KOROLYOV, Moscow region. Nov 15 (Interfax-AVN) - The Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) has set up a working group to draw up proposals on the design of a super-heavy launch vehicle, former Soviet General Machine Building Minister Oleg Baklanov said on Friday.
"Roscosmos held a conference the day before yesterday attended by the heads of our main enterprises. A working group was created. It is supposed to suggest methods for the delivery of 100 tonnes [of payload] to the baseline orbit," Baklanov said at the Energia Corporation's meeting dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the flight of the Buran shuttle spacecraft.
Roscosmos head Oleg Ostapenko leads the working group, Baklanov said.
"You have assumed the responsibility and dared to head the group, which is supposed to find an answer to the question how we can regain the position we demonstrated to the world with the launch of a 100-tonne spacecraft [Buran in 1988] within a few weeks," the ex-minister told Ostapenko.
The rocket similar with the Soviet Energia launch vehicle, which carried Buran into space, "is necessary for exploring outer space in a wise manner, working in shifts on Mars, the Moon and so on," Baklanov said.
At present, Russia possesses the Soyuz medium launch vehicle and the Proton-M heavyweight rocket with a 20-tonne payload, Baklanov said. "These are the sizes that we have at present. If we build a rocket with a payload of 100 tonnes instead of 20, then we can build an [orbital] station that is larger in its weight and dimensions," the ex-minister continued.
"Nothing new has been designed" in the 25 years which have passed since the creation of the Energia-Buran system, he said.
"A point of no return is very close. If we design nothing new, at the very least some blueprints, within the next few years we will lose the status of a great or even medium space nation. Probably, shuttle transportation services are not what we have in mind for ourselves," Baklanov indicated.
He said that the former Soviet Union became the manned space flight pioneer only 16 years after its most devastating war.
In turn the Roscosmos head said that the launch of the Energia rocket carrying the Buran spacecraft on November 15, 1988, "a unique and outstanding event."
""Human ingenuity created the Energia-Buran system 25 years ago," Ostapenko told the audience. "I am confident that events comparable by their scale are in store for us."
"We should now channel this energy and take a step worthy of the next generation from the groundwork you have laid," he said. "We have a colossal amount of work to be done."
"Naturally, we can do nothing without your assistance, support, experience and knowledge. There must be a solid and tangible bond between generations. I think the problems can be resolved if we work together," the Roscosmos head said.