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3 A Brief History of Space Flight
biomedicine. The astronauts in the two spacecrafts returned to the ground safely on
September 15 and November 15 respectively which finally marked the successful
completion of the Gemini Program.
3.5.3.3 Developments of the Manned and Cargo Orbital Vehicles
After successful completion of the Vostok and Voskhod Program, the Soviet Union
continued to improve the development of the Soyuz (Coz) manned spacecraft,
further develop the Progress (Ppogpecc) cargo spacecraft, and finally build the Space
Stations, Salyut (Callt) and Mir (Mip).
The Soyuz, which is currently the longest serving manned spacecraft in the world,
was originally designed by Sergei Korolev Design Bureau for the Soviet effort to
explore the Moon at the beginning of 1960s. The Soyuz spacecraft consists of a
nearly sphere-shaped habitation module, a bell-shaped reentry capsule and a cylindershaped instrument compartment, with a total length of 7.6 m, a maximum diameter of
2.7 m and a lift-off weight of about 6.5 metric tons. It is able to take three astronauts,
with long-term autonomous flight, orbital maneuver and rendezvous and docking
capabilities. There are six types of the Soyuz spacecraft series developed successively, including Original Soyuz, Soyuz T, Soyuz TMA, Soyuz TMA-M and Soyuz
MS, all of which are launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by the Soyuz rockets.
On April 23, 1967, in the competitive atmosphere of the Moon Race, the first Original type Soyuz-1 with an astronaut Vladimir Komarov was hastily launched for
an ambitious mission, calling for orbital rendezvous and docking with the second
Soyuz scheduled to follow it, but the problems onboard Soyuz-1 forced to cancel
the second mission. More unfortunately, the Soyuz-1 flight itself ended in a disaster
during landing. The problems with the parachute deployment caused the Soyuz-1
reentry capsule to hit the ground with such crashing speed, that the astronaut Komarov
was killed on the spot. In the wake of the catastrophe, all manned flight missions were
canceled until October 1968, and a series of unmanned missions followed, during
which two pairs of vehicles docked in orbit automatically. On October 8, 2010, the
Soyuz TMA-01 M spacecraft with three astronauts was launched and successfully
docked with the MIM-1 Poisk module on the International Space Station (ISS). On
July 7, 2016, the newly modified type Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft was launched for the
first time, and 2 days later, successfully docked at the ISS, delivering three members
of the ISS crew, a Russian astronaut Anatoly Ivanishin, an American astronaut Kate
Rubins and a Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, who would serve as the long-duration
expedition on the outpost during their 128-day flight. The Soyuz spacecrafts have
heavily been used for the ISS program, and have served as only means for Americans to make crewed space flights in the world since the retirement of the U.S. Space
Shuttle in 2011.
In the early of developing the space stations, the Soviet designers had realized that
long-duration missions in the Earth orbit would demand a constant supply of consumable materials from the Earth. For this purpose, at first, they attempted to employ the
Soyuz spacecrafts, but the problems were not solved. As a result, by modifying the
3 A Brief History of Space Flight
biomedicine. The astronauts in the two spacecrafts returned to the ground safely on
September 15 and November 15 respectively which finally marked the successful
completion of the Gemini Program.
3.5.3.3 Developments of the Manned and Cargo Orbital Vehicles
After successful completion of the Vostok and Voskhod Program, the Soviet Union
continued to improve the development of the Soyuz (Coz) manned spacecraft,
further develop the Progress (Ppogpecc) cargo spacecraft, and finally build the Space
Stations, Salyut (Callt) and Mir (Mip).
The Soyuz, which is currently the longest serving manned spacecraft in the world,
was originally designed by Sergei Korolev Design Bureau for the Soviet effort to
explore the Moon at the beginning of 1960s. The Soyuz spacecraft consists of a
nearly sphere-shaped habitation module, a bell-shaped reentry capsule and a cylindershaped instrument compartment, with a total length of 7.6 m, a maximum diameter of
2.7 m and a lift-off weight of about 6.5 metric tons. It is able to take three astronauts,
with long-term autonomous flight, orbital maneuver and rendezvous and docking
capabilities. There are six types of the Soyuz spacecraft series developed successively, including Original Soyuz, Soyuz T, Soyuz TMA, Soyuz TMA-M and Soyuz
MS, all of which are launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by the Soyuz rockets.
On April 23, 1967, in the competitive atmosphere of the Moon Race, the first Original type Soyuz-1 with an astronaut Vladimir Komarov was hastily launched for
an ambitious mission, calling for orbital rendezvous and docking with the second
Soyuz scheduled to follow it, but the problems onboard Soyuz-1 forced to cancel
the second mission. More unfortunately, the Soyuz-1 flight itself ended in a disaster
during landing. The problems with the parachute deployment caused the Soyuz-1
reentry capsule to hit the ground with such crashing speed, that the astronaut Komarov
was killed on the spot. In the wake of the catastrophe, all manned flight missions were
canceled until October 1968, and a series of unmanned missions followed, during
which two pairs of vehicles docked in orbit automatically. On October 8, 2010, the
Soyuz TMA-01 M spacecraft with three astronauts was launched and successfully
docked with the MIM-1 Poisk module on the International Space Station (ISS). On
July 7, 2016, the newly modified type Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft was launched for the
first time, and 2 days later, successfully docked at the ISS, delivering three members
of the ISS crew, a Russian astronaut Anatoly Ivanishin, an American astronaut Kate
Rubins and a Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, who would serve as the long-duration
expedition on the outpost during their 128-day flight. The Soyuz spacecrafts have
heavily been used for the ISS program, and have served as only means for Americans to make crewed space flights in the world since the retirement of the U.S. Space
Shuttle in 2011.
In the early of developing the space stations, the Soviet designers had realized that
long-duration missions in the Earth orbit would demand a constant supply of consumable materials from the Earth. For this purpose, at first, they attempted to employ the
Soyuz spacecrafts, but the problems were not solved. As a result, by modifying the