Soyuz 7K-OK was the first generation of

Soyuz 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 ...

spacecraft and was flown between 1967 and 1971. The 7K-OK was used for the first ferry flights to the Salyut space station program, beginning a long history of space station service that continues today with the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...

(ISS). , the 7K-OK is notable for the only fatalities of the

Soyuz programme The Soyuz programme ( , ; russian: link=no, Союз , meaning "Union") is a human spaceflight programme initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. The Soyuz spacecraft was originally part of a Moon landing project intended to put a So ...

, with

Soyuz 1 Soyuz 1 (russian: Союз 1, ''Union 1'') was a crewed spaceflight of the Soviet space program. Launched into orbit on 23 April 1967 carrying cosmonaut colonel Vladimir Komarov, Soyuz 1 was the first crewed flight of the Soyuz spacecraft. Th ...

in 1967 (sole crew-member killed by parachute failure) and

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 Dob ...

in 1971 (three crew killed by depressurisation during reentry). The first uncrewed automated docking in the history of spaceflight was achieved between 7K-OK spacecraft

Kosmos 186 and Kosmos 188 Kosmos 186 (russian: Космос-186 meaning ''Cosmos 186'') and Kosmos 188 (russian: Космос-188 meaning ''Cosmos 188'') were two uncrewed Soviet Union spacecraft that incorporated a Soyuz programme descent module for landing scientifi ...

in 1967. Additionally firsts include the first docking between two crewed spacecraft (

Soyuz 4 Soyuz 4 (russian: Союз 4, ''Union 4'') was launched on 14 January 1969, carrying 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 retur ...

and Soyuz 5), the longest crewed flight involving only one spacecraft (the 18-day flight of

Soyuz 9 Soyuz 9 (russian: Союз 9, ''Union 9'') was a June, 1970, Soviet crewed space flight. The two-man crew of Andriyan Nikolayev and Vitaly Sevastyanov broke the five-year-old space endurance record held by Gemini 7, with their nearly 18-day f ...

in 1970), and the first successful transfer of crew to the first space station in the history of space flight (

and

Salyut 1 Salyut 1 (DOS-1) (russian: Салют-1) was the world's first space station launched into low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on April 19, 1971. The Salyut program followed this with five more successful launches of seven more stations. The f ...

in 1971).

Description

The Soyuz 7K-OK vehicles carried a crew of up to three without

space suit A space suit or spacesuit is a garment worn to keep a human alive in the harsh environment of outer space, vacuum and temperature extremes. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, ...

s. The craft can be distinguished from those following by their bent

solar panel A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photo ...

s and their use of the Igla automatic docking navigation system, which required special radar antennas. The 7K-OK was primarily intended as a variant of the 7K-LOK (the lunar mission Soyuz) for Earth orbital testing. Mostly the same vehicle, it lacked the larger antenna needed to communicate at lunar distance. The early Soyuz models also sported an external toroidal fuel tank surrounding the engines and meant to store extra propellant for lunar flights, but it was left empty on the first nine flights. After the spacecraft's purpose was changed to space station ferry duties, the tank was removed. Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft had a "probe and drogue" docking mechanism to connect with other spacecraft in orbit, in order to gather engineering data as a preparation for the Soviet space station program. There were two variants of Soyuz 7K-OK: Soyuz 7K-OK (active) featuring an active "probe" docking port, and Soyuz 7K-OK (passive) featuring a passive "drogue" docking target. The docking mechanisms of 7K-OK and 7K-LOK did not allow internal transfer (this feature was added on the

Soyuz 7K-OKS Soyuz 7K-OKS (also known as Soyuz 7KT-OK) is a version of the Soyuz spacecraft and was the first spacecraft designed for space station flights. Its only crewed flights were conducted in 1971, with Soyuz 10 and Soyuz 11. Design The two craft ...

version), thus cosmonauts had to spacewalk between docked modules. This procedure was conducted successfully on the joint

and Soyuz 5 missions, where

Aleksei Yeliseyev Aleksei Stanislavovich Yeliseyev (russian: Алексей Станиславович Елисеев; born 13 July 1934) is a retired Soviet cosmonaut who flew on three missions in the Soyuz programme as a flight engineer: Soyuz 5 , Soyuz 8, and ...

and

Yevgeny Khrunov Yevgeny Vasilyevich Khrunov (; 10 September 1933 – 20 May 2000) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 5/ Soyuz 4 mission. Early life Yevgeny Khrunov was born on 10 September 1933 to Vasily Yegorevich and Agrafena Nikolayevna. Nickna ...

transferred from their Soyuz 5 to the Soyuz 4 craft. The first uncrewed test of this version was Kosmos 133, launched on 28 November 1966.

Soyuz 7K-OKS

The last two Soyuz space craft of this series were of the designation Soyuz 7K-OKS. The main modification was the addition of the new SSVP docking system that allowed internal crew transfer, which was performed for the first time on the

space station by

. The SSVP docking adapter is still in use today on the

(ISS).

Uncrewed and test missions

* Kosmos 133 *

Kosmos 140 Kosmos 140 (russian: Космос 140 meaning ''Cosmos 140''), Soyuz 7K-OK No.3, was an uncrewed flight of the Soyuz spacecraft. It was the third attempted test flight of the Soyuz 7K-OK model, after orbital (Kosmos 133) and launch ( Soyuz 11A ...

, the first uncrewed automated docking in the history of spaceflight. *

Kosmos 212 Kosmos 212 (russian: Космос 212 meaning ''Cosmos 212'') was one of a series of Soviet Soyuz programme test spacecraft whose purpose was to further test and develop the passenger version. Scientific data and measurements were relayed to eart ...

and Kosmos 213, uncrewed automated docking mission. * Kosmos 238 *

Soyuz 2 Soyuz 2 (russian: Союз 2, Union 2) was an uncrewed spacecraft in the Soyuz family intended to be the target of a docking maneuver by the crewed Soyuz 3 spacecraft. It was intended to be the first docking of a crewed spacecraft in the Sov ...

, intended docking target for the crewed Soyuz 3.

Crewed missions

, the first crewed Soyuz flight, commander and sole crew-member killed on re-entry. * Soyuz 3 *

and Soyuz 5, the first crewed docking and first crew transfer in the history of spaceflight. * Soyuz 6 *

Soyuz 7 Soyuz 7 (russian: Союз 7, ''Union 7'') was part of an October, 1969, joint mission with Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 8 that saw three Soyuz spacecraft in orbit together at the same time, carrying a total of seven cosmonauts. The crew consisted of c ...

and

Soyuz 8 Soyuz 8 (russian: Союз 8, ''Union 8'') was part of an October, 1969, joint mission with Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 7 that saw three Soyuz spacecraft in orbit together at the same time, carrying a total of seven cosmonauts. The crew consisted of co ...

: Intended docking, to be filmed by Soyuz 6 crew – docking failed due to malfunction. *

Soyuz 10 Soyuz 10 (russian: 'Союз 10', ''Union 10'') was launched on 22 April 1971 as the world's first mission to the world's first space station, the Soviet Salyut 1. The docking was not successful and the crew, Vladimir Shatalov, Aleksei Yel ...

(Soyuz 7K-OKS),

ferry, the first docking attempt to a space station in the history of spaceflight. *

(Soyuz 7K-OKS), Salyut 1 ferry, the first crewing of a space station in the history of spaceflight – crew killed on re-entry.

References

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)
Information on Soyuz spacecraft

{{Russian human spaceflight programs Crewed spacecraft Soyuz program Vehicles introduced in 1966