Soyuz seen from the Apollo spacecraft during the Apollo Soyuz Test Project

Soyuz (Russian: Союз, English: Union) is a series of spacecraft designed for the Soviet space programme. It was first used in the 1960s. The Soyuz spacecraft is launched on a Soyuz rocket, the most frequently used and most reliable launch vehicle in the world to date. All Soyuz spacecraft are launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.