Russia Prepares Launch of New Space Shuttle Created: 16.09.2004 15:23 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 18:45 MSK, 8 hours 1 minute ago
MosNews
The Russian Federal Space Agency (FSA) is working on the project to launch a new space shuttle called Kliper.
FSA deputy director Nikolai Moiseyev has told journalists that the Kliper project had been included in the federal space program for 2005-15. If the program is implemented successfully the first launch may take place in five years’ time, the official told the Itar-Tass news agency.
The metal hull of the craft has already been built. The 14,500-kilogram Kliper will be able to carry a six-member crew and a 700-kilogram payload.
Itar-Tass also quoted Moiseyev as saying that Russian space experts are considering different options for booster rockets for launching the new space shuttle. One is Russian and the other Ukrainian-made, Moiseyev said.
A modified Soyuz rocket, the new generation Angara booster rocket and the Ukrainian Zenit could be used for delivering Kliper into orbit, he said.
Nikolai Zelenshchikov, first vice president of Moscow’s space rocket corporation Energia, where Kliper has been designed, said “it is planned so far to launch the craft from the Plesetsk launch pad on the carrier rocket Onega, which is a modified Soyuz”.
Zelenshchikov did not rule out that Kliper could be launched in the future from other launch pads, including Kourou in French Guiana.
The presidents of the Common Economic Space countries — Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus — on Wednesday passed a decision on setting up a space rocket corporation for joint use of the space complex Kliper-Zenit and ordered the governments of their countries to come up with concrete proposals by December 15.
Russian spacecraft traditionally use landing capsules which descend on parachutes. The only Russian space shuttle project is known under the name Buran.
One Buran shuttle made an unmanned spaceflight in November 1988. It circled Earth twice, landed automatically and since then has more or less sat in storage at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Several other copies of the Russian shuttle were built as part of a test program and through the years have all become known by the name Buran. One of them is now used as an attraction in Moscow’s Gorky Park.
Russia has no external offers of cooperation in spaceship project
14.09.2004, 21.55
MOSCOW, September 14 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian Federal Space Agency has not received proposals of cooperation in the design of a new manned spaceship from abroad, Agency spokesman Vyacheslav Davidenko told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
“The Klipper spaceship project of the Energia Aerospace Corporation has been underway for several years solely with Russian money,” he said.
“We offered the European Space Agency and NASA to take part in the Klipper project but did not receive an official answer,” he said. “European partners showed interest in the offer.”
Klipper will replace the world’s most reliable spaceships of the Soyuz series, which are growing outdated, Davidenko said. Klipper can deliver six crewmembers to the International Space Station (ISS) instead of the current two or three. It will not be a space shuttle but a new generation spaceship, he said. Klipper will be capable of flights to the ISS and interplanetary missions. The reentry capsule of Klipper can accommodate six people and withstand 25 landings.
Energia Vice-President Nikolai Zelenshchikov said Klipper could be ready within five years if the financing is sufficient.
Russia Unveils Model of New Clipper Space Shuttle Created: 01.12.2004 17:37 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:38 MSK, 1 hour 44 minutes ago
MosNews
Russia’s spacecraft building corporation Energia has unveiled a life-size model of the new Russian space shuttle, the Itar-Tass news agency reports.
The Clipper spacecraft will replace the disposable Soyuz which is currently used to man the International Space Station.
Energia specialists said that if sufficient finances are allocated for the Clipper program, the spacecraft could be launched in five to seven years. They also said that the price of the Russian shuttle would be approximately ten times less than U.S. analogues.
The main difference of the Clipper from U.S. space shuttles and the Russian shuttle Buran is that it is made of two parts and only the piloted compartment is actually of multiple use. The hardware compartment will be disposable, just like present Russian spaceships. One Clipper spacecraft will be capable of 25 space missions.
The experts also pointed at another advantage of the new spacecraft — high precision landing will allow it to land on Russian airfields and not in Kazakhstan like Soyuz landing modules.
Valeriy Ryumin, deputy chief designer of the Energiya Corporation and a former cosmonaut has called the Clipper “the spaceship of the future”.
“Neither the USA nor Europe currently possess anything of its kind,” Ryumin said.
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