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1.8 Soyuz Ferry (1973-1981) The Soyuz Ferry (figure 1-20) replaced the Salyut 1-type Soyuz. It transported crews of two cosmonauts to Salyut 3, Salyut 4, Salyut 5, and Salyut 6.

Figure 1-20. Soyuz Ferry.

1.8.1 Soyuz Ferry Specifications

Launch weight .......................................... 6800 kg

Launch vehicle ......................................... Soyuz

Length ..................................................... about 7.5 m

Diameter of habitable modules ................... 2.2 m

Maximum diameter ................................... 2.72 m

Habitable volume ...................................... 9.5 m³

Number of crew ........................................ 2

1.8.2 Soyuz Ferry Notable Features Space and weight devoted to a third crewman on the Original Soyuz was devoted to life support equipment designed to supply two crewmen in space suits. Deletion of solar arrays. Addition of batteries. These were lighter than solar arrays, permitting more cargo to be carried. The batteries restricted the Soyuz Ferry to only 2 days of autonomous flight. Igla (“needle”) automatic rendezvous and docking system. Whip antennas were relocated from the leading edges of the solar arrays to the sides of the service module.

1.8.3 Soyuz Ferry Detailed Description Soyuz designer Konstantin Feoktistov provided a detailed description of the Soyuz Ferry near the end of its career in a brochure published in Moscow in 1980.[1] Many of the Soyuz Ferry attributes he described, listed below, apply equally to other versions of Soyuz. Descent capsule L/D ratio of 0.2-0.3 permitted a landing site to be targeted within several kilometers. Nominal descent deceleration load was 3-4 g’s. The descent capsule had three windows. The central window was fitted with a “viewer and orientation device” for “triaxial orientation using the horizon and features on Earth over which the spacecraft passed.” The device also

served as a periscope during rendezvous and docking operations, permitting the crew to see around the forward orbital module. Most of the cargo carried by a Soyuz Ferry to an orbiting Salyut space station was carried in the orbital module. A small amount was carried in the descent module. The service module consisted of the transfer frame and the instrumentservice section. The transfer frame, which joined the service module to the descent module, was unpressurized and held several docking and orientation engines (attitude control engines) and fuel tanks, purging tanks (for providing pressurant to drive propellant from the propellant tanks to the engines), the small exterior radiator for the thermal control system, and the command radio link apparatus, including a

1. Feoktistov, p. 27-37.