List of Soyuz missions

This is a list of crewed and uncrewed flights of Soyuz series spacecraft.

The Soyuz programme is an ongoing human spaceflight programme which was initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, originally part of a Moon landing project intended to put a Soviet cosmonaut on the Moon. It is the third Soviet human spaceflight programme after the Vostok and Voskhod programmes. Since the 1990s, as the successor state to the Soviet Union, Russia has continued and expanded the programme, which became part of a multinational collaboration to ensure a permanent human presence in low Earth orbit on the International Space Station (ISS). Soyuz spacecraft previously visited the Salyut and Mir space stations. Between the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011 and the first orbital flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon in 2019, Soyuz were the only human-rated orbital spacecraft in operation, and the only way to transport crews to the ISS. Russia plans to succeed Soyuz in the 2020s with the Federatsiya/Orel programme, using new reusable capsules launching on Angara rockets, to transport cosmonauts to orbit and to a space station around the Moon.

Crewed mission numbers and spacecraft generations

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Beginning in 1966, the Soyuz programme has sent humans into space on a regular basis for over fifty years. Due to its length, the program has a complex history, which may lead to confusion about its mission numbers. The mission numbering scheme for crewed Soyuz flights is closely related to the generations of spacecraft. Understanding the former is made significantly easier by understanding the latter.

The first era of the Soyuz programme's crewed missions (Soyuz 1-40) used the 7K series of Soyuz craft, which included the first-generation (1.0) Soyuz 7K-OK, a variant (1.5) Soyuz 7K-OKS, the second-generation (2.0) Soyuz 7K-T, and the (2.5) Soyuz 7K-TM variant. Following this first era, successive eras of crewed missions have had mission numbers which were directly tied to the names of craft used:

  • The second era of Soyuz T flights used the third-generation (3.0) craft of the same name. Mission numbers were of the form: "Soyuz T-#".
  • The third era of Soyuz TM flights used the fourth-generation (4.0) craft of the same name. Mission numbers were of the form: "Soyuz TM-#".
  • The fourth era of Soyuz TMA flights used the fifth-generation (5.0) craft of the same name. Mission numbers were of the form: "Soyuz TMA-#".
  • The fifth era of Soyuz TMA-M flights used the fifth-generation variant (5.5) craft of the same name. Mission numbers were of the form "Soyuz TMA-##M".
  • The sixth and current era of Soyuz MS flights uses the sixth-generation (6.0) craft of the same name. Mission numbers are of the form: "Soyuz MS-##".

Within each given era, a mission number generally reflects the mission's chronological launch order, e.g. Soyuz TMA-12M was the twelfth mission of the TMA-M era, immediately preceded by Soyuz TMA-11M and immediately followed by Soyuz TMA-13M. Although there are exceptions to this (detailed below in the first table), the mission numbering scheme is usually consistent with chronological launch orders. This is in contrast with the mission numbers of the Space Shuttle program, which were tied to specific mission objectives and did not reflect chronological launch orders, e.g. STS-50, the forty-eighth Shuttle mission, was immediately followed by STS-46, the forty-ninth Shuttle mission.

Era Mission
numbers
Spacecraft Spacecraft
generation
"Naive"
mission count
Adding Subtracting Crewed
missions
Total
crewed missions
1 Soyuz 1 ... 40 Soyuz 7K-OK 1.0 40 18a[a] (+1) 2,[b] 20[b] (−2) 1, 39 39[c]
Soyuz 7K-OKS 1.5 10, 11
Soyuz 7K-T 2.0 1215, 17, 18a, 18, 21, 2340
Soyuz 7K-TM 2.5 16, 19, 22
2 Soyuz T-1 ... T-15 Soyuz T 3.0 15 T-10a[d] (+1) T-1[b] (−1) 29, 10a, 1015 15
3 Soyuz TM-1 ... TM-34 Soyuz TM 4.0 34 TM-1[b] (−1) 2-34 33
4 Soyuz TMA-1 ... TMA-22 Soyuz TMA 5.0 22 122 22
5 Soyuz TMA-01M ... TMA-20M Soyuz TMA-M 5.5 20 120 20
6 Soyuz MS-01 ... MS-25 Soyuz MS 6.0 25 MS-14 [b] (−1) 113, 15–25 24[e]
Total crewed missions 153

Soyuz 7K (1966–1981)

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The first Soyuz series was the 7K series.

Soyuz 7K-L1

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Spacecraft designed for Soviet human circumlunar missions. Missions are included under the Zond programme.

No. Mission Spacecraft Date of launch Date of landing Crew (start/landing) Docking Outcome
Kosmos 146 Soyuz 7K-L1 10 March 1967 18 March 1967 None Success
Kosmos 154 Soyuz 7K-L1 8 April 1967 10 April 1967 None Failure
Soyuz 7K-L1 No.4L Soyuz 7K-L1 27 September 1967 None (rocket failure) Failure
Soyuz 7K-L1 No.5L Soyuz 7K-L1 22 November 1967 None (rocket failure) Failure
Zond 4 Soyuz 7K-L1 2 March 1968 7 March 1968 None Partial
Soyuz 7K-L1 No.7L Soyuz 7K-L1 22 April 1968 None (rocket failure) Failure
Soyuz 7K-L1 No.8L Soyuz 7K-L1 21 July 1968 None (rocket exploded on launch pad) Failure
Zond 5 Soyuz 7K-L1 14 September 1968 22 September 1968 None Success
Zond 6 Soyuz 7K-L1 10 November 1968 17 November 1968 None Partial
Soyuz 7K-L1 No.13L Soyuz 7K-L1 20 January 1969 None (rocket failure) Failure
Zond-M 1 Soyuz 7K-L1S 21 February 1969 None (rocket failure) Failure
Zond-M 2 Soyuz 7K-L1S 3 July 1969 None (rocket failure) Failure
Zond 7 Soyuz 7K-L1 7 August 1969 14 August 1969 None Success
Soyuz 7K-L1E No.1 Soyuz 7K-L1E 28 November 1969 None (rocket failure) Failure
Zond 8 Soyuz 7K-L1 20 October 1970 27 October 1970 None Success
Kosmos 382 Soyuz 7K-L1E "Zond-LOK" 2 December 1970 In orbit None In orbit

Soyuz 7K-LOK

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Spacecraft designed for Soviet human lunar orbital and landing missions.

No. Mission Spacecraft Date of launch Date of landing Crew (start/landing) Docking Outcome
Soyuz 7K-LOK No.1 Soyuz 7K-LOK 26 June 1971 None (rocket failure) Failure
Soyuz 7K-LOK No.2 Soyuz 7K-LOK 23 November 1972 None (rocket failure) Failure

Soyuz T (1979–1986)

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Soyuz TM (1987–2002)

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Soyuz TMA (2002–2012)

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Soyuz TMA-M (2010–2016)

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Soyuz MS (2016–)

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Aborted mission which nevertheless achieved sub-orbital spaceflight, with the crew surviving.
  2. ^ a b c d e Uncrewed flight.
  3. ^ Includes five special cases: two fatal missions, Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11, both of which reached space; Soyuz 19, the Soviet participant in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project; Soyuz 32, which sent a crew to the Salyut 6 space station and returned to Earth without its crew, and Soyuz 34, which was launched uncrewed and sent to Salyut 6 to provide the crew of Soyuz 32 with a successful return craft.
  4. ^ Mission aborted at-launch due to a pad fire, failing to achieve spaceflight; crew survived. Included here as a committed launch attempt and a notable historical example.
  5. ^ Soyuz MS-10 aborted after launch, failing to reach space; crew survived. Included here as a committed launch attempt and a notable historical example.

References

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  • Wade, Mark. "Encyclopedia Astronautica". Archived from the original on 5 July 2002.

Footnotes

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  1. ^ The spacecraft is the active one for docking, and have the active "probe" docking mechanism.
  2. ^ Automated flight.
  3. ^ The spacecraft is the passive one for docking, and have the passive "drogue" docking mechanism.
  4. ^ "Soyuz MS-10 makes emergency landing after a launch failure". Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  5. ^ "Soyuz rocket failure: What went wrong, and what happens next". 11 October 2018. Retrieved 6 March 2022.