Russia designs reusable spacecraft good for five missions

A Russian company designing a new spacecraft for the country's space program says the craft will be reusable and able to make as many as five flights.

Energia Rocket and Space Corp. said the spacecraft's technical design has been finalized but is yet to be officially approved, RIA Novosti reported Wednesday.

The new reusable craft is to replace the Soyuz capsule and will have modification to allow it to perform a number of missions, Energia deputy general designer Alexander Chernyavsky said.

They include flights to near-Earth and moon orbits, missions to maintain and repair other spacecraft, and for collecting space debris, he said.

A prototype is set to be rolled out in August while flight tests are due to begin in 2017, Energia said.

Energia Complete tech Design of Lunar Spacecraft - Soyuz TMA-16

Russian space company Energia has completed the technical design of the TMA-16, a manned spacecraft whose flight tests would be initiated in 2017, company officials say.

"We have completed the technical design project taking into account the fact that the new spaceship is to fly to the moon, among other places," Energia President Vitaly Lopota said Wednesday.

"If we get normal financing, we will start flight tests of the spaceship in 2017," he said.

Energia was awarded the spaceship design contract in April 2009, RIA Novosti reported.

Federal space agency Roscosmos head Vladimir Popovkin has said the new spaceship is intended to fly not only to the International Space Station but also to the moon.

A number of configurations of the spacecraft have been developed depending on mission requirements and whether a mission is to a terrestrial or lunar orbit, Energia said.

ROSCOSMOS: Russia's Eneregia to build Oka-T-MKS Space Station

Russia's Energia Corp. space manufacturer has won an $11 million contract to design an orbital space laboratory, the national procurement agency says.

Energia was the only bidder when Russia's Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos announced a tender for the contract in mid-October 2012.

The proposed multipurpose Oka-T-MKS space lab will operate autonomously in orbit, periodically docking with the International Space Station for the ISS crew to service its scientific research equipment and conduct refueling and other operations.

Capable of carrying 1,800 pounds of equipment, the space lab will perform research in space materials study, plasma physics, biology and medicine.

Oka-T-MKS will be able to work autonomously for as long as 180 days between required dockings with the ISS, officials said.

The space lab was to have been ready for a 2015 launch but that has been put back by two to three years "due to the lack of concrete scientific research projects, as well as clients," Roscosmos deputy head Vitaly Davydov said.

Russias Energia To Own 95 Percent of New Sea Launch

Commercial launch-service provider Sea Launch Co. expects to receive final U.S. government approval of its post-bankruptcy reorganization plan by September, an event that will trigger the investment by its new Russian owner of $140 million in operating capital and $15 million for a creditors’ trust account, Sea Launch President Kjell Karlsen said July 28.

The Delaware Bankruptcy Court managing the Long Beach, Calif.-based company’s Chapter 11 proceedings July 27 approved the company’s proposed debt restructuring and return to operations.

The new Sea Launch will be 95 percent owned by affiliates of RSC Energia of Korolev, Russia, a large space-system manufacturer that already had been a Sea Launch shareholder and provides the upper stage for Sea Launch’s Zenit-3SL rocket.

Energia will replace Boeing Co. as Sea Launch’s general contractor, a shift that will require the approval of the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews acquisitions that may have national security implications.

Karlsen said CFIUS representatives have been kept informed of Sea Launch’s status and plans throughout the 13-month bankruptcy proceedings. He said he anticipated no serious obstacles that would delay CFIUS approval of the new Sea Launch ownership structure.

Energia has secured $140 million in cash to be invested in Sea Launch as the company refurbishes its sea-based operation after being idle since April 2009. As part of the agreement with the Delaware Bankruptcy Court, Energia also will be setting aside $15 million for Sea Launch’s creditors, including Boeing.

In a July 28 interview as he was preparing to leave Wilmington, Del., for what he said he assumed was the last time, Karlsen said Sea Launch’s operating expenses are less than $2 million a month. “The Energia investment will last us for quite some time,” he said, adding that once it returns to full operation, the company’s operating costs will total less than $50 million per year.

Karlsen said Sea Launch, now freed of the substantial debt as a result of the Chapter 11 reorganization, will be profitable with as few as two launches per year, although it expects to ramp up activity to perform four launches in 2012 and five in 2013.