Development of Our Country's
Manned Spaceflight Programs

First programs - Vostok and Voskhod (1960 - 1968)

Flight Dates	Event
April 12, 1961	The world's first manned mission into space onboard Vostok spacecraft (Y.A. Gagarin).
August 6-7, 1961	The world's first one-day manned mission into space (Vostok-2 spacecraft, G.S. Titov).
August 12-15, 1962	The world's first group flight (Vostok-3, was launched on August 11, A.G. Nikolaev and Vostok-4, P.R. Popovich).
June 16-19, 1963	The world's first woman in space (Vostok-6, V.V. Tereshkova).
October 12-13, 1964	A one-day mission onboard a three-seater spacecraft (Voskhod 3KV, V.M. Komarov, K.P. Feoktistov, B.B. Yegorov).
March 18, 1965	The world's first spacewalk (A.A. Leonov "Voskhod-2", March 18-19 mission, P.I. Belyaev, A.A. Leonov).
February 22 - March 16, 1968	22-day flight with animals onboard (Voskhod/Kosmos-110, dogs named Veterok and Ugolek).

Cosmonauts-researchers - specialists of the company

Further space exploration and improvement of manned space systems, in the opinion of S.P.Korolev was impossible without participation in space mission of the developers of space hardware and scientists specializing in various fields. All the documents on establishing a cosmonauts team at Special Design Bureau No.1 were prepared with his personal participation. In 1964, a flight-test department was established, and in 1966 a first team of cosmonaut-testers was established within it consisting of engineers employed at the company to be flown into space as flight engineers and researchers. The experience they accumulated was successfully used in further work, made it possible to monitor the operation of the hardware in space environment and outline the ways of its further improvement and development.

Soyuz missions (from 1966 to the present time)

Development of Soyuz spacecraft began in 1960. Special Design Bureau No.1, concurrently with developing robotic probes and preparing Vostok spacecraft, considered options for various manned spacecrafts, including those for missions to the Moon and Mars. These design efforts became the basis for developing subsequent manned spacecraft of the Soyuz type, logistics spacecraft of Progress type, and space stations Salyut, Mir, International Space Station.
There are altogether 20 independent missions of Soyuz space vehicles performed, including four unmanned flights.

Flight dates	Event
November 28-30, 1966	The first unmanned independent flight (Cosmos-133).
April 23-24, 1967	The first manned independent flight (V. Komarov).
October 30, 1967	The world's first automatic docking of two unmanned space vehicles Kosmos -186, Kosmos-188.
October 26-30, 1968	The first manned independent flight of Soyuz-3 space vehicle after modifications performed (G.T. Beregovoy).

Transport - maintenance service system for orbital stations Salyut, Mir, ISS using Soyuz and Progress space vehicles (from 1971 up till now)

Flight dates	Event
1971-1981	Soyuz space vehicles April 23-25, 1971. - The first manned flight to Salyut (Soyuz-10, V.Shatalov, A.Eliseev, N.Rukavishnikov).
1978-1990	Progress space vehicles. From January 8 till February 8, 1978. The first flight to Salyut-6.
1979-1986	Soyuz T space vehicles. From December 16, 1979 till March 26, 1980. The first unmanned flight to Salyut-6.
1986-2002	Soyuz TM space vehicles. May 21-30, 1986. - The first unmanned flight to the Mir station; from February 6 till July 30, 1987. - The first manned flight (Soyuz TM-2, Yu. Romanenko, A.Laveykin/A.Viktorenko, M.Faris).
1989-2009	Progress M space vehicles. From August 23 till December 1, 1989. - The pioneer flight to the Mir.
1990 - 1994	Ballistic recoverable capsule Raduga. November 28th, 1990. - The first use.
2000 - 2004	Progress М1 space vehicles. From February 1 till April 26, 2000. - The pioneer flight to the Mir station.
2002 - up to now	Soyuz TMA space vehicles. From October 30, 2002 till May 4, 2003. - The first manned flight to the ISS (Soyuz TMA-1, S.Zaletin, Frank De Winne, Yu.Lonchakov/N.Budarin, K.Bauersocks, D.Pettite).
2008 - up to now	Progress M-M space vehicles. From November 26, 2008 till February 8, 2009. - The first flight to the ISS.
2010 - up to now	Soyuz TMA-M space vehicles. From October 8, 2010 till March 16, 2011. - The first manned flight to the ISS (Soyuz TMA-M, A.Kaleri, O.Skripochka, S.Kelly).

Orbital stations (from 1971 up till now)

Flight dates	Name
April 19 - October 11, 1971	The Salyut, the world's first long-term station.
April 3 - May 28, 1973	The Salyut-2 (Almaz-1) was lost.
June 25, 1974 - January 24, 1975	Salyut-3 (Almaz-2) was serviced by Soyuz-14, Soyuz-15 space vehicles.
December 26, 1974 - February 3, 1977	The Salyut-4, the second generation station.
June 22, 1976 - August 8, 1977	The Salyut-5 (Almaz-3) was serviced by Soyuz-21, Soyuz-23, Soyuz-24 space vehicles.
September 29, 1977 - July 29, 1982	The Salyut-6, the third generation station.
April 19, 1982 - February 7, 1991	The Salyut-7.
February 20, 1986 - March 23, 2001	The Mir station, the multifunctional, multi-module space facility, the fourth generation station.
November 20, 1998 - up to now	The ISS Russian segment.

Reusable space transportation system Energia-Buran (1974 - 1992)

Our country's reusable space rocket system was developed, which included a super heavy launch vehicle Energia and reusable orbiter Buran. The spacecraft integrated the experience of space rocket and aviation technologies. The spacecraft launch mass is up to 105 tons, the payload mass is up to 30 tons (up to 20 tons when returning from orbit to Earth). The crew can be as large as 10. The payload bay could accommodate a cargo up to 17 m long and up to 4.5 m in diameter. The nominal duration of a spacecraft mission is 7 to 30 days. Buran was designed for 100 missions, in both manned and unmanned (automatic) mode. The prime developer of the system as a whole, of the launch vehicle and the orbiter was NPO Energia, which was coordinating and directing the efforts of more than 1200 organizations in the country.

November 15, 1988, saw the only space flight of Buran orbiter, which was carried out in unmanned mode. All the systems operated normally in flight. This mission demonstrated that our country's space industry has achieved the highest level of development. A system was developed which was in many ways superior to the Space Shuttle. For the first time in world history a spacecraft of this class accomplished a fully automatic landing. This system turned out to be ahead of the demands of its time.
The program was terminated in 1992 while our country was undergoing political and economic transformations.

International Manned Spaceflight Programs

ASTP program (1972 - 1975)

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) became the first international manned space program implemented by our country and USA.

International programs Interkosmos, Euromir, Aragats - Cassiopeia, Polyot M, Inspektor, Austromir, Juno, etc. (1978 - 1999)

Conducted onboard space stations Salyut-6, Salyut-7 and Mir were joint research projects with participation of cosmonauts from 19 countries of the world.

Mir-Shuttle and Mir-NASA programs (1995 - 1998)

Nine dockings of Space Shuttle orbiter with Mir space station were accomplished. Delivered to the space station were 14.5 tons of equipment, instruments and food supplies and about 5.5 tons of water. Returned to Earth were about 3 tons of Russian equipment intended for reuse onboard Soyuz and Progress and replenishing hardware onboard Mir. In the course of joint work a large program of scientific research, especially in the field of medical and biological experiments, was carried out.
About 100 scientific projects involving participation of about 150 leading researchers were carried out. Conducted onboard the space station in addition to medical and biological research were studies in materials technology, microgravity, fundamental biology, etc. Of special value were experiments conducted in the interests of the future project of the International Space Station. They made it possible to improve engineering solutions for the design of the international space station, its planning and operations.

International Space Station program (1998 to the present time)

The work on the program started in 1993, the station deployment began in 1998.
Participating in the construction of the space station besides Russia and USA are Canada, Japan and the countries of the European Union. The prime contractor for the Russian segment of the station and its integration with the US segment is RSC Energia, and for the US segment - the Boeing company.

The Main Achievements in Manned Cosmonautics over the 50 Years' Period

• Duration of continuous manned space flight is 438 days (V.V. Polyakov)
• Utilization of the International Space Station in a permanent manned mode within ten years.
• Nearly 300 manned flights were performed, including suborbital flights.
• Nine orbital stations have been utilized; the tenth station, ISS, is being currently operated
• More than 500 persons, the citizens from 37 countries, performed orbital flights; their total flight time is about 100 years.
• More than 195 persons performed extra vehicular activities; they have carried out more than 650 spacewalks within a total time of about a half-year.
• Maximum total time of cosmonaut work outside pressurized compartments is about 79 hours (A.Y. Solovyov for 16 spacewalks).
• Total time of cosmonauts lunar stay is about 333 hours (12persons); lunar soil is delivered to Earth.
• Total time of cosmonauts work on lunar surface is around 80 hours.
• Under the orbital stations and independent flight programs for manned and cargo space vehicles, hundreds of thousands of sessions and operations have been carried out for several thousands of scientific and applied studies and experiments according to the following lines of activity: space technology and materials science; geophysical studies; biomedical problems; earth investigations and ecology monitoring; Solar system planet and small heavenly bodies studies; space biotechnology; technical studies and experiments; extra-atmospheric astronomy; program integrated analysis and generation; space power systems and propulsion systems; cosmic rays, space formation studies, etc.

Objectives and Tasks of Manned Cosmonautics for Current Century

Global objective:

safety and survivability of Earth's civilization (under conditions of potential natural and technogenic catastrophes of terrestrial and space origin); Solar system development; a higher level of civilization development and well-being of the Earth inhabitants.

Tasks:

• Steady and unobstructed access to space;
• Assured safety of mankind should there be any threats from space;
• Assured safety of space-related activities;
• Expanded use of space in mankind's territorial and resource development interests;
• Development of space technologies, including building and support of orbital and interplanetary space infrastructures based upon the best combination of human abilities and robotics capabilities; use of scientific discoveries and advanced achievements in different fields of science, technology, medicine and biology;
• Generation of new knowledge, including knowledge about the Earth, Solar system and the Universe;
• Training and development of highly-qualified scientific and technical personnel.

RSC Energia's President, General designer V.A. Lopota (in the centre) and the First Vice-President, First Deputy General Designer N.I. Zelenschikov (the last one on the right) among the main and backup crew members of Soyuz TMA-M space vehicle.