Landing and Rescue

The descent module carrying the crew landed by parachute approximately four kilometers from the burning launch pad. Both cosmonauts survived the landing with minor injuries.

This was the first historically documented case in which a launch escape system saved a crew during an actual pad fire with people on board — until then it had only been tested in drills and uncrewed trials.

Vladimir Titov nevertheless returned to space four years later — in 1987 he commanded the Soyuz TM-4 mission, this time successfully.