Soyuz-U was a Soviet and later Russian expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed by the TsSKB design bureau and constructed at the Progress factory in Samara, Russia. The U designation stands for unified, as the launch vehicle was the replacement for the Voskhod rocket and several earlier Soyuz rocket variants. The Soyuz-U is part of the larger R-7 rocket family, which evolved from the R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile.