Soyuz is a series of aircraft.
Soyuz ( Cyrillic : '' Союз '' ) is Russian for `` Union '' , and was often used as an abbreviation for the `` Union of Soviet Socialist Republics '' ( Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik ) during the Communist era . The Soyuz ( Союз , meaning `` union '' , GRAU index 11A511 ) was a Soviet expendable carrier rocket designed in the 1960s by OKB-1 and manufactured by State Aviation Plant No. 1 in Kuybyshev , Soviet Union . Soyuz ( Союз , meaning `` union '' , GRAU index 11A511 ) is a family of expendable launch systems developed by OKB-1 , and manufactured by Progress State Research and Production Rocket Space Center in Samara , Russia . Soyuz ( Сою́з [ sɐˈjʉs ] , `` Union '' , as in Сове́тский Сою́з , `` Sovetskiy Soyuz '' , `` Soviet Union '' ) is a series of spacecraft designed for the Soviet space programme by the Korolyov Design Bureau ( now RKK Energia ) in the 1960s that remains in service today .