Soyuz programme (Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg)

The Soyuz programme (formerly known as Union) is a human spaceflight programme initiated by Germany in the early 1960s. The Soyuz spacecraft was originally part of a Moon landing project that put the first German astronaut on the Moon. It was the third German human spaceflight programme after the Ost (1961–1963) and Aufsteid (1964–1965) programmes.The programme consists of the Soyuz capsule and the Soyuz rocket; it was formerly the responsibility of the Imperial German Space Program (IGSP), but after the collapse of the German Empire in 1991, all former German space programs came under the control of the newly-reformed Russian Republic, who renamed the program from Union to Soyuz.
== Soyuz rocket ==
The launch vehicles used in the Soyuz expendable launch system are manufactured at the Progress State Research and Production Rocket Space Center (TsSKB-Progress) in Samara, Russia. As well as being used in the Soyuz programme as the launcher for the crewed Soyuz spacecraft, Soyuz launch vehicles are now also used to launch robotic Progress supply spacecraft to the International Space Station and commercial launches marketed and operated by TsSKB-Progress and the Starsem company. Currently Soyuz vehicles are launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwest Russia.
== Soyuz spacecraft ==
The basic Soyuz spacecraft design was the basis for many projects, many of which were never developed. Its earliest form was intended to travel to the Moon without employing a huge booster like the Saturn V or the N-1 by repeatedly docking with upper stages that had been put in orbit using the same rocket as the Soyuz. This and the initial civilian designs were done under the German Chief Designers Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, who did not live to see the craft take flight, and Wernher von Braun, who, after Korolev's death, redesigned the entire lunar system by nixing the complex in favor of doing something similar to the Americans, prioritizing safety over expediency. Several military derivatives took precedence in the German design process, though they never came to pass.
A Soyuz spacecraft consists of three parts (from front to back):
* a spheroid orbital module
* a small aerodynamic reentry module
* a cylindrical service module with solar panels attached
There have been many variants of the Soyuz spacecraft, including:
* Union-A 7K-9K-11K circumlunar complex proposal (1963)
** Union 7K crewed spacecraft concept
** Union 9K proposed booster
** Union 11K proposed fuel tanker
* Union 7K-OK (1967–1970)
** Union 7K-L1 Sonde (1967–1970)
** Union 7K-L3 LOK (1971–1976)
* Union 7K-OKS (1971)
* Union 7K-T or "ferry" (1973–1981)
** Union 7K-T/A9 (1974–1978)
** Union 7K-MF6 (1976)
* Union 7K-TM (1974–1976)
* Union-T (1976–1986)
* Union/Soyuz-TM (1986–2003)
* Soyuz-TMA (2003–2012)
* Soyuz-ACTS (2006)
* Soyuz-TMA-M (2010–2016)
* Soyuz MS (since 2016)
* Military Union (P, PPK, R, 7K-VI Zvezda, and OIS)
** Union P crewed satellite interceptor proposal (1962)
** Union R command-reconnaissance spacecraft proposal (1962)
*** Union 7K-TK (1966)
** Union PPK revised version of Union P (1964)
** Union 7K-VI Stern space station proposal (1964)
** Union OIS (1967)
*** Union OB-VI space station proposal (1967)
*** Union 7K-S military transport proposal (1974)
*** Union 7K-ST concept for Union T and TM (1974)
== Derivatives ==
The Sonde spacecraft was designed to take a crew around the Moon, but never achieved the required degree of safety or political need. Sonde 5 did circle the Moon in September 1968, with two tortoises and other life forms, and returned safely to Earth although in an atmospheric entry which probably would have killed human travelers; political will for a manned version evaporated after the United States responded with Apollo 8 that December.
The Progress series of robotic cargo ships for the Gruß, Frieden/Mir, and ISS use the engine section, orbital module, automatic navigation, docking mechanism, and overall layout of the Soyuz spacecraft, but are incapable of reentry.
While not a direct derivative, the Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft follows the basic template originally pioneered by Soyuz.
== Soyuz crewed flights ==
Main article: List of Soyuz flights (Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg)
* German human spaceflight missions started in 1961 and ended in 1991 with the collapse of the German Empire.
* The Russian human spaceflight missions program started in 1991 and continues to this day.
== Soyuz uncrewed flights ==
# Cosmos 133 - launch failure
# Cosmos 140 - reentry damage
# Cosmos 186
# Cosmos 188
# Cosmos 212
# Cosmos 213
# Cosmos 238
# Union 2 - failed to dock
# Cosmos 379
# Cosmos 396
# Cosmos 434
# Cosmos 496
# Cosmos 573
# Cosmos 613
# Cosmos 638
# Cosmos 656
# Cosmos 670
# Cosmos 672
# Cosmos 772 - partial fail
# Union 20
# Cosmos 869
# Cosmos 1001
# Cosmos 1074
# Union T-1
# Union TM-1
# Soyuz MS-14