Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Soyuz 16 Mission Statistics Mission Name: Soyuz 16 Call Sign: Буран (Buran - "Blizzard") Number of Crew Members: 2 Launch: December 2, 1974 09:40 UTC Baikonur Landing: December 8, 1974 08:04 UTC 30lm NE of Arkalyk Duration: 5 days, 22 hours, 24 minutes Number of Orbits: 95 Soyuz 16 was a test flight in the project to achieve a joint Soviet-US space flight that resulted in the Apollo-Soyuz mission. Cosmonauts Anatoli Filipchenko and Nikolai Rukavishnikov evaluated a modified Soyuz capsule and the docking equipment that would allow the dissimilar spacecraft to link up. Meanwhile, the flight gave the US and Soviet ground crews experience in working together, and satisfied US officials of the safety of the Soyuz craft. The mission went exactly to plan, with both administrations happy with the performance of the spacecraft and ground crews. Crew Anatoli Filipchenko Nikolai Rukavishnikov Mission Parameters Mass: 6800 kg Perigee: 184 km Apogee: 291 km Inclination: 51.8° Period: 89.2 minutes Previous Mission: Soyuz 15 Soyuz programme Next Mission: Soyuz 17 This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.