Soyuz 15

Soyuz 15 was a human spaceflight mission of the Soviet Union. It was to have been the second mission to the Salyut 3 space station with presumably military objectives.

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Although the spacecraft arrived at the station successfully, cosmonauts Lev Demin and Gennadi Sarafanov were unable to dock because of a fault in the automated docking system. Without sufficient fuel for prolonged attempts at manual docking, the mission had to be abandoned.

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It was later claimed by Soviet authorities that no docking had been intended and that the flight had only been undertaken to devlop techniques for maneuvering near the space station.

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The faulty equipment was redesigned before the next attempt was made.

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Soyuz: Soyuz is Russian for "Union". Depending on the context, Soyuz may also refer to any of the following:...

Human spaceflight: Human spaceflight is space exploration with a human crew, and possibly passengers (in contrast to unmanned space missions, which are remotely-controlled or robotic space probes). Traditionally, these endeavours have been referred to as manned space missions, although today some prefer to use the ter...

Soviet Union: The Soviet Union, also called The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (?????????? ?????; tr.: Sovetsky Soyuz or (????) ; tr.: Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik ), was an officially socialist state founded in 1922, centered on Russia, and dissolved in 1991. From 1945 until its d...