Dmitry Rogozin announced the overcoming of the Russian space program "a series of defeats, catastrophes and accidents"
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said today at the awards ceremony of the winners and finalists of the open competition for promising space technology that the Russian cosmonautics “escaped from this veil of defeat, offensive accidents and catastrophes, stabilized quality issues and made a qualitative breakthrough in creating the newest technologies”, reports RIA Novosti .
Vice Prime Minister drew attention to the project to create a super-heavy launch vehicle. One of the development objectives is the creation and maintenance of a space base on the lunar surface.
“On the instructions of the president, we turn to the creation of a heavy rocket, and these are completely different loads, completely different possibilities of bringing heavy mechanisms, heavy ships and vehicles to long-range orbits. This is an opportunity to realize the idea of a lunar station - visited or inhabited, ”said Rogozin.
The official is confident that the world has approached a peculiar turning point in the space industry and is in search of new goals. "Anyone who understands this goal, who will lay the road to it technologically and technically, will regain the title of leader in the world," Rogozin said.
According to the vice-premier, a number of experts doubted the feasibility of developing an extra-heavy rocket, however, these differences were overcome and "a willful decision was made to start work on this project." In addition, in the course of communication with journalists, Rogozin announced the creation of experimental design offices as part of the modernization of the country's space industry, Interfax reported .
RSC Energia president Vladimir Solntsev is less optimistic. According to his estimates, the construction of a launching pad for an extra-heavy launch vehicle at the Vostochny cosmodrome may take about 10 years.
“In the future, a launch pad for the“ Hangars A5 ”will be created, followed by modification for the manned“ Hangars ”. Then there is an indication of the president to create a super heavy class launch vehicle, in the future it will also create a launch pad, which may take about 10 years, ”he said.
Plans for the modernization of the "East" can be called more than ambitious. The possibility of creating a launching pad for super-heavy launch vehicles was considered in 2014, but then the design of the missiles themselves was rejected. As a result, the construction of the launching table for them was not included in the Federal Space Program for 2016–2025 adopted in the spring. If funding is not found in other sources, then, taking into account the construction period of 10 years, the launching table will be ready no earlier than 2035.