Media: Russia postpones the launch of its new piloted spaceship
The management of Roscosmos intends to revise the plans to launch the new Russian piloted spaceship Federation, to postpone it until 2022 and change the location to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, as reported by TASS news agency, with reference to a source in Russia’s space rocket industry.
According to the news agency’s source, in addition to the scheduled date, the proposal for the launch itself will change: the ship will be taken into orbit by a new Phoenix medium-class carrier rocket, and not an Angara as was planned earlier. As the source pointed out, this does not require serious modifications to the systems of the ship itself.
Initially plans were made for the launch to be done from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, but the source highlighted that the first flight of Federation will happen from Baikonur, because the Vostochny Cosmodrome lacks the necessary infrastructure for piloted launches. The construction of an assembly and test facility, a life-support system on the launching field and infrastructure for cosmonaut accommodation is being postponed until the development of super-heavy carriers for flights to the moon, the source clarified. Federation ship for the moon mission, from which a cosmonaut landing onto the surface of Moon, will be specially remade and expanded from 14 to 20 tons.
“In connection with the change of rocket carrier for the ship launch, a decision was made to abandon the creation of a piloted version of the Angara A5P rocket. The piloted programs will return to the Vostochny Cosmodrome only at the start of the construction of the launching system for super-heavy rockets after 2025,” said the news agency’s source.
Roscomos refused to give the news agency any comment.
Federation has been developed since 2009 by the Energia Space Company. This is a six-seater piloted rocket ship which is supposed to replace the Soyuz ship and the automatic cargo ship of the Progress series. The ship will be intended for transporting humans and cargo into close earth orbit and to the moon. The budget of the federal space program for 2016-2025 for constructing the ship is 59 billion rubles.
The first unpiloted flight of Federation was scheduled for 2021, and the first piloted flight with crew members for 2023.