Russia's premier developer of manned spacecraft, Energia, plans to create a spacecraft to send cosmonauts to the moon and back, the Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday, citing a senior company official.
"The main task of the new spaceship is to deliver its crew into a high orbit around the moon, and then bring them back," Energia's Deputy General Designer, Nikolai Brukhanov, was quoted by Interfax as saying at a conference in Moscow.
If carried through to completion, the new spacecraft will travel farther than any manned spacecraft ever designed by the Russian space industry. Soviet plans to match the United States by landing on the moon in the 1970s were dashed by rocket failure and the program was canceled.
But Brukhanov's description of the new vehicle indicates that it is not capable of landing on the moon, only circling around it. To land on the moon, Russia will need to send a special landing vehicle on the trip — and this will add a significant amount of weight.
More weight would a bigger rocket to launch it all at once, and Russia does not currently have a rocket that can lift more than 30 tons.
Brukhanov did not discount that Russia might use a multiple launch strategy — in which a moon lander would be launched separately and linked up to a moon vehicle once already in space.
NASA's Saturn V rocket, the behemoth that took U.S. astronauts to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s, had a launch capacity of about 130 tons.
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Remind me later.
