The little spaceship that could, and what might have replaced it
When the Space Shuttle retired last year, many of us probably thought we'd seen the last of the old-school space workhorses. But spare a thought for Russia's Soyuz spacecraft. The first Soyuz manned mission was in April, 1967 and the program has been going ever since. Of course, even with the best design or product, the smart move is to plan for its eventual replacement, right?
The parade of possible replacements for the Soyuz began as early as 1970 and each had something interesting to bring to the table, despite never taking shape. After all it's hard to compete with a craft that carried on launch after launch and has become what many consider to be the safest and most cost effective spacecraft ever built.
The Soyuz is so reliable, at least one is always docked at the ISS to act as an escape craft.
The world is changing and as talk turns towards colonizing Mars and mining asteroids, the Soyuz could do with a replacement as it is small and is only capable of low earth orbit.
Now more than ever, as the new privatized space race takes off, it's understandable that Russia's space agency wants something shiny, new and built for the moon and beyond. With that in mind, RSC Energia, Russia's main space contractor has announced a new design at the end of 2012, promising test flights in 2017.
Will it take flight is anyone's guess, but in the meantime, enjoy the gallery of what might have been.
Via Jalopnik
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Sever 1950s â 1960s
Sever was a competing design during the development of the Soyuz. It was similar to the Soyuz but 50% larger.
TKS Ferry 1970s â 1980s
The TKS would have more space than the Soyuz, and had an Apollo style re-entry module that docked against a cylindrical oribital module. TKS modules became modules for the Mir and even the ISS.
Zarya (1989)
How do you make a good thing better? Make it bigger. The Zarya used the basic shape of the Soyuz expanded to hold up to 12 cosmonauts. Landing this beast would have used a ring of braking rockets; it was shelved due to acoustic issues and no backup systems for landing failure.
Kliper (early 2000s)
Look familiar? The Kliper resembled a scaled down Space Shuttle. Like the Shuttle it was meant to be reusable, and designed to use a modified Soyuz Orbital Module. With this it could have docked with existing Soyuz spacecraft. It was nixed due to cost.
Euro-Soyuz (mid-2000s)
The Russians and Europeans came up with an economical idea of updating and amping up the Soyuz for longer distances. This would have been done with an orbital tug attached to the back with extra fuel and a new heat shield.
CSTS/PPTS (2008-present)
The latest proposal is a two-module system, pared down from the three-module Soyuz. It envisions a conical orbital/reentry module to hold up to six crew and could swap service modules to allow various missions â some even long distance. The return module would be reusable.
