May 24, 1975 2:58 pm

Soyuz 18

|

Soyuz

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds
May 24, 1975 2:58 pm

Share:

Last Updated:

2026-07-13 09:35:54

Soyuz 18 was the second and final crew to man the Salyut 4 space station. The mission began on May 24th 1975 at 1458:10 UTC, launching Commander Pyotr Klimuk & Flight Engineer Vitali Sevastyanov into orbit docking with Salyut 4 2 days later. They stayed on the station for 63 days setting a new Soviet space endurance record at the time. Klimuk & Sevastyanov were the back-up crew for the failed Soyuz 18a mission so their mission goals included completing the goals of Soyuz 18a, continuing the work of Soyuz 17 & fixing or replacing equipment. They replaced a gas analyzer, switched a pumping condenser in the water regeneration system with a hand pump & fixed a spectrometer. Mostly the experiments were biological & medical but they also studied stars, planets, earth and its atmosphere with roughly 2000 photographs of Earth and 600 of the sun taken. The mission concluded with a safe landing on June 26th 1975 at 1418:18 UTC.
Launch Overview
Window Open 14:58 UTC
Window Close 14:58 UTC
Lift Off May 24, 1975 · 14:58 UTC
Launch Facility Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
Launch Pad 1/5
Target Orbit Low Earth Orbit
Payload Overview
Customer Soviet Space Program
Payload Soyuz 18
Rocket Soyuz
Destination Low Earth Orbit
Recovery Overview
Landing Location See Mission Notes
Landing Type RTLS / Droneship
Soyuz 18 was the second and final crew to man the Salyut 4 space station. The mission began on May 24th 1975 at 1458:10 UTC, launching Commander Pyotr Klimuk & Flight Engineer Vitali Sevastyanov into orbit docking with Salyut 4 2 days later. They stayed on the station for 63 days setting a new Soviet space endurance record at the time. Klimuk & Sevastyanov were the back-up crew for the failed Soyuz 18a mission so their mission goals included completing the goals of Soyuz 18a, continuing the work of Soyuz 17 & fixing or replacing equipment. They replaced a gas analyzer, switched a pumping condenser in the water regeneration system with a hand pump & fixed a spectrometer. Mostly the experiments were biological & medical but they also studied stars, planets, earth and its atmosphere with roughly 2000 photographs of Earth and 600 of the sun taken. The mission concluded with a safe landing on June 26th 1975 at 1418:18 UTC.

Height

LEO Payload

Total Launches

Status

Soviet Space Program
1/5
Launch Overview
Window Open 14:58 UTC
Window Close 14:58 UTC
Lift Off May 24, 1975 · 14:58 UTC
Launch Facility Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
Launch Pad 1/5
Target Orbit Low Earth Orbit
Payload Overview
Customer Soviet Space Program
Payload Soyuz 18
Rocket Soyuz
Destination Low Earth Orbit
Recovery Overview
Landing Location See Mission Notes
Landing Type RTLS / Droneship

Related Stories