Soyuz << SAW yooz or suh YOOZ >> is a Russian spacecraft that takes astronauts and other passengers into low-Earth orbit. Russian astronauts are often called cosmonauts. Low-Earth orbit is just beyond the atmosphere. Soyuz means union in Russian. Soyuz is also the name of the rocket that launches both the Soyuz spacecraft and a related uncrewed cargo capsule named Progress. Soyuz spacecraft are expendable (used only once).
Loading the player...Launch of a Soyuz rocket in 2009
The Soyuz spacecraft and rocket, along with Progress, serve as a reliable system for transporting crew and equipment to and from the International Space Station (ISS). When the United States space shuttle program ended in 2011, the Soyuz spacecraft and rocket became the only means for astronaut travel to and from the ISS. The United States purchased seats on Soyuz spacecraft from Roscosmos, the Russian space agency. Today, private vehicles also transport astronauts to and from the ISS.
The Soyuz program.
Engineers have modified and upgraded Soyuz many times since it was first launched. The modern version of the spacecraft is designated Soyuz MS. MS stands for Modernized Systems. The Soyuz spacecraft consists of three modules (units). They are (1) the orbital module, (2) the descent module, and (3) the service module. The orbital module holds cargo to be transported to the ISS. It is equipped with the docking port and other equipment needed to dock with the space station. The descent module holds a crew of up to three astronauts. The service module carries the craft’s main engine, solar panels, oxygen and propellant tanks, and communications equipment.
Soyuz missions launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the west-central Asian country of Kazakhstan. It takes about six hours for the spacecraft to reach the ISS. Prior to 2012, the trip took about two days. For landing, the Soyuz spacecraft disconnects from the ISS and descends toward Earth. The return journey takes about three hours. Before reentering Earth’s atmosphere, the orbital and service modules are released and burn up in the atmosphere. The descent module lands on the steppes of Kazakhstan, near the Cosmodrome.
At least one Soyuz spacecraft remains docked at the ISS at all times. In case of an emergency aboard the space station, up to three astronauts can depart in the spacecraft and return to Earth.
History.
Soyuz was developed in the 1960’s by the Soviet Union as part of its secretive program to send cosmonauts to orbit—and eventually land on—the moon. The Soviet Union was a nation made up of Russia and the territories of other nearby present-day countries. At the time, the Soviet Union and the United States were locked in the space race, a period of intense competition between the two countries to achieve supremacy in space exploration. The first Soyuz mission flew on Nov. 28, 1966. The first crewed Soyuz flight was in April 1967. This flight resulted in the death of the cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov when the descent module’s landing parachute failed to open.
After the United States successfully landed astronauts on the moon with the Apollo program in 1969, the Soviet Union abandoned its own program of lunar exploration. The Soyuz program was modified for continued Soviet activities in space, such as transporting cosmonauts to and from Soviet space stations. The first space station, Salyut (Salute) 1, was launched in 1971. Three cosmonauts—Georgi T. Dobrovolsky, Victor I. Patsayev, and Vladislav N. Volkov—docked their Soyuz 11 spacecraft with Salyut 1. During the return journey, a malfunction caused the air to leak from the reentry module, killing all three cosmonauts. These three cosmonauts are the only three people to have died in space. (Other spaceflight accidents, including the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters, occurred within Earth’s atmosphere.)
In 1975, Soyuz 19 was part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first international crewed space mission. The craft docked in space with a U.S. Apollo spacecraft. Soyuz spacecraft continued to support Soviet space stations, including Mir, which orbited from 1986 to 2001. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Russia took over the former country’s space exploration program.
In 1993, Russia reached an agreement with the United States to build the International Space Station, with the help of several other countries. The first part of the station was launched in 1998, and the first full-time crew—one American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts—occupied the station in 2000. At first, both Soyuz spacecraft and space shuttles transported astronauts to and from the space station. But the loss of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003 led the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to halt and eventually end the shuttle program.
From 2001 to 2009, Soyuz spacecraft transported the first seven space tourists. Under an agreement with the U.S. company Space Adventures, participants trained in Soyuz operating procedures and flew with two cosmonauts into space.
