November 28, 1966, saw the first launch of the legendary Soyuz launch vehicle (LV).

LV 11A511, better known as the first in the series of Soyuz launch vehicles, is the most famous launch vehicle in the R-7 family. It also became our country’s first launch vehicle the launch of which was shown on TV (during the launch of Soyuz-3 spacecraft piloted by Georgy Beregovoy on October 26, 1968).

Development of this version of the launch vehicle began in mid-1963. By that time OKB-1 was already engaged in developing the manned system Soyuz 7K-9K-11K (7K being a manned spacecraft, 9K a rocket stage, and 11K tanker/refueling ship) for a circumlunar mission. According to preliminary design specifications (late 1962 – early 1963), the Soyuz spacecraft mass in orbit was to be 5.8 metric tons. It was supposed to be launched on a standardized launch vehicle 11А57 Voskhod based on the R-7A rocket.

But by mid-1963, when in the course of the development effort the design mass of the spacecraft exceed 6 metric tons, while the mass of the payload fairing with launch escape motors began approaching 2 metric tons, it became obvious, that LV 11A57 Voskhod would not be capable of putting the spacecraft into its intended orbit.

According, a search began for ways to upgrade the Voskhod LV in order to increase its lift capacity. The upgrading of the rocket stages was performed at the Kuibyshev branch office of OKB-1 No.3 (now Rocket and Space Center Progress, Samara), and upgrading of the payload unit was a joint effort of OKB-1 and the branch office No.3.

Externally, the LV was practically unchanged, but there some significant changes introduced into design of a number of assemblies and certain launch parameters were changed:

• the mass of the onboard cabling of the onboard and telemetry systems was reduced;
• telemetry system on the strap-on boosters and on the core stage was replaced with a new system installed on the core stage;
• the inclination of the spacecraft orbit to the equatorial plane was reduced from 64.8° to 51.5°;
• certain load-bearing elements of the first stage had to be reinforced, since in the new sequence they were to separate at a higher dynamic pressure;
• because of their parameter spread, engines 8D727 (RD-108) for stage A had to be individually picked (specific thrust of no less than 252 s at ground level);
• the length of the third stage and the mass of its cabling were reduced;
• the third stage control system was upgraded.

The most significant distinction between LV Soyuz and earlier man-rated versions of the R-7 rocket was a launch escape system of a new type developed by OKB-1. It was armed 15 minutes before the lift-off and assured crew survival in case of a failure both on the launch pad and during any phase of the ascent (with the exception of the 4 seconds interval between the separation of the escape tower propulsion system and jettisoning of the payload fairing).

The solid-fueled rocket system of the escape tower consisted of two multi-nozzle clusters of rocket motors which performed the separation of the upper portion of the spacecraft and the pull-away maneuver and four small steering engines.

In case of an LV failure the separation and pull-away motors were fired, raising the upper portion of the spacecraft at least 850 meters above the failed launch vehicle and no less than 110 meters to its side. After that, the descent vehicle carrying the crew separated and parachuted to the ground. During firing of the escape system’s solid rocket motors the crew experienced accelerations of up to 10g.

In case of a failure when flying after the separation of the escape tower and jettisoning of the payload fairing, the descent vehicle separated from the orbital module and instrumentation and propulsion module and made landing per nominal landing sequence.

In the course of development work on the escape system, in 1965 it became clear that in case of failure it was impossible to jettison the payload fairing in one piece without forcefully colliding with the instrumentation and propulsion module of the spacecraft. A decision was made to split the payload fairing into two parts with a cross joint, so that when the escape system fires, only the upper part of the payload fairing gets separated. In that case, its lower part containing the instrumentation and propulsion module of the spacecraft remains attached to the launch vehicle.

To keep the payload fairing stable in flight, four grid fins were added to it. Such a configuration of the detachable upper composite with escape system became the baseline for all the subsequent versions of the Soyuz-series LVs and Soyuz-series spacecraft and remains the same to this day having gone through several upgrades.

The first launch of LV 11A511 Soyuz took place on November 28, 1966. It put into orbit an unmanned Soyuz spacecraft (Kosmos-133). Altogether, there were 32 launches of this version of the launch vehicle (one launch was a failure and one LV failure occurred on the launch pad before the lift-off). The last launch took place on October 14, 1976.

Soyuz LVs became an integral part of the world’s spaceflight, went through 10 upgrades and for the last 50 years have been successfully operating under our country’s manned space program.

The most popular version is Soyuz-U (11A511U). As of November 28, 2016, there have been 787 launches of the LVs in the Soyuz-U series, out of which 21 ended in failure. The operating reliability index of this rocket is proven to be 0.985. At present Soyuz-U LVs are used for launching cargo transportation spacecraft, but their production run is over – the last rocket in this series will be launched in the next year.

The LV Soyuz-U2 using a synthetic propellant called "cyclin" in its second rocket stage was in operation during the period of 1982 through 1995. The rocket was used for launching spacecraft of Soyuz-T and Soyuz-TM series. During its operation there have been 70 successful launches of Soyuz-U2 from Baikonur, but because of the high cost of “cyclin”, this launch vehicle was eventually phased out of production.

2001 saw the first launch of LV Soyuz-FG. At present, this LV is used for launching all of our country’s manned spacecraft. Altogether, over the period of 15 years there have been 48 launches under the manned program and 10 launch campaigns with commercial payloads.

Present-day medium launch vehicles developed by the Rocket and Space Center Progress are also called Soyuz. Development of LV Soyuz-2 began in 1990s and went through two phases. Soyuz-2.1a was for the first time launched in 2004, the first launch of Soyuz-2.1b took place in 2006.

Soyuz-2 performance is significantly better as compared with the standard Soyuz. Owing to the new control system it became possible to significantly increase the accuracy of spacecraft insertion into their intended orbits and to automate testing and pre-launch processing.

As of November 28, 2016, there have been 23 launches of LV Soyuz-2.1a and 21 launch of Soyuz-2.1b. The spaceport in French Guiana has accomplished 15 launches of a modified version of Soyuz-2 called Soyuz-ST. The name of Soyuz was also given to a new light launch vehicle Soyuz-2.1v developed by Rocket and Space Center Progress, two launches of which took place in 2013 and 2015. On April 28, 2016, an upgraded Soyuz-2.1a lifted off from the new Russian launch site Vostochny.

There have been 1020 launches of various versions of the Soyuz launch vehicle. In the world there exist 7 launch pads for the rockets bearing this famous name: three at Plesetsk, two at Baikonur, one at Guiana Space Centre, and one at the Vostochny launch site.