MOSCOW. Jan 28 (Interfax) - The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos)'s nuclear-powered space tug is due to perform its maiden flight in the 2030s, Roscosmos first deputy head Yury Urlichich said.
"Prototypes of the nuclear space engine featuring a thermionic converter reactor" will be created by 2025, Urlichich said in a presentation.
Endurance tests will be finalized by 2030, and test flights will be performed in the 2030s, he said.
Development work is being done by the Keldysh Center. They were initially supposed to have finished work in 2015, and the tug's maiden flight was originally scheduled for 2018, but deadlines were repeatedly moved.
In 2015, a number of media outlets said that the project had been shut down, but Roscosmos denied such reports. In 2016, head of the Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TsNIIMash) Oleg Gorshkov said that the module's flight demonstrator would be ready by 2022-2023.
As Interfax reported earlier, the mockup of the nuclear tug engine will be tested by March 30, 2020.