Soyuz spacecraft - all together in scheme

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Soyuz spacecraft all together in one scheme.


The basic design of the Soyuz spacecraft was basis of many versions. The shape consisted of 3 characteristic parts: spheroidal orbital module, reentry module, and cylindrical service module.

S. Korolev first proposed Soyuz A concept in 1963 where Soyuz 7K (manned spacecraft concept) would rendezvous with other object Soyuz (9K or 11K) in the Earth's orbit.
The Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft was the first generation of Soyuz in use in between years 1967 and 1970 (see article Soyuz, the first generation). The first generation was intended as a variant of the lunar mission Soyuz: Soyuz 7K-L1 Zond (lunar fly by, planned 1967-1970) and Soyuz 7K-LOK (lander on the Moon, planned 1971-1972). Soyuz 7K-OKS is version derived for the space station purposes. It resulted from the change of the main focus of Soyuz spacecraft.

The Soyuz 7K-T spacecraft also called as ferry was the second generation of Soyuz between the years 1973 and 1981 (see article Soyuz, the second generation). Its modified version Soyuz 7K-TM was used for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975 (see article Apollo-Soyuz Test Project).

The third generation overlapped partly the second generation by the completely revised Soyuz T derived from the Soyuz R, 7K-TK, S (initially meant as military Soyuz spacecraft) and also from the Soyuz 7K-TM between the years 1976 and 1986 (see article Soyuz, the third generation).

The forth generation started with the Soyuz TM between the years 1986 and 2003 and continued with Soyuz TMA (2003 - 2012) and its modified version Soyuz TMA-M (2010 - 2016). The newest version Soyuz MS flies from 2016 (see article Soyuz, the fourth generation).

Not that it would be directly Soyuz derivative but the Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft uses Soyuz technology. The name is approximately in translation Divine Craft. The first launch was on November  19, 1999 as Shenzhou 1 and the first manned launch occurred on October 15, 2003 as Shenzhou 5. The last launch was on October 16, 2016 as Shenzhou 11 to the Tiangong 2 space laboratory. The next mission is planned this year (2018).

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