MSNBC (Oberg): Next-generation Russian spaceship unveiled

MSNBC (Oberg): Next-generation Russian spaceship unveiled

Getting the money to build it may not be so easy

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6623693/

By James Oberg, NBC News space analyst // Special to MSNBC

Updated: 12:03 a.m. ET Dec. 1, 2004

HOUSTON - Russian space officials on Tuesday unveiled a full-scale
high-fidelity mockup of the spacecraft they hope will replace the veteran
Soyuz space capsule. Descriptions of the Kliper (for "clipper ship") vehicle
have been widely circulated in the space community but today's presentation
in Moscow was the most detailed yet.

The Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, the organization that has
built all of Russian's human space vehicles for the past half century,
hosted the media event at its headquarters in Korolyov, a Moscow suburb.
Deputy General Designer Valeriy Ryumin, himself a former cosmonaut, called
the craft "a spaceship of the future" and boasted that "neither the United
States nor Europe have anything of the kind."

But significant roadblocks still remain between today's unveiling and
the fulfillment of Ryumin's boast. The actual first test flights of the
vehicle, perhaps about 2010, will require funding levels that the Russian
government has so far been unable to provide.

Furthermore, because the 13-ton spacecraft is twice the size of the
Soyuz, it will need to use a different launch vehicle. Current plans call
for it use the powerful Zenit booster rocket, which is built in Ukraine.
Reliable commercial relations must be maintained for years to come, and the
current political instability in Ukraine could impact the expected cost of
the launch vehicle.

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