Russia Reveals Vision for Manned Spaceflight

Kirilin reiterated that the new rocket was being built not only to carry the new spacecraft into orbit but also to create a basis for much more powerful versions of the launcher, which will have a maximum payload of 60 metric tons. Such a rocket would be enough to carry an unmanned lunar lander and an “escape” stage, sending it from Earth orbit toward the moon. There, the lander would link up with a manned transport vehicle launched by a second 60-metric-ton-class rocket. After the crew transfers into the lunar lander, it could land on the surface.

“We are still looking at the possibility of developing a 100-ton vehicle within the size constraints of the current design,” Kirilin says. Among the possible ways of upgrading the new rocket family, TsSKB-Progress studied integrating the powerful RD-120 engine, inherited from the Soviet-era Energia rocket. Brand-new engines burning an exotic mix of three propellants, instead of the traditional two, are also on the table, Kirilin says.

The new Russian rocket would be much smaller than the Ares family of vehicles proposed by NASA for the new Constellation program. However, unlike the Ares, which is scheduled to fly from refurbished shuttle facilities at Cape Canaveral, the new Russian rocket fleet would need a whole new space center. In 2007, the Russian government decided to build a new launch site for its manned space program in the nation’s far east, not far from the Chinese border.

At the show, RKK Energia unveiled a proposed layout of the future launch facility, featuring a single launchpad and the support infrastructure for the manned space program, including cosmonaut housing and a training complex. If the new facility enters service as scheduled in 2018, it would end Russia’s manned operations in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, after almost six decades.