Soyuz 7K-OK

Soyuz 7K-OK was the first generation of Soyuz spacecraft in use from 1967 to 1971. This first generation was used for the first ferry flights to in the Salyut space station program; Soyuz spacecraft in their current generation are still in use to ferry crew to and from the ISS.

This generation is notable for the only fatalities of the Soyuz programme as of 2011, with Soyuz 1 in 1967 (sole crew-member killed by parachute failure) and Soyuz 11 in 1971 (crew killed by depressurisation during reentry).

The first unmanned automated docking in the history of spaceflight, between Kosmos 186 and Kosmos 188 in 1967, was achieved with this generation of Soyuz spacecraft. The generation encompasses furthermore the first docking between two manned spacecraft (Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5), the longest manned flight involving only one spacecraft (the 18-day flight of Soyuz 9 in 1970) and the first successful manning of the first space station in the history of space flight (Soyuz 11 and Salyut 1 in 1971).