As NASA prepares to once again send humans to the surface of the Moon, Russia is also developing its own plans for future manned spaceflight.
The country's Clipper project to develop a six-person spacecraft to deliver astronauts into Earth orbit, and potentially beyond, appears in some ways to be the Russian Federal Space Agency's answer to NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV).
"We're starting to design this new transportation system to support the International Space Station (ISS) once it's complete," said Nikolay Sevastiyanov, president of the Russian aerospace contractor RSC-Energia, during a recent space conference where the program was discussed.
The winged crew vehicle, Clipper, would launch atop a Russian Soyuz 2-3 booster and could form the heart of potential Moon- or Mars-bound craft, according to RSC-Energia designs. Separate cargo pods could also launch atop a separate Soyuz rocket. Both the Clipper vehicle and cargo pods would be towed to the ISS.
Outside participation in the project by the European Space Agency (ESA) appears on hold after ESA ministers decided this week not to fund a two-year, $59.8-million (51-million euro) trial to study Clipper with the Federal Space.[emphasis and link added]
Read the rest here.
All I can say is 'ouch'. That's a huge blow to the Kliper program. With European participation, the Kliper would probably, if possibly slowly, been completed. Without that help, especially monetarily, I am not so sure that it will happen at all. The Russians had invited the Japanese to participate as well, but they stated they would only do it if the Europeans did it.
The quesiton is 'why'? Why did the Europeans decide not to participate?
I can speculate, but it'd be idle speculation, not backed up by anything.
No comments:
Post a Comment