R-7 Semyorka

R-7 Semyorka

The R-7 (Russian: Р-7) was a Soviet missile developed during the Cold War, and the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. The R-7 made 28 launches between 1957 and 1961, but was never deployed operationally. A derivative, the R-7A, was deployed from 1960 to 1968. To the West it was known by the NATO reporting name SS-6 Sapwood and within the Soviet Union by the GRAU index 8K71. In modified form, it launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit, and became the basis for the R7 family which includes Sputnik, Luna, Molniya, Vostok, and Voskhod space launchers, as well as later Soyuz/L/U/U2/FG/2 variants.

The widely used nickname for the R-7 launcher, "semyorka", means (colloquially, affectionately) "the digit 7" or a "group of seven" (usually people rather than inanimate objects) in Russian.