new Russian spacecraft, not Kliper

[spacefire]

interesting concept:<br /><br />http://www.moonbase-italia.org/PAPERS/D2S2B-MB%20Assessment%20cont/D2S2B-04Transports/D2S2B-04Transports.Syromyatnikov-art.pdf <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[alpha_centauri]

Good find.<br /><br />I stumbled upon this article about a week ago but I thought it didn't have much substance. Perhaps there is more to it,<br /><br /><font color="yellow">MOSCOW, July 27 (Itar-Tass) - Moscow’s space rocket corporation Energia is developing a hybrid shuttle as an alternative to the future spacecraft Kliper.<br /> <br />“We are working on the new craft. The talk is about a spacecraft of a so-called hybrid type. Its concept is a combination of spacecraft of a capsule type (Soyuz) and of a winged one (Buran)/ The goal of making the new ship is to fly to space more safely and reliably,” the corporation’s director-general Vladimir Syromyatnikov told Itar-Tass during celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the Russian-American space mission Soyuz-Apollo. <br /><br />The idea of the new craft is its making most of its flight as a capsule, with wings of the re-entry vehicle folded and protected by heat insulation. <br /><br />During the re-entry into the atmosphere, the heat insulation protector is jettisoned, the wings are deployed and the craft lands like a plane. <br /><br />The new ship will combine the best qualities of Soyuz and Buran.<br /> <br />In particular, a compact launch configuration of the capsule craft and compatibility with an emergency rescue system will be used in its design. <br /><br />One of versions of the spacecraft is to have a weight of seven tonnes, which s to allow delivering it into orbit on Soyuz rockets. <br /><br />“As the ship will begin the landing as a capsule and complete it as a plane, this will provide to it a possibility of returning to the earth at a planet escape speed and landing after an inter-planetary flight,” Syromyatnikov said. <br /><br />The project is at a stage of technical proposals. <br /><br />Syromyatnikov led a group of specialists who developed a key unit of the Soyuz-Apollo programme, a docking port. <br /><br />“If the ship that we offer is accepted, it will require a new docking unit,” he said.</font><br />