Will there be a rocket family that launches more times than the R-7 Semyorka?

[Vahe231991]

So to summarize there have been 23 different rockets in the R-7 family that have flown at least once.  And there are an additional four rockets in this family that have never launched.  The rockets differ in many details, like the engines, but with the exception of the Soyuz -2-1v, they all have the Korolev Cross.

The first rocket to use the Korolev Cross was the R-7 Semyorka (not to be confused with the R-7A Semyorka) which was an ICBM.  And in fact it was the original ICBM.  And it was first launched in 1957.  Sputnik was launched on a R-7 family rocket.

There are currently three rockets in this family that are still active: Soyuz-2.1a, Soyuz-2.1b, and Soyuz-2.1v.

There is nothing original R-7 left in Soyuz-2.1v

So I would not count Soyuz-2.1v in.

You're definitely right that the Soyuz-2.1v differs from other Soyuz-2 variants in having the first stage with a single-chamber NK-33 engine. The Soyuz-2.1v was initially known earlier in development as the Soyuz-1, and I should note that the Soyuz-5 and Soyuz-7 will use entirely new technology in contrast to the Soyuz-2.1a and Soyuz-2.1b.

[Tywin]

2000 launch recently...

[catdlr]

How the Soviet Union built the road to the stars - The R7 Rocket

Premiered Aug 31, 2022

The R-7 family of rockets is probably the most famous and the most important series of rockets in Soviet and even human history.

The engineering behind this rocket brought the first satellite and humans into space and led to the development of the Soyuz rocket, which has been the workhorse of the Soviet, Russian, and even international space communities for many decades.

Today, we’ll discuss space pioneers, engineers, cosmonauts, politics, and betrayal. We'll also discuss the many lives lost throughout the years and how the Soyuz almost never came to be.

Strap in for a wild ride through history and see how the humans found the way to the stars.

The main advantage the US had over the USSR in the 1950s was the means to deliver the nuclear payload. Moscow wasn’t as far away from US air bases as the DC, or pretty much any other US city, was from Soviet ones.

So, the Soviets started developing new ballistic missiles with their experiences from the captured German V-1 and V-2 rockets and documents.

When Nikita Khrushchev came to power, he made it his top priority to develop new ballistic missiles capable of delivering the end of the world.

R-1 was a direct copy of V-2, and R-2 was a larger R-1 with a bigger range. However, in the early 1950s, Sergey Karalyov, the father of the Soviet space program, was put in charge of developing a new rocket that could balance the scales.

And so started the development of the Semyorka R-7.

The requirements for this project were a range of 8,000 km and a payload capacity of 3t. Soviet nuclear warheads were very bulky and heavy at the time, and this is an important fact that we’ll discuss in a minute.

The rocket itself was unique in design.
A 2-stage beast powered by a total of 5 engines.

The core engine was RD-108, supported by four vernier thrusters. Four boosters, mounted around the first stage, carried RD-107 engines and two vernier thrusters, each powering this massive rocket.

Upon launch, all engines would be started. After about a minute and a half, the boosters would detach from the rocket and form the legendary Karalyov’s cross.

Four boosters were positioned at an angle and fixed on 2 points to the main body. When the fuel was spent and they were ready to detach, the bottom anchor point would first release, pushing the boosters upwards, and then the upper anchor would release and push the boosters away from the rocket.

And then… the space ballet occurs.

An amazing visual effect could be spotted even from the ground, where the boosters would continue to fall and move away from the rocket symmetrically.

Back to the rocket, or more precisely, to the thing under the hood – the engine.

The engines powering the thing were a true masterpiece of the era. They were powered by a mix of liquid oxygen and kerosene, and the innovation here was the fuel mixture control, allowing the engines to spend oxygen and kerosene in the same proportions between boosters and therefore maximizing the power and the utility of each booster before separation, along with making the flight path corrections much easier due to symmetrical weight distribution.

Valentin Glushko was the man behind these legendary engines. He would later lead the Soviet space program, but more on that later.

With the design sound and all the eyes facing towards the stars, it was time for the first flight.