Exactly 45 years ago, on May 3, 1976, Government Decree No. 298-112 Unified Soymaker’s Barehouse was commissioned. It was developed on the basis of the Soyuz Rocket and was operated from 1973 to 2017. In total, more than 800 launches of the “Soyuz-y” missiles were completed (including Soyuz-U2).
The “Soyuz-y” rocket was intended to withdraw to the near-earth orbit of transport ships under the program of the International Space Station, as well as automatic spacecraft of various types. It was produced in the Progress Rocket and Space Center (Samara, part of Roscosmos State Corporation).
Constructively, the “Union-y” rocket is made according to the longitudinal-cross division of rocket steps. At the first stage of the flight, the engines of four side and central blocks operate, on the second, after separating the side blocks – only the engine of the central unit. In the tail compartment of each side unit, there is an autonomous liquid four-chamber rocket engine of a single switching on RD-118, equipped with two steering nozzles.
In the central unit of the second stage, a four-chamber rocket engine of the RD-117 with four steering nozzles is used. The launch of the Central and side blocks is made on Earth, which makes it possible to control the operation of the engines in the transition mode and when troubleshooting occurs during the start, cancel the launch of the rocket. This significantly increases the safety of spacecraft starts to the ISS.
In the third stage, the RD-0110 motor setup is used, consisting of a four-chamber motor of a single inclusion and four rotary steering nozzles (used to control the flight along three axes). After turning off the engine of the third stage and the separation of the space head of the third stage performs the lead maneuver.
First of her start took place on May 18, 1973. The last start with a cosmodrome Plesetsk was produced on May 17, 2012, and from Baikonur – February 22, 2017, when the transport cargo ship “Progress MS-05” took an near-earth orbit.
Currently, the Soyuz-2 carrier rocket is used to launch spacecraft and transport ships. This is a family of three-stage medium-class carrier missiles, which also developed in the RCC “Progress” based on the “Soyuz-y” carrier missile by deep upgrade.