Soyuz-U

Soyuz-U

A Soyuz-U on the launchpad for the Soyuz 18 mission
Function	Medium-lift launch vehicle
Manufacturer	Progress
Country of origin	Soviet Union/Russia
Size
Height	Soyuz-U: 51.1 m (168 ft) Soyuz-U/Ikar: 47.3 m (155 ft) Soyuz-U/Fregat: 46.7 m (153 ft)
Diameter	3 m (9.8 ft)[1]
Mass	Soyuz-U: 313,000 kg (690,000 lb) Soyuz-U/Ikar: 308,000 kg (679,000 lb) Soyuz-U/Fregat: 308,000 kg (679,000 lb)
Stages	Soyuz-U: 3 Soyuz-U/Ikar: 4 Soyuz-U/Fregat: 4
Capacity
Payload to LEO
Mass	Baikonur: 6,900 kg (15,200 lb) Plesetsk: 6,700 kg (14,800 lb)
Associated rockets
Family	R-7 (Soyuz)
Derivative work	Soyuz-U2 Soyuz-FG
Launch history
Status	Retired
Launch sites	Baikonur, Sites 1/5 & 31/6 Plesetsk, Sites 16/2, 41/1 & 43/3 & 43/4
Total launches	786[2][3][4]
Success(es)	765[5]
Failure(s)	22[2][5]
First flight	18 May 1973[6]
Last flight	22 February 2017 (Progress MS-05)
Type of passengers/cargo	Soyuz Progress Kosmos Zenit
Boosters (First stage) – Blok-B,V,G,D[a] [7]
No. boosters	4
Height	19.6 m (64 ft)
Diameter	2.68 m (8.8 ft)
Empty mass	Soyuz: 3,800 kg (8,400 lb)
Gross mass	43,400 kg (95,700 lb)
Powered by	1 × RD-117
Maximum thrust	Sea Level: 838.5 kN (188,500 lbf) Vacuum: 1,021.3 kN (229,600 lbf)
Specific impulse	Sea Level: 262 s (2.57 km/s) Vacuum: 319 s (3.13 km/s)
Burn time	118 seconds
Propellant	LOX/RG-1
Second stage (core) – Blok-A[7]
Height	27.10 m (88.9 ft)
Diameter	2.95 m (9.7 ft)
Empty mass	Soyuz: 6,550 kg (14,440 lb)
Gross mass	Soyuz: 99,500 kg (219,400 lb)
Powered by	1 × RD-118
Maximum thrust	Sea Level: 792.5 kN (178,200 lbf) Vacuum: 990.2 kN (222,600 lbf)
Specific impulse	Sea Level: 255 s (2.50 km/s) Vacuum: 319 s (3.13 km/s)
Burn time	290 seconds
Propellant	LOX/RG-1
Third stage – Blok-I[7]
Height	6.70 m (22.0 ft)
Diameter	2.66 m (8.7 ft)
Empty mass	Soyuz: 2,410 kg (5,310 lb)
Gross mass	Soyuz: 25,200 kg (55,600 lb)
Powered by	1 × RD-0110
Maximum thrust	297.9 kN (67,000 lbf)
Specific impulse	325 seconds
Burn time	270 seconds
Propellant	LOX/RG-1
Fourth stage (optional) – Fregat[8]
Height	1.5 m (4 ft 11 in)
Diameter	3.35 m (11.0 ft)
Empty mass	930 kg (2,050 lb)
Propellant mass	5,250 kg (11,570 lb)
Powered by	1 × S5.92
Maximum thrust	19.85 kN (4,460 lbf)
Specific impulse	333.2 s (3.268 km/s)
Burn time	Up to 1,100 seconds (up to 20 starts)
Propellant	N2O4 / UDMH
Fourth stage (optional) – Ikar[9]
Height	2.56 m (8.4 ft)
Diameter	2.72 m (8.9 ft)
Empty mass	820 kg (1,810 lb)
Gross mass	3,164 kg (6,975 lb)
Powered by	1 × S5.144/17D61
Maximum thrust	2.94 kN (660 lbf)
Specific impulse	307 seconds
Propellant	N2O4 / UDMH
[edit on Wikidata]

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 constructed at the Progress factory in Samara, Russia. The first Soyuz-U flight took place on 18 May 1973, carrying as its payload Kosmos 559, a Zenit military surveillance satellite.^[6] The final flight of a Soyuz-U rocket took place on 22 February 2017, carrying Progress MS-05 to the International Space Station.

Soyuz-U was in use continuously for almost 44 years. Production of R-7 derived launch vehicles peaked in the late 1970s-early 1980s at 55–60 a year. Soyuz-U held the world record of highest launch rate in a year in 1979 with 47 flights until this was beaten by SpaceX's Falcon 9 in 2022.^[10][11] Over its operational lifetime, the Soyuz-U variant flew a total of 786 missions, another world record. Soyuz-U has also been one of the most reliable launchers, with a success rate of 97.3%.

The earlier Soyuz 11A511 was the first attempt at creating a standardized R-7 core in place of the numerous variations that had been used up to 1966. It took the first stage from the Molniya 8K78M booster with the 8D74M engines and made them standard across the board for all R-7 vehicles. In addition, Soyuz vehicles would all use the RD-0110 engines from the 8K78M's Blok I stage, although Voskhod vehicles retained the older, less powerful RD-0107 engines.

The uprated core (GRAU index 11A511U) was introduced to the R-7 family in 1973, yielding the carrier rocket variant named Soyuz-U, although adoption across the board was not complete until 1977 when the existing stock of 11A511-derived boosters was used up. The 11A511U was similar to the 11A511 but had some improvements to the engines to cut down on issues such as in-flight vibration and combustion instability and the instrument packet was shortened on three stage variants while the four stage Molniya booster continued using the older, longer instrument packet from the 11A511.

Two versions of Soyuz-U were fitted with an additional upper stage:

• Soyuz-U/Ikar with the Ikar third stage, produced by the Progress State Research and Production Rocket Space Center, TsSKB-Progress. Ikar is used to deliver various payloads with masses of 750 to 3,920 kg (1,650 to 8,640 lb) to heights of 250 to 1,400 km (160 to 870 mi). The performance of the Ikar upper stage is lower than that of the Fregat upper stage, but it is more precise in maneuvering and it can operate autonomously longer. This version was launched 6 times in 1999, carrying four GlobalStar satellites on each mission.^[3]
• Soyuz-U/Fregat with the Fregat third stage, developed and produced by Lavochkin Association in Khimki. This version only flew 4 times in 2000;^[4] the Fregat upper stage was subsequently flown regularly atop Soyuz-FG and Soyuz-2 boosters.

An older variant of Soyuz-U, the Soyuz-U2 launcher, first flown in 1982, had the same hardware as the basic Soyuz-U. Instead of standard RP-1, it used a high energy, synthetic version, Syntin, as the first stage fuel. This variant, mainly used to transport crew and cargo to the Mir space station, last flew in 1995, after production of Syntin ended due to cost reasons.

Soyuz-U was the basic platform for the development of the Soyuz-FG variant, which used an all-new first stage and took over crew transport to the ISS in 2002. Since 2013, both Soyuz-U and Soyuz-FG are gradually being replaced by the modernized Soyuz-2 launch vehicle.

The first use of a Soyuz-U to launch a crewed mission took place 2 December 1974, when the Soyuz 16 crew was launched in preparation for the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). Soyuz 19, which as part of the ASTP docked with the last Apollo spacecraft ever flown, was also launched by a Soyuz-U rocket.^[6]

On 6 July 1976, a Soyuz-U launched Soyuz 21, which took a crew of two to the Salyut 5 space station. Many subsequent space station crews were launched on Soyuz-U launchers. The final crewed mission to use the Soyuz-U was Soyuz TM-34, a Soyuz ferry flight to the International Space Station.

A spectacular accident occurred on 26 September 1983, when the launcher for the Soyuz T-10a mission was destroyed by fire on the launch pad. The crew was saved by activation of the launch escape system a few seconds before the explosion.

From 2000 until its retirement in 2017, Soyuz-U vehicles were used by the Russian Federal Space Agency primarily to launch Progress-M robotic cargo spacecraft on resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS).

Although the Soyuz-U was generally reliable, occasional failures occurred, most of them on launches of Zenit and Yantar reconnaissance satellites. As with all Soviet/Russian launch vehicles, the 11A511U featured the AVD malfunction detection system which would terminate engine thrust in-flight if it detected a deviation from the booster's normal performance levels and on Soyuz launches also activate the launch escape system. The flight termination command could not be sent until 20 seconds into launch so the booster wouldn't fall onto or around the launch complex and the AVD could not generate a flight termination command until eight seconds to ensure the booster had entered stable mainstage operation. On June 18, 1987, a launch of a Resurs satellite from Plesetsk ended disastrously when the Blok D strap-on LOX turbopump disintegrated at T+6 seconds due to ingested debris. The booster crashed near the pad, badly damaging it and putting it out of use for 18 months. During investigation into the mishap, it was concluded that the launch would not have been survivable had it been manned because the failure occurred before the AVD system could have activated, and thus the launch escape system would not have worked on a manned launch.

It was also concluded that eight seconds was excessive and the booster would reach mainstage operation by about T+1.6 seconds; the AVD system had been designed in the late 1950s when only a few R-7 prototypes had flown and there was little flight data to go by. The AVD was redesigned to be able to issue a flight termination command at 1.6 seconds, which of course would still be blocked until T+20 seconds.

On July 27, 1988, the first R-7 vehicle with the redesigned AVD system launched from Plesetsk with another Resurs satellite. The AVD issued an erroneous shutdown command at T+1.6 seconds. The booster lifted and flew until T+20 seconds when the shutdown command was unblocked and terminated engine thrust, causing it to fall near LC-43/4 and severely damage it. An investigation into the mishap found that the new AVD system had a faulty circuit layout.

The October 2002 launch of a Foton satellite crashed near the pad at Plesetsk after the Blok D strap-on booster suffered an engine malfunction. One person on the ground was killed. The Blok D experienced an abnormally slow thrust rise at ignition followed by a decay in performance starting at T+4 seconds. The AVD system sensed the drop in Blok D performance and issued the flight termination command at T+5 seconds but it was blocked until T+20 seconds. The Blok D shut down completely and broke off the stack at T+8 seconds. The booster continued to climb but started deviating from its flight path due to the unbalanced thrust. The flight termination command was unblocked at T+20 seconds and the core and remaining strap-ons shut down. The booster impacted the ground at T+41 seconds as a crowd of 300 spectators watched. Six Russian military servicemen were injured and one later died of his injuries. A building used to produce compressed air and nitrogen was also badly damaged. Investigation into the mishap found that the Blok D's hydrogen peroxide pump had stopped working due to ingested debris.

A Soyuz-U mission failed to launch Progress M-12M to the ISS on 24 August 2011, when the upper stage experienced a problem and broke up over Siberia. It was the first time a Progress spacecraft had failed to reach orbit. Another cargo ship, Progress MS-04, was lost on 1 December 2016 shortly after launch, likely due to a problem with the third stage of the Soyuz-U.

In April 2015, Soyuz-U was declared obsolete. Its production was stopped and the rocket was scheduled for retirement after launching the remaining vehicles with Progress cargo ships.^[12] The final flight was Progress MS-05, which launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 22 February 2017, 05:58:33 UTC.^[13]

The modernized Soyuz 2 was introduced in 2004, adding several key enhancements, including improved engines along with digital flight control and telemetry systems, enabling launches from fixed platforms and the use of large payload fairings. The analogue flight control systems of the Soyuz-U and FG limited the ability of the launch vehicle to adjust its trajectory in-flight, requiring that the rocket be "aimed" before takeoff by a complex rotating launchpad. Long and wide payload fairings also introduced too much aerodynamic instability for the old analog system to handle, limiting the vehicle's potential to launch increasingly larger commercial satellites.

After several years of development, flight tests and concurrent use, the Soyuz 2 replaced the Soyuz-U in 2017 the Soyuz-FG in 2019, and launched its first crewed mission in 2020.^[14][15]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Soyuz-U.

• (PDF) Soyuz Launch Vehicle Users Manual
• Astronautix.com entry on Soyuz-U / 11A511U
• Astronautix.com entry on Soyuz-U2 / 11A511U2
• Russian Federal Space Agency about Soyuz-U
• Russian Federal Space Agency about Soyuz-U/Ikar
• Russian Federal Space Agency about Soyuz-U/Fregat
• Russian Federal Space Agency about Soyuz-U2
• LV's manufacturer TsSKB-Progress about Soyuz-U (in Russian)