Since the first launch of the manned spacecraft Vostok with Yuri Gagarin on board, the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia named after SP Korolev has been working on the development of this area of practical cosmonautics since the first launch into space on April 12, 1961. space technology Sergey Korolev. The corporation has a wealth of experience in this area. For more than half a century it has been the leading organization in the domestic rocket and space industry for the creation of manned spacecraft, manned orbital stations and complexes. Since 2008, according to the technical assignment of Roskosmos, the enterprise has been developing a new generation manned transport vehicle.
The project of a new Russian manned transport spacecraft, created by RSC Energia named after SP Korolev in cooperation with industry enterprises, within a relatively short time went through several stages of work, during which the customer clarified the tasks of the ship and the requirements for it. To date, a technical project has been released. By the decision of the Scientific and Technical Council of Roscosmos, it was adopted with a recommendation to move to the stage of issuing design documentation and experimental testing to ensure the first test unmanned flight in low Earth orbit in 2018.
At this stage of the ship's creation, its main task is determined by flights to the Moon and back, as well as flights in low-earth orbits (transport and technical support of the manned station and, if necessary, special autonomous flights).
When flying to the Moon, two programs are considered.
One of them is a two-launch one with an expedition of four people landing on its surface. According to this program, a landing craft without cosmonauts is first sent to a low lunar orbit, and then a manned transport aircraft delivers a crew to it, which transfers to this spacecraft, which lands on the lunar surface and then returns to a manned transport aircraft, on board of which the cosmonauts return to The earth.
Another program provides for the docking of a manned transport spacecraft with a circumlunar orbital station. Of particular interest is the location of such a station at a distance of about 60 thousand kilometers from the Moon - at the L1 or L2 Lagrange point of the Earth-Moon gravitational system. These points are located on a straight line connecting the centers of our planet and its natural satellite (the first is in front of the Moon relative to the terrestrial observer, the second is behind it).
The ship consists of a reusable reusable vehicle and a disposable propulsion compartment. The length is about six meters, the transverse dimension along the deployed solar panels is about 14 meters, the starting mass for flights to the Moon is about 20 tons, for flights to the station in low earth orbit - about 14 tons. The crew is four people. The launch of the spacecraft is expected from the Russian Vostochny cosmodrome. The landing of the reentry vehicle must be carried out on the territory of Russia.
The full-scale design and layout of the reentry vehicle of the new manned transport spacecraft can be seen at the RSC Energia stand as part of the joint exposition of the Russian rocket and space industry, deployed in Pavilion D1 at MAKS-2013. The length (height) of the reentry vehicle is about four meters (excluding the open landing supports), the maximum diameter is about 4.5 meters.
The composition of the reentry vehicle: command, aggregate and non-pressurized upper compartments, the side surfaces of which are equipped with thermal protection, and a frontal heat shield.
The command compartment houses the crew, a complex of means of its life support system, part of the equipment and instruments of the onboard control complex, and the container of the parachute system. The assembly compartment will contain jet engines for the descent control system of the reentry vehicle in the atmosphere, fuel tanks and a pneumatic-hydraulic system for supplying fuel to these engines, as well as a solid-propellant landing propulsion system, four retractable landing supports, instruments and equipment of some on-board systems of the vehicle.
For the spacecraft's flight to the Moon, special navigation devices, a propulsion system with two propulsion engines with a thrust of two tons each and a fuel supply for dynamic operations in a circumlunar orbit and the formation of a return trajectory to Earth are installed on it. The onboard radio-technical systems of the spacecraft must maintain its communication with the control center and external trajectory control of the flight by ground measuring points up to a distance of 500 thousand kilometers.
The new ship will be much more comfortable than the Soyuz. The free volume of the reentry vehicle per cosmonaut will almost double. The developed design solutions for the layout of the interior should ensure the ergonomics and comfort of the crew, increase the competitiveness of the ship in comparison with similar developments. In particular, new Cheget seats with improved comfort will be used to accommodate the cosmonauts, new technical and software solutions will be implemented in terms of onboard computer facilities for the control system and displaying flight information for the crew.
Many innovations are applied to the ship's design. Among them are new high-strength aluminum alloys, heat-shielding materials with a density three times lower than those used on the Soyuz TMA ships, carbon-fiber materials and three-layer structures, laser docking and docking facilities, and more. The repeated use of the reentry vehicle of the new ship is ensured by a set of implemented technical solutions, including due to vertical landing on landing supports, as well as replacement of thermal protection during inter-flight maintenance.
For flights of the spacecraft to the Earth satellite, it is planned to use a super-heavy booster rocket and an upper stage designed to put the spacecraft on a flight path to the Moon and decelerate it. Their development is planned to begin in the near future. The carrying capacity of the launch vehicle, according to preliminary estimates, should be at least 65–70 tons, which includes the launch mass of the spacecraft and the launch mass of the upper stage (40–45 tons).
It is assumed that five reentry vehicles will be built, taking into account the reusability of their use and the proposed flight program. The engine compartment of the ship will be manufactured separately for each flight.
