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Soyuz programme
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 6
Soyuz 6 was part of a joint mission with Soyuz 7
and Soyuz 8 that saw three Soyuz spacecraft in orbit together at
the same time, carrying seven cosmonauts. The crew of Georgi Shonin
and Valeri Kubasov were meant to take high-quality movie
photography of Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8 docking but the rendezvous
systems on all three spacecraft failed.
It is still not known exactly what the actual
problem was, but it is often quoted as being a helium
pressurization integrity test. The version of Soyuz 7K-OK
spacecraft used for the missions carried a torus shaped docking
electronics equipment housing surrounding the motor assembly on the
back of the service module. This is thought to have been
pressurized with helium to provide a benign environment for the
electronics. It was then jettisoned after docking to lower the mass
of the spacecraft for reentry. What went wrong with the electronics
on all three spacecraft is still not known.
The crew was made up of Georgi Shonin and Valeri
Kubasov, who carried out important experiments in space welding.
They tested three methods: using an electron beam, a low pressure
plasma arc and a consumable electrode. The apparatus was designed
at the E. O. Paton Electric Welding Institute, Kiev, Ukraine. The
weld quality was said to be in no way inferior to that of Earth
based welds.
After 80 orbits of the Earth they landed on
October 16, 1969, 180 km (110 mi) northwest of Karaganda,
Kazakhstan.
The radio call sign of the spacecraft was Antey,
referring to the Greek hero Antaeus, but more important, at the
time of the flight, however, it was also the name of the largest
practicable aircraft, the Soviet Antonov 22, made in Ukraine. But
unlike the call signs of Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8, this was not the name
of a squadron in Soviet military training, of uncertain role, for
the one that begins with the letter ´a´ is Aktif, meaning
Active.
Position Cosmonaut
Commander Georgi Shonin
First spaceflight
Flight Engineer Valeri Kubasov
First spaceflight
Backup crewPosition Cosmonaut
Commander Vladimir Shatalov
Flight Engineer Aleksei Yeliseyev
Reserve crewPosition Cosmonaut
Commander Andriyan Nikolayev
Flight Engineer Georgi Grechko
Mission parameters
Mass: 6,577 kg (14,500 lb)
Perigee: 212 km (132 mi)
Apogee: 218 km (135 mi)
Inclination: 51.6°
Period: 88.8 min
Soyuz 4, Soyuz-5
Soyuz 4 was launched on January 14, 1969. On
board was cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov on his first flight. The aim
of the mission was to dock with Soyuz 5, transfer two crew members
from that spacecraft, and return to Earth. The previous three Soyuz
flights were also dock attempts but all had failed for various
reasons.
The radio call sign of the crew was Amur, while
Soyuz 5 was Baikal. This referred to the trans-Siberian railway
project called the Baikal-Amur Mainline, which was under
construction at the time. The mission presumably served as
encouragement to the workers on that project.
CrewPosition Launching Cosmonaut Landing Cosmonaut
Commander Vladimir Shatalov
First spaceflight
Flight Engineer None Aleksei Yeliseyev
First spaceflight
Research Engineer None Yevgeny Khrunov
First spaceflight
Backup CrewPosition Launching Cosmonaut Landing Cosmonaut
Commander Georgi Shonin
Flight Engineer None Viktor Gorbatko
Research Engineer None Valeri Kubasov
Reserve CrewPosition Launching Cosmonaut Landing Cosmonaut
Commander Georgiy Dobrovolskiy
Flight Engineer None Vladislav Volkov
Research Engineer None Pyotr Kolodin
Mission parameters
Mass: 6,625 kg (14,610 lb)
Perigee: 213 km (132 mi)
Apogee: 224 km (139 mi)
Inclination: 51.7°
Period: 88.8 min
Space walk
Yeliseyev and Khrunov - EVA 1
EVA 1 start: January 16, 1969, 12:43:00 UTC
EVA 1 end: January 16, 13:15 UTC
Duration: 37 minutes
The two spacecraft docked on January 16, the
first time two manned spacecraft had docked (Apollo 9 would do the
same in March of the same year). The two craft possessed only a
primitive probe (Soyuz 4) and drogue (Soyuz 5) docking assembly. A
connecting tunnel for the docking mechanism had not yet been
developed, which prevented a simple internal transfer between the
craft. This required the two transferring cosmonauts to spacewalk
from one vehicle to the other. Aboard Soyuz 5, Yevgeny Khrunov and
Aleksei Yeliseyev immediately began preparing for their EVA. Boris
Volynov, who would remain aboard Soyuz 5, filmed them donning their
Yastreb space suits.
On their 35th revolution of Earth the two
cosmonauts exited the spacecraft for the second Soviet spacewalk.
One of Khrunov´s lines became tangled and he accidentally closed
the tumbler of his suit ventilator. This distracted Yeliseyev who
did not set up the movie camera on the orbital module before
exiting the spacecraft. As such there is no film of the historic
EVA, only a poor video transmission.
One hour later the two were greeted by Shatalov
after the repressurisation of the Soyuz 4 orbital module, which
also acted as an airlock. Soyuz 4 and 5 separated after 4 hours and
35 minutes docked together. Soyuz 4 re-entered the atmosphere and
landed 100 kilometres (62 mi) southwest of Karaganda on January 17,
1969.
The mission proved it was possible to perform
the activities that would be needed on a Soviet lunar landing. The
Russian plan called for a lone cosmonaut to land on the moon,
return to lunar orbit, then make a spacewalk back from the landing
craft to orbiting spacecraft after docking. This was because there
was no internal tunnel between the two craft as found on the
American Apollo CSM and LM.
The crew were to meet Leonid Brezhnev during a
lavish ceremony at the Kremlin, but this was ruined by an attempted
assassination of the Soviet leader. A man shot eight times at the
motorcade but aimed at the car containing Georgi Beregovoi, Alexei
Leonov, Andrian Nikolayev, and Valentina Tereshkova. They were
unharmed but Brezhnev´s car was forced to speed away past the
waiting Soyuz 4/5 crews on the podium.
The docking mission had EVA objectives similar
to those planned for Apollo 9. Soyuz 4 launched first, and was the
active vehicle in the docking with Soyuz 5. The news agency TASS
stated that: "there was a mutual mechanical coupling of the ships .
. . and their electrical circuits were connected. Thus, the
world’s first experimental cosmic station with four
compartments for the crew was assembled and began functioning." The
mission rehearsed elements of the Soviet piloted lunar mission
plan. Moscow TV carried the cosmonauts’ EVA preparations
live. Khrunov and Yeliseyev put on their Yastreb ("hawk") suits in
the Soyuz 5 orbital module with aid from Commander Boris
Volynov.
Yastreb suit design commenced in 1965, shortly
after Alexei Leonov’s difficult EVA. Leonov served as
consultant for the design process, which was completed during 1966.
Suit fabrication and testing occurred in 1967, but the fatal Soyuz
1 accident in April of that year and docking difficulties on the
joint Soyuz 2-Soyuz 3 mission delayed its use in space until Soyuz
4-Soyuz 5.
To prevent the suit ballooning, Yastreb featured
a pulley-and-cable articulation system. Wide metal rings around the
gray nylon canvas undersuit´s upper arms served as anchors for the
upper body articulation system. Yastreb had a regenerative life
support system in a rectangular white metal box placed on the chest
and abdomen to facilitate movement through Soyuz hatchways.
Volynov checked out Khrunov and
Yeliseyev’s life support and communications systems before
returning to the descent module, sealing the hatch, and
depressurizing the orbital module. Khrunov went out first,
transferring to the Soyuz 4 orbital module while the docked
spacecraft were out of radio contact with the Soviet Union over
South America. Yeliseyev transferred while the spacecraft were over
the Soviet Union. They closed the Soyuz 4 orbital module hatch
behind them, then Soyuz 4 Commander Vladimir Shatalov repressurized
the orbital module and entered to help Khrunov and Yeliseyev get
out of their suits. The spacewalkers delivered newspapers, letters,
and telegrams printed after Shatalov lifted off to help prove that
the transfer took place.
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