| |
UA9FBV > SAT 21.02.04 19:17l 34 Lines 1695 Bytes #999 (0) @ AMSAT
BID : ANS-053.04
Read: GUEST
Subj: Russia to build new spacecraft
Path: DB0FHN<DB0FOR<DB0SIF<DB0EA<DB0RES<ER3KAZ<UA9FBV
Sent: 040221/1710Z @:UA9FBV.PRM.RUS.AS #:49976 [Perm] GATEWAY $:ANS-053.04
From: UA9FBV@UA9FBV.PRM.RUS.AS
To : SAT@AMSAT
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 053.04 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD. February 22, 2004
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-053.04
Russian engineers have begun design work on a spacecraft that would be twice as big and spacious as the existing Soyuz crew
capsules, the nation's top space official said Tuesday.
The craft will be able to carry at least six cosmonauts and have a reusable crew section, Russian Aerospace Agency director Yuri
Koptev said at a news conference. Soyuz carries three cosmonauts and isn't reusable.
The spacecraft, designed by the RKK Energiya company, will have a takeoff weight of 13 tons to 15 tons -- about twice as much as the
Soyuz, which was developed in the late 1960s.
Energiya has also proposed developing a booster rocket based on its Soyuz booster to carry the spacecraft to orbit. Koptev wouldn't
say how long it could take to build the spacecraft or how much it would cost, but said Energiya had done a lot of work on the
vehicle already.
"It has already reached a serious project stage while the Americans are only talking about their spacecraft," Koptev said, referring
to U.S. plans to build a new spacecraft.
President Bush's plan of returning astronauts to the moon and flying to Mars and beyond envisages phasing out the shuttle in 2010
and building a new spacecraft, called the Crew Exploration Vehicle, which is set to make its first manned mission no later than
2014.
Koptev said his agency was willing to consider possible participation in the planned U.S. moon and Mars missions, but hadn't yet
received any formal proposals from NASA.
[ANS thanks Florida Today for the above information.]
Read previous mail | Read next mail
| |
