Soyuz 39

COSPAR ID	1981-029A
SATCAT no.	12366
Mission duration	7 days, 20 hours, 42 minutes, 3 seconds
Orbits completed	124
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type	Soyuz 7K-T
Manufacturer	NPO Energia
Launch mass	6,800 kilograms (15,000 lb)
Crew
Crew size	2
Members	Vladimir Dzhanibekov Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa
Callsign	Pamir (Pamirs)
Start of mission
Launch date	22 March 1981, 14:58:55 (1981-03-22UTC14:58:55Z) UTC
Rocket	Soyuz-U
Launch site	Baikonur 1/5
End of mission
Landing date	30 March 1981, 11:40:58 (1981-03-30UTC11:40:59Z) UTC
Landing site	175 km SE of Dzhezkazgan
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Perigee altitude	197.5 kilometres (122.7 mi)
Apogee altitude	282.8 kilometres (175.7 mi)
Inclination	51.6 degrees
Period	89.1 minutes
Docking with Salyut 6
Soyuz programme (Crewed missions) ← Soyuz T-4 Soyuz 40 →

Soyuz 39 was a 1981 Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the fifteenth expedition, and carried the eighth international crew to the orbiting facility.^[1] The crew visited Vladimir Kovalyonok and Viktor Savinykh, who had reached Salyut-6 ten days prior.

The flight carried Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa into space. With this mission, Gürragchaa became the first Mongolian, and second Asian cosmonaut.

The Mongolian contribution for this mission had begun in 1967, when the president of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences Bazaryn Shirendev attended a conference of scientists from socialist countries in Moscow, where the Intercosmos project was announced.^[2] Dzhanibekov and Gürragchaa performed about thirty experiments during the course of the mission.^[3]

Position	Crew
Commander	Vladimir Dzhanibekov Second spaceflight
Research Cosmonaut	Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa Only spaceflight

Position	Crew
Commander	Vladimir Lyakhov
Research Cosmonaut	Maidarjavyn Ganzorig

• Mass: 6800 kg
• Perigee: 197.5 km
• Apogee: 282.8 km
• Inclination: 51.6°
• Period: 89.01 minutes

Soyuz 39 docked with the first Mongolian cosmonaut aboard. The resident EO-6 crew assisted the Intercosmos crew with station equipment and oriented the station according to the needs of the visiting crew's experiments.

On 24 March, the cosmonauts installed cosmic ray detectors in the station's work and transfer compartments. On 26 March the cosmonauts performed the Illuminator ("viewing port") experiment, which studied the degradation of the station's viewports. On 27 March, Vladimir Kovalyonok and Viktor Savinykh of the resident crew used the Gologramma ("hologram") apparatus to image a viewing port damaged by micrometeoroids. They repeated this experiment the next day, when they also collected samples of the station's air and microflora and removed the cosmic ray detectors for return to Earth. 28–29 March were largely devoted to studies of Mongolia from space. The visiting crew also checked out their spacecraft on 29 March

The Soviet news service TASS noted that by 29 March, Salyut 6 had conducted 20,140 revolutions of Earth.^{[citation needed]}

• List of human spaceflights to Salyut space stations
• List of Salyut expeditions

• Website commemorating 30 years since the spaceflight