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| Soyuz VI - Soyuz VI. Forward view showing Soyuz descent module located ahead of cylindrical orbital work compartment. 23,877 bytes. 310 x 229 pixels. |
To determine the usefulness of manned military space flight, two projects were pursued in the second half of the 1960's. Chelomei's Almaz was to conduct orbital research into the usefulness of manned observation of the earth, while Kozlov's Soyuz VI would conduct military research. Soyuz VI was developed form the original Soyuz draft project. The standard Soyuz solved problems of docking, EVA, orbital assembly, while the VI was designed in response to a TTZ to solve military aspects - manned earth observation, orbital inspection and destruction of enemy satellites. But by the beginning of the 1970's flight tests had provided convincing evidence that near-earth operations were better suited to solution of national economic problems than military ones. So the Soyuz VI was cancelled.
Kozlov was already developing military versions of the Soyuz. Duirng 1963 to 1964 OKB-1 Kaliningrad had concentrated on development of the Soyuz-A circumlunar spacecraft, while the military projects Soyuz-P and Soyuz-R were �subcontracted� to OKB-1 filial number 3, based in Samara (then Kuibishev), headed by Chief Designer Dmitri Ilyich Kozlov. For Kozlov development of military spacecraft was nothing new. In 1961 he completed the technical documentation for the serial production of the photo reconnaissance satellite 11F61 Zenit-2, and from 1964, Filial 3 undertook development of the 11F69 Zenit-4 reconnaissance satellite from draft project to production. Samara was also responsible for future development and production support of derivatives of the R-7 family of launch vehicles.
KB Kozlov began active development of these military versions of the Soyuz in 1964. New versions of the R-7 launch vehicle, the 11A511 and 11A514, were put into development to support their launch. However both spacecraft would ultimately be cancelled and replaced by projects of Korolev�s competitor, Chelomei (the IS unmanned anti-satellite replaced the Soyuz-P and the Almaz space station replaced the Soyuz-R).
In June 1965 Gemini 4 conducted the first American manned military experiments. The crew tested the military utility of manned photographic and visual reconnaissance of the earth from orbit through observation of ground test patterns and ballistic missile launches. They also tested rendezvous and orbital inspection techniques. At the same time the US Air Force�s Manned Orbital Laboratory was on the verge of being given its final go-ahead. These events caused a bit of a panic among the Soviet military, where the Soyuz-R and Almaz projects were in the very earliest stages of design and would not fly until 1968 and the earliest.
In the first part of August 1965 VPK Head Leonid Smirnov ordered that urgent measures be taken to test manned military techniques in orbit at the earliest possible date. Modifications were to be made to the Voskhod and Soyuz 7K-LOK spacecraft to assess the military utility of manned visual and photographic reconnaissance; inspection of enemy satellites from orbit; attacking enemy spacecraft; and obtaining early warning of nuclear attack. These directions were embodied in the Central Party resolution of 24 August 1965, which instructed Kozlov�s KB to fly by 1967 a military research variant of OKB-1�s Soyuz 7K-OK 11F615. The new spacecraft was designated the 7K-VI by Kozlov and had the project code name �Zvezda�.
 | Soyuz VI. Aft view - Soyuz VI. Aft view showing standard Soyuz engine installation and RTG nuclear-thermal electric power generators on booms extending from base. 25,674 bytes. 309 x 240 pixels. |
On the second launch attempt on 14 December, the Soyuz incorrectly detected a failure of the launch vehicle at 27 seconds into the flight. The launch escape system was activated, pulling the capsule away from the vehicle. Analysis of the failure indicated numerous problems in the design of the escape system.
In order not to inherit the problems of the Soyuz, Kozlov ordered a complete redesign of the 7K-VI. In the first quarter of 1967 the revised design was issued. The new spacecraft, with a crew of two, would have a total mass of 6.6 tonnes and could operate for a month in orbit. However the 11A511 launch vehicle could only put 6.3 tonnes into the design orbit. This would limit the crew to one. However the military objected to this. A second cosmonaut, without a spacesuit, but with life support systems and consumables would take another 400 kg of payload. In order to meet the military requirements, Kozlov designed a new variant of the Soyuz launch vehicle, the 11A511M Soyuz-M. The project as reformulated was approved by the central committee on 21 July 1967 by the Central Committee of the Communist Party, with first flight to be in 1968 and operations to begin in 1969.
The new version switched the positions of the Soyuz descent module and the orbital module. The descent module was now at the top of the spacecraft. Behind the seats was a hatch for access to the cylindrical orbital section, which was larger than that on the standard Soyuz. The crew of the spacecraft was two, as required by the military. Unlike other models of the Soyuz, the crew seats were not arranged in a row against the bottom of the pressure cabin, but in tandem. This allowed the instruments to be arranged about the sidewalls of the capsule. According to some reports, ejection seats were fitted and the Soyuz escape tower was eliminated.
 | Soyuz VI - Soyuz VI according to a published sketch. Note the payload shroud has no launch escape tower and the encapsulated RTG nuclear generators positoned outside the shroud. Credit: © Mark Wade. 8,482 bytes. 149 x 408 pixels. |
It was also considered to equip the SA with a docking collar. This would allow the spacecraft to dock with the Almaz space station. The docked configuration 11F73 7K-VI and 11F71 OPS Almaz was given the official index number 11F711.
A point of concern was the cutting of the hatch through the heat shield of the capsule. Mishin, Chief Designer of Kozlov�s parent office in Kaliningrad, was concerned that this would cause problems during re-entry. The engineers at Samara proved that it would not have any negative effects. As later proved by testing of such hatches in the Gemini 2 and TKS VA re-entry vehicles, they were correct.
Installed in the orbital module were various instruments for military research. At a lateral position was a radar illuminator slaved to the main instrument - the optical sight OSK-4 and its photo apparatus. A cosmonaut would aim the sight at targets on earth�s surface from a special bicycle-like aiming saddle. Also installed on the illuminator was the Svinets apparatus for observing the launch of ballistic missiles. On the exterior of the orbital module were long booms with direction finders for radio-location of enemy satellites and ELINT.
 | Soyuz VI (mockup) - Soyuz VI, according to the appearance of the mockup. The mockup did not have the gun package mounted forward of the descent module. Credit: © Mark Wade. 8,335 bytes. 259 x 327 pixels. |
Therefore RTG�s, fuelled with plutonium, were selected. Because of the valuable nature of the fuel, and to prevent release of radioactive material on re-entry or in case of accidents, the RTG capsules were mounted in re-entry capsules and were actually located outside of the payload shroud during launch. They were to be recovered and reused after each flight, and could be ejected in emergencies.
The final layout of the 7K-VI was very similar to that of the American MOL. Like the MOL, it featured the return capsule at the front, with a hatch in the heat shield leading to the orbital compartment, followed by the equipment-engine module. This was no accident; after 1966 the open specialised journal �Raketno-kosmicheskaya tekhnika� no longer featured articles on the MOL. Thereafter all material relating to the MOL was gathered from KGB intelligence sources and was passed to Samara for reference in the design of the VI.
Work went rapidly; by the middle of 1967 the mock-up and dynamic stand for testing of the Nudelman gun were completed. All materials for the approval of the draft project by the expert commission were completed, and drawings were released for both the Zvezda and the Soyuz-M launch vehicle.
Meanwhile the cosmonaut group that would train for the VI was formed in September 1966. The commander was Pavel Popovich, and other members were pilot Alexei Gubarev, and flight-engineers Yuri Artyukhin, Vladimir Gulyaev, Boris Belousov, and Gennadiy Kolesnikov. Popovich-Kolesnikov and Gubarev-Belousov were the prime crews, with the other engineers acting as reserves and to be assigned to later crews.
 | Soyuz VI (sketch) - Drawing from an article by Samara chief designer Kozlov showing a Soyuz-VI-like spacecraft with two nuclear thermal generators, with the radiation shadow zones indicated. 14,415 bytes. 220 x 332 pixels. |
The losses were made good by new cosmonauts recruited especially for the program from the ranks of the PVO Straniy (the air defence forces). These cosmonauts were selected on 12 April 1967 and were all scientific-engineering specialists. They included V G Kalinin, Vladimir Alekseyev, Mikhail Burdaev, and Nikolai Porvatkin. They all had worked in military space research, and Budarev had specialised in space interceptors. A large cadre was certainly necessary; it was planned to launch no less than 50 Soyuz-VI missions in the period 1968 to 1975.
By August 1967 Kozlov was predicting first flight of the VI in 1968, although the director of the Progress factory where it was being built more realistically put the first flight in 1969. At this point, the Chief Designer of OBK-1, Vasiliy Pavlovich Mishin took an interest in the VI. On 13 October 1967 Mishin began his efforts to take over Kozlov�s VI program. His staff in Kaliningrad felt that Kozlov had insulted them by redesigning the VI to rectify the �defects� of their Soyuz 7K-OK design. They were also fundamentally opposed to the use of radio-isotope power sources, and raised interminable objections about the 800 mm hatch cut into the heat shield (as they did later in the case of Chelomei�s VA). Especially after the heat shield failure of a 7K-OK in January 1967 and its subsequent sinking in the Aral Sea, the Podpliki �Mafia� relentlessly criticised Kozlov about the heat shield design. Mishin wrote a letter to Afanasyev and Smirnov, urging them to cancel the 7K-VI program.
 | Military Soyuz - Comparison of military variants of Soyuz. From left to right: Soyuz P, Soyuz PPK, Soyuz R, Soyuz VI (Kozlov), Soyuz VI/OIS (Mishin) Credit: © Mark Wade. 27,972 bytes. 634 x 369 pixels. |
Kozlov moved on to further developments of unmanned satellites. In the decree 220 of 24 July 1967 and others Samara was directed to begin development of the advanced photo reconnaissance satellite Yantar-2K. The design of this satellite benefited from much of the work on the 7K-VI.
Craft.Crew Size: 2. Design Life: 3 days. Total Length: 8.0 m. Maximum Diameter: 2.8 m. Total Habitable Volume: 11.00 m3. Total Mass: 6,700 kg. Electrical System: Nuclear RTG's.
Military-Industrial Commission (VPK) Decree 'On creation of military Voskhod and Soyuz spacecraft' was issued.
Central Committee of the Communist Party and Council of Soviet Ministers Decree 'On expansion of military space research and on 7K-VI Zvezda' was issued. In June 1965 Gemini 4 began the first American experiments in military space. At the same time the large military Manned Orbital Laboratory space station was on the verge of being given its final go-ahead. These events caused a bit of a panic among the Soviet military, where the Soyuz-R and Almaz projects were in the very earliest stages of design and would not fly until 1968 at the earliest. VPK head Leonid Smirnov ordered that urgent measures be taken to test manned military techniques in orbit at the earliest possible date. Modifications were to be made to the Voskhod and Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft to assess the military utility of manned visual and photographic reconnaissance; of inspection of enemy satellites from orbit; attacking enemy spacecraft; and obtaining early warning of nuclear attack. The decree instructed Kozlov to fly by 1967 a military research variant of the Soyuz 7K-OK 11F615.
Resolution 'On approval of work on the 7K-VI Zvezda and course of work on Almaz' no. 305 ordered Kozlov's filial 3 of OKB-1 to undertake first flight of the manned military research spacecraft 7K-VI - 11F73 Zvezda by the end of 1967.
The Chief Designer of OKB-1, Vasiliy Pavlovich Mishin, strongly disagreed with the Zvezda design. In the place of Kozlov�s 7K-VI Mishin proposed an OIS consisting of a separately-launched orbital block and a transport Soyuz. This was the exact same concept as Kozlov�s cancelled Soyuz-R system, but using Kaliningrad spacecraft in the place of Samara spacecraft.
Decree 715-240 'On the Creation of Space Systems for Naval Reconnaissance Comprising the US sat and the R-36-based booster -further work on the US naval reconnaissance satellite, approval of work on the Yantar-2K, and course of work on 7K-VI Zvezda'.
An entire family of Yantar spacecraft was proposed by Kozlov�s design bureau during the initial development; information on two film return models has been declassified. Yantar was initially derived from the Soyuz spacecraft, including systems developed for the Soyuz VI military model. During design and development this changed until it had very little in common with Soyuz.
Following numerous problems in the first flight tests of the Soyuz 7K-OK, Kozlov ordered a complete redesign of the 7K-VI manned military spacecraft. The new spacecraft, with a crew of two, would have a total mass of 6.6 tonnes and could operate for a month in orbit. The new design switched the positions of the Soyuz descent module and the orbital modules and was 300 kg too heavy for the standard 11A511 launch vehicle. Therefore Kozlov designed a new variant of the Soyuz launch vehicle, the 11A511M. The project was approved by the Central Committee of the Communist Party, with first flight to be in 1968 and operations to begin in 1969. The booster design, with unknown changes to the basic Soyuz, did not go into full production.
Kozlov was predicting first flight of the VI in 1968, with the first all-up operational flight in 1970.
On 13 October 1967 Mishin began his efforts to kill the VI program. From the point of view of the 'Podpliki Mafia', Kozlov had insulted them by redesigning the Soyuz VI in light of the defects of their 7K-OK design. They were also fundamentally opposed to the use of radio-isotope power sources, and raised doubts about the 800 mm hatch cut into the heat shield (as they did in the case of Chelomei�s VA). Mishin wrote a letter to Afanasyev and Smirnov, urging them to cancel the 7K-VI program. In the place of Kozlov's VI Mishin proposed his own project for an Soyuz-derived OIS orbital station. In a November 1967 meeting between Mishin and Kozlov Mishin demanded the abandonment of Kozlov�s 7K-VI project. Kozlov rejected this and subsequently appealed to Kamanin. Through various complex machinations Mishin seized control of the project on 8 December 1967 and promised that the first OIS would be launched in 1969. Mishin�s revised project was reaffirmed in May 1968. Having won the battle, Mishin lost interest. OKB-1 would pursue it at a desultory pace until it was finally cancelled in 1969. In the place of Kozlov's VI Mishin proposed his own project for an orbital station 11F730 Soyuz VI. This would consist of on orbital block 11F731 OB-VI and a transport spacecraft 11F732 7K-S. Through various complex machinations Mishin seized control of the project on 8 December 1967. The new Soyuz VI was designated the OIS 11F730. It would be launched into a lower-inclination 51.6 degree orbit at 250 x 270 km, and would use solar panels in the place of the nuclear power sources.
The planned first flight of the Soyuz VI combat spacecraft was planned for early 1969, beating America's equivalent Manned Orbiting Lab. The project was cancelled in 1968.