Soyuz Spacecraft (1967)

Scale: 1/30
Initial Release: 1985
Medium: Styrene
Kit Rarity: 3

About the Design

Originally designed to take Soviet cosmonauts to the moon, the three-man Soyuz had all the maneuverability, docking and endurance capabilities of America's Apollo spacecraft.  However, when their giant N-1 booster turned out to be a bust, the Russians altered the Soyuz's primary mission, turning it into a orbital transportation workhorse that, more than 50 years after its first launch in 1966, is still in use. (More than 140 Soyuz missions have been launched to date.) Unlike the earlier Vostok, which required its cosmonauts to eject prior to landing, the Soyuz was designed to allow its crew to remain in the habitation capsule even as it "hard"-landed via parachute.

When the United States retired its Space Shuttle program in 2012, the Soyuz became the only way for astronauts to get to and from the International Space Station (ISS) until the launch of the manned Space X Dragon in March 2020.

About the Kit

This is the only large-scale kit of the venerable Soyuz ever produced in injection-molded plastic. (A smaller 1:96 scale Soyuz model was produced by Revell as part of its Apollo-Soyuz Link-Up kit released in the mid-1970s.)

Produced in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, it is a highly simplified model, lacking the detail and complexity of the actual vehicle.

Never released in the United States, the kit still manages to show up frequently in the U.S. via Ebay and various collector networks.

 This model was built from an original issue.