Soyuz-2 is a three-stage medium-class missile, developed at the Samara Progress Center on the basis of the serial "Union-U", changed the design on the eve of the launch, which should take place on March 20 on the Baikonur. About this "Roskosmos" reported on its website.
Thus, for the first time since the 60s of the last century, more than 1000 starts - a representative of this family of Soviet and Russian spacecraft received a new color: instead of a gray-white-orange gamma - white-blue.
"Unions" were gray-orange since 1966, from the very beginning of their operation. Head fairing - the front of the carrier - traditionally painted in white; The transition compartment, which plays the role of protective casing-fairing of the nozzle block of the stage, is in gray, like the third stage. The tail part had an orange color, and the blocks of the first and second steps were again gray with white and orange stripes from below.
Deciding on the design change, the operator of the future launch was inspired by the Vostok Vosto-Vostotype, located at the East Maker's prototype, at which, in April 1961, Yuri Gagarin went to space from Baikonur. "He (prototype) is painted in white. White rocket at startup looks from the Inea, covering the tanks of liquid oxygen, "- explained in the press release of the state corporation.
Indeed, after the carrier is filled with liquid oxygen, the gray parts are covered with incident, so at the start of the rocket looks almost entirely white, but with an orange framed of steps.
The front part of the "Union-2" will remain in the same form, the gray components will now become white, and orange - dark blue. The transitional compartment of the carrier will not be gray, but again, blue.
In this form, the rocket with the Overclocking block "Frigate", the South Korean satellite CAS500-1 and another 38 spacecraft from 18 countries should start on March 20. In a similar color scheme, they want to fulfill all future launches under the contracts of the operator "Glavkosmos, launchers".
Source: Naked Science