SpaceX, Rivals Get a Lift as Industry Shuns Russian Soyuz Rocket

Launch vehicle has become widely used since debut in 1966
Customers turn to other options amid Russia’s war in Ukraine

The Soyuz rocket blasts off to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Dec. 8, 2021.Photographer: Pavel Pavlov/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

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By Justin Bachman

March 27, 2022 at 8:00 AM UTC

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Russia’s Soyuz rocket has carried people and payloads to space for decades, a workhorse that has amassed a record of reliability as the most launched in spaceflight history.