Questions tagged [soyuz-launcher]
the Russian rocket used to launch the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, the most frequently used launcher worldwide
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Are the Russians planning a successor of the Soyuz?
The Soyuz has been flying since the 1960s and is somewhat outdated in this era. With many cheaper and reusable rockets entering the market, are there any plans to replace the Soyuz with an updated ...
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Why is 51.8° inclination standard for Soyuz?
Soyuz flights are mostly around 51.8° inclination, and the Soyuz manual gives this as a reference value. Why is 51.8° the standard inclination? That's not the latitude of Baikonur, and I couldn't find ...
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Could the Soviets have gotten to the Moon using multiple Soyuz rockets?
Saturn V's payload was 140 tons, about 20 times that of Soyuz. The Soviets did not have a functioning rocket with similar characteristics. But couldn't they launch 20 Soyuz rockets, assemble the ...
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What were the reasons the American space-race era rockets didn't use boosters?
Many families of rockets use booster rockets, most notably the R-7 rockets that the Soviet and later Russians use. In comparison the American space-race era rockets mostly didn't.
For example, the ...
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Does Arianespace have a modified Soyuz launch vehicle?
Ars Technica's OneWeb joins the satellite Internet gold rush this week says:
The company chose to partner with Arianespace and its modified Soyuz launch vehicle for the 2020 launches because, ...
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Disadvantage of interstage trusses on Soyuz launch vehicle?
Brian Tompsett gave a detailed explanation of the advantages of the trussing in his answer to the question Why do the Russians use these fence-like interstage fairings?
The gap between Stage II and ...
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What are the G-forces of Soyuz 3rd stage engine cutoff
Follow up to my previous question Third stage engine cutoff of Soyuz looks most intense, why is that?.
The third stage cutoff gives a pretty good kick to the cosmonauts, cued video at about ...
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Has USSR/Russia launched humans on any rocket not derived from R-7?
The Soviet Union's first crewed launch, Vostok 1, was on a Vostok booster, derived from the R-7 ICBM and Sputnik satellite launcher with an additional stage added.
The Soyuz boosters used today by ...
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Is vertical assembly worth the cost (Ariane 6)
Very recently, ESA released a new video showing the proposed Ariane 6 rocket being assembled. This mostly takes place in a large 'moveable gantry' building where the payload is placed on top of the ...
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What are the small red cylinders used for on the bottom of the Soyuz Launch vehicle?
They are fitted on each of the first stage strap on boosters and on the second stage core and are all orientated the same way. Pipes and cables connect to the stages from the cylinders. I believe they ...
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What is the sensor used for Soyuz booster separation?
Roscosmos released their findings of the aborted Soyuz-to-ISS launch, blaming it on a separation sensor that had a deformed pin.
What is this sensor? It sounds like an electrical plunger switch, but ...
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Did the crew of Soyuz MS-10 pass the Karman Line?
Just wondering if Nick Hague got his gold astronaut wings.
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Is this a photo of today's Soyuz anomaly happening in flight seen from the ISS? What are the little dots?
ISS Exp. 57 Cmdr. and ESA Astronaut Alexander Gerst's Tweet today says:
Glad our friends are fine. Thanks to the rescue force of >1000 SAR professionals! Today showed again what an amazing vehicle ...
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Did a Soyuz fly with a Union Jack?
In this schematic of a Soyuz rocket, the payload fairing is depicted with the flag of the USSR on one side, and what appears to be the flag of the United Kingdom on the other.
Did the Soyuz ever fly ...
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What is intermediate thrust and brief pause for checkout on launching Soyuz spacecraft?
In a book I'm reading, the author mentioned the launch of Soyuz spacecraft as follows:
What made it more spectacular was how close we were when it lifted off the launch pad. Yuri, Tim and I were ...
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Does Russia still manufacture parts for their space program that would otherwise be obsolete?
The Russian space program is notable for continuing to use the same designs that have been successful for decades. For example, the Soyuz boosters and Soyuz crew vehicles in use today are still the ...
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Does Soyuz LES take the service module?
During Jettisonable Emergency Escape Head Section abort mode, the head section of the rocket is separated and pulled away by OGB SAS (the escape tower) to safety away from the malfunctioning lower ...
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Red color in the nozzles of Soyuz-2 rocket engines RD-107 and RD-108, is it only a decoration?
Many pictures of the Soyuz-2 show the inside of the nozzles painted with a brilliant red. Is there any function of the paint during ignition and operation of the rocket engines, or is it just a ...
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Angled thrusters on the Soyuz 2.1a?
I saw a satellite launch recently (launch link) which used the Soyuz 2.1a rocket. Shortly after the launch I observed 4 symmetrical thrusters at an angle to the main thrust line.
Is this for ...
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Is China collaborating with Russia on the Soyuz, or perhaps developing their own?
I saw the following statement in the BBC's short article and video Soyuz: the Soviet marvel that remains on duty after 50 years. As a subtitle in the video:
And it will remain on duty for years: ...
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Soyuz launcher support
On the launch pad, why is the Soyuz launch vehicle supported in the middle by large arms, rather than resting on its base, as with other launch vehicles?
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How did Soyuz MS-04 reach the ISS in only 6 hours?
The Wikipedia Article on Soyuz MS-04 says:
It is the first of the Soyuz MS series to rendezvous with the Station in approximately 6 hours, instead of the 2 day orbital rendezvous used for the ...
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Puzzler: What acceleration are these astronauts experiencing?
From only the video footage within the capsule, please estimate the rocket's acceleration (gee's).
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39658947
Show all work and assumptions.
There is a ...
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Is this fairing covered in thick thermal insulation? Keeping the payload warm? Or Cold?
I was enjoying some 2017 April 13 tweets on robots and reminiscing about shoveling snow after seeing this one, but then I scrolled down further and saw a video of a rocket. It's also here in YouTube, ...
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Could the Soyuz/Progress supply and crew a space station in Lunar orbit?
The Soyuz launcher can put about a third of the mass in low Earth orbit compared with Proton, Falcon 9, Ariane 5, Atlas V. Is that enough to crew and resupply a space station in Lunar orbit, or at an ...
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What are these tiny triangular fins on the Soyuz launcher?
What are the small triangular fins on the lowest part of the boosters of the Soyuz 2.1 rocket? What function do they have?
I circled one of them in the upper image here. They are not visible in the ...
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Is Soyuz-2.1v as hardy as previous Soyuz launchers?
The Soyuz series of rockets is famously hardy due to its descent from the R-7 ICBM; the last launch of a Soyuz-U took place "on a launch pad covered in several inches of snow...with a launch time ...
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So with Soyuz being retired, what gets people up to the ISS and back down now?
No Shuttle, no Soyuz, and SpaceX not ready for prime time.
I don't get it.
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Why do the Russians use these fence-like interstage fairings?
When we look at various Russian rockets we often see a metal structure looking like a kind of garden fence separating some stages. To my knowledge, only the R7 family (Vostok, Voshkod, Soyuz) and N1 ...
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How did the attitude system of the uncrewed Soyuz 7K-OK No.1 fail on the launch pad in 1966, killing ground staff as LES was activated?
Wikipedia has a stub article on the loss of the Soyuz 7K-OK No.1 test flight in 1966-12-14, but this part doesn't make sense to me:
However, once the Soyuz rocket's engines ignited, they did not ...
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Do different generations of Soyuz use different launchpad infrastructure?
The Soyuz family has many variants. Do any of them require different launchpad infrastructure? If multiple active variants require different infrastructure, how are the logistics of that handled? Do ...
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Were composite materials used on Soyuz and on Atlas launchers?
I would like to know if composite materials were used on Soyuz and Atlas launchers but I can't find a lot on the web.
I also would like to know which components of other launchers are made of ...
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What do the various logos and text on the Soyuz launcher signify?
I've noticed that different launches of the Soyuz launcher have a variety of logos depicted on the side of the fairing and boosters.
What do the logos in the different positions signify?
Who decides ...
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What happens to the Soyuz boosters that land in the Kazakhstan desert?
The video below mentions that Soyuz boosters consistently land a certain distance away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in deserted areas. What happens to those boosters? I'd sure like to have an ...
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How can spacecraft be reusable for new missions? [closed]
When a spacecraft enters earth's atmosphere, it is totally destroyed and comes down as a single probe, so how can a spacecraft be reusable for new missions?
The Soyuz spacecraft is launched on a ...
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Why are Soyuz rockets painted with different colors?
The different parts of the Soyuz rocket have different colors:
White
Dark gray
Orange
Progress rockets I saw have different "liveries", multicolored like this
and white like this:
I suppose they ...
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Why does the Soyuz Rocket system fire the third stage while stage two is still attached?
Also, I believe that the second stage continues to burn for quite some time even after seperation of stage 3.
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Did something go wrong during the Soyuz TMA-13M launch?
In today's Soyuz TMA-13M launch, the vehicle seemed to take a while to lift off after the boosters fired up. Here is the video. A huge flame and cloud of exhaust build up around the Soyuz, and it ...
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What purpose do these red "horns" on the Soyuz 2-1B payload fairing serve?
When reading Soyuz 2-1B - Glonass-M Launch Updates on Spaceflight 101, I noticed an interesting photo showing these two red "horns" on the payload fairing (all photos courtesy of the Russian Ministry ...
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What is different from the R-7 that launched Sputnik, to the Soyuz launcher used for Soyuz/Progress launches?
One of the very interesting things about the Soviet (and now Russian) space program is how some things seem almost eternal.
The first Sputnik launch was on an R-7 ICBM, modified for space launch. If ...
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Is there a good chart, comparing the various Russian engines proposed for Soyuz (Booster) upgrades?
There are so many proposed Soyuz booster upgrades, I cannot keep them straight.
I was wondering if there is a good comparison chart between the various proposed upgrades, including engine information....
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Why do the Russians call the Soyuz launcher the same name as the Soyuz capsule?
It is sometimes confusing that the Russians call the booster rocket Soyuz, and the payload Soyuz.
Is there a reason for this naming model?
Reading Anatloy Zak's book he notes several proposed ...
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How many successful Soyuz launches have there been?
From the first Soyuz to the launch vehicles used today, how many launches have been deemed successful?
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