Soyuz-U

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Fact sheet
Soyuz-U (Soyuz-U/Ikar; Soyuz-U/Fregat; Soyuz-U2)
Function	Orbital carrier rocket
Manufacturer	TsSKB-Progress
Country of origin	Soviet Union (Russia)
Size
Height	51.1 m for Soyuz-U; 47.3 m for Soyuz-U/Ikar; 46.7 m for Soyuz-U/Fregat and 51.1 m for Soyuz-U2
Diameter	10.3 m
Mass	313,000 kg (Soyuz-U and Soyuz-U2); 308,000 kg (Soyuz-U/Ikar and Soyuz-U/Fregat)
Stages	2 (Soyuz-U and Soyuz-U2) or 3 (Soyuz-U/Ikar and Soyuz-U/Fregat)
Capacity
Payload to LEO	6,900 kg from Baikonur and 6,700 kg from Plesetsk
Launch History
Status	Active
Launch sites	LC-1 & LC-31, Baikonur; LC-16 & LC-43 Plesetsk
Total launches	714
Successes	695
Failures	19
Maiden flight	18 May 1973

The Soyuz-U launch vehicle is an improved version of Soyuz LV in R-7 family of rockets, designed by TsSKB design bureau and constructed by Progress Factory in Samara (now united company TsSKB-Progress). It performed its maiden flight on 18 May 1973, carrying Kosmos 559 satellite as a payload.

The Soyuz-U vehicle replaced earlier Soyuz launch vehicle variants and the Voskhod rocket, all of which were closely related vehicles derived from the Soviet R-7 ICBM. The Soyuz-U is a unified, single vehicle capable of launching manned and unmanned payloads.

Soyuz-U is still in use today, making several launches a year.

1 Versions
2 Recent missions
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Versions

Soyuz-U/Ikar is version of Soyuz-U, using Ikar as its 3rd stage, produced by the same company, TsSKB-Progress. Ikar is used to impove capabilities of Soyuz-U and deliver various payloads with mass 750 kg to 3920 kg to heights 250 km to 1400 km. Ikar's performance is lower than that of Fregat, but it is more precise in maneuvring and autonomously it can operate longer than Fregat.

Another version of Soyuz-U is Soyuz-U/Fregat with Fregat as its 3rd stage, developed and produced by Lavochkin Association in Khimki.

There was also one variant of Soyuz-U, the Soyuz-U2 launcher. It had the same hardware as the basic Soyuz-U, but used a high energy, synthetic kerosene Syntin instead of normal kerosene as the first stage fuel. This variant last flew in 1996, after production of Syntin ended.

Soyuz-U became a basic platform for development of Soyuz-FG launch vehicle, which uses all-new first stage. However, in future both Soyuz-U and Soyuz-FG will be replaced by Soyuz-2 LV.

[edit] Recent missions

Lately Soyuz-U vehicles have been used by the Russian Federal Space Agency mostly with Progress-M robotic cargo spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station. The most recent launch of a Soyuz-U was performed on 4 February 2008 with Progress M-63 on board.

Its most recent non-Progress launch was on 14 September 2007, when a Soyuz-U was used to carry the Foton-M N3 scientific spacecraft to orbit. As of February 2008, a total of 714 Soyuz-U launch vehicles were launched, with 19 launch failures and 695 successes,^{[citation needed]} making it one of the most reliable LVs ever made.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

v • d • e Soviet and Russian expendable launch vehicles

Active	Cosmos-3M · Dnepr · Proton · Rockot · Shtil' · Soyuz (U · FG · 2) · Start-1 · Strela · Tsyklon-3 · Volna · Zenit

In development	Angara · Onega

Former	Energia · N1 · R-7 (Molniya (M) · Polyot · Sputnik · Voskhod · Vostok) · Tsyklon (2)