Development of 7K-OK
On August 28, 1965, the leading designer Aleksei Topol brought Boris Chertok the official schedule for the development of 7K-OK, which had just been approved by Korolev. Chertok could hardly believe his eyes, because by December of the same year, the document required to build and outfit Soyuz prototypes for 13 different tests.

Production of early Soyuz spacecraft
In the second half of 1965, after several years on a drawing board, the USSR’s new-generation manned spacecraft started appearing in metal. The final assembly of the Soyuz was centered at Hall 44, led by G.M. Markov, at the Experimental Machine-building Plant, ZEM, in Podlipki, which traditionally served as the manufacturing base for the adjacent OKB-1 design bureau.

7K-OK No. 2 (Kosmos-133)
On November 28, 1966, the USSR launched the first test mission of the new-generation Soyuz spacecraft under a cover name of Kosmos-133. The unmanned vehicle was expected to play a role of the "active" ship during rendezvous maneuvers with a "passive" spacecraft scheduled for launch 24 hours later. However things did not go according to plan...

7K-OK No. 1 launch attempt
Hoping to recover quickly from major technical problems in the maiden mission of Soyuz on Nov. 28, 1966, Soviet engineers rushed to prepare the launch of the second spacecraft remaining from the aborted dual flight. With a much better understanding of technical and organizational challenges, leaders of the Soyuz project decided to send the 7K-OK No. 1 vehicle on a solo mission on December 14, 1966. However this time, the launch attempt brought a fatal disaster...

7K-OK No. 3 (Kosmos-140)
The third unmanned test launch of the Soyuz spacecraft aimed to finally deliver a clean performance of the new vehicle and thus open the door for the resumption of the politically important manned space flight in the USSR after a two-year hiatus. The mission lifted off in February 1967 and could be considered a resounding success for the new-generation spacecraft... if not for a nasty surprise at the very end of the flight...

Tragic mission of Soyuz-1
The first manned launch of the Soyuz spacecraft on April 23, 1967, ended catastrophically 24 hours later with the loss of Vladimir Komarov in crash landing due to failure of the main parachute to deploy.

Joint mission of Soyuz 7K-OK No. 6 and No. 5 (Kosmos-186, -188)
In October 1967, a pair of unmanned Soyuz spacecraft, officially identified as Kosmos-186 and Kosmos-188, achieved the world's first fully robotic docking in orbit. This truly remarkable engineering achievement provided a major morale boost for the Soviet space program still reeling from the loss of Vladimir Komarov.

Although this spacecraft was designated Soyuz 2, it was unmanned. It flew in the typical low parking orbit of the Cosmos precursor flights and subsequently, on October 23 or 27, served as a target vehicle for the radio search and attempted docking of the manned Soyuz 3. Soyuz 2 soft landed in a predetermined area of the U.S.S.R.

7K-OK: Original Soyuz
Compared to its predecessors -- Vostok and Voskhod -- the three-seat Soyuz offered enormous advantages. The most important feature of the new ship would be its rendezvous and docking system.

Origin of 7K-OK variant
Despite its roots in the Soviet lunar exploration effort, the first Soyuz spacecraft to reach space was intended for missions in the Earth's orbit. Designated 7K-OK, its main goal was the rehearsal of orbital rendezvous, which would be crucial for a lunar expedition. Missions of Soyuz 7K-OK also had the political goal of shortening the hiatus in the Soviet human space flight program.