Soyuz 4

Soyuz 4 was a joint mission with Soyuz 5, successfully completing the objective of docking two crewed spacecraft and exchanging crew members between them that had originally been planned for Soyuz 1 nearly two years previously. Soyuz 4, piloted by cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov, approached and docked with Soyuz 5. Two cosmonauts from the latter spacecraft, Aleksei Yeliseyev and Yevgeny Khrunov then spacewalked to Soyuz 4 over the course of some 37 minutes.

This mission was an important proof-of-concept for Soviet plans to put a cosmonaut on the moon, as crew members were supposed to have transferred to the lunar lander outside the docked spacecraft, just as they did on this mission.

Previous Soyuz mission: Soyuz 3; Next Soyuz mission: Soyuz 5