1 · RS-2 | Prognoz 7 | Kosmos 1046 | Einstein | Kosmos 1047 | Kosmos 1048 | NATO 3C | Kosmos 1049 | Kosmos 1050 | Kosmos 1051 · Kosmos 1052 · Kosmos 1053 · Kosmos 1054 · Kosmos 1055 · Kosmos 1056 · Kosmos 1057 · Kosmos 1058 | Kosmos 1059 | Kosmos 1060 | OPS 5114 | OPS 9441 · OPS 9442 | Kosmos 1061 | Kosmos 1062 | Anik B1 · DRIMS | Kosmos 1063 | Gorizont No.11L | Kosmos 1064 | Kosmos 1065 | Kosmos 1066 | Kosmos 1067 | Kosmos 1068 | Kosmos 1069 | |
Payloads are separated by bullets ( · ), launches by pipes ( | ). Crewed flights are indicated in underline. Uncatalogued launch failures are listed in italics. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are denoted in (brackets). |