Soyuz 14

Soyuz 14 was the successful crewed visit to Salyut 3, the Almaz military station publicly flown under the Salyut program. Pavel Popovich and Yuri Petrovich Artyukhin launched from Baikonur Site 1/5 on July 3, 1974, docked with Salyut 3 on July 4, and landed southeast of Dzheskasgan on July 19 after 15 days, 17 hours, and 30 minutes in space. The crew transferred into Salyut 3 and spent about two weeks aboard the station. Spacefacts describes medical and biological experiments, exercise countermeasures, water-purification tests, and station systems work, while also noting that analysts associated much of the mission with the station's military reconnaissance role. The flight completed Popovich's second space mission, gave Artyukhin his only orbital flight, and proved Salyut 3 could support crewed Almaz operations after earlier station setbacks.