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Russia to Build New Spacecraft by 2020

Posted by Zonk on from the shouldn't-we-have-ftl-by-2020 dept.

Tech.Luver passed us the word that Russia is now working on a new generation of spacecraft, presumably to help fuel its renewed space exploration ambitions. The Space-based industry is still one of the few areas in which Russia is intentionally competitive, and they intend to exploit that in the coming years. Even still, the new technologies are not expected to see use until 2020. ""A tender to design a new booster and spaceship has been announced," Itar-Tass news agency quoted Roskosmos chief Anatoly Perminov as saying ... Perminov did not give further details of the tender, but said TsSKB-Progress from the Volga city of Samara is likely to bid with its Soyuz-3 design of spacecraft, as well as Moscow's Khrunichev centre with Angara 3P and Angara 5P. The United States beat the Soviet Union in developing multiple-use Space Shuttle rockets, which form its current fleet of manned spacecraft. Russian space officials have said single-use spacecraft like the Soyuz-TM currently used are cheaper and more practical."

5 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Space Shuttle by cd-w · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The United States beat the Soviet Union in developing multiple-use Space Shuttle rockets, which form its current fleet of manned spacecraft.

    ... and we now know what a big mistake that was:
    • Limited to low-earth orbit.
    • Vulnerable to damage on launch.
    • Over-complex tile-based heat shield.
    • Very expensive to launch.
    • No launch escape system.
    • Not actually very reusable at all.
  2. intentionally competitive? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Which areas is Russia UN-intentionally competitive?

    "Comrade, production is too high! You must reduce performance to the planned levels or we will succeed."

  3. Re:rockets vs shuttle by jamstar7 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Shuttle carries 26.8 tons into LEO. NASA was budgetted $368 million per launch in 2001, but it actually takes about $450 million.

    The Ariane 5G can lift 17.6 tons into LEO for a cost of about $165 million

    While not mentioned in TFA, the Soyuz 3 would be able to put 17.8 tons into LEO. If they can get the price comparable to the Ariane, they'll have a winner.

    Don't count the Russians out of the race just yet.

    --
    Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
  4. Revisionists unleashed! by dbIII · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The shuttle was nothing but an attempt to appease the moronic treehuggers

    Another attempt to blame a bunch of rare and disorganised hippies with no political power at all at the time for some dubious political decisions mostly about spreading the pork. The shuttle design is most likely a lot older than the poster and "moronic treehuggers" don't even have the political clout to get Kyoto signed now let alone sabotage a space program decades ago.

  5. NASA Space Pen urban legend by TimSSG · · Score: 5, Informative
    http://www.thespacereview.com/article/613/1

    The Million Dollar Space Pen Myth is just that, a myth. The pens never cost a lot of money and were not developed by wasteful bureaucrats or overactive NASA engineers. The real story of the Space Pen is less interesting than the myth, but in many ways more inspiring. It is not a story of NASA bureaucrats versus simplistic Russians, but a story of a clever capitalist who built a superior product and conducted some innovative marketing. That story, however, is a little harder to sell to a public that believes what it wants to believe. Tim S