User Manual: EN

The Soyuz rocket is the workhorse for Russian human space missions and has been used for that purpose longer than any other vehicle. In the 1960s it began carrying cosmonauts into space and then to the Soviet Salyut and Mir stations. It was designed by the the famed Korolev design bureau for the later cancelled moon landing programs. Soyuz is the Russian word for “Union”

A modified Soyuz flew in July 1975 for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first U.S.-Soviet joint space venture. Later an automated derivative of Soyuz, was developed as a space station resupply vehicle.

Today the venerable Soyuz continues to operate flying missions in conjunction with NASA ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS)