Soyuz 37


Soyuz 37 was a 1980 Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the 13th mission to and 11th successful docking at the orbiting facility. The Soyuz 37 crew were the third to visit the long-duration Soyuz 35 resident crew.
Soyuz 37 carried Soviet Viktor Gorbatko and Pham Tuan, the first Asian and first Vietnamese cosmonaut, into space. They swapped Soyuz craft with the long-duration crew and returned to Earth in Soyuz 36, the resident crew later used their craft to return to Earth.

Crew

Mission parameters

  • Mass:
  • Perigee:
  • Apogee:
  • Inclination: 51.61°
  • Period: 89.12 minutes

    Mission highlights

Pham Tuan of Vietnam arrived with Commander Viktor Gorbatko aboard Salyut 6 in Soyuz 37; they both returned to Earth in the Soyuz 36 spacecraft approximately eight days later. Tuan's 30 experiments involved observing Vietnam from space, life sciences, and materials processing. The long-duration crew launched in Soyuz 35 returned to Earth in the Soyuz 37 spacecraft at the end of their 186-day mission.