Soyuz 5

  1969-005A

---

7K-OK No. 13 was launched on 1969 Jan 15 with crew commander (Komandir) Boris Volynov, flight engineer (Bortinzhener) Aleksey Yeliseev, and test engineer (Inzhener-ispitatel') Yevgeniy Khrunov. It had a mass of 6585 kg. Spacecraft 13 was given the post-launch name Soyuz-5. 

The mission almost ended in disaster when the PAO failed to detach completely from the SA (descent module). The vehicle swung around and began to reenter with the hatch forward. The SA began to fail under the heat and the pressure but after a short time the PAO was torn away and the SA tumbled again and reentered correctly with heat shield forward. The parachute partially failed and landing was violent, but the pilot suffered only broken teeth and minor injuries and walked through the snow several km to a nearby house while awaiting help.

Soyuz-5
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1969 Jan 15	0704:57	Launch by 11A511 Soyuz	KB
		T+1:55 SAS sep
		T+1:58 Blok BVGD sep
		T+2:45 Fairing
		T+4:48 Blok A sep
		T+4:48 St 3 MES
	0713:47	T+8:50 St 3 MECO
	0713?	St 3 sep
	1245		88.66 191 x 225 x 51.67
	1715		88.94 211 x 234 x 51.68
1969 Jan 16	0737	Rendezvous by Soyuz-4
	0820	Docked with Soyuz-4
	0850	Seals verified
	0952	EVA suits on, BI and II in BO
	1017	SA hatch closed
	1055	BO EVA hatch open, depress
	1102	BI and II exit Soyuz-5 BO
	1106	II crosses to Soyuz-4 BO
	1132	Reconnect clips
	1145	Soyuz 5 TV camera lost from BO
	1145	BI crosses to Soyuz-4 BO
	1148	Hatch closed (EVA 00:37, depress 00:53)
	1255	Soyuz-4 undocked after 4h 35min
		Orbit change, rev 36
	1830		88.88 201 x 237 x 51.68
1969 Jan 17	1045		88.83 205 x 228 x 51.69
	1345		88.80 198 x 233 x 51.68
1969 Jan 18	0549	Deorbit cancelled
1969 Jan 18	0718?	Retrofire
	0721?	DO CO
	0731?	BO separation
	0731?	PAO fail to sep
	0737?	Entry
	0738?	PAO tanks explode
	0738?	PAO breaks away (entry + 1 min)
	0759:12	Landed 200 km SW Kustanai, 51.45N 62.70E

Kosmos 263

  1969-003A

---

Zenit-2 No. 70 was the first recoverable recon launch in 1969. It landed after 8 days 130 km S of Pavlodar at 51 05 N 76 55 E.

Kosmos-263
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1969 Jan 12	1210	Launch by 11A57	NIIP-53 LC41/1
	1215	Blok-I burn
	1219	Blok-I sep
			89.8 205 x 346 x 65.4 (TASS)
1969 Jan 12	1455		89.95 200 x 343 x 65.4
1969 Jan 13	1900		89.74 200 x 325 x 65.4 (RAE)
1969;Jan 16	1737		89.69 197 x 319 x 65.4
1969 Jan 20	0518?	Deorbit
	0542	Landed after 7.72d

Kosmos 248

  1968-090A

---

The second I-2M was launched in Oct 1968 and was used as the intercept target for Kosmos-249 and Kosmos-252.

Kosmos-248
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1968 Oct 19	0420	Launch by 11K67	KB
	0422	Stage 2 burn
	0425?	Stage 2 sep
		DU burn?
			94.80 475 x 453 x 62.25
	1843		94.79 475 x 542 x 62.3
1968 Oct 20	0733?	Intercept by Kosmos-249
1980 Feb 26		Reentered

Kosmos 237

  1968-071A

---

Zenit-4 No. 43 carried an electron spectrometer as a supplementary scientific experiment.

Kosmos-237
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1968 Aug 27	1229:59	Launch by 11A57	PL
	1234	Blok-I burn
	1239	Blok-I sep	89.70 200 x 320 x 65.42
1968 Aug 28	0015		89.72 200 x 321 x 65.4
1968 Sep 3	0840		89.60 197 x 312 x 65.4
1968 Sep 4	0702?	Retrofire
	0725?	Landed