Soyuz T-11

Soyuz T-11

Mission duration	181 days, 21 hours, 48 minutes,
Orbits completed	~2,935
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type	Soyuz-T
Manufacturer	NPO Energia
Launch mass	6,850 kilograms (15,100 lb)
Crew
Crew size	3
Launching	Yury Malyshev Gennady Strekalov Rakesh Sharma
Landing	Leonid Kizim Vladimir Solovyov Oleg Atkov
Callsign	Jupiter
Start of mission
Launch date	3 April 1984, 13:08:00 (1984-04-03UTC13:08Z) UTC
Rocket	Soyuz-U
Launch site	Baikonur 31/6
End of mission
Landing date	2 October 1984, 10:57:00 (1984-10-02UTC10:58Z) UTC
Landing site	46 kilometres (29 mi) E of Arkalyk
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Perigee	195 kilometres (121 mi)
Apogee	224 kilometres (139 mi)
Inclination	51.6 degrees
Period	88.7 minutes
Docking with Salyut 7
Soyuz programme (Manned missions) ← Soyuz T-10 Soyuz T-12 →

Soyuz T-11 was the 6th expedition to Salyut 7, and carried the first Indian cosmonaut to the Salyut 7 station.

Salyut 7 was unmanned after the undocking of Soyuz T-11 in October 1984 until Soyuz T-13 docked with the station in June 1985. Salyut 7 developed problems during the unmanned time, which meant that the crew of Soyuz T-13 had to perform a manual docking and do repairs to the station.

Crew

Position	Launching crew	Landing crew
Commander	Yury Malyshev Second spaceflight  Soviet Union	Leonid Kizim Second spaceflight  Soviet Union
Flight Engineer	Gennady Strekalov Third spaceflight  Soviet Union	Vladimir Solovyov First spaceflight  Soviet Union
Research Cosmonaut	Rakesh Sharma First spaceflight  India	Oleg Atkov First spaceflight  Soviet Union

Backup crew

Position	Crew
Commander	Anatoli Berezovoy  Soviet Union
Flight Engineer	Georgi Grechko  Soviet Union
Research Cosmonaut	Ravish Malhotra  India

Mission parameters

• Mass: 6850 kg
• Perigee: 195 km
• Apogee: 224 km
• Inclination: 51.6°
• Period: 88.7 minutes

Mission highlights

Rakesh Sharma conducted an Earth observation program concentrating on India. He also did life sciences and materials processing experiments, including silicium fusing tests. He is also reported to have experimented with practicing yoga to deal with the effects of prolonged orbital spaceflight.