Russia's Soyuz: historic symbol of space reliability
Russia's Soyuz rocket, which failed to put a Russian supply ship into orbit, is descended from launch vehicles of the early days of the space race but until now has been a byword for reliability.
The Soyuz is related to the R-7 family of Soviet rockets which sent the world's first satellite Sputnik into space in 1957, giving Moscow the lead in the Cold War space race.
An R-7 descendant -- the Vostok designed by chief Soviet rocket engineer Sergei Korolyev -- took Yuri Gagarin into orbit in 1961, making him the first man in space.
Another variant, Voskhod (Dawn) was used up the 1970s for hundreds of launches.
The Soyuz (Union) rocket was first launched in the 1960s and since then has developed an enviable record for safety and reliability.
The crash landing of the unmanned Progress supply capsule into Siberia was its first failure of the rocket in recent years.
Soyuz rockets are the backbone of the Russian space programme and are notably used to launch the unmanned Progress cargo vehicles as well as the manned capsules -- also called Soyuz -- for the ISS.
The rocket involved in the Siberia crash was the Soyuz-U. Russia's manned missions to the International Space Station (ISS) are now carried out by the Soyuz-FG, a modernised version of the Soyuz-U
The newest version is the Soyuz-2, used to place heavy payloads into low earth orbits.
The Soyuz-U has been one of the workhorses of the Russian space programme for years and has been in use since the 1970s.
According to the Russian daily Kommersant, the Soyuz-U has suffered 21 faulty launches out of 769 starts. The Soyuz family of rockets is the world's most used space launch vehicle.
A Soyuz-ST, a spinoff of the Soyuz-2 is due to launch at Kourou, French Guiana on October 20, lifting the first two satellites in Europe's Galileo navigation system.
The European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia are deploying Soyuz at Kourou, under a 2003 accord to provide a mid-sized launcher for Arianespace, which markets ESA's launch vehicles.
(c) 2011 AFP
-
From lemons to lemonade: Reaction uses carbon dioxide to make carbon-based semiconductor,
32 comments
-
Thioridazine kills cancer stem cells in human while avoiding toxic side-effects of conventional cancer treatments,
3 comments
-
SpaceX private rocket blasts off for space station (Update),
42 comments
-
Climate scientists say they have solved riddle of rising sea,
31 comments
-
SpaceX capsule has 'new car' smell, astronauts say (Update),
2 comments
-
revamping general concept and cosmological principle
May 25, 2012
-
Transiting Exoplanet Light Curve
May 25, 2012
-
Math behind Theoretical Physics
May 24, 2012
-
Do we know whats at the center of galaxies yet?
May 23, 2012
-
Structure of the Milky Way?
May 20, 2012
-
What would it take to terraform Pluto and Charon?
May 19, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - General Astronomy
More news stories
Yale study concludes public apathy over climate change unrelated to science literacy
Are members of the public divided about climate change because they don't understand the science behind it? If Americans knew more basic science and were more proficient in technical reasoning, would public consensus match ...
2 minutes ago |
not rated yet |
0
|
10 million years needed to recover from mass extinction
It took some 10 million years for Earth to recover from the greatest mass extinction of all time, latest research has revealed.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
3 minutes ago |
not rated yet |
0
|
Sophisticated simulations predict future warming
The chances of our planet being hit by a global warming of 3 degrees Celsius by 2050 is as likely as it being hit by an increase of 1.4 degrees, new research shows. Presented in the journal Nature Geoscience, the British study ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 22, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (9) |
51
Aliens don't want to eat us, says former SETI director
Alien life probably isn’t interested in having us for dinner, enslaving us or laying eggs in our bellies, according to a recent statement by former SETI director Jill Tarter.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 25, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (13) |
39
Kyoto Protocol architect 'frustrated' by climate dialogue
UN climate talks are going nowhere, as politicians dither or bicker while the pace of warming dangerously speeds up, one of the architects of the Kyoto Protocol told AFP.
May 23, 2012 |
3.7 / 5 (7) |
39
Change in developmental timing was crucial in the evolutionary shift from dinosaurs to birds: study
At first glance, it's hard to see how a common house sparrow and a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have anything in common. After all, one is a bird that weighs less than an ounce, and the other is a dinosaur that ...
Computer model used to pinpoint prime materials for efficient carbon capture
When power plants begin capturing their carbon emissions to reduce greenhouse gases – and to most in the electric power industry, it's a question of when, not if – it will be an expensive undertaking.
'Unzipped' carbon nanotubes could help energize fuel cells, batteries
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes riddled with defects and impurities on the outside could replace some of the expensive platinum catalysts used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, according to scientists at ...
T cells 'hunt' parasites like animal predators seek prey, study shows
By pairing an intimate knowledge of immune-system function with a deep understanding of statistical physics, a cross-disciplinary team at the University of Pennsylvania has arrived at a surprising finding: T cells use a movement ...
Manufacturing genes to attack flu virus
An international research team has manufactured a new protein that can combat deadly flu epidemics.
Same gene that stunts infants' growth also makes them grow too big: research
UCLA geneticists have identified the mutation responsible for IMAGe* syndrome, a rare disorder that stunts infants' growth. The twist? The mutation occurs on the same gene that causes Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, which makes ...
