Soyuz 39

Soyuz 39 was a Soviet space flight.

Soyuz 39
Mission insignia
Mission statistics
Mission name	Soyuz 39
Crew size	2
Call sign	Pamir (Pamirs)
Launch date	March 22, 1981 14:58:55 UTC Gagarin's Start
Landing	March 30, 1981 11:40:58 UTC 175 km SE of Dzhezkazgan
Mission duration	7d/20:42:03
Number of orbits	124
Related missions
Previous mission Subsequent mission Soyuz T-4 Soyuz 40

Crew

Position	Crew
Commander	Vladimir Dzhanibekov Second spaceflight  Soviet Union
Research Cosmonaut	Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa First spaceflight  Mongolia

Backup crew

Position	Crew
Commander	Vladimir Lyakhov  Soviet Union
Research Cosmonaut	Maidarzhavyn Ganzorig  Mongolia

Mission parameters

• Mass: 6800 kg
• Perigee: 197.5 km
• Apogee: 282.8 km
• Inclination: 51.6°
• Period: 89.01 minutes

Mission highlights

15th expedition to Salyut 6. 8th international crew. Carried intercosmos cosmonaut from Mongolia. Intercosmos mission to Salyut 6. The Soyuz 39 crew visited Vladimir Kovalyonok and Viktor Savinykh, who were delivered by the Soyuz-T4 spacecraft.

Soyuz 39 docked with the first Mongolian cosmonaut aboard. The Fotons assisted the Intercosmos crew with station equipment and oriented the station according to the needs of the Visiting Expedition’s experiments. On March 24 the cosmonauts installed cosmic ray detectors in the work and transfer compartments. On March 26 the cosmonauts performed the Illyuminator (“viewing port”) experiment, which studied the degradation of the station’s viewports. On March 27 Kovalyonok and Savinykh used the Gologramma (“hologram”) apparatus to image a viewing port damaged by micrometeoroids. They repeated this March 28, when they also collected samples of the station’s air and microflora and removed the cosmic ray detectors for return to Earth. March 28-29 were largely devoted to studies of Mongolia from space. The Visiting Expedition crew checked out their spacecraft on March 29. The Soviet news service TASS noted that by March 29 Salyut 6 had conducted 20,140 revolutions of Earth.