The Ultimate Soyuz

A Digital Soyuz, IEEE Spectrum, Jim Oberg
“For almost 40 years, the Soyuz series of spacecraft has carried cosmonauts into orbit and back safely, if not always comfortably. The workhorse human transport vehicle has undergone a series of upgrades during that period, and it is now about to undergo its latest–and probably final–revision. At long last, Soyuz is all digital. The next Soyuz launch, scheduled for 8 October, marks the culmination of a series of overhauls that will allow the launch rate of Soyuz crafts to double–a rate needed to maintain a crew of six aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in the absence of the retiring U.S. space shuttle fleet.”