Soyuz 7K-OK was the first generation of

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз (Russian language, Russian and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Soviet Union, Union of Soviet Socialist Republi ...

spacecraft and was flown between 1967 and 1971. The 7K-OK was used for the first ferry flights to the Salyut space station program, beginning a long history of space station service that continues with the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS). , the 7K-OK was responsible for the only fatalities of the

Soyuz programme The Soyuz programme ( , ; , meaning "Union") is a human spaceflight programme initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. The Soyuz spacecraft was originally part of a Moon landing project intended to put a Soviet cosmonaut on the Moon ...

, with

Soyuz 1 Soyuz 1 (, ''Union 1'') was a crewed spaceflight of the Soviet space program. Launched into orbit on 23 April 1967 carrying cosmonaut colonel Vladimir Komarov, Soyuz 1 was the first crewed flight of the Soyuz spacecraft. The flight was plague ...

in 1967 (sole crew-member killed by parachute failure) and

Soyuz 11 Soyuz 11 () was the only crewed mission to board the world's first space station, Salyut 1. The crew, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev, arrived at the space station on 7 June 1971, and departed on 29 June 1971. The ...

in 1971 (three crew killed by depressurisation during reentry). The first uncrewed automated docking in the history of spaceflight was achieved between 7K-OK spacecraft

Kosmos 186 and Kosmos 188 Kosmos 186 ( meaning ''Cosmos 186'') and Kosmos 188 ( meaning ''Cosmos 188'') were two uncrewed Soviet Union spacecraft that incorporated a Soyuz programme descent module for landing scientific instruments and test objects. Mission Because ...

in 1967. Additional firsts include the first docking between two crewed spacecraft (

Soyuz 4 Soyuz 4 (, ''Union 4'') was launched on 14 January 1969, carrying cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov on his first flight. The aim of the mission was to dock with Soyuz 5, transfer two crew members from that spacecraft, and return to Earth. The prev ...

and

Soyuz 5 Soyuz 5 (, ''Union 5'') was a Soyuz mission using the Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union on 15 January 1969, which docked with Soyuz 4 in orbit. It was the first docking of two crewed spacecraft of any nation, and the first ...

), the longest crewed flight involving only one spacecraft (the 18-day flight of

Soyuz 9 Soyuz 9 (, ''Union 9'') was a June, 1970, Soviet crewed space flight. The two-man crew of Andriyan Nikolayev and Vitaly Sevastyanov broke the five-year-old space endurance record held by Gemini 7, with their nearly 18-day flight. The mission ...

in 1970), and the first successful transfer of crew to the first space station in the history of space flight (

and

Salyut 1 Salyut 1 (), also known as DOS-1 (Durable Orbital Station 1), was the world's first space station. It was launched into low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on April 19, 1971. The Salyut programme, ''Salyut'' program subsequently achieved five m ...

in 1971).

Description

The Soyuz 7K-OK vehicles carried a crew of up to three without

space suit A space suit (or spacesuit) is an environmental suit used for protection from the harsh environment of outer space, mainly from its vacuum as a highly specialized pressure suit, but also its temperature extremes, as well as radiation and ...

s. The craft can be distinguished from those following by their bent

solar panel A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

s and their use of the Igla automatic docking navigation system, which required special radar antennas. The 7K-OK was primarily intended as a variant of the 7K-LOK (the lunar mission Soyuz) for Earth orbital testing. Mostly the same vehicle, it lacked the larger antenna needed to communicate at lunar distance. The early Soyuz models also sported an external toroidal fuel tank surrounding the engines and meant to store extra propellant for lunar flights, but it was left empty on the first nine flights. After the spacecraft's purpose was changed to space station ferry duties, the tank was removed. Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft had a "probe and drogue" docking mechanism to connect with other spacecraft in orbit, in order to gather engineering data as a preparation for the Soviet space station program. There were two variants of Soyuz 7K-OK: Soyuz 7K-OK (active) featuring an active "probe" docking port, and Soyuz 7K-OK (passive) featuring a passive "drogue" docking target. The docking mechanisms of 7K-OK and 7K-LOK did not allow internal transfer (this feature was added on the

Soyuz 7K-OKS Soyuz 7K-OKS (also known as Soyuz 7KT-OK) is a version of the Soyuz spacecraft and was the first spacecraft designed for space station flights. Its only crewed flights were conducted in 1971, with Soyuz 10 and Soyuz 11. Design The two craf ...

version), thus cosmonauts had to spacewalk between docked modules. This procedure was conducted successfully on the joint

and

missions, where

Aleksei Yeliseyev Aleksei Stanislavovich Yeliseyev (; born 13 July 1934) is a retired Soviet cosmonaut who flew on three missions in the Soyuz programme as a flight engineer: Soyuz 5, Soyuz 8, and Soyuz 10. He made the world's eighth spacewalk during Soyuz 5 in 19 ...

and

Yevgeny Khrunov Yevgeny Vasilyevich Khrunov (; 10 September 1933 – 20 May 2000) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 5/ Soyuz 4 mission. Early life Yevgeny Khrunov was born on 10 September 1933 to Vasily Yegorevich and Agrafena Nikolayevna. N ...

transferred from their Soyuz 5 to the Soyuz 4 craft. The first uncrewed test of this version was

Kosmos 133 Kosmos 133 (, meaning "Kosmos 133"), Soyuz 7K-OK No.2, was the first uncrewed test flight of the Soyuz spacecraft, and first mission of the Soyuz programme, as part of the Soviet space programme. Launch Launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome ...

, launched on 28 November 1966.

Soyuz 7K-OKS

The last two Soyuz space craft of this series were of the designation Soyuz 7K-OKS. The main modification was the addition of the new

SSVP docking system Sistema Stykovki i Vnutrennego Perekhoda, SSVP (, ''System for docking and internal transfer'') is a docking standard used by Soviet and Russian spacecraft, sometimes called RDS for ''Russian Docking System''. It has been used on all variants of S ...

that allowed internal crew transfer, which was performed for the first time on the

space station by

. The SSVP docking adapter is still in use today on the

(ISS).

Uncrewed and test missions

Kosmos 140 Kosmos 140 ( meaning ''Cosmos 140''), Soyuz 7K-OK No.3, was an uncrewed flight of the Soyuz spacecraft. It was the third attempted test flight of the Soyuz 7K-OK model, after orbital ( Kosmos 133) and launch ( Soyuz 11A511) failures of the fi ...

, the first uncrewed automated docking in the history of spaceflight. *

Kosmos 212 Kosmos 212 ( meaning ''Cosmos 212'') was one of a series of Soviet Soyuz programme test spacecraft whose purpose was to further test and develop the passenger version. Scientific data and measurements were relayed to earth by multichannel telemet ...

and

Kosmos 213 Kosmos 213 ( meaning ''Cosmos 213'') was one of a series of Soviet Soyuz programme test spacecraft whose purpose was to further test and develop the passenger version. Scientific data and measurements were relayed to earth by multichannel telem ...

, uncrewed automated docking mission. * Kosmos 238 *

Soyuz 2 Soyuz 2 (, Union 2) was an uncrewed spacecraft (capsule number 7K-OK-P No. 11)Soyuz-2 co ...

, intended docking target for the crewed

Soyuz 3 Soyuz 3 (, ''Union 3'') was a spaceflight mission launched by the Soviet Union on 26 October 1968. Flown by Georgy Beregovoy, the Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft completed 81 orbits over four days. The 47-year-old Beregovoy was a decorated World War ...

Crewed missions

, the first crewed Soyuz flight, commander and sole crew-member killed on re-entry. *

and

, the first crewed docking and first crew transfer in the history of spaceflight. *

Soyuz 6 Soyuz 6 (, ''Union 6'') was part of a joint October, 1969, mission with Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8 that saw the three Soyuz spacecraft in orbit together at the same time, carrying a total of seven cosmonauts. The crew of Georgy Shonin and Valer ...

* Soyuz 7 and

Soyuz 8 Soyuz 8 (, ''Union 8'') was part of an October, 1969, joint mission with Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 7 that saw three Soyuz spacecraft in orbit together at the same time, carrying a total of seven cosmonauts. The crew consisted of commander Vladimir ...

: Intended docking, to be filmed by Soyuz 6 crew – docking failed due to malfunction. *

Soyuz 10 Soyuz 10 (, ''Union 10'') was launched on 22 April 1971 as the world's first mission to the world's first space station, the Soviet Salyut 1. The docking was not successful and the crew, Vladimir Shatalov, Aleksei Yeliseyev, and Nikolai Ru ...

(Soyuz 7K-OKS),

ferry, the first docking attempt to a space station in the history of spaceflight. *

(Soyuz 7K-OKS), Salyut 1 ferry, the first crewing of a space station in the history of spaceflight – crew killed on re-entry.

References

External links

RSC Energia: Concept Of Russian Manned Space Navigation Development
* Mir Hardware Heritage ** David S.F. Portree,

', NASA RP-1357, 1995 ** Mir Hardware Heritage (wikisource)
Information on Soyuz spacecraft

{{Russian human spaceflight programs Crewed spacecraft Soyuz program Vehicles introduced in 1966