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The Soyuz Launch Vehicle: The Two Lives of an Engineering Triumph (Springer Praxis Books) Paperback – Illustrated, 12 Mar. 2013

by Christian Lardier (Author), Stefan Barensky (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 5 ratings
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“The Soyuz Launch Vehicle” tells the story, for the first time in a single English-language book, of the extremely successful Soyuz launch vehicle. Built as the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Soyuz was adapted to launch not only Sputnik but also the first man to orbit Earth, and has been in service for over fifty years in a variety of forms. It has launched all Soviet manned spacecraft and is now the only means of reaching the International Space Station. It was also the workhorse for launching satellites and space probes and has recently been given a second life in French Guiana, fulfilling a commercial role in a joint venture with France. No other launch vehicle has had such a long and illustrious history.

This remarkable book gives a complete and accurate description of the two lives of Soyuz, chronicling the recent cooperative space endeavors of Europe and Russia. The book is presented in two parts: Christian Lardier chronicles the “first life” in Russia while Stefan Barensky explores its “second life,” covering Starsem, the Franco-Russian company and implementation of technology for the French Guiana Space Agency by ESA. Part One has been developed from Russian sources, providing a descriptive approach to very technical issues. The second part of the book tells the contemporary story of the second life of Soyuz, gathered from Western sources and interviews with key protagonists.

“The Soyuz Launch Vehicle” is a detailed description of a formidable human adventure, with its political, technical, and commercial ramifications. At a time when a new order was taking shape in the space sector, the players being the United States, Russia, Europe and Asia, and when economic difficulties sometimes made it tempting to give up, this book reminds us that in the global sector, nothing is impossible.
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  1. ISBN-10
    1461454581
  2. ISBN-13
    978-1461454588
  3. Edition
    2013th
  4. Publisher
    Springer
  5. Publication date
    12 Mar. 2013
  6. Part of series
    Springer Praxis Books
  7. Language
    English
  8. Dimensions
    16.51 x 2.54 x 24.13 cm
  9. Print length
    512 pages
  10. See all details
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Product description

From the Back Cover

The Soyuz launch vehicle has had a long and illustrious history. Built as the world's first intercontinental missile, it took the first man into space in April 1961, before becoming the workhorse of Russian spaceflight, launching satellites, interplanetary probes, every cosmonaut from Gagarin onwards, and, now, the multinational crews of the International Space Station.

This remarkable book gives a complete and accurate description of the two lives of Soyuz, chronicling the cooperative space endeavor of Europe and Russia. First, it takes us back to the early days of astronautics, when technology served politics. From archives found in the Soviet Union the authors describe the difficulty of designing a rocket in the immediate post-war period. Then, in Soyuz's golden age, it launched numerous scientific missions and manned flights which were publicized worldwide while the many more numerous military missions were kept highly confidential!

The second part of the book tells the contemporary story of the second life of Soyuz, gathered from Western sources and interviews with key protagonists. It addresses the sensitive issue of the strategic choices that led to the establishment of Soyuz in French Guiana, describing the role of a few visionaries in Russia and in Europe who decided to leave their respective isolation behind and bring Syouz and Ariane together.

In the final analysis, this book is a profound description of a formidable human adventure.

About the Author

Christian Lardier has been space editor at Air & Cosmos (www.air-cosmos.com), an aerospace industry news source since 1994, and is the author of several magazine articles as well as the book “La cosmonautique soviétque” (Armand Colin, 1992). From 1991 to 1996, Lardier was accredited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow. To write this book, “The Soyuz Launch Vehicle,” Lardier worked with specialists at the State Research and Production Space-Rocket Center of Samara.
 
Born in 1965, Stefan Barensky is a professional science and technology writer. He has been reporting on space technologies and industries since 1991 as an editor for multiple French and international space, trade, and political publications such as “Science & Vie,” “Interavia,” “Air & Cosmos,” “Aero Defense News,” and “European Voice.” A former space transportation analyst at Euroconsult and Launchspace, and editor-in-chief of the Orbital Launcher Report monthly newsletter, he also witnessed the gradual Westernizing of Soyuz from the inside as an editorial consultant to Aerospatiale (now Astrium), Arianespace, CNES, ESA.

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Paolo Capoferro
4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic subject but the book is not a complete success
Reviewed in Italy on 29 January 2015
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There is no doubt that the Soyuz Launch Vehicle (R7 or Semyorka) is one of the most successful flying machines devised in the 20th century: over 1800 launches (more than any other launcher) and a career spanning now close to 60 years are a clear proof of this fact. The book is in my view not a complete success. Too many pages are devoted to the history of Russian Rocketry before the Semyorka and too many pages are devoted to the detailed careers of the chief designers of the design bureaus involved. In my view the actual development of the R7 rocket in the Soviet Union gets in the background and at the end much of the information provided is covered in other books devoted to Soviet rocketry. The chapters devoted to the description of the various version of the Soyuz are indeed interesting and fairly complete. I enjoyed the second part of the book, mostly new to me, devoted to the “second” life of the Soyuz: the efforts first to commercialize the launcher in the west (Starsem) and then the development of the launch site in Guyana at Kourou.
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Terry S
2.0 out of 5 stars A Rare Anomaly in the Springer/Praxis Lineup
Reviewed in the United States on 29 April 2013
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It really pains me to have to give a book in the Springer/Praxis spaceflight series anything less than an enthusiastic five-star rating. With only one exception, all the Springer/Praxis volumes I've read have been outstanding--exceptionally detailed, technically accurate, comprehensive, well-written and of great interest to techno-geeks and to some casual readers as well. The sole exception is "The Soyuz Launch Vehicle: The Two Lives of an Engineering Triumph," by Christian Lardier and Stefan Barensky.

It's really two books, by two different authors, bolted together seemingly without an integrating editorial hand. Part 1, "Soyuz in the East," is the development and operational history of the Soviet R-7 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), masterminded by Chief Designer Sergei P. Korolev, and its space launch vehicle derivatives. This part, the first 200 or so pages, is dry. It's parched. It's mind-numbingly arid. It's soporific to the point of being nearly unreadable. In fact, I have to admit that I just skimmed a good deal of it. It's filled with boring administrative trivia, such as page after page of the incredibly complex and opaque Soviet hardware designations, and yet it contains very little real technical content. For example, I don't know any more now about exactly how the strap-on boosters attach to and separate from the core than I did before I picked up this book. It's a real shame, because the Soyuz launch vehicle, a lineal descendant of the R-7, is by any measure the longest-serving space launch vehicle in history. While its career as an ICBM was brief, because its huge dimensions and its need for volatile liquid oxygen as a propellant component made it impractical in a quick-reaction role, it has served as a satellite launch vehicle with an enviable success record for more than 50 years. Today, with the U.S. Space Shuttle program ended, R-7 derivatives provide the only way for crews to reach the International Space Station. The Soyuz launch vehicle's story needs to be told. Unfortunately, in my opinion, this book does not tell it in any meaningful or useful way.

Part 2, "Soyuz in the West," tells how the Russian's marketed R-7 launch vehicle services in the West and formed partnerships with Western companies to do so. It's much better written than Part 1, and marginally more interesting without so much administrative nomenclaturial trivia, but it still does not rise to the level of usual Springer/Praxis quality. As I said above, the two parts of "The Soyuz Launch Vehicle" are totally disparate--"bolted together."

Even boring text might have been marginally acceptable if the illustrations were good. And some of them are. There are photos of various aspects of the R-7 that I've never seen in print before. Many of them are exceptional. There are also many line drawings, cutaways and other diagrams. But the majority of these are blurry, pixelated or too small to be of any use--and, worse, many of them are labeled only in Russian or French.

Again, I hate to speak ill of a Springer/Praxis book. Others in the series have given me many, many hours of reading pleasure. But I can't in good conscience recommend "The Soyuz Launch Vehicle." It was a chore to read even at a cursory level, and I got nothing out of it that made it worth the effort. Pass.
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