Soyuz Launcher
Soyuz Launcher
All previous Foton spacecraft since the first mission in April 1985 have been launched into orbit by a Soyuz-U launcher. Foton-M2 will also be launched into orbit by a Soyuz-U launcher though this will be the first time that it takes place from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. All previous launches had taken place at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, in the Arkhangelskaya Region of North-Western Russia, approximately 800 km north of Moscow.
The history of the Soyuz launcher developed from the Russian military rockets, which started production in the late 1940's with the R-1 and R-2 rockets, the R standing for "Raketa". Further developments led to the launch of the first intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7, or "Semyorka" on 21 August 1957, Semyorka meaning "The Seven" in Russian. It was the R-7 launcher configuration, which put Sputnik 1 into orbit on 4 October 1957.
Russian launchers normally take their name from the payload or spacecraft they are launching. The R-7 that launched Sputnik 1 into orbit was therefore called the "Sputnik launcher". The Sputnik launcher thereafter developed into the three-stage Vostok-L launcher for launching lunar probes and then the Vostok launcher, which put Yuri Gagarin into orbit in 1961.
After six further manned Vostok missions, the Vostok launcher was developed into the 4-stage Molniya launcher, for putting satellites into high elliptical orbits, and the Voskhod 2 launcher. This led to the development of the Soyuz launcher, which used a stronger third rocket stage. It was first launched on 16 November 1963 and was named after the manned Soyuz spacecraft for the launch of which it was designed.
The first manned Soyuz launch took place on 23 April 1967. In 1971 this developed into a more powerful version called the Soyuz-U, which further developed into the Soyuz-U2 in 1982, a rocket with a 7 tonnes maximum payload that used a new synthetic kerosene called Sintin, whose use is now discontinued for cost reasons. The Soyuz-U launcher, which will launch the Foton-M2 into orbit was previously used for both unmanned missions, such as Foton and Bion and for launching manned missions such as the Soyuz missions to the Salyut Space Stations and the Soyuz Apollo docking missions to the Soyuz T-2 to Soyuz T-11 (June 1980April 1984, T1 was unmanned), Soyuz TM-24 to Soyuz TM-34 (Feb 96April 2002), the last flight of a Soyuz TM on the Marco Polo mission with ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori. The Soyuz-U also launched the first Expedition Crew to the ISS.
The Soyuz U launcher is currently no longer used for manned missions. The current version of launcher is the Soyuz FG, which was used for the first time on 30 October 2002 to launch the Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft on ISS flight 5S with ESA astronaut Frank De Winne from Belgium on the Odissea Mission. The FG stands for "Forsunochnaya Golovka" meaning injection head in Russian. It is an improved version of the Soyuz-U as the injection head in the FG has 1000 holes instead of 200 for distributing kerosene and liquid oxygen to the combustion chamber. This leads to a 1.3% higher specific impulse, which increases the thrust by 500 kN. This in turn leads to an increase of 250-300 kg in the payload. 
The Soyuz launcher and all its predecessors consist of four conical lateral boosters, which first appeared on the R-7 rocket, arranged around a core stage. In Russian terminology, the core stage and the lateral boosters are called "blocks".
Each block of the launcher is designated a letter, which follows the Cyrillic alphabet. The lateral boosters are called blocks B, V, G and D.Together they make up what in western terminology would be called stage one as they are the first stage to finish burning and separate after launch. The central block, or second stage, is called block A and the final block or third stage is called block I. Each block runs on a fuel mixture of kerosene and liquid oxygen.
In the Soyuz U configuration, each lateral booster is about 20 metres long by up to 2.7 metres in diameter. Each has an RD-107 propulsion unit. In combination the four boosters have an empty mass of 15 tonnes and a capacity for nearly 160 tonnes of fuel.
The boosters are ignited at launch together with the central block or second stage. This provides a thrust at lift-off of 4030 kN. The boosters have finished burning after two minutes when they separate.
The central block, block A, is nearly 28 metres long and up to nearly 3 metres in diameter. It has an RD-108 propulsion unit and an empty mass of 7 tonnes, which provides a capacity for 95 tonnes of fuel. It provides a thrust of 1000 kN and continues to power the flight for a further three minutes after separation of the lateral boosters.
The central core stage is linked to the second stage by a latticework structure. When the core stage's powered flight is complete, the third stage's RD-0110 engine is ignited. This is five minutes after launch. The ignition forces induce separation of the second and third stages. The third stage powers the flight until nine minutes after launch when it is cut-out and thereafter jettisoned. This third stage or block is nearly 7 metres long. This stage has an empty mass of nearly 2.5 tonnes with provision for up to 23 tonnes of fuel. It has a liquid fuel propulsion system, which provides 300 kN in thrust.