The Vostok-2M ( Russian : Восток meaning "East" ), GRAU index 8A92M was an expendable carrier rocket used by the Soviet Union between 1964 and 1991. Ninety-three were launched, of which one failed. Another was destroyed before launch. It was originally built as a specialised version of the earlier Vostok-2 , for injecting lighter payloads into higher Sun-synchronous orbits . It was a member of the R-7 family of rockets, and the last Vostok .
6-616: The Vostok-2M was similar to the Vostok-2 booster but the adapter portion of the Blok E stage remained attached to the payload and the guidance system was modified specially to assist in putting payloads in sun-synchronous orbits. Vehicles flown in 1967 and later used the 8D74M engines or the 11D511 in 1973 and later. The Vostok-2M made its maiden flight on 28 August 1964 from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome , successfully placing Kosmos 44 ,
12-409: A Meteor weather satellite into orbit. A total of 93 were launched from 1964 to '91. Its only launch failure occurred on 1 February 1969, when the launch of a Meteor failed due to an upper stage problem. At 16:01 GMT on 18 March 1980, a Vostok-2M exploded during fueling at Plesetsk Site 43/4 , ahead of the launch of a Tselina-D satellite, killing 48 people who were working on the rocket at
18-456: A fire inside the third stage and eventual explosion which resulted in the complete destruction of the launch vehicle and severe pad damage (LC-43 did not host another launch for three years). Vostok-2M launches occurred from Site 31/6 at Baikonur, and Sites 41/1 , 16, and 43 at Plesetsk. The Vostok-2M was retired in 1991 in favour of standardization on the Soyuz-U and U2 rockets. The final flight
24-630: The Soyuz-FG to the Soyuz-2 launch vehicle for crewed flights in 2020, it has served as the primary launch site for Soyuz flights to the International Space Station . It took over from Site 1/5 (Gagarin's Start) after the latter failed to receive funding to modernize it for the slightly larger Soyuz-2 rocket. Before that, it only saw a handful of crewed flights when Site 1/5 was unavailable ( Soyuz TMA-06M , Soyuz TMA-15M , Soyuz MS-02 ). It
30-425: The time. A filter in a hydrogen peroxide tank of the third stage had accidentally been soldered with lead instead of tin, with the catalytically active lead solder on the filter causing the explosion upon contact hydrogen peroxide . As a consequence, the H 2 O 2 broke down, overheated, and melted the solder, causing pieces to fall into the H 2 O 2 storage tank and cause a runaway chemical reaction. This led to
36-695: Was conducted on 29 August and carried the IRS-1B satellite for the Indian Space Research Organization . Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 31 45°59′46″N 63°33′51″E / 45.99611°N 63.56417°E / 45.99611; 63.56417 Baikonur Site 31 , also known as Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome , in Kazakhstan , is a launch site used by derivatives of the R-7 Semyorka missile. Since Roscosmos' change from flying crew on
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