Soyuz 2A

Soyuz 2A is the unofficial designation for a cancelled space flight of a Soyuz spacecraft, planned to rendezvous with the Soyuz 1 mission. The launch of the craft in April 1967 was cancelled due to poor weather conditions, likely saving the three-person crew from the same design problems that killed the one-person crew of Soyuz 1.

In the Soviet space program it was usual only for successful launches to gain official designations, so this mission did not receive an official designation and is informally named Soyuz 2A to distinguish it from the later official Soyuz 2 mission, which was launched in October 1968 as an unmanned docking target for Soyuz 3.

Over two years had passed since the previous manned Soviet space flight. To introduce the new Soyuz spacecraft, the Soviets planned an ambitious double mission, which would see the two spacecraft dock and exchange passengers. This was despite the failure of unmanned tests of the Soyuz spacecraft, which still contained flaws. Political pressure from the Soviet leadership meant the launch of Soyuz 1 went ahead in spite of these problems.

As with the Voshkod flights, the crew came from different departments, commanded by director of cosmonaut training Nikolai Kamanin, and Vasily Mishin, director of the design engineering department OKB-1.

Since 1965, Kamanin had eight cosmonauts in training for Soyuz missions. Four had already been in space: Yuri Gagarin, Andrian Nikolayev, Valery Bykovsky, and Vladimir Komarov. Viktor Gorbatko and Yevgeny Khrunov had been with the program since 1960, and Anatoli Voronov and Pyotr Kolodin had been with the program since 1963, but none had flown into space.

Mishin decided to train suitable engineers in his own department as cosmonauts and then nominate them for Soyuz crews. In May 1966 Sergei Anokhin, Aleksei Yeliseyev, and Valeri Kubasov, along with five additional engineers, where added to the group of cosmonauts. A further candidate for mission commander was Georgi Beregovoi, who became a cosmonaut in 1964 due to the promotion of Marshal Rudenko into the group of cosmonauts. Furthermore Beregovoi was an excellent test pilot, however, he was larger and heavier than the other cosmonauts and he also exceeded the maximum age. The crew assignments were frequently changed. Poor organization also played a role, for in the case of Anokhin there was no spacesuit available for him.

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