Progress refuelling system

[Phillip Clark]

Have the Russians published anything that might suggest that the system used by Progrerss cargo freighters to replenish the propellant of orbital stations might have had its origins in the early 1960s "Soyuz Lunar Complex" proposal?

The proposal was that an unfuelled Soyuz-B/9K rocket stage would be launched and then a series of Soyuz-V/11K propellant tankers would be launched, dock and load the Soyuz-B with propellant before the launch of a piloted Soyuz-A/7K spacecraft which would be propelled to a circumlunar trajectory by the Soyuz-B.

[B. Hendrickx]

I doubt if the Soyuz Complex tanker idea ever moved beyond the drawing board and if the actual refuelling technique was studied in any detail. About ten years elapsed between the cancellation of the Soyuz Complex and early work on the Salyut-6/Progress refuelling system. A link between the two seems unlikely to me. At least I've never seen any evidence for it.

[Phillip Clark]

Thank you Bart!   It was just a query that has kept surfacing in my mind.