SAMARA, Russia - Soyuz rules the skies over Russia. The same rocket that launched the first Sputnik in 1957 and Yuri Gagarin in 1961 is still being produced at the Samara Space Center (TsSKB-Progress) here on the Volga River, 600 miles southeast of Moscow. And the very same rocket factory -- the largest in the world -- forms the basis for Russia's manufacturing effort. But the launch schedule of today is radically different.
Where production crews once built 50 Soyuz rockets a year, now only a quarter of that number emerge from the factory. This year, only 13 Soyuz were needed, half of them for a commercial joint venture with the French-led Starsem joint venture.
"We used to have 30,000 workers in the '80s," says Guennady Anchakov, deputy general director and designer of the Samara space facility. "Then by the mid-'90s we had to reduce our teams to 20,500 technicians and engineers." But he says the potential remains in place should production requirements increase.
This year, 20 Globalstar constellation satellites have been successfully launched by Soyuz rockets under a contract with Starsem. Estimated price per launch -- $35 million. The sixth Soyuz launch this year, dedicated to four more Globalstar satellites, is planned for the second half of November.
By year's end, half of the whole Globalstar telecommunication constellation will be in low Earth orbit thanks to the Soyuz. The other half has been launched by U.S. Delta 2 rockets -- a more expensive method (by $10 million).
Soyuz will also be used for piloted and cargo flights, such as bringing the Mir space station down from orbit next year and accessing the International Space Station until 2013.
The Soyuz earned its reputation as one of the world's most reliable -- and frequently used -- launch vehicles. It has logged more than 1,600 launches to orbit satellites for telecommunications, Earth observation, weather, military and scientific missions, as well as for piloted flights. All Russian cosmonaut missions have been launched with Soyuz rockets.
With their flexibility and reliability exceeding 98 percent, "Even in the worst-case scenario, without the existence of Starsem or Western customers, Russians would never stop building Soyuz," observes Stephane Chenard, senior space consultant at Paris-based Euroconsult.
The reason: "It's a strategic launcher for them. It's used to put in orbit a variety of essential payloads, from Russian spy satellites to space crews, including future flights towards the International Space Station with some foreigners."
Samara Company (TsSKB) has been a world leader in the design of reliable and resilient launchers and spacecraft. Its history dates from the start of the Soviet space program in 1959 when a branch of the Moscow OKB-1 design bureau was established in the city of Kuibyshev, now known as Samara.
During the Cold War, Samara was a closed city. In the 1940s, Stalin chose to have a bunker in Samara in case the Germans captured Moscow.
An enhanced rocket design -- Soyuz/ST -- is currently under study by Samara Company, a program financed by Starsem. By 2001 it will offer an improved three-stage version of the booster, equipped with a fourth-stage Ikar or Fregat variant. Upgrades would include more powerful boosters, new digital flight control systems, and international standard Ariane 4-type fairing, which is the envelope covering the satellites at the rocket's tip.
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