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Soyuz program
The Soyuz ("Union") programme is a human
spaceflight programme that was initiated by the Soviet Union in the
early 1960's. It was originally part of a Moon landing programme
intended to put a Soviet cosmonaut on the Moon. Both the Soyuz
spacecraft and the Soyuz rocket are part of this programme, which
is now the responsibility of the Russian Federal Space Agency.
The launch vehicles used in the Soyuz expendable
launch system are manufactured at the Progress State Research and
Production Rocket Space Center (TsSKB-Progress) in Samara, Russia.
As well as being used in the Soyuz programme as the launcher for
the manned Soyuz spacecraft, Soyuz launch vehicles are now also
used to launch unmanned Progress supply spacecraft to the
International Space Station and commercial launches marketed and
operated by TsSKB-Progress and the Starsem company. There were 11
Soyuz launches in 2001 and 9 in 2002. Currently Soyuz vehicles are
launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and the
Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwest Russia. Starting in 2010 Soyuz
launch vehicles will also be launched from the Guiana Space Centre
in French Guiana.
The basic Soyuz spacecraft design was the basis
for many projects, many of which never came to light. Its earliest
form was intended to travel to the moon without employing a huge
booster like the Saturn V or the Soviet N-1 by repeatedly docking
with upper stages that had been put in orbit using the same rocket
as the Soyuz. This and the initial civilian designs were done under
the Soviet Chief Designer Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, who did not
live to see the craft take flight. Several military derivatives
actually took precedence in the Soviet design process, though they
never came to pass.
A Soyuz spacecraft consists of three parts (from front to
back):
a spheroid orbital module
a small aerodynamic reentry module
a cylindrical service module with solar panels attached
There are several variants of the Soyuz spacecraft,
including:
Soyuz A 7K-9K-11K circumlunar complex proposal(1963)
Soyuz 7K-OK (1967-1971)
Soyuz 7K-L1 Zond (1967-1970)
Soyuz 7K-L3 LOK
Soyuz 7K-OKS (1971)
Soyuz 7K-T or "ferry" (1973-1981)
Soyuz 7K-TM (1975-1976)
Military Soyuz (7K-P, 7K-PPK, R, 7K-VI Zvezda, and OIS)
Soyuz-T (1976-1986)
Soyuz-TM (1986-2003)
Soyuz-TMA (2003-.... )
Soyuz-TMAT (2010/.... )
Soyuz-ACTS (2012/....)
The Zond spacecraft was another derivative,
designed to take a crew traveling in a figure-eight orbit around
the Earth and the moon but never achieving the degree of safety or
political need to be used for such.
Finally, the Progress series of unmanned cargo
ships for the Salyut and Mir space laboratories used the automatic
navigation and docking mechanism (but not the re-entry capsule) of
Soyuz.
As of 2007, Soyuz derivatives provide Russia's
human spaceflight capability and are used to ferry personnel and
supplies to and from the International Space Station.
While not a direct derivative, the Chinese
Shenzhou spacecraft follows the basic template originally pioneered
by Soyuz.
Soyuz 3
Soyuz 3 was a spaceflight mission launched by
the Soviet Union on October 26, 1968. For four consecutive days,
Commander Georgy Beregovoy piloted the Soyuz 3 spacecraft through
eighty-one orbits of Earth.
Position Cosmonaut
Commander Georgy Beregovoy
First spaceflight
Position Cosmonaut
Commander Vladimir Shatalov
[edit] Reserve crew
Position Cosmonaut
Commander Boris Volynov
* Mass: 6,575 kg (14,500 lb)
* Perigee: 183 km (114 mi)
* Apogee: 205 km (127 mi)
* Inclination: 51.7°
* Period: 88.3 minutes
The Soviet space program had experienced great success in its
early years, but by the mid-1960s the pace of success had grown
sluggish. The Soyuz project was intended to rejuvenate the program
by pioneering a new phase of spacecraft capability: forging a
direct physical link between two independent craft. Soyuz 1 was
launched with the expectation of "union" with the unmanned
satellite Soyuz 2 but even before the second craft was launched, it
became apparent that the mission would not be possible. Soyuz 1
ended in disaster, with Commander Vladimir Komarov killed on April
23, 1967. Soyuz 2 was withheld for over a year until a new vehicle,
Soyuz 3, was ready to accompany it.
The unmanned Soyuz 2 was launched on October 25,
1968, and Soyuz 3 followed it the next afternoon. The mission had
been given to Beregovoy, with cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov
designated as the backup commander, and Boris Volynov in reserve.
Entering outer space within a half an hour and already near Soyuz
2, Beregovoy gradually guided his craft within docking range (under
200 meters) of the satellite. The next day, having orbited the
earth numerous times, a second rendezvous of similar distance was
completed. Just hours later, Soyuz 2 began its descent and was back
on earth by 8:00am the next day. Beregovoy continued to orbit,
making topographical and meteorological observations for the next
two days. Beregevoi also treated television viewers to the first
"live" tour of a spaceship interior.
Beregovoy and Soyuz 3 came back to earth on
October 30, 1968, after completing eighty-one full orbits of earth.
The re-entry vehicle landed near the city of Karaganda in
Kazakhstan, fortuitously cushioned by a blizzard's snowfall.
Despite subzero temperatures, Beregovoy's landing was so easy he
said later that he hardly felt the impact at all. The Soviets
hailed Soyuz 3 as a complete success. Beregovoy was promoted to
Major General and named director of the national Center for
Cosmonaut Training at
The launch of Soyuz 2 had not been reported by
the Soviet Union, although other nations were aware through their
own monitors.[10] It was not until Soyuz 3 was safely aloft that an
official announcement was made. Contemporary Western news reports
described the orbital mission of Soyuz 3 in the same manner as the
Soviets, referring to a successful "rendezvous" with Soyuz 2, but
characterizing it as a test with no actual ship-to-ship docking
planned. This interpretation was largely accepted for years
afterward. With information released after the breakup of the
Soviet Union, historians began to reassess the presumed "success"
of the mission: the early Soyuz missions had indeed been intended
to perform a physical linkage between two spacecraft, and in this
they had undeniably failed. Moreover, the fault could be largely
ascribed to piloting error by Beregovoy: after a misaligned
approach, Beregovoy's ineffective countermeasures burned up so much
fuel that the mission simply could not be completed.
The flight of Soyuz 3 had numerous effects on
future space exploration both short- and long-term. The flawless
recovery of Soyuz 3 left the spacecraft designers with the
impression that re-entry and landing systems had been perfected:
the crash-landing of the Zond 6 satellite just one month later has
been partly attributed to this mistaken sense of security. The
value of the outer space survey of earth was a defining step in the
development of the Soyuz program's grand strategy: the later
evolution of space-based research platforms have roots in
Beregovoy's lengthy and meticulous data-collection. Even the
failure of the space docking proved an experiential benefit to the
Soviet space program: after the demoralizing catastophe of Soyuz 1,
the credible achievements and safe return of Soyuz 3 breathed new
life into the faltering program. New flights continued apace, and
they put the knowledge gained from Soyuz 3 towards missions of
increasing audacity and success.
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