Home - Search - Browse - Alphabetic Index: 0- 1- 2- 3- 4- 5- 6- 7- 8- 9
A- B- C- D- E- F- G- H- I- J- K- L- M- N- O- P- Q- R- S- T- U- V- W- X- Y- Z
Soyuz OB-VI
Part of Soyuz
Soyuz R
Soyuz R
Soyuz R military research laboratory (conceptual drawing based on description).
Credit: © Mark Wade
Russian manned space station. Cancelled 1970. In December 1967 OKB-1 chief designer Mishin managed to have Kozlov's Soyuz VI project killed. In its place he proposed to build a manned military station based on his own Soyuz 7K-OK design.

Status: Cancelled 1970. Gross mass: 6,500 kg (14,300 lb).

Mishin's 11F730 Soyuz VI consisted of on orbital block 11F731 OB-VI and a transport spacecraft Soyuz S (11F732 7K-S). The Soyuz OB-VI would be launched for a 30 day mission into a 51.6 degree orbit at 250 x 270 km, and would use solar panels in the place of Kozlov's nuclear power sources. The orbital block of the OB-VI would have 700 to 1,000 kg of specialized and scientific instruments.

Kozlov at Filial 3 of OKB-1 had been entrusted with development of the Soyuz VI military version of Soyuz. By August 1967 he was predicting first flight of the VI in 1968. At this point, the Chief Designer of OBK-1, Vasiliy Pavlovich Mishin took an interest in the VI. On 13 October 1967 Mishin began his efforts to take over Kozlov's VI program. His staff in Kaliningrad felt that Kozlov had insulted them by redesigning the VI to rectify the 'defects' of their Soyuz 7K-OK design. They were also fundamentally opposed to the use of radio-isotope power sources, and raised interminable objections about the 800 mm hatch cut into the heat shield (as they did later in the case of Chelomei's VA). Especially after the heat shield failure of a 7K-OK in January 1967 and its subsequent sinking in the Aral Sea, the Podpliki 'Mafia' relentlessly criticized Kozlov about the heat shield design. Mishin wrote a letter to Afanasyev and Smirnov, urging them to cancel the 7K-VI program.

In the place of Kozlov's 7K-VI Mishin proposed an OIS consisting of a separately-launched orbital block and a transport Soyuz. This was the exact same concept as Kozlov's cancelled Soyuz-R system, but using Kaliningrad spacecraft in the place of Samara spacecraft. In a November 1967 meeting with Kozlov, Mishin demanded the abandonment of Kozlov's 7K-VI project. Kozlov rejected this and subsequently attempted to recruit Kamanin to his cause. It was all for naught; through various complex machinations Mishin seized control of the project on 8 December 1967. Mishin's revised project was reaffirmed in May 1968.

Mishin's 11F730 Soyuz VI consisted of on orbital block 11F731 OB-VI and a transport spacecraft 11F732 7K-S. The Soyuz would have a crew of two, a probe-drogue docking system and an internal transfer tunnel. It was proposed that two versions of the 7K-S could conduct autonomous flights for military projects. These versions were the 11F733 7K-S-I for short-term research and the 11F734 7K-S-II for longer flights. For resupply of the orbital stations a payload transport craft 7K-SG 11F735 was proposed (This was an ancestor of the Progress spacecraft used to resupply Salyut and Mir space stations).

Mishin's Soyuz VI would be launched for a 30 day mission into a 51.6 degree orbit at 250 x 270 km, and would use solar panels in the place of the nuclear power sources. The orbital block of the OB-VI would have 700 to 1,000 kg of specialized and scientific instruments. Chief Designer for the 11F730 was K D Bushuyev, with veteran spaceplane designer P V Tsybin assisting.

Using Kozlov's groundwork, the draft project OIS 11F730, was issued by TsKBEM and Filial 3 jointly on 21 June 1968. Design materials for the 11F732 7K-S spacecraft were issued on 14 October 1968. In 1969 complete drawings were released for the OIS project including those for the spacecraft 7K-S, 7K-S-I, and 7K-S-II.

It was singularly noticeable that relatively little effort was expended on the OIS by Mishin. Despite his desire to take the project from Kozlov, his bureau was too preoccupied with the L1 and N1-L3 lunar programs and improvement of the 7K-OK after the Soyuz 1 disaster. Nevertheless by 1968 the cosmonaut group in training for the OIS included Aleksei Gubarev, Yuri Glazkov, Vyacheslav Zudov, Eduard Stepanov, Gennadiy Sarafanov, Aleksandr Kramarenko, Leonid Kizim, Aleksandr Petrushenko, and Mikhail Lisun.

At the time of the cancellation of Kovlov's 7K-VI project Mishin promised that the first OIS would be launched in 1969. This was based solely on convincing the military that he could beat Kozlov's 1970 date. Yet by May 1969 Kamanin's diary indicates there was no chance of launching an Almaz or Soyuz VI until 1972. At best no more than seven solo military flights of the Soyuz 7K-S could be expected before 1972.

In December 1969 it was decided that Chelomei would hand over unfinished spaceframes of Almaz stations to Mishin for completion as Salyut DOS-7K space stations. The OIS was cancelled in February 1970 in recognition that it would be available no earlier than the more-capable Salyut or Almaz stations. The Soyuz-VI cosmonaut group was incorporated into the Almaz training group.

The Soyuz 7K-S, however continued in two parallel designs - the base variant, which was for special-purpose military solo missions; and a space station transport variant 7K-ST.



Family: Space station. Country: Russia. Spacecraft: Soyuz OB-VI, Soyuz 7K-S. Launch Vehicles: R-7. Agency: Korolev bureau. Bibliography: 367, 376, 76.

1967 July 31 - .
1967 December 8 - .
1968 June 21 - .
1968 October 14 - .
1968 December 26 - .
1969 March 20 - . Launch Vehicle: N1.
1969 May 10 - .
1969 June 21 - .
1970 February 1 - . LV Family: Proton. Launch Vehicle: Proton-K.
1970 February 18 - .
1970 February 26 - .
1970 February 27 - .
1970 February 28 - .
1971 June 16 - .
1972 August 11 - .
1974 June 21 - .
1974 July - .

Back to top of page
Home - Search - Browse - Alphabetic Index: 0- 1- 2- 3- 4- 5- 6- 7- 8- 9
A- B- C- D- E- F- G- H- I- J- K- L- M- N- O- P- Q- R- S- T- U- V- W- X- Y- Z
© 1997-2019 Mark Wade - Contact
© / Conditions for Use