Russia Unveils New Clipper Spaceship
Posted 12-1-2004 at 11:30 PM
Clipper craft infront, Buran behind
Russia?s spacecraft building corporation Energia has unveiled a life-size model of the new Russian space shuttle, the Itar-Tass news agency reports.
The Clipper spacecraft will replace the disposable Soyuz which is currently used to man the International Space Station.
Energia specialists said that if sufficient finances are allocated for the Clipper program, the spacecraft could be launched in five to seven years. They also said that the price of the Russian shuttle would be approximately ten times less than U.S. analogues.
The main difference of the Clipper from U.S. space shuttles and the Russian shuttle Buran is that it is made of two parts and only the piloted compartment is actually of multiple use. The hardware compartment will be disposable, just like present Russian spaceships. One Clipper spacecraft will be capable of 25 space missions.
The experts also pointed at another advantage of the new spacecraft ? high precision landing will allow it to land on Russian airfields and not in Kazakhstan like Soyuz landing modules.
Valeriy Ryumin, deputy chief designer of the Energiya Corporation and a former cosmonaut has called the Clipper ?the spaceship of the future?.
?Neither the USA nor Europe currently possess anything of its kind,? Ryumin said.
Video Available at
www-download.1tv.ru/video/2004_11/3011042110.asf
Source: MosNews.Com
Clipper craft infront, Buran behind
Russia?s spacecraft building corporation Energia has unveiled a life-size model of the new Russian space shuttle, the Itar-Tass news agency reports.
The Clipper spacecraft will replace the disposable Soyuz which is currently used to man the International Space Station.
Energia specialists said that if sufficient finances are allocated for the Clipper program, the spacecraft could be launched in five to seven years. They also said that the price of the Russian shuttle would be approximately ten times less than U.S. analogues.
The main difference of the Clipper from U.S. space shuttles and the Russian shuttle Buran is that it is made of two parts and only the piloted compartment is actually of multiple use. The hardware compartment will be disposable, just like present Russian spaceships. One Clipper spacecraft will be capable of 25 space missions.
The experts also pointed at another advantage of the new spacecraft ? high precision landing will allow it to land on Russian airfields and not in Kazakhstan like Soyuz landing modules.
Valeriy Ryumin, deputy chief designer of the Energiya Corporation and a former cosmonaut has called the Clipper ?the spaceship of the future?.
?Neither the USA nor Europe currently possess anything of its kind,? Ryumin said.
Video Available at
www-download.1tv.ru/video/2004_11/3011042110.asf
