Soyuz is a series of spacecraft designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolyov Design Bureau during the 1960s. In fact Soyuz is still the workhorse of the Russian space program today bringing cosmonauts and astronauts to the International Space Station. It was originally built as part of the Soviet manned lunar program, but America's Apollo missions got there first with Neil Armstrong walking on the Moon in July 1969. After America had triumphed with their successful lunar landings, the USSR turned their attention to developing space stations.
The Soviets had launched the world's first space station, Salyut 1, on 19 April 1971. The Russians had talked the talk about being able to dock with a space station, now they had to walk the walk! But when Soyuz 10 reached the space station and was unable to dock with it, the plans were put in place to launch Soyuz 11 on June 7, 1971. The mission reported no problems and successfully docked with Salyut 1 on June 7. Conquering the unknown and chalking up another ‘first' in space history for Russia, the cosmonauts then went on to spend 22 days onboard the space station. This set a new record for space endurance, smashing the 13 days set by the US's Gemini 7 in 1965 and the 18 days set by Soyuz 9 in 1970! Soyuz 11 would hold this mantle until the first American Skylab mission in 1973.
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