Soyuz 7K-OKS Credit - © Mark Wade

The fundamental concept of the design can easily be summarized as obtaining minimum overall vehicle mass for the mission. This is accomplished by minimizing the mass of the re-entry vehicle. There were two major design elements to achieve this:

• Put all systems and space not necessary for re-entry and recovery outside of the re-entry vehicle, into a separate jettisonable 'living section', joined to the re-entry vehicle by a hatch. Every gram saved in this way saves two or more grams in overall spacecraft mass - for it does not need to be protected by heat shields, supported by parachutes, or braked on landing.

• Use a re-entry vehicle of the highest possible volumetric efficiency (internal volume divided by hull area). Theoretically this would be a sphere. But re-entry from lunar distances required that the capsule be able to bank a little, to generate lift and 'fly' a bit. This was needed to reduce the G forces on the crew to tolerable levels. Such a maneuver is impossible with a spherical capsule. After considerable study, the optimum shape was found to be the Soyuz 'headlight' shape - a hemispherical forward area joined by a barely angled cone (7 degrees) to a classic spherical section heat shield.

This design concept meant splitting the living area into two modules - the re-entry vehicle, with just enough space, equipment, and supplies to sustain the crew during re-entry; and a living module. As a bonus the living module provided an airlock for exit into space and a mounting area for rendezvous electronics.

The end result of this design approach was remarkable. The Apollo capsule designed by NASA had a mass of 5,000 kg and provided the crew with six cubic meters of living space. A service module, providing propulsion, electricity, radio, and other equipment would add at least 1,800 kg to this mass for the circumlunar mission. The Soyuz spacecraft for the same mission provided the same crew with 9 cubic meters of living space, an airlock, and the service module for the mass of the Apollo capsule alone!

The modular concept was also inherently adaptable. By changing the fuel load in the service module, and the type of equipment in the living module, a wide variety of missions could be performed. The superiority of this approach is clear to see: the Soyuz will remains in use at least 70 years later, while the Apollo was quickly abandoned. After studying a range of designs, the Chinese elected to copy the Soyuz layout for their Shenzhou spacecraft, rather than Apollo. Perversely, NASA copied the Apollo spacecraft layout for their Orion CEV, set to replace the shuttle after 2015. Will Soyuz still be flying when Orion is retired?

Soyuz Genealogy

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Sever

L1-1960

L4-1960

L1-1962

OS-1962

Soyuz A

L3-1963

L4-1963

Soyuz P

Soyuz R

Soyuz 7K-OK

Soyuz PPK

Soyuz 7K-TK

Yantar-1

Soyuz 7K-LOK

Soyuz 7KT-OK

Soyuz 7K-L1

Soyuz VI

Yantar-2

Cloud Station

Soyuz 7K-TM

Soyuz 7K-T

Soyuz 7K-T/A9

Progress

Soyuz S

Aelita

Gamma

Soyuz 7K-MF6

Soyuz T

Zarya

Soyuz TM

Progress M

Alpha Lifeboat

Soyuz TMA

Progress M1

Progress M2

DSE-Alpha

Kliper

Parom

In the Soviet Union, manned spacecraft design in the late 1950's was solely handled by engineers within Sergei Korolev's design bureau. Korolev had designed the Vostok manned spacecraft that gave Russia the lead in the space race in the first half of the 1960's. Studies for a follow-on to Vostok, with the objective of sending a manned capsule on a circumlunar flight, began in 1959 under Tikhonravov. At this point it was assumed that any such flight would require use of launch vehicles derived from Korolev's R-7 ICBM. Since planned derivatives of the R-7 could not put more than six metric tons into orbit, it was immediately obvious that a circumlunar spacecraft would have to be assembled in low earth orbit from several R-7 launches. Therefore it would be necessary to perfect techniques for rendezvous, docking, and refueling of rocket stages in orbit. By 1960 to 1961 the studies, now dubbed 'L1', were expanded to cover automatic rendezvous and docking of several stages, and use of manipulators to assemble the stages.

Meanwhile the configuration of the re-entry vehicle for a Vostok follow-on was being investigated by other sections of Korolev's bureau. Lead for work on the re-entry problem was Section 11. There was no shortage of ideas. In 1959 Chief Designer Tsybin and Solovyev of Section 9 both offered designs for a winged manned spacecraft with a hypersonic lift-to-drag ratio of over 1.0. Prugnikov of Section 8 and Feoktistov of Section 9 proposed development of a ballistic capsule composed of variations of 'segmented spheres'. Korolev requested TsAGI, the state’s Central Aerodynamic/Hydrodynamic Institute, to investigate all possible configurations. In a letter from A I Makarevskiy to Korolev on 9 September 1959 TsAGI set out its study plan. Aerodynamic characteristics at various angles of attack for a wide range of winged, spherical, elliptical, sphere-with cones, and conical shapes were to be analyzed at velocities from Mach 0.3 to Mach 25. The ballistic vehicle was to have a basic diameter of 2.5 m, a total internal volume of 3 to 3.5 cubic meters, and a living volume of 2 to 3 cubic meters. Separately considered for all configurations were aerodynamics of ejection seats or capsules with a diameter of 0.9 cubic meters and a length of 1.85 meters. Most of the work was promised for completion by the end of 1959. To exploit this database, Reshetin started a project group to conduct trade-off studies of the various configurations at the beginning of 1960. It was upgraded to a project sector, under the leadership of Timchenko, in 1961.

The 1960 studies considered various configurations of ballistic capsule, wing-canard schemes of conventional aircraft layout, and tailless hybrid configurations. As was done at General Electric, each configuration had a complete theoretical study, from the standpoint of aerodynamics, trajectories, resulting spacecraft masses, thermal protection requirements, and so on. By the end of 1960 it was found that the winged designs were too heavy for launch by the R-7 and in any case presented difficult re-entry heating problems that were beyond the existing technology. Studies of re-entry trajectories from lunar distances showed that a modest lift-to-drag ratio of 0.2 would be sufficient to lower G forces and allow the capsule to fly 3,000 to 7,000 km from its re-entry point and land on the Soviet territory. When the existing guidance accuracy were taken into account, this was increased to 0.3 to allow sufficient maneuverability to ensure the capsule could land within 50 km of the aim point.

These studies were the most complex ever undertaken, and Korolev obtained assistance from the most brilliant Soviet aerodynamicists, notably Likhushin at NII-1, and those refugees from Chelomei’s take-over of their bureaus, Myasishchyev at TsAGI, and Tsybin at NII-88. In 1962 the classic Soyuz 'headlight' configuration was selected: a hemispherical forebody transition in a barely conical (7 degree) section to the section-of-a-sphere heat shield.

Section 11 had conceived of the modular scheme to reduce the mass of the re-entry vehicle in 1960. Section 9's competing design was two modules, like Apollo. Further iterative studies in 1961 to 1962 reached the conclusion that the Soyuz should consist of four sections. From fore to aft these were the living module; the landing module; the equipment-propulsion module; and an aft jettisonable module, that would contain the electronics for earth orbit rendezvous (this was to be jettisoned after the last docking was completed and before translunar injection. Until the 1990's this compartment on the early Soyuz models was misidentified as a 'toroidal fuel tank' by Western space experts).

This configuration was selected only after considerable engineering angst. From the point of view of pulling the capsule away from the rocket in an emergency, positioning the capsule at the top of the spacecraft was ideal. But to use this layout with the living module concept, a hatch would have to be put through the heat shield to connect the two living areas. Korolev's engineers just could not accept the idea of violating the integrity of the shield (and would later get in bitter battles with other design bureaus when competing manned spacecraft - Kozlov's Soyuz VI and Chelomei's TKS - used such hatches).

Allegations have been made that the Korolev Soyuz design was based on General Electric's losing Apollo proposal. However study of the chronology of the two projects shows that early development work was almost simultaneous. Independently of General Electric, Korolev had arrived at the modular spacecraft approach and a similar capsule concept before the General Electric proposal was published. However there was plenty of time to incorporate detailed features of the General Electric design into Soyuz before it was finalized.

On May 7, 1963 Korolev signed the final draft project for Soyuz. The baseline consisted of a circumlunar Soyuz A (7K) manned spacecraft. This would be boosted around the moon by the Soyuz B (9K) rocket stage, which was fueled by the Soyuz V (11K) tanker. However Korolev understood very well that financing for a project of this scale would only be forthcoming from the Ministry of Defense. Therefore his draft project proposed two additional modifications of the Soyuz 7K: the Soyuz-P (Perekhvatchik, Interceptor) space interceptor and the Soyuz-R (Razvedki, intelligence) command-reconnaissance spacecraft. The Soyuz-P would use the Soyuz B rocket motor to boost it to intercepts in orbits of up to 6,000 km.

The Soyuz draft project was submitted to the expert commission on 20 March 1963. However only the reconnaissance and interceptor applications of the Soyuz could be understood and supported by the VVS air force and RVSN rocket forces. Korolev wanted to concentrate on the manned space exploration mission and felt he had no time to work on a Soyuz military 'side-line'. In 1963 his OKB-1 was working on the three-crew 3KV Voskhod, the two-crew 3KD Voskhod-2, the immense N1 11A52 launch vehicle , its smaller derivatives 11A53 (N11) and 11A54 (N111), and a large number of other unmanned spacecraft. Therefore it was decided that OKB-1 would concentrate only on development of the 7K spacecraft, while development of the 9K and 11K spacecraft would be passed to other design bureaus. The military projects Soyuz-P and Soyuz-R were ‘subcontracted’ to OKB-1 Filial number 3, based in Samara.

To Korolev’s frustration, while Filial 3 received budget to develop the military Soyuz versions, his own Soyuz-A did not receive adequate financial support. The 7K-9K-11K plan would have required five successful automatic dockings to succeed. This seemed impossible at the time. Instead the road to the moon advocated by Vladimir Nikolayevich Chelomei was preferred. Chelomei was Korolev’s arch-rival, and had the advantage of having Nikita Khrushchev’s son in his employ. He attempted to break the stranglehold that ‘Korolev and Co.’, also known as the ‘Podpilki’ Mafia, had on the space program. Chelomei’s LK-1 single-manned spacecraft, to be placed on a translunar trajectory in a single launch of his UR-500K rocket, was the preferred approach. Chelomei issued the advanced project LK-1 on 3 August 1964, the same day the historic decree was issued that set forth the Soviet plan to beat the Americans to the moon. Under this decree Chelomei was to develop the LK-1 for the manned lunar flyby while Korolev was to develop the N1-L3 for the manned lunar landing. The 7K-9K-11K system was canceled. But the Soyuz A itself would be developed by Korolev as the 7K-OK manned earth orbit spacecraft. Korolev kept his options open and had versions of it designed which would in the end be flown for manned orbital (7K-LOK) and circumlunar (7K-L1) missions.

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	Sever	Sever was the original OKB-1 design for a manned spacecraft to replace the Vostok. It was designed to tackle such problems as manoeuvring in orbit, rendezvous and docking, and testing of lifting re-entry vehicles. The Sever had the same ‘headlight’ shape as the later Soyuz re-entry vehicle, but was 50% larger. But application of the principal of moving all possible systems to a jettisonable living module resulted in the smaller Soyuz capsule design for the same number of crew.
	L1-1960	Circumlunar manned spacecraft proposed by Korolev in January 1960. The L1 would a man on a loop around the moon and back to earth by 1964. The L1 would evolve into the Soyuz A design of 1963, and fly as the Soyuz 7K-L1 in 1967-1970.
	L4-1960	Lunar orbiter proposed by Korolev in January 1960. The spacecraft was to take 2 to 3 men to lunar orbit and back to earth by 1965.
	L1-1962	Early design that would lead to Soyuz. A Vostok-Zh manned tug would assemble rocket stages in orbit. It would then return, and a Soyuz L1 would dock with the rocket stack and be propelled toward the moon.
	OS-1962	On 10 March 1962 Korolev approved the technical project "Complex docking of spacecraft in earth orbit - Soyuz". This contained the original Soyuz L1 circumlunar design. The Vostok-Zh could be used on another mission to assemble a 15 tonne orbital station with the mission of observing the earth. It would consist of three separately-launched blocks: a ZhO living section, BAA scientific apparatus block, and the Soyuz spacecraft itself. This closely resembled Sever, another contemporary study project at OKB-1.
	L3-1963	Korolev’s original design for a manned lunar landing spacecraft was described in September 1963 and was designed to make a direct lunar landing using the earth orbit rendezvous method. The 200 tonne spacecraft requiring three N1 launches and a single Soyuz 11A511 launch to assemble in low earth orbit. When the decision was finally made to race the Americans to the moon in August 1964, this design had to be scrapped and replaced with the L3 single-launch version using lunar orbit rendezvous.
	L4-1963	The L-4 Manned Lunar Orbiter Research Spacecraft would have taken two to three cosmonauts into lunar orbit for an extended survey and mapping mission. It was described in a 23 September 1963 letter setting out the space exploration plan for 1965 to 1975. The L-4 complex, with a total mass of 75 tonnes, would be placed into orbit in a single N1 launch
	L5-1963	The L-5 Heavy Lunar Self-Propelled Craft would be used for extended manned reconnaissance of the lunar surface. It was described in a 23 September 1963 letter setting out the space exploration plan for 1965 to 1975. With a maximum speed of 20 km/hour, it would provide living accommodation for three cosmonauts and 3,500 kg of provisions. The crews themselves would be landed on the moon using the L-3 complex.
	Soyuz A	The 7K Soyuz spacecraft was initially designed for rendezvous and docking operations in near earth orbit, leading to piloted circumlunar flight. A circumlunar mission would begin with launch of the Soyuz B 9K rocket block into a 225 km orbit. This would be followed by one to three Soyuz V 11K tankers (depending on the mission), which would automatically rendezvous and dock with the 9K. They would transfer up to 22 tonnes of propellant. Finally the Soyuz A 7K spacecraft with the cosmonauts aboard would be launched, dock with the 9K, and be propelled on a lunar flyby trajectory.
	Soyuz B	In the definitive December 1962 Soyuz draft project, the Soyuz B (9K) rocket acceleration block would be launched into a 225 km orbit by a Soyuz 11A511 booster. Following refuelling by the required number of Soyuz V (11K) tanker spacecraft, a manned Soyuz spacecraft would rendezvous and dock with the 9K. It would then be boosted on its mission (circumlunar, satellite intercept, or high earth orbit).
	Soyuz P	In December 1962 Sergei Korolev released his draft project for a versatile manned spacecraft to follow Vostok. The Soyuz A was primarily designed for manned circumlunar flight. However Korolev understood very well that financing of the scale required could only come from the Ministry of Defence. Therefore his draft project proposed two additional modifications of the 7K: the 7K-P (Perekhvatchik, Interceptor) space interceptor and the Soyuz R (Razvedki, intelligence) command-reconnaissance spacecraft. In the initial draft project, the Soyuz-P would use the Soyuz-B rocket stage and Soyuz-V tanker spacecraft and conduct a series of dockings and fuelling. The complete complex then could conduct intercepts of enemy satellites in orbits up to 6,000 km altitude.
	Soyuz R	A military reconnaisance version of Soyuz, developed by Kozlov at Samara from 1963-1966. It was to consist of an the 11F71 small orbital station and the 11F72 Soyuz 7K-TK manned ferry. The 11F71 was cancelled in 1966, with Chelomei's Almaz being developed instead.
	Soyuz V	In the definitive December 1962 Soyuz draft project, the Soyuz B (9K) rocket acceleration block would be launched into a 225 km orbit by a Soyuz 11A511 booster. Following refuelling by tone to three Soyuz V (11K) tanker spacecraft, a manned Soyuz spacecraft would rendezvous and dock with the 9K. It would then be boosted on its mission (circumlunar, satellite intercept, or high earth orbit).
	L3	The Soviet system, consisting of the LOK Lunar Orbiter and LK Lunar Lander, that was to have beaten the American Apollo program to the moon. The L3 design authorized for development in August 1964 was supposed to be capable of accomplishing the mission in a single N1 launch. The late start - over three years after Apollo - and delays in development of the spacecraft and booster meant that the Soviets were still years behind when Apollo 11 made the first moon landing in 1969. Charged with fulfilling the Party's orders, rather pointless testing of L3 components continued, but by 1972 any Soviet manned lunar landing would have used the more capable L3M.
	Soyuz 7K-OK	Development of a three-manned orbital version of the Soyuz, the 7K-OK was approved in December 1963. The manned spacecraft became the first to complete automated orbital rendezvous, docking and crew transfer. It served as the basis for the Soyuz ferry used with the Salyut and Almaz space stations.
	Soyuz PPK	The Soyuz 7K-PPK (pilotiruemiy korabl-perekhvatchik, manned interceptor spacecraft) was a revised version of the Soyuz P manned satellite inspection spacecraft. The PPK provided the cosmonaut with a standoff capability for destruction of enemy satellites. For this purpose the Soyuz was equipped with eight small rockets.
	Soyuz 7K-OK Tether	Korolev was always interested in application of artificial gravity for large space stations and interplanetary craft. He sought to test this in orbit from the early days of the Vostok programme. Two Soyuz versions were considered: Soyuz 7K-OK, tethered to Block I Two Soyuz 7K-OK, which would rendezvous and dock in orbit and then undock, pulling the tether out between them.
	Soyuz VI	To determine the usefulness of manned military space flight, two projects were pursued in the second half of the 1960's. Chelomei's Almaz was to conduct orbital research into the usefulness of manned observation of the earth, while Kozlov's Soyuz VI would conduct military research. Soyuz VI was developed form the original Soyuz draft project. The standard Soyuz solved problems of docking, EVA, orbital assembly, while the VI was designed in response to a TTZ to solve military aspects - manned earth observation, orbital inspection and destruction of enemy satellites. But by the beginning of the 1970's flight tests had provided convincing evidence that near-earth operations were better suited to solution of national economic problems than military ones. So the Soyuz VI was cancelled.
	L5-1967	At a Lunar Soviet meeting in October 1967 preliminary agreement was reached to study a follow-on to the first N1-L3 lunar landings. A new N1 model was to be developed to launch a new 'L5' spacecraft. This is mentioned as being able to handle 4 to 5 crew, 1.5 to 2.0 tonnes of scientific equipment, and spend three months on the lunar surface. This was to be ready two to three years after the first landing.
	Soyuz 7K-L1	The Soyuz 7K-L1, a modification of the Soyuz 7K-OK, was designed for manned circumlunar missions. With a complex genesis, the spacecraft was flown as a replacement for Chelomei's LK-1. The 7K-L1 never actually demonstrated that it could safely take a cosmonaut around the moon and return him to earth until August 1969, a month after the successful American Apollo 11 landing on the moon. By then any thoughts of a manned flight had been abandoned as too little and too late. The Soviet disinformation organs began disseminating the myth that the USSR had never been in the moon race at all. The project was cancelled in 1970.
	Soyuz 7K-TK	To deliver crews to the Soyuz R 11F71 station Kozlov developed the transport spacecraft 11F72 Soyuz 7K-TK. This version of the Soyuz was equipped with rendezvous and docking equipment, including a hatch in the docking collar that allowed the cosmonauts to enter the station without donning space suits. Kozlov’s design for the docking system provided the basis for the 7K-OKS Soyuz space station ferry put into development five years later. The launch vehicle for the 7K-TK would be the 11A511, in use to this day as the ‘Soyuz’ launch vehicle. The Soyuz 7K-TK was in development until March 1966 for the Soyuz-R station. This was then cancelled and replaced by Chelomei's Almaz station. In June 1970 Chelomei was able to obtain approval for development of his TKS manned ferry craft in replace of the Soyuz 7K-TK, which was finally and definitely cancelled.
	Yantar-1	Survey reconnaissance satellite project of KB Yuzhnoye worked on 1964-1967. The DS satellites of KB Yuzhnoye (Chief Constructor V M Kovtunenko) were used to solve problems related to the planned Yantar series. But Yuzhnoye was too busy building ICBM's for the RSVN (Soviet Rocket Forces). So Kozlov's Filial 1 of OKB-1 took up the project after a delay in 1967 to 1969. Succeeded by Kozlov's Yantar-1KF. Was to have been derived from Soyuz-R manned spacecraft.
	Yantar-2	High resolution reconnaissance satellite project worked on by KB Yuzhnoye 1964-1967. Was to have been derived from Soyuz-R manned spacecraft. The DS satellites of KB Yuzhnoye (Chief Constructor V M Kovtunenko) were used to solve problems related to the planned Yantar series. But Yuzhnoye was too busy building ICBM's for the RSVN (Soviet Rocket Forces). So Kozlov's Filial 1 of OKB-1 took up the project after a delay in 1967 to 1969. Succeeded by Kozlov's very different Yantar-2K.
	Soyuz 7K-L1A	Hybrid spacecraft used in N1 launch tests. The L1A consisted of a modified Soyuz L1 service module attached to an LOK-sized flange, with a circumlunar Soyuz descent module, topped by an odd hybird propulsion module derived from that to be used on the LOK and LK lunar lander.
	Soyuz 7K-L1E	Modification of Soyuz circumlunar configuration used in propulsion tests of the Block D stage. The L1E provided guidance to the Block D and was equipped with television cameras that viewed the behavior of the Block D stage propellants under zero-G conditions. Probably included a dummy descent module (not recovered).
	Soyuz 7K-S	The Soyuz 7K-S had its genesis in military Soyuz designs of the 1960's. These were cancelled, but the 7K-S continued in development as an improved version of Soyuz for solo and space station ferry missions. Unmanned tests were made of the 7K-S, but the solo version was cancelled. The design, after further extended development, evolved into the Soyuz T and Soyuz TM ferry vehicles flown to the Salyut 7, Mir, and ISS space stations.
	Soyuz Kontakt	Modification of the Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft to test in earth orbit the Kontakt rendezvous and docking system. Kontakt was developed for the lunar orbit rendezvous of the 7K-OK manned lunar orbiter and LK lunar lander. It utilised a hexagonal grid on the passive craft and a three-pronged grappler on the active spacecraft to allow a soft docking between the two spacecraft. The Kontakt system used manual optical methods for rendezous and docking rather than the heavier automatic Igla radar system mounted on the 7K-OK. No hard docking was possible and crew transfer was by extravehicular activity.
	L3M-1970	The first design of the L3M lunar lander had the crew of two accomodated in a Soyuz capsule atop the lander. They would have had to don space suits to move to the pressurized toroidal crew compartment and land the spacecraft. Sufficient supplies existed for stays of 16 days on the lunar surface.
	LK	The LK ('Lunniy korabl' - lunar craft) was the Soviet lunar lander - the Russian counterpart of the American LM Lunar Module. The LK was to have landed a single Soviet citizen on the moon before the Americans, winning the moon race. It completed development and test flown very successfully in earth orbit, but never reached the moon because the N1 booster requred to take it to the moon never had a successful flight.
	Soyuz 7K-LOK	The two-crew LOK lunar orbiting spacecraft was the largest derivative of Soyuz developed. Given its importance to the Soviet moon landing programme, it remains one of the least known manned spacecraft ever to reach flight status. Never reaching space in its all-up form, the LOK was the counterpart to the American CSM (Command-Service Module).
	Soyuz 7KT-OK	This was a modification of Soyuz 7K-OK with a lightweight docking system and a crew transfer tunnel. This was evidently derived from work done by Kozlov for the Soyuz 7K-TK ferry craft. It flew only twice. The Soyuz 10 mission could not dock with the Salyut 1 station despite several attempts. Soyuz 11 was successful until return to earth. A valve between the descent and orbital modules jarred open when the OM separated. The DM cabin atmosphere vented into space, killing the three man crew, who flew without spacesuits. After this the Soyuz underwent a complete safety redesign to the Soyuz 7K-T configuration.
	L3M-1972	Revised L3M design of the L3M lunar lander for use with the Block Sr crasher stage. The Soyuz return capsule was completely enclosed in a pressurised ‘hangar’. This L3M would have allowed stays of up to 90 days by a crew of three.
	Soyuz 7K-T	Following the disastrous Soyuz 11 flight, when the crew was killed by cabin depressurisation, the 7K-OKS design was subjected to a complete redesign, resulting in the substantially safer 7K-T space station ferry. One crew position was eliminated, making it possible for the two crew members to wear pressure suits during dangerous phases of the flight. Batteries replaced the solar panels of the earlier configuration, to eliminate the chance of undeployed panels causing problems as was the case on Soyuz 1. Numerous minor changes were made to improve the basic safety and redundancy of the design. The 7K-T would safely fly 31 times until replaced by the Soyuz T in 1981.
	LEK	Lunar lander for the Vulkan surface base. As in the original LK lunar lander, this would be taken to near zero velocity near the lunar surface by the Vulkan Block V 'lunar crasher' rocket stage. It would then descend to the lunar surface using a landing stage nearly identical to the American lunar module descent stage.
	Lunokhod LEK	Lunar rover for the Vulkan Lunar Expedition. The rover provided pressurized quarters for 2 crew, allowing trips up to 200 km from the lunar base at a top speed of 5 km/hr.
	LZhM	Laboratory-living module. Three story lunar surface residence and laboratory for Vulkan-launched Lunar Expedition.
	LZM	Laboratory-Factory Module for the Vulkan surface base. Single story, four-lobed facility dedicated to lunar surface biological and physics research and production of oxygen from lunar soil for long-duration stay on the lunar surface.
	Soyuz 7K-T/A9	Version of 7K-T for flights to Almaz. Known difference with the basic 7K-T included systems for remote control of the Almaz station and a revised parachute system. May have incorporated equpment designed for the Soyuz 7K-TK, which had been intended for docking with Almaz in 1966-1970.
	L3M	Follow-on to the L3, a two N1-launch manned lunar expedition designed and developed in the Soviet Union between 1969 and 1974. It was planned to land the L3M on the moon for two week exploration missions after the American Apollo program was wound up. The L3M was cancelled together with the L3 in 1974, effectively ending Soviet plans for exploration of the moon.
	LEK Lunar Expeditionary Complex	Although the N1, L3, and DLB projects were cancelled, Glushko still considered the establishment of a moon base to be a primary goal for his country. While the Americans had achieved the first moon landing, they had retreated to earth orbit and cancelled further Apollo flights. There existed an opportunity, through establishment of a permanent Soviet moon base, to steal the lead in the space race. Analysis of the results of previous unmanned and manned lunar missions indicated that the moon was suited for a variety of 'special investigations. A permanent manned lunar expeditionary complex (LEK) would be required to accomplish this. In 1974 Glushko proposed having an LEK Lunar Base in place by 1980 using his Vulkan booster. The Soviet leadership saw it differently, and in 1976 prohibited further work and deferred any further lunar base research to the 21st Century.
	Soyuz 7K-TM	The Soyuz 7K-T as modified for the docking with Apollo. The spacecraft included some systems developed for the cancelled Soyuz S, including a new launch escape tower. Other changes included new lightweight solar panels to increase endurance; an androgynous universal docking mechanism in place of standard Soyuz male mechanism; unique radio aerials for common communications; optical docking targets for manual docking with Apollo; and modifications to the environmental control system to lower the cabin pressure to 0.68 atmospheres prior to docking with Apollo..
	Aelita	The Aelita infrared astronomical telescope spacecraft was derived from the Soyuz manned spacecraft and had an unusually long gestation.
	Soyuz 7K-MF6	Soyuz 7K-T modified with installation of East German MF6 multispectral camera. Used for a unique solo Soyuz earth resources mission.
	Progress	Progress took the basic Soyuz 7K-T manned ferry designed for the Salyut space station and modified it for unmanned space station resupply. The re-entry module was deleted and replaced with a section containing propellant tanks and pumping systems for space station refuelling. The orbital module was used to transport dry cargo and water to the station.
	Soyuz T	Soyuz T had a long gestation, beginning as the Soyuz VI military orbital complex Soyuz in 1967. It finally emerged as a complete redesign of the Soyuz in the late seventies. The Soyuz T introduced a revised Igla rendezvous system and a new service module with unitary translation / attitude control thrusters as part of a single bipropellant system with the main pump-fed engine. Solar panels were reintroduced; the fuel load was increased; and all new digital avionics were developed. Crew safety was improved with a new launch escape system and accomodation was provided for the first time for a three-man crew in spacesuits.
	Zarya	'Super Soyuz' replacement for Soyuz and Progress. Concept was reusable spacecraft, launched by Zenit launch vehicle, with all possible systems recovered in landing module, together with significant payload delivered to and returned from orbit. Carriage in payload bay of Buran shuttle was also a requirement. Preliminary design work began on 27 January 1985. The design was briefed to the Military-Industrial Commission on 22 December 1986. However the project was cancelled in January 1989 on financial grounds.
	Soyuz TM	Soyuz TM was a modernised version of the Soyuz T with new docking and rendezvous, radio communications, emergency, and integrated parachute/landing engine systems. It used a more durable metal body and lighter heat shield material. It was tested first in an unmanned flight. It was the manned spacecraft used to ferry crews to Mir and the International Space Station. The Kurs rendezvous and docking system permitted the Soyuz TM to maneuver independently of the station, without the station making "mirror image" maneuvers to match unwanted translations introduced by earlier models' aft-mounted attitude control. The lighter rendezvous system and improved launch escape tower permitted higher payloads, or more maneuvering propellant to be carried.
	LK Energia	Lunar lander for Energia-launched lunar expedition. The LOK and LK lander would be inserted into lunar orbit by separate Energia launches.
	LOK Energia	Lunar orbiter for Energia-launched lunar expedition. The LOK and LK lander would be inserted into lunar orbit by separate Energia launches.
	Progress M	Progress M was an upgraded version of the original Progress. New service module and rendezvous and docking systems were adopted from Soyuz T.
	Gamma	The Gamma USSR/France gamma/x-ray astronomical telescope spacecraft was derived from the Soyuz manned spacecraft and had an unusually long gestation. The basic design was first conceived in 1965 as part of a 'Cloud Space Station' - a primary space station from which a number of man-tended, free-flying spacecraft would operated. This evolved by the early 1970's into the MKBS/MOK space station complex. Various spacecraft with specialised laboratories or instrument sets would fly autonomously away from the huge N1-launched main station. Gamma was originally to be a free-flyer of this complex. The Soyuz propulsion system was used, but the descent and orbital modules were replaced by a large pressurised cylinder containing the scientific instruments.
	Energia Ecosat	RKK Energia, relying on their experience with the Progress-M and Gamma spacecraft, conceived a new, nearly 10- metric-ton, sun-synchronous satellite with a variety of Earth observation sensors, including a side-looking radar, a television camera, a video spectrometer, and a scanning radiometer. The scientific payload could reach a mass of 1.4 tonnes with an available power of 2 kW. From an operating altitude of 400 to 800 km, the spacecraft would be able to return data directly or via a relay satellite for a period of 3-5 years. If it had been approved, launch by the Zenit booster would not have come until 1996 or later.
	Progress M2	As Phase 2 of the third generation Soviet space systems it was planned to use a more capable resupply craft for the Mir-2 space station. By using the Zenit launch vehicle the Progress M service module module could accomodate much larger cargo or space station modules.
	Alpha Lifeboat	1995 joint Energia-Rockwell-Khrunichev design for space station Alpha lifeboat based on the Zarya reentry vehicle with a solid retrofire motor, cold gas thruster package. Five years on-orbit storage. Design rejected in June 1996 in favor of use of a modified Soyuz TMA in short term, US X-38 in long term. Mass per crew 1560 kg.
	Progress M1	Progress M1 was a modified version of the Progress M resupply spacecraft capable of delivering more propellant than the basic model to the ISS or Mir. A Russian funded component of the ISS programme, the Progress M1 could carry a maximum total of 2230 kg of cargo, of which a maximum of 1950 kg could be propellant and a maximum of 1800 kg in equipment or supplies.
	Soyuz TMA	The Soyuz-TMA version was designed for use as a lifeboat for the International Space Station. It incorporated several changes to accomodate NASA requirements, including more latitude in the height and weight of the crew and improved parachute systems. The spacecraft also incorporates two new amber cockpit displays. In addition to the three crew, the TMA could deliver up to 100 kg of payload to the station and return up to 50 kg.
	DSE-Alpha	Potential commercial circumlunar manned flights were offered in 2005, using a modified Soyuz spacecraft docked to a Block DM upper stage. The customer would be shot around the moon as early as 2008 at a price of $100 million. Soyuz had already been proven for this role under the L1 program in the 1960's.
	Parom	In its latest iteration, RKK Energia's Parom was a reusable interorbital tug intended to transport cargo containers and the Kliper manned ferry from low earth orbit to the International Space Station. Parom subsystems would be upgraded versions of those proven on the Soyuz TMA spacecraft.