I absolutely love the look of R-7 derived rockets – Soyuz, Molinya, Vostok, Voskhod, all of them look amazing to me. To think this is one of the oldest designs still in use – over 60 years old – and the core design is, quite literally, a converted nuclear missile, is something else. It’s a link back to literally the beginnings of the space age, and to the deepest time of the cold war. Truly, the Soyuz booster is a physical manifestation of space history.
Sadly, though, it is on its way out, with Russia working on next generation vehicles to finally replace the incredible R-7 legacy. Thankfully, as time passes each year we get better and better camera technology to document not only the launches of these vehicles, but things as mundane as the construction, rollout, and erection of these vehicles at the launch pad.
That means quite a bit of “rocket porn” of the vehicles before their launch and of course considering how much I love these boosters, there is no reason for me not to share this clip, uploaded today, of the Soyuz booster for Progress MS-09 being rolled out to the launch pad. It’s just amazing to see high-definition video of a rocket design that looks nearly the same as it did 60 years ago. At least, it is to me, and it’s equally awesome to see them fly and do their job – inserting a payload into orbit to conduct its mission.
Enjoy.