Salyut 6was 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 |
| Maximum Diameter: | 4.15 meters |
| Habitate Volume: | 90 cubic meters |
| Weight at Launch: | 19,824 kilograms |
| Number of Solar Arrays: | 3 |
| Span of Solar Arrays: | 17 meters |
| Area of Solar Arrays: | 51 square meters |
| Number of Docking Ports: | 2 |
| Total Occupation Period: | 683 days |
Missions and Crews
visiting missions are in italics
| Mission Name | Mission Dates | Crew | Notes |
| EO-1 | December 10, 1977 - March 16, 1978 | Yuri Romanenko, Georgi Grechko | broke a record set on board Skylab, staying aboard for 96 days |
| EP-1 | January 10, 1978 - January 16, 1978 | Oleg Makarov, Vladimir Dzhanibekov | |
| EP-2 | March 2, 1978 - March 10, 1978 | Aleksei Gubarev, Valdimir Remek | Intercosmos flight |
| EO-2 | June 15, 1978 - November 2, 1978 | Vladimir Kovalyonok, Aleksandr Ivanchenkov | 140 days |
| EP-3 | June 27, 1978 - July 5, 1978 | Pyotr Klimuk, Miroslaw Hermaszewski | Intercosmos flight |
| EP-4 | August 26, 1978 - November 2, 1978 | Valery Bykovsky, Sigmund Jähn | Intercosmos flight |
| EO-3 | February 25, 1979 - August 19, 1979 | Vladimir Lyakhov, Valery Ryumin | 175 days |
| April 10, 1979 - April 12, 1979 | Nikolay Rukavishnikov, Georgi Ivanov | Intercosmos flight; failed docking | |
| June 6, 1979 - August 19, 1979 | launched empty to replace Soyuz 33; landed with long-duration crew | ||
| EO-4 | April 9, 1980 - October 11, 1980 | Leonid Popov, Valery Ryumin | 185 days |
| EP-5 | May 26, 1980 - July 31, 1980 | Valery Kubasov, Bertalan Farkas | Intercosmos flight |
| EP-6 | June 5, 1980 - June 9, 1980 | Yuri Malyshev, Vladimir Aksyonov | |
| EP-7 | July 23, 1980 - October 11, 1980 | Viktor Gorbatko, Pham Tuan | Intercosmos flight |
| EP-8 | September 18, 1980 - September 26, 1980 | Yuri Romanenko, Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez | Intercosmos flight |
| EO-5 | November 27, 1980 - December 10, 1980 | Leonid Kizim, Oleg Makarov, Gennady Strekalov | a repair mission lasting 12 days |
| EO-6 | March 12, 1981 - May 26, 1981 | Vladimir Kovalyonok, Viktor Savinykh | 75 days |
| EP-9 | March 22, 1981 - March 30, 1981 | Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Zhugderdemidiyn Gurragcha | Intercosmos flight |
| EP-10 | May 14, 1981 - May 22, 1981 | Leonid Popov, Dumitru Prunariu | Intercosmos flight |
David R. Williams. "Salyut 6." NSSDC Master Catalog Display: Spacecraft. Goddard Space Flight Center, 2005. nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1977-097A
