Soyuz Spacecraft

Control panel from a Soyuz spacecraft. The digital clock is in the upper left of the panel. wikipedia

Soyuz is a series of spacecraft designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolev Design Bureau in the 1960s that remains in service today, having made more than 140 flights. wikipedia

Ken Shirriff recently obtained a clock that flew on a Soyuz space mission. The clock, manufactured in 1984, contains over 100 integrated circuits on ten circuit boards. He examine the clock's circuitry and explain why so many chips were needed. The clock also provides a glimpse into the little-known world of Soviet aerospace electronics and how it compares to American technology. post

Clock with legends translated.

The clock has three functions: the time, an alarm, and a stopwatch. The "Clock of Current Time"5 mode shows the current Moscow time on the six upper LED digits, while "Announcement" shows the alarm time. The alarm can be set to a particular time; at that time, the clock triggers a relay activating an external circuit in the spacecraft. The clock is set using the "Correction" mode; digits are incremented using the "Enter" button. The lower half of the unit is the stopwatch; the bottom four LEDs display elapsed minutes and seconds. The lower pushbutton stops, starts, or resets the stopwatch. Finally, the power switch at the right turns the clock on.