MOSCOW. Nov 13 (Interfax-AVN) - The first Parom orbital tug, which will make space transportation cheaper, will be launched in 2009, Russian Federal Space Agency head Anatoly Perminov said in an interview with the newspaper Trud, posted on the agency's website on Monday.
"The Parom can make up to 60 shuttle flights between low orbit and the International Space Station (ISS). It can remain in autonomous flight for up to 180 days and will have a total service life of 15 years. The first space tug will be launched in 2009," he said.
The Parom will have two docking ports. It will deliver cargo in a multi-stage process, Perminov said.
First, a rocket will deliver a payload to low orbit. Then the Parom will separate from the ISS, go down to the container, and bring it up. The unloaded container will fall back into the atmosphere where it will disintegrate.
Payloads of over four tonnes will possible, compared to the just over two tonnes the present-day Progress rockets can carry. Moreover, transportation costs will be lower, Perminov said.
The service life of the ISS will end in 2015, "but experts think it can be extended until 2025," he said.
The launch of the first OKA-T space technological complex is scheduled for 2012, Perminov went on. "Design of the 8-tonne complex started this year. Its orbiting is expected in 2012," he said. Three years later, an upgraded spacecraft called OKA-T N2 is to be sent to space. The second module "can easily be called a semi-industrial shop," he noted. "Cost-effective production of space products for domestic electronics and medicine will begin aboard," he said.
In response to questions, Perminov also said that from every Russian ruble allocated by the state budget for the space program from 2001 to 2005, the state got back 2.3 rubles. "As we see, the space industry provides its economic efficiency that will grow in the future," he noted.