Soyuz 12

Soyuz 12 was the test flight of the newly-redesigned Soyuz spacecraft that was intended to provide greater crew safety in the wake of the Soyuz 11 tragedy. The crew capacity of the capsule had been decreased from three to two cosmonauts to allow for space suits to be worn during launch, re-entry, and potentially hazardous maneuvers such as docking.

Cosmonauts Vasili Lazarev and Oleg Makarov were to evaluate the design, which proved to be successful and well-behaved.

Crew

• Vasili Lazarev
• Oleg Makarov