The news agency TASS, citing the staff at the Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, informs that the “Roscosmos” Corporation made bold to create a reusable launch vehicle, which will allow Russia to compete successfully in the space market.
Using the funds allocated for implementing the Federal Space Program for 2016-2025, the professionals at the State Space Agency plan to construct a space complex containing a launch vehicle with a reusable first stage and several schemes of its preserving, i.e. the winged, propulsive and parachute-jet ones. The work on creating that launch vehicle will be carried out within the project “Vanguard” / “Flagman”.
A source at the Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute informed that the work plan would be approved after the expert evaluation of implementing the reusable rocket creation project, as well as material costs and time spending. A mandatory phase of the project will include the field tests while using the flight demonstrator of first-stage preservation schemes.
The most popular reusable vehicles for launching spacecraft were the Soviet “Energy-Buran” and the US Space Shuttle. For the time being, several leading companies in the field of space and aircraft engineering (SpaceX, Boeing, Airbus) have been simultaneously engaged in working out projects of reusable launch vehicles. The best progress was evidenced by the SpaceX, which is at the stage of engineering tests of the reusable rocket Falcon 9R.
