Jun 24 1982
From The Space Library
At 8:30 p.m. Moscow time (4:30 p.m. GMT), the Soviet Union launched Soyuz T-6 carrying cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Alexandr Ivanchenkov, with French "spationaut" Col. Jean-Loup Chretien, to spend a week with cosmonauts Anatoly Berezovoy and Valentin Lebedev, the Soyuz T-5 crew who had been occupying orbiting laboratory Salyut 7 since May 13. This was the first time a five-man crew would occupy an orbital station. Initial orbit elements were 277-kilometer apogee, 248-kilometer perigee, 89.6-minute period, and 51.6° inclination.
Chretien, who had trained with his French backup Maj. Patrick Baudry in the Soviet Union for 21 months, was the first westerner to take part in a Soviet space mission. (The last east-west venture was the U.S.-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz linkup in July 1975.) The mission had been approved by French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing in 1979.
This was also the first Soviet life television coverage of a launch, beginning two hours before liftoff with taped views of crew training, Salyut assembly, Soyuz rollout, departure of the crew by bus, interviews with the crew orbiting in the Salyut, and ending with a live broadcast of the liftoff plus 10 minutes. During the two-hour broadcast, all three crew members gave speeches praising the trip as symbolic of friendship between French and Soviet peoples. (FBIS, Moscow Tass in English, June 24/82, June 28/82; Mosc Dom TV Svc in Russian, June 24/82; NY Times, June 25/82, A-9; W Post, June 25/82, A-22; Spacewarn SPX-344, June 29/82)
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