Soyuz FG rocket and liftoff sequence

The Soyuz launcher delivers millions of horse-power to reach an orbital speed of 28 800 km/h. After the engines ignite they propel the crew 1640 km in less than 10 minutes – averaging a 50 km/h increase every second for nine minutes.

There are three stages to reaching Earth orbit with the Soyuz rocket, each referring to a part of the rocket that uses its fuel and is then ejected to fall back to Earth.

The iconic four boosters are called the first stage. It takes only two minutes for them to burn up and deliver their thrust. Roughly 30 seconds later the fairing and escape system is jettisoned too. The second stage has been firing all this time but runs out of fuel at roughly five minutes after liftoff. The second stage is ejected at a height of 176 km above Earth leaving the astronauts travelling at a speed of around 13 500 km/h. In just five minutes they will have travelled 500 km over land.

After the second stage is ejected the third stage ignites to give the final thrust to push our astronauts out of gravity’s reach. At almost nine minutes after liftoff the intense acceleration comes to an end when the third stage stops firing and falls back to Earth.