page_title: Soviet space program
section_title: After Korolev
hierarchical_section_title: Soviet space program / After Korolev
caption_attribution_description: English: S75-22410 (March 1975) --- These five men compose the two prime crews of the first-ever two-nation cooperative space mission, known in the US as the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) and in the Soviet Union as the Soyuz-Apollo Experimental Flight (Russian: Экспериментальный полёт Союз-Аполлон, Eksperimantalniy polyot Soyuz-Apollon). This was a docking mission in Earth orbit scheduled for July 1975. They are astronaut Thomas P. Stafford (standing on left), commander of the American crew; cosmonaut Aleksey A. Leonov (standing on right), commander of the Soviet crew; astronaut Donald K. Slayton (seated on left), docking module pilot of the American crew; astronaut Vance D. Brand (seated center), command module pilot of the American crew; and cosmonaut Valeriy N. Kubasov (seated on right), engineer on the Soviet crew. The crew members wear the same mission patch, but oriented to reflect "Soyuz-Apollo" or "Apollo-Soyuz", as the program was called in their respective countries. Persian: فارسی: عکس رسمی فضانوردان روسی و آمریکایی در پروژه آزمایشی آپولو-سایوز
context_page_description: The Space program of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, commonly known as the Soviet space program, was the national space program of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, active from the 1930s until the state's collapse in 1991.
  The Soviet Union's space program was mainly based on the cosmonautic exploration of space and the development of the expendable launch vehicles, which had been split between many design bureaus competing against each other. Over its 60-years of history, the Soviet program was responsible for a number of pioneering feats and accomplishments in human spaceflight, including the first intercontinental ballistic missile, first satellite, first animal in Earth orbit, first human in space and Earth orbit, first woman in space and Earth orbit, first spacewalk, first Moon impact, first image of the far side of the Moon and uncrewed lunar soft landing, first space rover, first sample of lunar soil automatically extracted and brought to Earth, and first space station.
context_section_description: Korolev died in January 1966, following a routine operation that uncovered colon cancer, from complications of heart disease and severe hemorrhaging. Kerim Kerimov, who was formerly an architect of Vostok 1, was appointed Chairman of the State Commission on Piloted Flights and headed it for the next 25 years (1966–1991). He supervised every stage of development and operation of both crewed space complexes as well as uncrewed interplanetary stations for the former Soviet Union. One of Kerimov's greatest achievements was the launch of Mir in 1986.
  The leadership of the OKB-1 design bureau was given to Vasily Mishin, who had the task of sending a man around the Moon in 1967 and landing a man on it in 1968. Mishin lacked Korolev's political authority and still faced competition from other chief designers. Under pressure, Mishin approved the launch of the Soyuz 1 flight in 1967, even though the craft had never been successfully tested on an uncrewed flight. The mission launched with known design problems and ended with the vehicle crashing to the ground, killing Vladimir Komarov. This was the first in-flight fatality of any space program.
  Following this disaster and under new pressures, Mishin developed a drinking problem. The Soviets were beaten in sending the first crewed flight around the Moon in 1968 by Apollo 8, but Mishin pressed ahead with development of the problematic super heavy N1 in the hope that the Americans would have a setback, leaving enough time to make the N1 workable and land a man on the Moon first. There was a success with the joint flight of Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 in January 1969 that tested the rendezvous, docking, and crew transfer techniques that would be used for the landing, and the LK Lander was tested successfully in earth orbit. But after four uncrewed test launches of the N1 ended in failure, the heavy booster was abandoned and with it any chance of the Soviets landing men on the Moon in a single launch.
  Besides the crewed landings, the abandoned Soviet Moon program included the multipurpose moonbase Zvezda, first detailed with developed mockups of expedition vehicles and surface modules. The later proposed crewed moon program "Vulkan-LEK" was not adopted for economic reasons.
  Following this setback, Chelomei convinced Ustinov to approve a program in 1970 to advance his Almaz military space station as a means of beating the US's announced Skylab. Mishin remained in control of the project that became Salyut but the decision backed by Mishin to fly a three-man crew without pressure suits rather than a two-man crew with suits to Salyut 1 in 1971 proved fatal when the re-entry capsule depressurized killing the crew on their return to Earth. Mishin was removed from many projects, with Chelomei regaining control of Salyut. After working with NASA on the Apollo Soyuz Test Project, the Soviet leadership decided a new management approach was needed, and in 1974 the N1 was canceled and Mishin dismissed. A single design bureau was created NPO Energia with Glushko as chief designer.
  In contrast with the struggles of its early crewed lunar programs, the USSR found significant success with its remote moon operations, achieving two historical firsts with the automatic Lunokhod and the Luna sample return missions. Also, the Mars probe program was continued with some small success, while the explorations of Venus and then of the Halley comet by the Venera and Vega probe programs were more effective.
caption: The American and Soviet crews of the Apollo Soyuz Test Project
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