Soyuz 3
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Key facts
- Mission type
- Test flight
- Operator
- Soviet space program
- Cospar id
- 1968-094A
- Satcat number span no
- 03516
- Mission duration
- 3 days 22 hours 50 minutes 45 seconds
- Spacecraft
- Soyuz 7K-OK No.10
- Spacecraft type
- Soyuz 7K-OK (active)
- Manufacturer
- Experimental Design Bureau (OKB-1)
- Launch mass
- 6575 kg
- Landing mass
- 2800 kg
- Dimensions
- 7.13 m long, 2.72 m wide
- Members
- Georgy Beregovoy
- Callsign
- Аргон ( Argon - "Argon")
- Launch date
- 26 October 1968, 08:34:18 GMT
- Rocket
- Soyuz
- Launch site
- Baikonur , Site 31/6
- Landing date
- 30 October 1968, 07:25:03 GMT
- Landing site
- Karaganda , Kazakhstan
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human spaceflight
- Part of
- Soyuz programme
- Operator
- Soviet space program
- Followed by
- Soyuz 4
- Follows
- Soyuz 1
- Duration
- 341445
- Mass
- 6575
- Orbital period
- 88.3
- Image
- The Soviet Union 1969 CPA 3734 sheet of 1 (Soyuz 3).jpg
- Significant event
- landing
Show 16 more facts
- space launch vehicle
- Soyuz
- UTC date of spacecraft launch
- 1968-10-26
- type of orbit
- low Earth orbit
- crew members
- Georgy Beregovoy
- vessel
- Soyuz 7K-OK
- orbits completed
- 81
- UTC date of spacecraft landing
- 1968-10-30
- orbital inclination
- 51.67
- native label
- Аргон
- apoapsis
- 205
- periapsis
- 183
- location of landing
- Kazakhstan
- backup or reserve team or crew
- Vladimir Shatalov
- start point
- Baikonur Cosmodrome
- Commons category
- Soyuz 3
- call sign
- Аргон (Argon)
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~6 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Soyuz 3 (Russian: Союз 3, Union 3) was a spaceflight mission launched by the Soviet Union on 26 October 1968. Flown by Georgy Beregovoy, the Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft completed 81 orbits over four days. The 47-year-old Beregovoy was a decorated World War II flying ace and the oldest person to go into orbit up to that time. The mission achieved the first Russian space rendezvous with the uncrewed Soyuz 2, but failed to achieve a planned docking of the two craft. As of June 2026, this mission marks the last time a Soviet/Russian cosmonaut was launched alone to conduct an entirely solo orbital mission.
Crew
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Soyuz 3” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.