Soyuz/Vostok Series Data

Vehicle        |     Payload  kg  (lbs)   |  Reliability  | Price
(nation)       |  LEO      Polar    GTO   |               |
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Soyuz/Vostok
(Russia)                 [650km]
  Vostok        4,730     1,840     ???      ?/149          $??m
              (10,400)   (4,060)

  Soyuz         7,000      ???      ???     1023/1098       $??m
              (15,400)

  Molniya       1500kg (3300 lbs) in         ?/258          $???M
                Highly eliptical orbit

The Soyuz/Vostok series is the same family of vehicles which launched Sputnik and Gagarin. 1500 launches later, the Soyuz vehicle is still used to carry cosmonauts to the Mir space station and launches most medium-sized Russian satellites. The Russian Space Agency plans to replace the current model Soyuz with a vehicle called "Rus" in 1997. The payload will be increased by a few hundred kilograms to allow Russia to launch Soyuz TM capsules to Mir from Plesetsk, rather than being dependent on the launch facilities in Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz capsule is one under consideration for launching the Artemis Project crew if the Space Shuttle is decided against.