Soyuz 15

Soyuz 15 was a human spaceflight mission of the Soviet Union. It was to have been the second mission to the Salyut 3 space station with presumably military objectives.

Although the spacecraft arrived at the station successfully, cosmonauts Lev Demin and Gennadi Sarafanov were unable to dock because of a fault in the automated docking system. Without sufficient fuel for prolonged attempts at manual docking, the mission had to be abandoned.

It was later claimed by Soviet authorities that no docking had been intended and that the flight had only been undertaken to devlop techniques for maneuvering near the space station.

The faulty equipment was redesigned before the next attempt was made.

Crew

• Lev Demin
• Gennadi Sarafanov