Khrunichev enterprise proposes follow-on to the TKS

[nacnud]

<font color="yellow">Follow-on to the TKS series<br />Story from russianspceweb.com<br /><br />In addition to the heavy-lift launch-vehicle, Khrunichev concurrently proposed a new manned spacecraft, loosely based on the company's long-lasting TKS family of space tugs and modules. A partially reusable vehicle could carry up to 6 people -- not coincidentally a full crew of the International Space Station -- but also clearly featured capabilities for deep-space missions. The spacecraft, would put Khrunichev on a collision course with its old-time rival -- RKK Energia -- which earlier proposed Kliper spacecraft with similar capabilities.<br />The new spacecraft would be launched by a "man-rated" version of the Angara-3 booster, which was designated Angara-A3M.</font>More…<br />

 

[holmec]

Wow.<br />Is this competition or response the the proposed CEV?<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#0000ff"><em>"SCE to AUX" - John Aaron, curiosity pays off</em></font></p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

Competition. Khrunichev and Energia have been competing like this for decades -- since long before they were called Khrunichev and Energia, really. That competition may have been a factor in the Soviets losing the moon race; by the time the Soviet Union had focused its energies on a particular strategy, it was too late. (Complicating the matter was that the team that would win at any given time was not the one with more merit -- it was the one with the right friends in high places. That basically means that anytime the upper echelons of Soviet leadership changed, the space program underwent a massive change as well.)<br /><br />Of course, nowdays these are capitalistic companies. That changes things a bit. There may well be room for competitors, especially with growing interest in civilian spaceflight. This could be a welcome development as far as that goes. Khrunichev does have a module similar to Zarya which could become either another ISS module or a space station in its own right. This may give them interesting leverage for starting a space hotel. I'm not sure that's what they're thinking about, though. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>