Soyuz-B ( meaning Union-B) or Soyuz 9K () was a proposed

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

spacecraft, which was designed for use as an orbital tug. A number of applications were proposed for it, including use as part of the Soyuz A-B-V complex for crewed

circumlunar In orbital mechanics, a circumlunar trajectory, trans-lunar trajectory or lunar free return is a type of free return trajectory which takes a spacecraft from Earth, around the far side of the Moon, and back to Earth using only gravity once the ...

spaceflight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such ...

. The Soyuz 9K was intended to have been launched into

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 ...

by the

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 ...

11A511

carrier rocket A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistag ...

. Following launch, it would have been refuelled by up to three

Soyuz-V Soyuz-V ( meaning Union-V) or Soyuz 11K (), sometimes known in the west as Soyuz-C, was a proposed Soviet spacecraft, which was designed for use as a fuel tanker. It would have been used to refuel other spacecraft, particularly the Soyuz 9K orb ...

tankers, before commencing its mission. It was primarily intended for use in boosting crewed

Soyuz 7K Sergei Korolev initially promoted the Soyuz A-B-V circumlunar complex (''7K-9K-11K'') concept (also known as L1) in which a two-man craft Soyuz 7K would rendezvous with other components (9K and 11K) in Earth orbit to assemble a lunar excursion veh ...

and

Soyuz-P Soyuz P ( meaning Union Interceptor) also known as 11F71 or 7K-P, was a proposed Soviet crewed combat spacecraft and satellite interceptor. The Soyuz P was proposed in December 1962, along with other Soyuz variants to match the United States' Man ...

spacecraft into higher orbits; the Soyuz-A onto a circumlunar trajectory for human Lunar exploration, and the Soyuz-P into a higher orbit to intercept and destroy another spacecraft. The Soyuz 9K consisted of two modules: the main spacecraft, and a docking module, NO (). The NO module housed rendezvous and docking systems for the Soyuz-V, as well as equipment for transferring fuel, and additional manoeuvring thrusters. Once the payload spacecraft had docked, the NO would be jettisoned, and the main engine would ignite to propel the Soyuz 9K and its docked payload into a higher orbit. Following the cancellation of both the Soyuz 7K and P programmes; the former in favour of the

LK-1 LK-1 was a projected Soviet crewed lunar flyby spacecraft. It would be launched on a three-stage Proton launch vehicle. The project started in 1962 under the lead engineer Vladimir Chelomey, with the first flight planned for 1967. The LK-1 had ...

spacecraft, and the latter in favour of uncrewed anti-satellite programmes, the Soyuz 9K was no longer required, and it too was cancelled.

References

* * Crewed spacecraft Soyuz program Soviet lunar program {{USSR-spacecraft-stub

See also

References