The development of a rocket capable of reaching the moon will cost Russia 740 billion rubles

It will look like a spaceship "Federation" The

general director of "Roskosmos" Dmitry Rogozin recently announced that the cost of creating an extra-heavy rocket for flying to the moon will cost the budget 740 billion rubles. This amount includes the construction of a new launch pad, the production and launch of the first copy of the rocket, as reported by Vedomosti. According to preliminary data, the launch is planned to be carried out at the Vostochny spaceport. The President of Russia signed a decree on the creation of a launch vehicle in February last year, having given the task for implementation to the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, which is part of Roskosmos.

Rogozin said that the new superheavy rocket will be able to deliver up to 20 tons of payload to the surface of the moon, or to bring at least 27 tons of payload to the lunar orbit. All this will be needed to create a lunar orbital complex, which will allow researchers to study the Earth’s satellite. The United States has similar plans, only NASA plans to build a station on the moon itself. For the implementation of the American lunar program, which was called Gateway, a transport system will also be needed to guarantee the safe delivery of astronauts to the satellite. According to Rogozin, only Russia can create such a system. The US budget for the Gateway program is $ 21 billion, and the budget of the Russian lunar program will be protected until the end of this year.

Roscosmos plans to implement a test project for the new Federation spacecraft in 2022-2025. Until the end of this period, it is planned to complete the ship to the end, however, in order to raise it above the ISS, you will need an extra-heavy rocket. It is worth noting that the ship itself will receive a different name, as Rogozin spoke about earlier.

A year ago, RSC Energia announced that flight design tests of the rocket will be carried out from 2028 to 2032. In case of successful tests, the program will provide an opportunity to create conditions for the development and exploration of the lunar surface. The implementation of the space-rocket complex will take place in several stages. At the first stage, the rocket will deliver cargo and manned transport ships and modules of the lunar orbital station to the lunar orbit, except for the landing on the surface of the satellite itself.

According to the calculations of Roscosmos, the future rocket will significantly exceed the known launch vehicle Falcon Heavy from SpaceX in carrying capacity. The latter can lift 64 tons of cargo into the low reference orbit of the Earth, while a new superheavy Russian-made rocket will be able to lift 88 to 108 tons of cargo.

Rogozin is confident that RSC Energia will be able to create a rocket by 2028 or even earlier if the financing of the project is stable. At the moment, it is not included in the Federal Space Program. The general director of Roscosmos believes that a special subprogram will be needed for the new project.

The superheavy rocket will have three stages. The first will consist of the first stage of the Soyuz-5 medium-class rocket with RD-171 engines. Tests of the first stage are planned for 2022-2025. The second stage will function thanks to the RD-181 engines that were previously supplied for the American Atlas rocket. The third innovative stage, possibly, will be equipped with a hydrogen engine. If this option is accepted for implementation, then the rocket could deliver 37 tons of cargo to the lunar orbit.

“740 billion rubles. - a colossal amount. Roscosmos, like any state-owned company, is interested in using budget funds, this is a civilian project, not a military one, which means that it is possible and necessary to conduct its independent financial audit, ”says Andrei Ionin, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics. “The superheavy rocket is not an end in itself, but a means for the lunar program, there are no other tasks before it yet. Therefore, it would be nice to know what costs are expected for other components of the program, for example, the lunar orbital station - these are budget funds, the burden on the entire Russian economy. ”

It is known that the budget of the Federal Space Program for 2016-2025. It amounts to 1.4 trillion rubles, and this does not include the construction of a superheavy rocket. Given the above project, 3 trillion rubles were requested from the budget.

Ionin said that the exploration of the moon has no practical purpose yet. According to him, this is precisely why the United States allocated too few budget funds for Gateway (not enough even in comparison with the work of the ISS for a period of 20 years). Then the participating countries allocated a total of more than $ 150 billion. The US lunar program was still planned by former US President George W. Bush, but Barack Obama closed the project. And now, under Donald Trump, she was reborn again.

According to preliminary estimates by experts, the creation and launch of a superheavy rocket will be the most expensive project of Roscosmos. So, 61.2 billion rubles were allocated for the creation of the Soyuz-5 rocket, the construction of the first stage of the Vostochny space center cost the company 91.9 billion rubles. According to Rogozin, the construction of the second phase of the East to launch Angara launch vehicles will cost 38.8 billion rubles.