The Soyuz spacecraft succeeded the Russian Voskhod spacecraft and was originally designed as part of the Soviet crewed lunar programs. An advantage Soyuz had over the Space Shuttle was the ability to abort in the event of a failure with the launch vehicle. The Soyuz spacecraft is launched on a Soyuz rocket and has needed to leverage the abort feature successfully protecting the crew in the process. The Soyuz launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site.
The limb of Earth intersects one of two Soyuz spacecraft docked with the International Space Station.
Credits: NASA
Since November 2000, at least one Soyuz has always been at the International Space Station, generally to serve as a lifeboat should the crew have to return to Earth unexpectedly.The retirement of the US Space Shuttle in 2011 left the Soyuz TMA as the sole means of transportation for crew members going to or returning from the orbiting laboratory. NASA’s waiver from prohibitions in the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act (INKSNA) against making payments to the Russian government for the purchase of additional Soyuz seats expires on December 31, 2020, preventing payment for additional seats that launch or return after December 2020
Soyuz vehicle requires a 3-year lead time to safely prepare for launch and is not reusable.
The Soyuz rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station are both automated processes. The Soyuz crew also has the capability to manually intervene or execute these operations. Once docking is complete, the crew members must equalize the air pressure of the Soyuz with the Station before opening the hatches.
Development history
The Soyuz has a long legacy as a spacecraft dating back to the race to the moon. The Soviet government secretly pursued two lunar programs in the 1960s 1st was the crewed lunar flyby missions using Soyuz 7K-L1 “Zond” spacecraft. 2nd was to be a crewed lunar landing using Soyuz 7K-LOK and LK Lander spacecraft. The spacecraft was to be launched with the N1 rocket. Complications with development and several failed attempts of launching the N1 rocket coupled with the United States of America successful first crewed lunar orbit on December 24–25, 1968 (Apollo 8), and the first Moon landing on July 20, 1969 (Apollo 11) lead the termination of the program. The focus was shifted onto Soviet Manned Space Stations as well as the Joint Apollo Soyuz mission.
Launched by a 3-staged Proton rocket, the Soyuz L1 “Zond” was a spacecraft consisted of two or three modified modules of the main craft Soyuz 7K-OK with a total weight of 5.5 tons. In comparison, the American Apollo orbital command spacecraft for the lunar flyby also had two modules but was five times more massive. The L1 “Zond” planned flight around the Moon would come back on a return trajectory rather than entering orbit as Apollo 8 did. The first crewed mission of the L1 “Zond” was canceled due to the technical difficulties with both capsule and rocket.
The Soyuz 7K-L1 was designed to launch a crew from the Earth to circle the moon. The Zond program from 1967–1970 (Zond 4 to Zond 8) experienced multiple failures in the 7K-L1’s reentry systems. The remaining 7K-L1s were scrapped. The Soyuz 7K-L3 was conceived and developed in parallel to the Soyuz 7K-L1, however, it was also scrapped. Soyuz 1 was plagued with major technical issues resulting in the loss of life. Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was killed on 24 April 1967 when his spacecraft crashed. A parachute failure resulted in his Soyuz capsule to crash into the ground after re-entry marking him the first in-flight fatality in the history of spaceflight.
By the end of 1970, the L1 “Zond” program had lost interest of Soviet Leadership since Apollo 11 had landed on the Moon successfully. The design was adapted over time.
The Soyuz 7K-OKS was the next crewed version of the Soyuz designed for space station flights. It had a docking port that allowed internal transfer between spacecraft. The Soyuz 7K-OKS had two crewed flights, both in 1971(Soyuz 10 and 11). The second launch of the Soyuz 7K-OKS spacecraft was on 6 June 1971, from Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Kazakh SSR. The mission was to dock with Salyut 1. Several months earlier, the first mission to the Salyut, Soyuz 10, had failed to successfully dock with the station. Soyuz 11 successfully docked with Salyut 1 on 7 June and the cosmonauts remained on board for 22 days.
During the Soyuz 11 the craft depressurized upon reentry, killing its three-man crew. they had asphyxiated. The issue is believed to be a breathing ventilation valve, located between the orbital module and the descent module. The valve jolted open as the descent module separated from the service module, 12 minutes and 3 seconds after retrofire.
The next chapter – Apollo-Soyuz
Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford (in foreground) and Cosmonaut Alexey A. Leonov make their historic handshake in space on July 17, 1975.
Credits: NASA
The Apollo-Soyuz mission began at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan when Soyuz 19 launched July 15, 1975, at 8:20 a.m. EDT, carrying cosmonauts Alexey Leonov and Valery Kubasov. Several hours later, the US Apollo spacecraft lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 3:50 p.m carrying astronauts Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand and Donald Slayton.
Over the next two days, both the Soyuz and Apollo vehicles made orbital adjustments bringing the spacecraft into a circular, 229-kilometer orbit. The two spacecraft hard-docked as 12:12 pm on July 17 above the Atlantic Ocean.
At the Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft stands ready to be moved into place March 22 for its encapsulation into the third stage of a Soyuz booster rocket. The operation was part of the preparation for the Soyuz’ launch March 29, Kazakh time, to carry Expedition 35/36 Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy of NASA, Soyuz Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Alexander Misurkin to the International Space Station for a 5 ½ month mission.
NASA
No more than three crew are able to launch and return to Earth from the station aboard a Soyuz TMA spacecraft. Upon return to Earth, the vehicle lands on the flat steppe of Kazakhstan in central Asia.
The return to Earth aboard a Soyuz takes less than 3.5 hours.
Soyuz Specifications
Length: 22.9 feet
Diameter: 8.9 feet
Mass Descent module: 6,393 pounds
Orbital module: 2,866 pounds
Propulsion module: 5,732 pounds
Solar array span: 34.8 feet
Volume Descent module: 141.3 ft3
Orbital module: 229.5 ft3
Descent g-loads: 4-5 times the force of gravity
Landing speed: 6.6 feet per second
Non- Russian crew that flew on the Soyuz
Jeffrey N. Williams
Michael E. Lopez-Alegria
Peggy Whitson
E. Michael Fincke
Michael R. Barratt
Jeffrey N. Williams
Frank De Winne
Robert B. Thirsk
Timothy J. Creamer
Soichi Noguchi
Tracy E. Caldwell Dyson
hannon Walker
Douglas H. Wheelock
Scott J. Kelly
Catherine G. Coleman
Paolo Nespoli
Ronald J. Garan
Michael E. Fossum
Satoshi Furukawa
Daniel C. Burbank
Donald R. Pettit
André Kuipers
Joseph Acaba
Sunita L. Williams
Akihiko Hoshide
Kevin A. Ford
Chris Hadfield
Thomas H. Marshburn
Christopher J. Cassidy
Karen L. Nyberg
Luca Parmitano
Michael S. Hopkins
Koichi Wakata
Richard A. Mastracchio
Steven R. Swanson
Gregory R. Wiseman
lexander Gerst
Barry E. Wilmore
Samantha Cristoforetti
Terry W. Virts
Scott J. Kelly
Kimiya Yui
Kjell N. Lindgren
Timothy Peake
Timothy Kopra
Jeffrey Williams
Takuya Onishi
Kathleen Rubins
Shane Kimbrough
Peggy Whitson
Thomas Pesquet
Jack D. Fischer
Randolph Bresnik
Paolo Nespoli
Mark Vande Hei
Joseph Acaba
Scott Tingle
Norishige Kanai
Andrew Feustel
Richard Arnold
Alexander Gerst
Serena Auñón-Chancellor
David Saint-Jacques
Anne McClain
Nick Hague
Christina Koch
Luca Parmitano
Drew Morgan
Jessica Meir
Christopher Cassidy
Steve Bowen
