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.

The many incarnations of the Soyuz

The first manned version of the Soyuz was called 7K-OK. It could support up to three crewmembers in a shirt-sleeve environment. Although it could feature a docking fixture, this was passive and only allowed the two spacecraft to be joined, with no facility for internal transfer. Cosmonauts had to spacewalk to the other spacecraft, as done on Soyuz 4 and 5. This spacecraft was also designed to fly to the moon.

Related Topics:
Shirt-sleeve environment - Spacewalk - Soyuz 4 - 5

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The 7K-L1 was designed to launch men from the Earth to circle the moon. It was based on the 7K-OK with several components stripped out to reduce the vehicle weight. The most notable modifications included the removal of the orbital module (extra space for living quarters or equipment) and reserve parachute. It was the primary hope for Soviet circumlunar flight. Tests in the Zond program from 1968-1970 produced multiple failures in the 7K-L1's re-entry systems. The goal was scrapped, along with the two remaining 7K-L1s.

Related Topics:
Zond program - 1968 - 1970

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The next manned version of the Soyuz was the 7K-OKS. This was designed for space station flights and now had a docking port that allowed internal transfer between spacecraft. It flew only twice manned. During the reentry of the second flight, Soyuz 11, the crew were killed when the capsule depressurised during the re-entry phase.

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The complete redesign that resulted led to the 7K-T. It deleted one crew space so that all cosmonauts could wear spacesuits during launch and reentry. The replacement of solar panels with batteries limited it to about two days of undocked flight.

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A modified version of this spacecraft flew on Soyuz 13 where instead of the docking system was a large Orion 2 astrophysical camera for imaging the sky and Earth.

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Another modification was the 7K-T/A9 used for the flights to the military Almaz space station. This featured the ability for remote control of the space station and a new parachute system but other than that the changes are still classified and unknown.

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The Soyuz ASTP spacecraft was designed for use during the Apollo Soyuz Test Project. It featured design changes mandated by the Americans to make the spacecraft safer. The Soyuz ASTP featured new solar panels for increased mission length, an androgynous universal docking mechanism instead of the standard male mechanism and modifications to the environmental control system to lower the cabin pressure to 0.68 atmospheres (69 kPa) prior to docking with Apollo. The last flight of this version, Soyuz 22 again replaced the docking port with a camera.

Related Topics:
Apollo Soyuz Test Project - Soyuz 22

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The next major redesign was the Soyuz T version. It featured solar panels allowing longer missions, a revised Igla rendezvous system and new translation/attitude thruster system on the Service module.

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The Soyuz TM crew transports were introduced in 1986 to service the Mir space station. It added to the Soyuz T new docking and rendezvous, radio communications, emergency and integrated parachute/landing engine systems. The new Kurs rendezvous and docking system permitted the Soyuz TM to maneuver independently of the station, without the station making "mirror image" maneuvers to match unwanted translations introduced by earlier models' aft-mounted attitude control.

Related Topics:
1986 - Mir - Space station

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A slightly modified Soyuz TMA is now also being used. This features several changes to accommodate requirements requested by the American space agency NASA, including more latitude in the height and weight of the crew and improved parachute systems. It is also the first expendable vehicle to feature "glass cockpit" technology.

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The unmanned Progress spacecraft were derived from Soyuz and are used for servicing space stations. The Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft is also heavily influenced by the design of the Soyuz. In 2004, Russian space officials announced that the Soyuz will be replaced by early 2011 with the new Kliper spacecraft.

Related Topics:
Progress spacecraft - Chinese - Shenzhou spacecraft - Kliper

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See also:

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• Sokol space suit
• space exploration