'union', GRAU index: 11A511) is a family of Soviet and later Russian expendable medium-lift launch vehicles initially developed by the OKB-1 design bureau and manufactured by the Progress Rocket Space Centre factory in Samara, Russia.

Despite this recognition, the majority of Soyuz launches have been dedicated to deploying for satellites for both governmental and commercial purposes.

From the final flight of the Space Shuttle program in 2011 until SpaceX's first crewed mission in 2020, Soyuz rockets were the only approved launch vehicles for transporting astronauts to the ISS.

The Fregat engine was developed by NPO Lavochkin from the propulsion module of its Phobos interplanetary probes.

Although endorsed by the Roscosmos and the Russian Ministry of Defence in 1993 and designated "Rus" as a Russification and modernisation of Soyuz, and later renamed Soyuz-2, a funding shortage prevented implementation of the plan.

This consisted of a slightly modified Soyuz-U combined with the Fregat upper stage, with a capacity of up to 1350 kg to geostationary transfer orbit.

In April 1997, Starsem obtained a contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) to launch two pairs of Cluster II plasma science satellites using the Soyuz-Fregat.

After successful test flights of Soyuz-Fregat on 9 February 2000 and 20 March 2000, the Cluster II satellites were launched on 16 July 2000 and 9 August 2000.

The rocket's second and third stages, which are identical to the Soyuz, and its payload (a Molniya-3K satellite) crashed in the Uvatsky region of Tyumen (Siberia).

[citation needed] On 24 August 2011, an uncrewed Soyuz-U carrying cargo to the International Space Station crashed, failing to reach orbit.

[6] On 11 October 2018, the Soyuz MS-10 mission to the International Space Station failed to reach orbit after an issue with the main booster.

The two crew, Aleksey Ovchinin and Nick Hague, followed a ballistic trajectory and landed safely over 400 km downrange from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The fully modified launcher (version Soyuz 2.1b) flew first on 27 December 2006 with the CoRoT satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

[7] The equatorial launch site allows the Soyuz to deliver 2.7 to 4.9 tonnes into Sun-synchronous orbit, depending on the third-stage engine used.

[10] The first operational launch happened on 21 October 2011, bearing the first two satellites in Galileo global positioning system.

The entire rocket is suspended in the launch system by the load-bearing mechanisms on the strap-on boosters where they are attached to the central core.

This scheme resembles flight conditions when the strap-on boosters push the central core forward.

Presently the following fairing types are used: Progress is the cargo spacecraft for uncrewed missions to the ISS and previously to Mir.

Its external diameter is 4.1 m and its length is 11.4 m. It can be used with the Soyuz-2 only, because older analog control system cannot cope with aerodynamic instability introduced by a fairing this large.

This carbon-plastic fairing is based on the proven configuration used for Arianespace's Ariane 4 vehicles, with its length increased by approximately one additional meter.