Soyuz

Russian space scientists developed a successor to their Vostok and Voshkod spacecraft at much the same time as the Americans developed Apollo. The Russian craft, called Soyuz, made its maiden flight in April 1967. But it ended in tragedy when its pilot, cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, was killed during landing. He was the first known in-flight casualty of the Space Age. Even today Russian cosmonauts make their journeys into space in Soyuz spacecraft. Russia has a shuttle craft, called B uran, but it is not yet used as a ferry.

Soyuz, like Apollo, is made up of three modules and measures nearly 8 m long and up to 2.7 m across. At the front is the orbital module, in which the crew can work in orbit. It has a hatch by which it can link up, or dock, with Russia's space stations. The crew usually occupy the centre section, the command and re-entry module. At the rear is the instrument module, which contains equipment, fuel and rocket motors. The front and rear modules separate before re-entry. The re-entry module is braked first by the atmosphere, then by parachutes and finally, just before landing, by retrorockets. The crew stay inside the module all the way down.

A Soyuz spacecraft and launch vehicle (left) on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Asia. The gantry structure is being retracted prior to a launch. On the pad the vehicle stands 45 m tall. Unlike US rockets, Russian launch vehicles are put together horizontally and then tilted upright on the pad.

Cooperation in the cosmos

At the beginning of the Space Age Russia and the United States were battling with each other for supremacy in space. This became known as the Space Race. In 1975, however, old rivalries were set aside, at least temporarily, when the two space powers mounted a joint mission, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP).

To allow the two craft to dock together, a special docking module was designed. It had two docking ports: one fitted the Apollo and the other the Soyuz docking systems. Apollo flew into orbit with the docking module attached on 15 July 1975 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Soyuz was launched a few hours later from its usual launch site, the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Central Asia. On 17 July they met up and docked with each other. They remained docked for nearly two days, while the astronauts dined, relaxed and carried out a number of experiments together.

The Apollo spacecraft, (left) with docking module attached, pictured in orbit during the ASTP mission in July 1975. The picture was taken from the Soyuz spacecraft. The Soyuz spacecraft (right) pictured from Apollo during the ASTP mission. At the front (left) of the craft, on the spherical orbital module, is the docking mechanism.

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