Soyuz 5 launched 1969

Soyuz 5 crew (L-R): Boris Volynov, Yevgeny Khrunov, Aleksei Yeliseyev

Soyuz 5 mission patch

Soyuz 5, launched January 15, 1969, participated in the first docking between two manned spacecraft.  Its crew consisted of Commander Boris Volynov, Flight Engineer Aleksei Yeliseyev and Research Engineer Yevgeny Khrunov.

The following day Soyuz 5 successfully docked with Soyuz 4, and crew members Yeliseyev and Khrunov transferred to Soyuz 4 for re-entry.

Volynov remained in Soyuz 5.  Upon return, the service module did not separate  when the retrorockets fired.  It was too late to abort and the module turned to find the best aerodynamic position available, which was nose first.  Basically, upside down.  Volynov was pressed against his restraining harness instead of the cushions of his seat.

Fortunately, the struts connecting the service module and descent module burned through before the hatch did, and the modules separated.  The lander corrected its position, with the heat shield taking the friction of re-entry.

Then the parachutes got tangled and the soft-landing rockets failed to fire, resulting in a hard landing, which broke several of Volynov's teeth.  The temperature was about 40° below zero and Volynov knew it would be hours before the rescue units would find him, so he left the capsule and walked several kilometers to find shelter at a local peasant's house.

Volynov did not go into space for another 7 years.

Soyuz 4 launched 1969

Soyuz 4, launched January 14, 1969, carried cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov on his first flight.  It docked with Soyuz 5 January 16, a first for two manned spacecraft.  Apollo 9 would do the same in March.  The mission involved transferring switching crews from one spacecraft to another via EVA, since connecting tunnels which would allow a simple internal transfer had not been developed. 

Soyuz 5 cosmonauts Aleksei Yeliseyev and Yevgeny Khrunov successfully transferred to Soyuz 4 and returned to Earth January 17.

Happy birthday, cosmonaut Boris Volynov!

Boris Valentinovich Volynov, born December 18, 1934 in the former Soviet Union, is a veteran of the Voskhod program and went into space twice aboard Soyuz vessels.

He was first assigned as a possible commander for Voskhod 1 in 1964, but he and two others were bumped three days before the scheduled launch.  He trained a year training for Voskhod 3, but the flight was cancelled just 10 days before launch and he was transferred to the Soyuz group.

Volynov made it into space January 1965 aboard Soyuz 5 and transferred his two crewmen, Aleksei Yeliseyev and Yevgeny Khrunov to Soyuz 4 via EVA.  Volynov returned to Earth as a solo re-entry but things did not go as planned.  Soyuz 5's equipment module failed to separate properly and blocked the re-entry heat shielf on the base of the descent module.  Volynov lost control of Soyuz 5, which began tumbling.  The heat of the re-entry finally burned off the equipment module and the descent module oriented itself properly.  The parachutes deployed but only partially and the retro-rockets for a soft landing failed to fire.  Volynov hit the ground so hard it broke several of his teeth. 

It wasn't over. 

Volynov landed far from his planned landing spot.  He landed in the Ural Mountains where it was -36 °F and rescuers would not reach him for many hours.  He abandoned the capsule and walked several kilometers to find shelter at a local peasant's house.

That didn't discourage him from going into space again.  His second and final mission was aboard Soyuz 21 to Salyut 5 in July - August 1976.  This landing had problems as well, but nearly as bad as his first.  As Volynov tried to undock from the space station, the latch failed to release properly.  The spacecraft moved out of range and only the first set of emergency procedures were receieved.  It did not work.  After another orbit, they received their final emergency procedures and the latches disengaged.  Soyuz 21 was now outside the normal recovery window and encoutered strongs winds as it descended.  This caused the retrorockets fire unevenly and they had a hard landing about midnight.

Volynov has not returned to space.

Cosmonaut Yevgeny Khrunov born 1933

Yevgeni Vassilyevich Khrunov, born September 10, 1933 in the former Soviet Union, was a cosmonaut who went into space aboard Soyuz 5, January 15, 1969 and returned to Earth on Soyuz 4 January 17.

Although he was not part of the crew transfer, the Soyuz 4 - 5 docking was the first time a crew from one spacecraft had been transferred to another.  It was the only time this was done via EVA.  Apollo 9 would perform the first interior crew transfer a few months later.

Khrunov passed away in May 2000 from a heart attack.