The Soyuz2.1v (,

GRAU index The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (), commonly referred to by its transliterated acronym GRAU (), is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the Chief of ...

: 14A15) was a Russian expendable

small-lift launch vehicle A small-lift launch vehicle is a rocket orbital launch vehicle that is capable of lifting or less (by NASA classification) or under (by Roscosmos classification) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). The next larger category is medium-lift l ...

, developed as a derivative of the

Soyuz-2 Soyuz2 (; GRAU index: 14A14) is a Russian expendable medium-lift launch vehicle and the seventh major iteration of the Soyuz rocket family. Compared to its predecessors, Soyuz-2 features significant upgrades, including improved engines and ...

series. It is notable for omitting the four strap-on boosters common to other

R-7 family The R-7 () rocket family is a series of launch vehicles descended from the Soviet R-7 Semyorka, developed in the 1950s as the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). While the R-7 proved impractical as a weapon, it became a corne ...

rockets, making it the first R-7 variant without them. Developed by the

Progress Rocket Space Centre Rocket and Space Centre "Progress" (), commonly known as RKTs Progress (), is a Russian joint-stock company under Roscosmos. It is responsible for building and operating the Soyuz (rocket family), Soyuz family of rockets, which serve as the pri ...

(RKTs Progress) in

Samara Samara, formerly known as Kuybyshev (1935–1991), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast in Russia. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with a population of over 1.14 ...

, the Soyuz2.1v was originally known as Soyuz1 during early development. Launches were conducted from the

Plesetsk Cosmodrome Plesetsk Cosmodrome () is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, near the town of Plesetsk, from which it takes its name. Until 2025 and the commissioning of the Andøya Space, Andøya base in Norway, it was the only operati ...

in northwest Russia, and were expected to also be conducted from the

Vostochny Cosmodrome The Vostochny Cosmodrome () is a Russian space launch facility in the Amur Oblast, located above the 51st parallel north in the Russian Far East. It was built to help reduce Russia’s reliance on the Baikonur Cosmodrome which is located on lan ...

in eastern Russia, and the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

, but none ever took place.

Design and configuration

The Soyuz2.1v represents a significant departure from previous Soyuz configurations. Unlike its predecessors, it does not utilize four strap-on boosters. Instead, its single core stage is powered by the

NK-33 The NK-33 ( GRAU index: 14D15) and its vacuum-optimized variant, the NK-43, were rocket engines developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the Kuznetsov Design Bureau for the Soviet space program's ill-fated N1 Moon rocket. The NK-33 is am ...

engine, a high-performance engine originally built in the 1970s for the Soviet N1 Moon rocket. Due to its fixed configuration, the core stage also employs the

RD-0110R The RD-0110R (, GRAU index: 14D24) was a rocket engine burning kerosene in liquid oxygen in a gas generator combustion cycle. It had four nozzles that can gimbal up to 45 degrees in a single axis and was used as the vernier thruster on the Soyuz ...

vernier engine, which consists of four gimbaled chambers for steering and contributes approximately of thrust. A limited number of NK-33 engines were available, leading to plans for replacement by the

RD-193 The RD-193 () is a high performance single-combustion chamber rocket engine, developed in Russia from 2011 to 2013. It is derived from the RD-170 originally used in the Energia launcher. The RD-193 is fueled by a kerosene / LOX mixture and uses ...

, a newer engine derived from the

Angara The Angara (; ) or Angar ( мүрэн) is a major river in Siberia, which traces a course through Russia's Irkutsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai. It drains out of Lake Baikal and is the headwater tributary of the Yenisey. It is long, and has ...

RD-191 The RD-191 () is a high-performance single-combustion chamber rocket engine, developed in Russia and sold by Roscosmos. It is derived from the RD-180 dual-combustion chamber engine, which itself was derived in turn from the four-chamber RD-170 ...

, itself a derivative of the Zenit's

RD-170 The RD-170 () is the world's most powerful and heaviest liquid-fuel rocket engine. It was designed and produced in the Soviet Union by NPO Energomash for use with the Energia launch vehicle. The engine burns kerosene fuel and LOX oxidizer in fo ...

. However, full transition to the RD-193 has not occurred. The second stage is identical to the third stage of the Soyuz-2.1b, utilizing a single

RD-0124 The RD-0124 (, GRAU index: 14D23) is a rocket engine burning liquid oxygen and kerosene in an oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle, developed by the Chemical Automatics Design Bureau in Voronezh. RD-0124 engines are used on the Block I stage used ...

engine. Most missions also employ the

Volga The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

upper stage, adapted from the propulsion system of the Yantar reconnaissance satellite. Volga offers a lighter and more cost-effective alternative to the

Fregat Fregat () is an upper stage developed by NPO Lavochkin for universal compatibility with a wide range of medium- and heavy-lift launch vehicles. Fregat has been used primarily with Soyuz and Zenit rockets, and entered operational service in ...

upper stage used on other Soyuz-2 missions. The Soyuz2.1v is optimized for small payloads. From Baikonur, it can deliver up to to a circular

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

(LEO) at 51.8° inclination, and up to to the same altitude at 62.8° inclination from Plesetsk.

List of launches

Notes

References

External links

* {{R-7 rockets R-7 (rocket family) Space launch vehicles of Russia 2013 in spaceflight Vehicles introduced in 2013

Design and configuration

List of launches

See also

Notes

References

External links