(RUS)-PTK-NP

New Manned Spacecraft

to Replace Soyuz

07-26-10

New Manned Spacecraft PTK-NP (RUS) Development The S. P. Korolev Rocket Space Corporation Energiya was awarded the contract by the Federal Space Agency on April 9, 2009 to develop a new-generation much delayed six seated crewed spacecraft to replace Soyuz to be launch both from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and the Vostochniy Cosmodrome. The first flight of the new spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome is expected possibly as early as 2015 funding provided. The new booster and spacecraft would be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on a variation on the Ukrainian Zenit-2 booster produced in Russia if the RUS-M and its Vostochniy facilities are not available as planned. This would actually give Russia a second option for un-crewed and crewed spaceflight access to space. The new spacecraft will first be launched un-crewed in 2015 but by 2018 it is planned to be crewed. The un-crewed version in resupply mode is to be available as early as the 2016-2017 time frames. Its first mission assignment is to deliver six crew persons to the ISS and return six crew members.

The spacecraft is not merely intended to be a transport vehicle to ISS but is also capable of supporting un-crewed flight for re-supply missions. Equally it is being designed to support crewed lunar mission exploration and development with lunar deep space return re-entry requirements capability. This will give Russia the ability to match or exceed the present ISS un-crewed ACRV Orion spacecraft Command, Service Modules crewed capability if not matching its eventual deep space mission capability well before the US will be able financially to acquire that system. Launches of the new spacecraft from the Vostochniy Cosmodrome are not planned until after 2018 funding provided.

Besides its 6 person crew in rows of three each side of the spacecraft VA descent module was to have a 500 kilograms up down cargo capacity with a five day solo or one year docked capability. Solo earth orbit missions up to 30 days was required for a four person crew The lunar orbit mission version was to have the capacity of a four person crew for 14 days solo or 200 days docked with a 100 kilograms capability up and down cargo capacity. The un-crewed version was to have a 2,000 kilogram capacity going up and a 500 kilogram capacity cargo return. The descent module was to be capable of flying 10 missions over 15 years. Nominal launch g's are expected to not exceed 4 g's and a nominal re-entry no greater than 3 g's but the maximum cross range lifting capability was not to exceed 5 g's. Launch abort was not to exceed 7 g's with no greater than 12 g's on a steep abort descent to earth. Precision landing with no greater error than 19 kilometers was requested. The S. P. Korolev Rocket Space Corporation ended up with truncated cone shaped spacecraft with a maximum diameter of 4.4 meters with a height of 3.9 meters and 29 meters cubed internal volume allowing for 1.8 meters cubed for each crew person. Two piloted positions for the descent module were provided. The initial concept was to land the capsule on land using retro rockets and landing gear shock absorbers. It use with no parachutes was a serious concern of the Cosmonaut core that ultimately was changed. The design now calls for the use of parachutes to act as an emergency landing system in addition to new novel retrorockets and landing gear system for its earth touchdown operation.

The smaller diameter cylindrical DO serviced module was to have two deployable four panel rotatable solar arrays with 22 meters square surface available total. It will utilize a series of lithium-ion storage batters. The propulsion system incorporated multiple storable propellants tanks for the various attitude control thrusters and four thrust chambers for the two main engines. In its lunar version besides a beefed up heat shield it with have a longer heavier DO with more propellants as well as a main thrust chamber of 2 metric tons thrust.

The preliminary Design "draft Plan" for the new-generation piloted spacecraft was finished by June 2010 and submitted to Roskosmos in April 2010 for review and comment. Roskosmos comments from TsNIImash evaluation of the draft design have been received by S. P. Korolev Rocket Space Corporation and the response modifications are ready for presentation with the final decisions on the system from the expert commission due in August 2010. The Design Drawing should be ready by the end 2011 with the test articles available by mid 2013.

This October 22, 2005, Russian Federation government approved FSP 2006-2015 expanded spaceflight development decision was based on the re appearance of the Soviet era like fiscal Five Year Plan ( 2006-2010) and the next five year plan called the five year Forecast Plan (2011-2015) cycle to Russian Federal Space Agency developments. Soon the Russian Federal Space Agency will replace the present FYP with the 2011-2015 five year plan followed by the 2016-2020 forecast plan. Whether this new ambitious crewed spacecraft come to fruition depends in large part on the economic reality of the Russian economy to support its fulfillment in the face of the world economic crisis.