Soyuz spacecraft

Soyuz (Soyus, ????, union) is a series of spacecraft designed by Sergey Korolev for the Soviet Union's space program. The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraft design and were originally built as part of the Luna program. The spacecraft are launched by the Soyuz launch vehicle, as part of the Soyuz program and the later missions of the Zond program. They were later used to carry cosmonauts to and from the Salyut and Mir space stations and are now used for transport to and from the International Space Station. The first unmanned launch of the Soyuz was on November 28 1966. The first manned launch of the Soyuz was on April 23 1967.

External references

• David S.F. Portree, Mir Hardware Heritage, NASA RP-1357, 1995
• Information on Soyuz spacecraft (search for Soyuz on that page for links to every spacecraft imaginable)
• OMWorld's ASTP Docking Trainer Page