Apr 5 1975
From The Space Library
A Soyuz spacecraft, launched by the U.S.S.R. from Baykonur Cosmodrome and carrying Cosmonauts Vasily Lazarev and Oleg Makarov, was returned to earth shortly after launch when the launch vehicle failed to perform normally. Tass reported, "On the third-stage stretch the parameters of the carrier rocket's movement deviated from the preset values and an automatic device produced the command to discontinue the flight under the program and detach the spacecraft for return to earth." Tass also reported that the purpose of the mission had been to continue experiments aboard the Salyut 4 space station (launched 26 Dec. 1974). The Soyuz softlanded southwest of Gomo-Altaisk in Western Siberia. The search and rescue service brought the cosmonauts, both in good condition, back to the cosmodrome.
During a telephone conference on 8 April, Prof. Konstantin D. Bushuyev, U.S.S.R. technical director for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, told his U.S. counterpart, Glynn S. Lunney, that the launch vehicle that failed was not the version of the booster that would be used for the July ASTP launch. He promised to provide Lunney with additional details on the failure after they became available. (Tass, FBIS-Sov, 7 April 75, U1; NASA Release 75-97; W Star, 7 April 75, A4)
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