The Soyuz-U2 (

GRAU index The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (), commonly referred to by its transliterated Russian acronym GRAU (), is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the ...

11A511U2) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, later Russian,

carrier rocket A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

. It was derived from the

Soyuz-U The Soyuz-U launch vehicle was an improved version of the original Soyuz rocket. Soyuz-U was part of the R-7 family of rockets based on the R-7 Semyorka missile. Members of this rocket family were designed by the TsSKB design bureau and cons ...

, and a member of the R-7 family of rockets. It featured increased performance compared with the baseline Soyuz-U, due to the use of

syntin Syntin is a hydrocarbon with the molecular formula C10H16 used as a rocket fuel. It is a mixture of four stereoisomers (see below). It has a density of 0.851 g/mL, and a boiling point of 158 °C. Due to the presence of three strained cyclo ...

propellant, as opposed to

RP-1 RP-1 (alternatively, Rocket Propellant-1 or Refined Petroleum-1) is a highly refined form of kerosene outwardly similar to jet fuel, used as rocket fuel. RP-1 provides a lower specific impulse than liquid hydrogen (LH2), but is cheaper, is st ...

paraffin, used on the Soyuz-U. The increased payload of the Soyuz-U2 allowed heavier spacecraft to be launched, while lighter spacecraft could be placed in higher

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as a p ...

s, compared to those launched by Soyuz-U rockets. In 1996, it was announced that the Soyuz-U2 had been retired, as the performance advantage gained through the use of syntin did not justify the additional cost of its production. The final flight,

Soyuz TM-22 Soyuz TM-22 was a Soyuz spaceflight to the Soviet space station Mir.The mission report is available here: http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-tm22.htm It launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome Launch Pad 1 on September 3, 1995. After two d ...

, occurred on 3 September 1995 from

Gagarin's Start Gagarin's Start (russian: Гагаринский старт, ''Gagarinskiy start''), also known as Baikonur Site 1 or Site 1/5 is a launch site at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan that was used for the Soviet space program and is now mana ...

Baikonur Baikonur ( kk, Байқоңыр, ; russian: Байконур, translit=Baykonur), formerly known as Leninsk, is a city of republic significance in Kazakhstan on the northern bank of the Syr Darya river. It is currently leased and administered ...

. The Soyuz-U2 was first used to launch four

Zenit Zenit, meaning "zenith", may refer to: Spaceflight and rocketry * Zenit (rocket family), a Soviet family of space launch vehicles * Zenit (satellite), a type of Soviet spy satellite * Zenit sounding rocket, a Swiss rocket Sports * Zenit (sports ...

reconnaissance satellite A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications. The ...

s, then it delivered crewed

Soyuz spacecraft Soyuz () is a series of spacecraft which has been in service since the 1960s, having made more than 140 flights. It was designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolev Design Bureau (now Energia). The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraf ...

to space stations

Salyut 7 Salyut 7 (russian: Салют-7; en, Salute 7) (a.k.a. DOS-6, short for Durable Orbital Station) was a space station in low Earth orbit from April 1982 to February 1991. It was first crewed in May 1982 with two crew via Soyuz T-5, and last vi ...

and

Mir ''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...

: missions

Soyuz T-12 Soyuz T-12 (also known as Salyut 7 EP-4) was the seventh crewed spaceflight to the Soviet space station Salyut 7. The name "Soyuz T-12" is also the name of the spacecraft used to launch and land the mission's three-person crew. The mission occurr ...

to T-15 and

Soyuz TM-1 Soyuz TM-1 was an unmanned test flight of the Soyuz-TM spacecraft, intended for use in the Mir space station program. This was the maiden flight of the Soyuz-TM spacecraft, intended as the successor to the Soyuz-T spacecraft used in the Salyut ...

to TM-22. It also supplied the stations with

Progress Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension wi ...

cargo spacecraft:

Progress 20 Progress 20 () was a Soviet uncrewed Progress cargo spacecraft, which was launched in April 1984 to resupply the Salyut 7 space station. Spacecraft Progress 20 was a Progress 7K-TG spacecraft. The 20th of forty three to be launched, it had the ...

to Salyut 7,

Progress 25 Progress 25 () was a Soviet uncrewed Progress cargo spacecraft, which was launched in March 1986 to resupply the Mir space station. Launch Progress 25 launched on 19 March 1986 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh SSR. It used a Soyuz-U2 ...

to 42 to Mir, followed by the new generation

Progress M-1 Progress M-1 (russian: Прогресс М-1, italic=yes), was a Soviet uncrewed cargo spacecraft which was launched in 1989 to resupply the Mir space station. The eighteenth of sixty four Progress spacecraft to visit Mir, it was the first Prog ...

to M-18 and finally M-23. Other missions included the Gamma telescope and three

Orlets Orlets (russian: Орлец) was a series of Russian, and previously Soviet photoreconnaissance satellites derived from and intended to augment the Yantar series of spacecraft. Ten satellites were launched between 1989 and 2006; eight in the Orlet ...

reconnaissance satellites. In total, Soyuz-U2 was launched 72 times and experienced no failures over its operational lifetime.

References

R-7 (rocket family) Space launch vehicles of the Soviet Union Space launch vehicles of Russia Soyuz program Vehicles introduced in 1982 {{rocketry-stub

See also

References