Soyuz MS

The Soyuz MS is the latest version of the Russian Soyuz crewed spacecraft series, first launched in 2016, with MS standing for modernized systems. It improves navigation, communications and onboard systems over the Soyuz TMA-M series and is developed and manufactured by Energia for Roscosmos, which operates it on human spaceflight missions to the International Space Station. Like earlier Soyuz craft it has three sections, a spheroid orbital module, a small aerodynamic descent module and a cylindrical instrumentation and propulsion module, and it carries up to three crew members with about ten cubic metres of living space. Soyuz MS-01 launched on 7 July 2016 and docked with the station two days later. During the launch of Soyuz MS-10 in October 2018 a booster separation failure triggered the launch escape system and the crew returned safely, and since April 2020 the spacecraft has flown on the modernized Soyuz 2.1a rocket.