Soviet Space Stations

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Soviet Space Stations

Soviet Mars Craft
Soviet designs for Mars expeditions to a common scale. Left to right, top to bottom: MPK, TMK-1, Mavr; TMK-E early concept, TMK-E final design; two alternate MEK designs; MK-700; Mars 1986; Kurchatov Mars 1989 design; RKK Energia solar-powered Mars 1989 design; NII-TP/Keldysh Mars 1994 design. The orange line is 100 m long.
Credit: © Mark Wade

Category of spacecraft.

Subtopics

OS Russian manned space station. Study 1960. In 1960 Korolev proposed a military orbital station (OS), with a crew of 3 to 5, orbiting at 350 to 400 km altitude.

TKS Heavy Space Station Russian manned space station. Study 1961. The TKS (Heavy Space Station, also known as TOSZ - Heavy Orbital Station of the Earth) was Korolev's first 1961 project for a large N1-launched military space station.

Vostok-Zh Russian manned spacecraft. Study 1961. The Vostok-Zh (or Vostok-7) maneuverable manned satellite was piloted by a single 'cosmonaut assemblyman'.

OS-1962 Russian manned space station. Study 1962. On 10 March 1962 Korolev approved the technical project "Complex docking of spacecraft in earth orbit - Soyuz". This contained the original Soyuz L1 circumlunar design.

OP Russian manned space station. Study 1962. Korolev's next attempt to win military support for development of the N-I was his fantastic 'Orbitalniy Poyas' (OP -Orbital Belt) scheme of 20 April 1962.

OS-1 (1965) Russian manned space station. Reached mock-up stage, 1965.

Soyuz R Russian manned spacecraft. Cancelled 1966. A military reconnaissance version of Soyuz, developed by Kozlov at Samara from 1963-1966. It was to consist of an the 11F71 small orbital station and the 11F72 Soyuz 7K-TK manned ferry.

Soyuz VI Russian manned combat spacecraft. Cancelled 1965. To determine the usefulness of manned military space flight, two projects were pursued in the second half of the 1960's.

OS-1 (1969) Russian manned space station. Study 1969. By 1969 the giant OS-1 space station had evolved to this configuration.

MKBS Russian manned space station. Cancelled 1974. The culmination of ten years of designs for N1-launched space stations, the MKBS would be cancelled together with the N1.

Salyut 1 Russian manned space station. Salyut 1 was the first DOS long duration orbital station, an Almaz spaceframe modified with Soyuz systems by a joint Korolev-Chelomei team. Launched 1971.

Almaz OPS Russian manned space station. Vladimir Chelomei's Almaz OPS was the only manned military space station ever actually flown.

Salyut 4 Russian manned space station. Four of the initial DOS-1 versions of a civilian Soviet space station were built using converted Almaz military stations. Launched 1973.

Mir-2 Russian manned space station. Study 1989. The Mir-2 space station was originally authorized in the February 1976 resolution setting forth plans for development of third generation Soviet space systems.

OPS + TKS Russian manned space station. Cancelled 1976. Designation give to combined TKS+OPS Almaz station.

Salyut 6 Russian manned space station, launched 1977-09-29. The Salyut 6 space station was the most successful of the DOS series prior to Mir. It was aloft for four years and ten months, completing 27,785 orbits of the earth.

37K-Mir Russian manned space station. Cancelled 1983. The basic 37K design consisted of a 4.2 m diameter pressurized cylinder with a docking port at the forward end. It was not equipped with its own propulsion system.

37KS Russian manned space station module. Cancelled 1983. Would have been launched by Proton and delivered and docked to the Mir station by a new lighter weight FGO tug.

LO Russian manned space station. Study 1984. A later version of the 37K design for civilian experiments, the LO Laboratory Compartment, would be retained in the payload bay of Buran and connected to the orbiter's cockpit area by an access tunnel.

NPG Russian manned space station. Cancelled 1986. A later version of the 37K design for military experiments, the NPG Retained Payload, would be mounted in the payload bay of Buran and connected to the orbiter's cockpit area by an access tunnel.

Salyut 7 Russian manned space station, launched 1982-04-19. Salyut 7 was the back-up article for Salyut 6 and very similar in equipment and capabilities. However the crews were able to conduct significant military experiments due to the greatly increased volume and payload of the TKS modules diverted from the cancelled Almaz program that docked with the station.

Mir Modules-FGB Russian space station modules derived from the Chelomei TKS ferry. See entries for Kvant-2, Priroda, Spektr, and Kristall for details on each.

Mir The Mir space station was the last remnant of the once mighty Soviet space program. The core module was launched on 1986-02-20. It was built to last only five years, and consisted of a station core derived from the Salyut space station, with docking ports to accomodate additional modules for specialized research. As the Soviet Union collapsed Mir stayed in orbit, but the final modules were were delivered years late and could only be completed with American financial assistance. The Mir complex in the end consisting of 7 modules with 11.5 metric tons of scientific equipment. It cost $220 to $240 million per year to keep in operation. Kept flying over a decade beyond its rated life, Mir proved a source of pride to the Russian people and proved the ability of their cosmonauts and engineers to improvise and keep operations going despite all manner of challenges and mishaps.

Mir complex Russian manned space station. Assembled 1986 to 1996. Designation given to the entire Mir space station.

Kvant Russian manned space station module. Kvant 1). The Kvant spacecraft represented the first use of a new kind of Soviet space station module, designated 37K. Launched 1987.

37KB Russian manned space station module. Carried in the payload bay of the Buran space shuttle. They could remain attached to the bay or (modified to the 37KBI configuration) be docked to the Mir-2 station.

Mir-2 KB Salyut Russian manned space station. Cancelled 1988. Alternative design for the Mir-2 space station by KB Salyut. If Polyus had successfully made it to orbit, it might have been the core for such a station.

Kvant-2 Russian manned space station module. Kvant 2. Kvant-2 was a utility module launched to the Mir station. It provided an airlock, additional electric power, and additional gyrodynes for orienting the station. Built by Khrunichev for MOM > RKA, Russia. Launched 1989.

Kristall Russian manned space station module. Kristall was a dedicated zero-gravity materials and biological science research module for the Mir space station, launched in January 1990, built by Khrunichev for MOM > RKA, Russia. Launched 1990.

Spektr Russian manned space station module. Spektr was a module of the Mir space station. It began life as a dedicated military research unit. Built by Khrunichev for MOM > RKA, Russia. Launched 1995.

Mir-Shuttle Docking Module Russian manned space station. A specialized SO docking module was originally designed for docking the Buran space shuttle with the Mir-2 space station.

Priroda Russian manned space station module. Priroda was the last Mir module launched. It was originally an all-Soviet remote sensing module for combined civilian and military surveillance of the earth. Launched 1996.

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