From the time of Sputnik, Russian space hardware has exhibited its own distinctive style, as we can see in NASA’s image of the day, which shows the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The crew is peaceably international; in addition to Commander Dmitry Kondratyev, NASA Flight Engineer Catherine Coleman and Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli will be carried aloft when Soyuz Expedition 26 lifts off tomorrow. And it’s somehow marvelous that the rocket rides to the launch pad on the back of a railroad car. But that bristling bouquet of red nozzles evokes all the antipathies, and the mysteries, of the Cold War.
Russian rockets have tended to sport more nozzles than their American counterpart. Check out at right the Soviet N1, the massive vehicle developed in the 1960s for the abortive Soviet program to land cosmonauts on the moon. The N1 was as massive as the Saturn V that carried the Apollo missions into space—and with thirty main engines, its thrust was unwieldy (the Saturn had five). The N1 failed all four of its test flights; by the early 1970s, pieces of its shell were broken apart and used as storage sheds scattered about the vast grounds of the Baikonur cosmodrome. The individual rocket engines were quite reliable, however; stockpiled surplus units are still in use.
Soyuz rockets like the one at the top, which have serviced the International Space Station and a host of other Russian and international missions, are by contrast some of the most reliable spacecraft ever built. Their name, the Russian word for “union,” hearkens back to the charged early days of manned space flight. But with the Space Shuttle program scheduled to end next year, they’ll be the sole means of transit between the International Space Station and the surface of the Earth.
Here’s footage of a Soyuz making its way by rail to the iconic Baikonur launch pad, which sits on the open Kazakh steppe with its clawlike gantry gesturing skyward:
