Mosnews ran this story May 12. I am suprised no-one else has referenced it here yet. So I will.
The good bits:
Two major Russian space enterprises — Samara-based TsKB Progress and the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, based near Moscow — have agreed to develop the Soyuz-2-3 rocket to launch a new-generation manned spacecraft, the “Clipper”, RIA Novosti news agency reports.
“The first stage of the project envisages putting an 11-ton spacecraft into a 200-km orbit on the Soyuz-2-3 under the Federal Space Program, in the interests of the Defense Ministry, and within international space cooperation programs,” Oxana Yefimenko, the press secretary at TsKB Progress said. At the second stage, the rocket’s capacity would be upped to 13 tons, to launch the Clipper space plane, with a possible further increase to over 16 tons after engine modernization, Yefimenko said.
Full story:
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/05/12/rocketnew.shtmlReally good news that they have progressed from talking and planning to kicking off real product development.
( Found via the excellent RLV News news-blog:
http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=1570&catid=26 )
For overview of Soyuz-2-3 technical details, see:
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/soyuz2_3_lv.htmlIf any of you have/find more details on this development or even better, some additional juicy engineering details -- please share.
Sorry, I tried both a Search and a quick browse, without spotting it. I am not shure why.
I'll follow up that thread instead.
