On January 16, 1969, for the first time in history two spacecraft, manually controlled were docked. They were Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5. As a result, a manned space station of four compartments for the crew was assembled. The total internal volume of the space station was 18 cubic metres.
Soviet reports account for mission events in terms of Moscow Time, which was three hours ahead of UTC during the mission. Baikonur cosmodrome and the spacecraft landing zones were four hours ahead. The Soyuz 4 lift off occurred at 11:30 am local time, 07:30 UTC.
| Date |
Time (UTC) |
Event |
| 1969 Jan 14 |
07:30 |
Soyuz 4 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Soyuz rocket into 161 x 215 kilometre orbit at 51.7 degrees inclination with cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov aboard |
| 1969 Jan 14 |
13:35 |
Soyuz 4 changes orbit to 205 x 223 kilometres |
| 1969 Jan 14 |
15:16 |
Soyuz 4 makes final contact for the day with mission control, via land-based tracking station at Yevpatoriya in the Crimea |
| 1969 Jan 14 |
17:00 |
Vladimir Shatalov starts rest period |
| 1969 Jan 15 |
01:12 |
Soyuz 4 re-enters range of Soviet tracking stations and contacts mission control via Ussuryisk and Petropavlosk in the Soviet far east |
| 1969 Jan 15 |
07:05 |
Soyuz 5 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by Soyuz rocket into approx 180 x 215 kilometre orbit at 51.7 degrees inclination with cosmonauts Boris Volynov, Alexei Yeliseyev and Yevgeny Khrunov aboard |
| 1969 Jan 15 |
14:30 |
Soyuz 5 changes orbit to 211 x 234 kilometres |
| 1969 Jan 15 |
14:55 |
Approx time - Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 make final contact for the day with mission control, via tracking station at Yevpatoriya in the Crimea |
| 1969 Jan 15 |
17:00 |
Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 crews start rest period |
| 1969 Jan 16 |
00:50 |
Approx time - Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 re-enter range of Soviet tracking stations and contact mission control via Ussuryisk and Petropavlosk in the Soviet far east |
| 1969 Jan 16 |
05:15 |
Approx time - Soyuz 4 makes minor orbit correction to prepare for rendezvous approach to Soyuz 5 |
| 1969 Jan 16 |
07:37 |
Soyuz 4 commences automatically-controlled approach to Soyuz 5 |
| 1969 Jan 16 |
08:20 |
Soyuz 4 docks with Soyuz 5 |
| 1969 Jan 16 |
09:25 |
Approx time - Yeliseyev starts space walk from Soyuz 4 to Soyuz 5 |
| 1969 Jan 16 |
09:55 |
Approx time - Khrunov starts space walk from Soyuz 4 to Soyuz 5 |
| 1969 Jan 16 |
10:30 |
Approx time - Soyuz 4 to Soyuz 5 space walk complete |
| 1969 Jan 16 |
12:55 |
Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 separate from each other, Soyuz 5 then moves away from Soyuz 4 |
| 1969 Jan 16 |
14:33 |
Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 make final contact for the day with mission control, via tracking station at Yevpatoriya in the Crimea |
| 1969 Jan 17 |
00:11 |
Soyuz 5 re-enters range of Soviet tracking stations and contacts mission control via Ussuryisk and Petropavlosk in the Soviet far east |
| 1969 Jan 17 |
00:33 |
Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 re-enter range of Soviet tracking stations and contact mission control via Ussuryisk and Petropavlosk in the Soviet far east |
| 1969 Jan 17 |
06:11 |
Soyuz 4 fires its manoeuvring engine to initiate re-entry |
| 1969 Jan 17 |
06:53 |
Soyuz 4 soft lands 40 kilometres north west of Karaganda, Khazakstan |
| 1969 Jan 17 |
14:13 |
Approx time - Soyuz 5 makes final contact for the day with mission control, via tracking station at Yevpatoriya in the Crimea |
| 1969 Jan 18 |
05:50 |
Approx time - Originally planned retro-fire for Soyuz 5 - postponed because of weather conditions on the ground |
| 1969 Jan 18 |
07:26 |
Soyuz 5 fires its manoeuvring engine to initiate re-entry - during the re-entry procedure the Soyuz descent module fails to separate cleanly from the instrument unit but the faulty connection eventually burns through as a result of frictional heating, Boris Volynov lands safely |
| 1969 Jan 18 |
08:08 |
Soyuz 5 soft lands 200 km south west of Kustanai, Khazakstan |
