Soyuz 3
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Key facts
- Mission type
- Test flight
- Operator
- Soviet space program
- Cospar id
- 1968-094A
- Satcat number span no
- 03516
- Mission duration
- 3 days 22 hours 50 minutes 45 seconds
- Spacecraft
- Soyuz 7K-OK No.10
- Spacecraft type
- Soyuz 7K-OK (active)
- Manufacturer
- Experimental Design Bureau (OKB-1)
- Launch mass
- 6575 kg
- Landing mass
- 2800 kg
- Dimensions
- 7.13 m long, 2.72 m wide
- Members
- Georgy Beregovoy
- Callsign
- Аргон ( Argon - "Argon")
- Launch date
- 26 October 1968, 08:34:18 GMT
- Rocket
- Soyuz
- Launch site
- Baikonur , Site 31/6
- Landing date
- 30 October 1968, 07:25:03 GMT
- Landing site
- Karaganda , Kazakhstan
via Wikipedia infobox
~6 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Soyuz 3 (Russian: Союз 3, Union 3) was a spaceflight mission launched by the Soviet Union on 26 October 1968. Flown by Georgy Beregovoy, the Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft completed 81 orbits over four days. The 47-year-old Beregovoy was a decorated World War II flying ace and the oldest person to go into orbit up to that time. The mission achieved the first Russian space rendezvous with the uncrewed Soyuz 2, but failed to achieve a planned docking of the two craft. As of June 2026, this mission marks the last time a Soviet/Russian cosmonaut was launched alone to conduct an entirely solo orbital mission.
Crew
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Soyuz 3” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.