Soyuz-M

The Soyuz-M, with the GRAU index 11A511M, was a Soviet expendable carrier rocket designed by the OKB-1 design bureau and manufactured at State Aviation Plant No. 1 in Samara. It was first built to launch crewed Soyuz 7K-VI spacecraft for the Soviet armed forces, and development carried on for the Soyuz 7K-S spacecraft. When that programme was cancelled as well, work on the rocket was abandoned and the rockets already completed were used to launch reconnaissance satellites. The exact details of the Soyuz-M are not known; it is believed to have been a two-stage rocket derived from the Soyuz and perhaps similar to the later Soyuz-U. Eight flew with Zenit-4MT spacecraft, from 27 December 1971 to 31 March 1976, all from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.