Editing TKS

The TKS (Tкс, Транспортный корабль
снабжения, transl. transport logistics ship) is a large spacecraft, which was designed for supplying Russian military space stations of the [[Almaz]] program. It weighs around 20 metric tons and is 17.5 m long. It only flew 3 times in its original configuration. It was designed for launching with a crew of 3 [[cosmonauts]] and 4500 kg of cargo in its pressurized section. 

Later its hull formed the skeleton of the Russian space station modules [[Cosmos 1686]] for Salyut 7, [[Kvant]], [[Kvant 2]], [[Kristall]], [[Piroda]] for [[Mir]] and the [[FGB]] of the [[ISS]]. It was also used as the service module for the titanic [[Polyus]] satellite. 

==Dimensions==
{|
!Launch weight
|about 19,000 kg
|-
!Length
|17.51 m
|-
!Diameter
|4.15 m
|-
!Span across solar arrays
|16 m
|-
!Number of main engines
|2
|-
!Main engine thrust (each)
| 400 kg
|-
!Habitable volume
|about 60 m³
|-
!Number of crew
|3
|-
!Capsule diameter
|305 cm
|-
!Capsule height
|206 cm
|}

==Configuration==

The TKS consists of two parts, the FGB and the Merkur capsule. The Merkur capsule is an apollo like reentry vessel with a base diameter of 3m and a long slender nose containing deorbit engines, RCS and parachutes. The Merkur is attached at the aft end of the FGB. Its was entered from the FGB by a hatch through the heatshield. The heatshield was not ablative, which made the spacecraft reuseable. 

The FGB consists of a large diameter section on the front, which contains the control systems and a docking port. Directly above the docking ports are two windows which allowed the crew to control the docking or manually dock to a station. behind the large diameter section is the small diameter with only 2.9 m diameter, which contained most of the cargo. 

It has two solar panels, and two main engines on the small diameter section. The TKS could remain docked to a station for months, providing it with attitude control, orbit reboosts, additional volume and power from its solar arrays. The small diameter section can be surrounded by up to 16 propellant tanks.

It got launched by a three stage [[Proton]] launcher

==Flight history==
{|
|December 15, [[1976]]||Kosmos 881 and Kosmos 882||Test flight for two Merkur capsules, launched with a single Proton.
|- 
|July 17, [[1977]]||Kosmos 929||First test of the complete TKS spacecraft.
|-
|August 4, [[1977]]||Launch failure||Launch failure during a Merkur test. Top Capsule got rescued by the [[SAS]].
|-
|March 30, [[1978]]||Kosmos 997 and Kosmos 998||Merkur dual launch test
|-
|May 22, [[1979]]||Kosmos 1100 and Kosmos 1101||Merkur dual launch test
|-
|April 25, [[1981]]||Kosmos 1267||Docked with Salyut 6 and deorbited it later.
|-
|March 2,[[1983]]||Kosmos 1443||Docked with Salyut 7. Merkur capsule solid at Sotheby's for $552,500.
|}

[[Category:historic spacecraft]]