page_title: Salyut programme
section_title: Salyut 7 (DOS-6)
hierarchical_section_title: Salyut programme / History of Salyut space stations / Second generation – Long-duration inhabitation of space / Salyut 7 (DOS-6)
caption_attribution_description: A model of the Salyut 7 space station, with a Soyuz spacecraft docked at the front port and a Progress spacecraft at the rear port. The display is in front of one of the pavilions of the Exhibition of Soviet National Economic Achievement located across from the Kosmos Hotel on the north side of Moscow. (Image ID: DNSC8601101)
context_page_description: The Salyut programme was the first space station programme, undertaken by the Soviet Union. It involved a series of four crewed scientific research space stations and two crewed military reconnaissance space stations over a period of 15 years, from 1971 to 1986. Two other Salyut launches failed. In one respect, Salyut had the task of carrying out long-term research into the problems of living in space and a variety of astronomical, biological and Earth-resources experiments, and on the other hand the USSR used this civilian program as a cover for the highly secretive military Almaz stations, which flew under the Salyut designation. Salyut 1, the first station in the program, became the world's first crewed space station.
  Salyut flights broke several spaceflight records, including several mission-duration records, and achieved the first ever orbital handover of a space station from one crew to another, and various spacewalk records.
context_section_description: Salyut 7 (DOS-6) (Russian: Салют-7; English: Salute 7) was launched on 19 April 1982. DOS-6 was built as the backup vehicle for Salyut 6 with very similar equipment and capabilities, though several more advanced features were included. The station was in orbit for eight years and ten months, during which time it was crewed by ten spacecraft bringing six long-duration crews ("expeditions") and 4 short-term crews (including French and Indian cosmonauts in the Interkosmos programme).
  On 12 February 1985, during an uncrewed period, contact with Salyut 7 was lost. The station had become crippled by electrical problems, with all systems shut down and the station beginning to drift.  It was decided to put together a salvage mission, and on June 1985 the Soyuz T-13 mission, in what was in the words of author David S. F. Portree "one of the most impressive feats of in-space repairs in history," managed to bring the station online again.
  The Soyuz T-15 mission was the last to visit Salyut 7 in 1986, ferrying equipment from Salyut 7 to the new Mir space station; This was so far the only ferry flight between two space stations.
  Aside from the many experiments and observations made on Salyut 7, the station also tested the docking and use of large modules with an orbiting space station. These modules, called "Heavy Cosmos modules", helped engineers develop technology necessary to build Mir.
  Salyut 7 was deorbited on 7 February 1991.
caption: A full-scale model of a Salyut 7 space station and two docked spacecraft. On the left a Soyuz model can be seen docked to the front port, and on the right a Progress model is docked at the aft end. The display is in front of one of the pavilions of the Exhibition of Soviet National Economic Achievement.
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