After Lean Years, Russian Space Program Beginning to Take Off

Two decades after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin is once again flexing its muscles in space. The next decade is likely to be one of substantial change, as Moscow pursues bold plans for a new spaceport, new rockets, and the exploration of the moon and Mars.

New Rockets and a Soyuz Successor

Russia plans to begin production of its new Angara rocket by the end of the year, with flights planned for 2011. Engineers at the Khrunichev Space Center expect to complete test firings of Angara's first and second stages in the third quarter of this year. Financial issues that had delayed construction of an Angara launch pad at Russia's Plesetsk spaceport have been resolved.

Angara is a family of modular rockets designed to allow Russia to phase out its dependence upon older rockets, including the Kosmos-3M, Tsyklon, Rockot, Zenit and Proton launchers. Some of these rockets are built in the Ukraine, which became independent when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Engineers at RSC Energia are working on a competing project, the Rus-M booster, which will have a capacity to lift 16 to 60 tons of cargo into orbit. They expect to have the rocket's design finalized by August.

Angara and Rus-M are both candidates to launch the country's new human spaceship. The as-yet unnamed vehicle is planned as a replacement to the three-person Soyuz, which has been in operation since 1967. The vehicle is being designed to carry six cosmonauts into low-Earth orbit and four cosmonauts into lunar orbit.

Russian officials plan to conduct the first unmanned tests of the new spacecraft beginning around 2015, with human missions to follow in the 2017-18 time period.

New Spaceport

The human launches are likely to take place from a new $14 billion spaceport called Vostochny that Russia plans to build in the Far East region of Amur. The new facility is designed to free Russia from reliance upon the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which it has been leasing from the government of Kazahkstan since the former Soviet republic became an independent nation.

As part of its effort to free itself from Baikonur, Russia also plans to begin launching its Soyuz rockets from Europe's Guiana Space Centre beginning in 2011. The uprated Soyuz boosters will launch satellites from the South American spaceport, complementing Europe's Ariane 5 and Vega launchers.

Arianespace recently added to its order of Soyuz launchers, according to a Roscosmos press release:

"On June 19, during the International Economical Forum in St. Petersburg, Roscosmos and Arianespace signed a contract which cover 10 additional missions of Russian Soyuz-ST rocket from Guiana Space Center (CSG).

"The important document was signed by Anatoly Perminov, Administrator of the Russian Federal Space Agency, and Jean-Yves Le Gall, Arianespace Chairman and CEO, in the presence of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

"The contract implies additional order of 10 Soyuz-ST's and relevant support for the period up to 2016. Some launches of the Russian rocket will serve for deployment of European navigation system Galileo. Totally, 24 Soyuzes are to fly from French Guiana, including those ordered today."

Commercial Space Efforts

Russia will ramp up production of the Soyuz vehicle from four to five per year in order to accommodate additional flights to the International Space Station (ISS). The Russian space agency Roscosmos will begin advance payments to RSC Energia by the end of this year to pay for the additional production capability.

Once the United States retires the space shuttle, Soyuz will be the only vehicle capable of taking people to ISS. Four Soyuz vehicles are required to maintain the station each year; the fifth one would allow Russia to fly private space tourists and astronauts from other nations.

"RSC-Energia need the 5th Soyuz to enter commercial space services market. We were requested about launching their astronauts to the ISS in Russian vehicles by Canadian Space Agency. We would have this opportunity with the 5th Soyuz," said Alexey Krasnov, head of Roscosmos Human Space Flight Directorate.

Russia is also involved with an Isle of Man-based company, Excalibur Almaz, to convert old Soviet space station hardware for space tourism. The venture hopes to fly people into space within a few years.

The Russians are also key suppliers for American commercial rockets. They supply the RD-180 engine for the first stage of United Launch Alliance's Atlas V launcher. Russians are also supply uprated versions of the country's NK-33 engines for Orbital Sciences Corporation's Taurus II rocket, which is set to make its first flight in 2011.

Planetary Exploration

Russia's planetary exploration efforts - which have been in hibernation for nearly 20 years - are lately showing some signs of life.

Russian engineers are working with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to develop a rover for the moon. The vehicle will fly as part of ISRO's Chandrayaan-II mission, which will be launched aboard an Indian rocket in 2013.

Roscosmos also will launch the nation's first mission to Mars in nearly two decades at the end of 2011. The Phobos-Grunt spacecraft will seek to return soil samples from the martian moon Phobos as well as to orbit a Chinese-built sub-satellite around the Red Planet.

The country's leadership is also thinking about human missions to Mars. Last year, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced the start of a program to create a megawatt nuclear propulsion system that would cut travel time to the Red Planet from months to weeks. On June 22, he designated the Keldysh R&D Center as a sole designer of the new rocket.

Upward and Onward

The Russian space program suffered greatly from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the economic chaos that followed. If the Russian economy recovers, the nation should be able to fund its ambitious space agenda for the next decade. And the nation will end up in a very strong position for exploring and developing the Final Frontier.

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Douglas Messier, "Russia moves ahead on Angara, nuclear rockets," Parabolic Arc.com