The second generation of the

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 ...

, the ''Soyuz 7K-T'', comprised

Soyuz 12 Soyuz 12 (russian: Союз 12, ''Union 12'') was a September, 1973, crewed test flight by the Soviet Union of the newly redesigned Soyuz 7K-T spacecraft that was intended to provide greater crew safety in the wake of the Soyuz 11 tragedy. Th ...

through

Soyuz 40 The Soyuz 40 mission was a 1981 Soviet crewed spaceflight and the final flight of the Soyuz 7K-T spacecraft. It was a collaboration between the Soviet Union and Romania.The mission report is available here: http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english ...

(1973-1981). In the wake of the

Soyuz 11 Soyuz 11 (russian: link=no, Союз 11, lit=Union 11) was the only crewed mission to board the world's first space station, Salyut 1 (Soyuz 10 had soft-docked, but had not been able to enter due to latching problems). The crew, Georgy Dobrov ...

tragedy, the spacecraft was redesigned to accommodate two cosmonauts who would wear pressure suits at all times during launch, docking, undocking, and reentry. The place of the third cosmonaut was taken by extra life-support systems. Finally, the 7K-T, being intended purely as a space station ferry, had no solar panels, instead sporting two large whip antennas in their place. As a result, it relied on batteries which only provided enough power for two days of standalone flight. The idea was that the Soyuz would recharge while docked with a Salyut space station, but in the event of a docking or other mission failure (which ended up happening on several occasions), the crew was forced to power off everything except communications and life support systems until they could reenter. Two test flights of the 7K-T were conducted prior to committing the redesigned Soyuz to a crewed mission. Kosmos 496 was launched on 26 June 1972 and spent a week in space, part of it in powered-down mode. Then on 2 September 1972, an attempted launch of a Zenit reconnaissance satellite failed to orbit due to a malfunction of the vernier engines on the Blok A stage. The existing stock of Soyuz boosters had to be modified to prevent a recurrence of this failure mode on a crewed mission, which delayed the next test until almost a year later when Kosmos 573 launched on 15 June 1973 and spent two days in space. With this done, the way was cleared for the first crewed test, Soyuz 12, in September 1972. In addition, the standalone flights of Soyuz 13,

Soyuz 16 Soyuz 16 (russian: Союз 16, ''Union 16'') was a December, 1974, crewed test flight for a joint Soviet Union, Soviet-United States crewed space mission, space flight which culminated in the Apollo–Soyuz mission in July 1975. The two-man S ...

Soyuz 19 Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз ( Russian and Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Сою́з Сове́тских Социалис ...

, and Soyuz 22 used a variant of the 7K-T with solar panels, and in the case of 13 and 22, special camera apparatus in place of the docking mechanism. A large Orion 2 astrophysical camera for imaging the sky and Earth were used on the former and an MKF-6 Zeiss camera on the latter. Another modification was the ''Soyuz 7K-T/A9'' used for the flights to the military

Almaz The Almaz (russian: Алмаз, lit=Diamond) program was a highly secret Soviet military space station program, begun in the early 1960s. Three crewed military reconnaissance stations were launched between 1973 and 1976: Salyut 2, Salyut 3 an ...

space station. This featured the ability to remote control the space station and a new parachute system and other still classified and unknown changes.

Missions

* Soyuz 13 * Soyuz 14 *

Soyuz 15 Soyuz 15 (russian: Союз 15, ''Union 15'') was an August, 1974, crewed space flight which was to have been the second mission to the Soviet Union's Salyut 3 space station with presumably military objectives. Launched 26 August 1974, the S ...

Soyuz 17 Soyuz 17 (russian: Союз 17, ''Union 17'') was the first of two long-duration missions to the Soviet Union's Salyut 4 space station in 1975. The flight by cosmonauts Aleksei Gubarev and Georgy Grechko set a Soviet mission-duration record o ...

Soyuz 18 Soyuz 18 (russian: Союз 18, ''Union 18'') was a 1975 Soviet crewed mission to Salyut 4, the second and final crew to man the space station. Pyotr Klimuk and Vitaly Sevastyanov set a new Soviet space endurance record of 63 days and the mar ...

Soyuz 21 Soyuz 21 (russian: Союз 21, ''Union 21'') was a 1976 Soviet crewed mission to the Salyut 5 space station, the first of three flights to the station. The mission's objectives were mainly military in scope, but included other scientific work. ...

Soyuz 23 Soyuz 23 (russian: Союз 23, ''Union 23'') was an October, 1976, Soviet crewed space flight, the second to the Salyut 5 space station. Cosmonauts Vyacheslav Zudov and Valery Rozhdestvensky arrived at the station, but an equipment malfunction ...

Soyuz 24 Soyuz 24 (russian: Союз 24, ''Union 24'') was a February, 1977, Soviet mission to the Salyut 5 space station, the third and final mission to the station, the last purely military crew for the Soviets and the final mission to a military Sal ...

Soyuz 25 Soyuz 25 (russian: Союз 25, ''Union 25'') was an October, 1977, Soviet crewed space flight, the first to the new Salyut 6 space station, which had been launched 10 days earlier. However, the mission was aborted when cosmonauts Vladimir Koval ...

Soyuz 26 Soyuz 26 (russian: Союз 26, ''Union 26'') was a Soviet space mission which launched the crew of Salyut 6 EO-1, the first long duration crew on the space station Salyut 6. The Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз ( R ...

Soyuz 27 Soyuz 27 (russian: Союз 27, ''Union 27'') was a 1978 Soviet crewed spacecraft which flew to the orbiting Salyut 6 space station, during the mission EP-1. It was the third crewed flight to the station, the second successful docking and th ...

Soyuz 28 Soyuz 28 (russian: Союз 28, ''Union 28'') was a March 1978 Soviet crewed mission to the orbiting Salyut 6 space station. It was the fourth mission to the station, the third successful docking, and the second visit to the resident crew launche ...

Soyuz 29 Soyuz 29 (russian: Союз 29, ''Union 29'') was a 1978 crewed Soviet space mission to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the fifth mission, the fourth successful docking, and the second long-duration crew for the orbiting station. Commander Vla ...

Soyuz 30 Soyuz 30 (russian: Союз 30, ''Union 30'') was a 1978 crewed Soviet space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the sixth mission to and fifth successful docking at the orbiting facility.The mission report is available here: http://www. ...

* Soyuz 31 *

Soyuz 32 Soyuz 32 (russian: Союз 32, ''Union 32'') was a 1979 Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station.The mission report is available here: http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-32.htm It was the eighth mission to and seventh ...

Soyuz 33 Soyuz 33 (russian: Союз 33, ''Union 33'') was an April, 1979, Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station.The mission report is available here: http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-33.htm It was the ninth mission to the ...

Soyuz 34 Soyuz 34 (russian: Союз 34, ''Union 34'') was a 1979 Soviet uncrewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was sent to supply the resident crew a reliable return vehicle after the previous flight, Soyuz 33, suffered an engine failure. ...

Soyuz 35 Soyuz 35 (russian: Союз 35, ''Union 35'') was a 1980 Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the 10th mission to and eighth successful docking at the orbiting facility. The Soyuz 35 crew were the fourth long-duration ...

Soyuz 36 Soyuz 36 (russian: Союз 36, ''Union 36'') was a 1980 Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the 11th mission to and ninth successful docking at the orbiting facility. The Soyuz 36 crew were the first to visit the long ...

Soyuz 37 Soyuz 37 (russian: Союз 37, ''Union 37'') was a 1980 Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the 13th mission to and 11th successful docking at the orbiting facility. The Soyuz 37 crew were the third to visit the long- ...

Soyuz 38 Soyuz 38 was a human spaceflight mission conducted by the Soviet Union during September, 1980. The Soyuz spacecraft brought two visiting crew members to the Salyut 6 space station, one of whom was an Intercosmos cosmonaut from Cuba Cuba ( ...

Soyuz 39 Soyuz 39 was a 1981 Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the fifteenth expedition, and carried the eighth international crew to the orbiting facility. The crew visited Vladimir Kovalyonok and Viktor Savinykh, who had r ...

* Soyuz 41

Uncrewed tests

* Cosmos 496 * Cosmos 573 * Cosmos 613 * Cosmos 656 *

Soyuz 20 Soyuz 20 (russian: Союз 20, Union 20) was an unmanned spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 170 ...

External links

Russia New Russian spaceship will be able to fly to Moon - space corp
*Mir Hardware Heritage ** David S.F. Portree,

', NASA RP-1357, 1995 ** Mir Hardware Heritage (wikisource)
Soyuz 7K-T in Encyclopedia Astronautica

{{Russian human spaceflight programs Crewed spacecraft Soyuz program Vehicles introduced in 1972