YEKATERINBURG. Sept 15 (Interfax) - The methane engines which are being developed for a super heavy-lift lunar rocket will make it possible to reuse the carrier rocket stages, head of the Roscosmos state corporation Dmitry Rogozin said.
"The methane engine will enable us to reuse the stages of this super-heavy rocket. [...] If we want to create this system, then it must be reusable," Rogozin told reporters.
"We hope to get them [the engines] by 2024-2025," he said.
Rogozin emphasized that a super heavy-lift rocket will be much more expensive than a medium-class rocket.
"A super heavy-lift rocket will cost colossal money, the program itself will be extremely expensive. As we are already creating such a rocket for 20-30 years ahead, then we must not make it from what it was, [...] we should use this work to implement the latest technologies as much as possible," the Roscosmos head said.
Head of the Progress Rocket and Space Center Dmitry Baranov said on February 10 that the development of the Yenisei rocket for the lunar program had been suspended and that the developers were waiting for a decision on the modification of the rocket's concept.
"Its configuration may be adjusted. There is no final decision yet on this issue, because its development has now been put on hold. We are ready to continue this work after the relevant decision is made. I think it is a matter of several months, I'd say, until the middle of this year," Baranov told reporters.
Rogozin said on February 15 that a new concept for the Yenisei rocket would be presented within three to four months.
As reported earlier, the Russian Academy of Sciences' (RAS) Council on Space issued a recommendation following a report presented by Rogozin to indefinitely postpone the development of a super heavy-lift launch vehicle for missions to the Moon.
Following the reports presented by Rogozin and NPO Lavochkin deputy general designer for general engineering Ivan Moskatinyev, the council advised the administrations of RAS and Roscosmos to "submit a proposal to the president to adjust the state space program for the period until 2030 by moving the deadline for developing this super heavy-lift space rocket to a later date."
Initially, specialists planned to use a Yenisei-class super heavy-lift launch vehicle (LV) for these purposes and to build an individual launch pad for it at Vostochny Cosmodrome, situated in Russia's Amur region.
Russia began building the first modules for its future super heavy-lift LV Yenisei in the spring of 2020.