Soyuz Program

Soyuz (pronounced [sa'jus] and means Union in English) is a series of spacecraft designed by Sergey Korolyov for the Soviet Union's space program. The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraft design and were originally built as part of the Soviet Manned Lunar program. The first unmanned launch of the Soyuz was on November 28, 1966. The first manned launch of the Soyuz was on April 23, 1967. Currently, the Soyuz spacecraft family is still in service and has launched more manned space missions than any other platform. The Soyuz spacecraft is launched by the Soyuz launch vehicle, as part of the Soyuz program and in the later missions as part of the Zond program. They were later used to carry cosmonauts to and from the Salyut and Mir space stations and are now used for transport to and from the International Space Station.