ESA Soyuz launch, dock and recovery videos

[Tyko]

These are 3 amazing videos that walk through a Soyuz mission including a great explanation of how rendezvous and docking are planned. It's real-life info, but teaches a lot of basic terminology, so I thought I'd share    

 

 

Edited February 19, 2017 by Tyko

[Snark]

Moving to Science & Spaceflight, since this isn't really about KSP itself.

[Gaarst]

Nice, I always like to learn things about Soyuz (because Союз greatest rocket in world, better than capitalist American rockets).

Edited February 20, 2017 by Gaarst

[munlander1]

2 minutes ago, Gaarst said:

Nice, I always like to learn things about Soyuz (because Союз greatest rocket in world, better than capitalist American rockets).

But we went to the moon

[Gaarst]

Just now, munlander1 said:

But we went to the moon

Pffff, Союз can go on Sun.

[munlander1]

1 minute ago, Gaarst said:

Pffff, Союз can go on Sun.

It will burn up before it gets close.  I think all current and past spacecrafts would burn up too.

[kerbiloid]

3 hours ago, munlander1 said:

It will burn up before it gets close.

If it will fly at night - it won't.

[Spacetraindriver]

4 hours ago, munlander1 said:

It will burn up before it gets close.  I think all current and past spacecrafts would burn up too.

Nyet! Stronk Stalinilum of adequate protection for Glorious Soviet spacecraft!

[YNM]

11 hours ago, Spacetraindriver said:

Nyet! Stronk Stalinilum of adequate protection for Glorious Soviet spacecraft!

Maybe you meant "infantry"

These aside, is it possible to launch manned Soyuz from French Guyana ? I mean... would that help with performance or it won't ?

[Nibb31]

57 minutes ago, YNM said:

These aside, is it possible to launch manned Soyuz from French Guyana ? I mean... would that help with performance or it won't ?

No. There is no access tower and no ground facilities for preparing astronauts at Kourou. It might be possible to launch a Progress. I don't know what GSE requirements the Progress spacecraft has, whether it's fueled on the pad or in the integration building.

However, the gain in dV from equatorial launches is only for reaching equatorial orbits (ie: GTO). Soyuz and Progress only go to the ISS 51.6° orbit, so they wouldn't gain anything by launching from the equator.

Edited February 20, 2017 by Nibb31

[YNM]

1 minute ago, Nibb31 said:

No. There is no access tower and no ground facilities for preparing astronauts. It might be possible to launch a Progress. I don't know what GSE requirements the Progress spacecraft has.
What "performance" would improve? The gain in dV from equatorial launches is only for reaching equatorial orbits (ie: GTO). Soyuz only goes to the ISS 51.6° orbit, so it wouldn't gain anything by launching from the equator.

I was just thinking if one day ESA and Roskosmos would acquire separate Soyuz-es, in lack of alternative spacecraft type yet increased work rate. Given that both Baikonur and Vostochny aren't ESA "owned".

[Tullius]

1 hour ago, YNM said:

Maybe you meant "infantry"

These aside, is it possible to launch manned Soyuz from French Guyana ? I mean... would that help with performance or it won't ?

There are two reasons why the answer to the first question is no:

• Kourou probably lacks the necessary infrastracture for manned launches.
• The Soyuz rockets launched from Kourou are the newer Soyuz-2 version, which did not yet see a manned launch. (Although it is already used for Progress)

Nothing that can't change in the future. But a manned launch probably won't happen soon.

Considering performance enhancements: A Soyuz launched from Kourou can put 2.8 tonnes into GTO, while the same rocket from Baikonur can only put 1.7 tonnes into GTO. But as Nibb said, ISS has an inclined orbit, which was specifically chosen with launches from Baikonur in mind. So there would be no advantage.

As to manned Soyuz launches not targeting ISS from Kourou: ESA is used to buying its seats from the Americans. And considering that in the US, there are two companies hoping to sell manned launches (rocket, spacecraft and launch pad in one complete pack) in the future, I don't see the point as to why the Europeans should invest money into possible manned Soyuz launches, as they almost certainly would be a quite rare occurence.

Edited February 20, 2017 by Tullius

[Nibb31]

10 minutes ago, Tullius said:

As to manned Soyuz launches not targeting ISS from Kourou: ESA is used to buying its seats from the Americans.

Just a nitpick: ESA never buys seats, it uses barter agreements. This guarantees that ESA money flows into the European aerospace industry even if they get a service or participation from another country.

[asmi]

On 20/02/2017 at 0:33 PM, YNM said:

These aside, is it possible to launch manned Soyuz from French Guyana ? I mean... would that help with performance or it won't ?

There was a study done by ESA at some point, and GSE has been designed such that it would not preclude such upgrades in the future. I seem to recall that GSE was not the only issue - processing facilities would need to be expanded to support Progress/Soyuz campaigns (loading propellants/gases, pre-launch testing, crew quarters/training facilities and so on). Also the Soyuz capsule itself would need to be modified so that it would be more buoyant as in case of launch abort it would land into the ocean.

Edited February 23, 2017 by asmi