COSPAR ID 1980-064A Period 1.5 hours Dates 23 Jul 1980 – 11 Oct 1980 Landing date 11 October 1980 | Orbits completed 124 Manufacturer NPO Energia Apogee 293,100 m Launch date 23 July 1980 | |
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Mission duration 79 days, 15 hours, 16 minutes, 54 seconds Launch mass 6,800 kilograms (15,000 lb) | ||
Soyuz 37 (Russian: Союз 37, Union 37) was a 1980 Soviet manned space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the 13th mission to and 11th successful docking at the orbiting facility. The Soyuz 37 crew were the third to visit the long-duration Soyuz 35 resident crew.
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Soyuz 37 carried Soviet Viktor Gorbatko and Pham Tuân, the first Asian and first Vietnamese cosmonaut, into space. They swapped Soyuz craft with the long-duration crew and returned to earth in Soyuz 36, the resident crew later used their craft to return to earth.
Mission parameters
Mission highlights
Pham Tuan of Vietnam arrived with Commander Viktor Gorbatko aboard Salyut 6 in Soyuz 37; they both returned to Earth in the Soyuz 36 spacecraft approximately eight days later. Tuan’s 30 experiments involved observing Vietnam from space, life sciences (including tests of growth of Vietnamese azolla water ferns, with application to future closed-loop life support systems), and materials processing. The long-duration crew launched in Soyuz 35 returned to earth in the Soyuz 37 spacecraft at the end of their 186-day mission.