Moscow. The 4th of October. INTERFAX.RU – The launch of the new Russian manned spacecraft Eagle may be postponed, said Vladimir Solovyov, general designer of the Energia rocket and space corporation.
“Maybe here the deadlines will float in a certain way,” Solovyov said at the conference “Scientific Space of the XXI Century: Challenges, Solutions, Breakthroughs”.
Earlier, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, reported that the first flight of the Eagle could take place not to the ISS, but to the new Russian orbital station.
On February 20, Rogozin announced that ground tests of the Eagle would begin before the end of the month.
The spacecraft “Eagle” can be part of the complex for flights to other planets or asteroids, the chief designer of the spacecraft, Igor Khamits, said earlier.
At present, Russia is developing the reusable spacecraft Orel as part of the Federation's research and development work. The first flight of the spacecraft without a crew is scheduled for 2023, with a crew – for 2025. The spacecraft is designed to deliver people and cargo to space stations in low-earth orbit, and is also one of the key elements of the existing concept of lunar exploration. For its creation, technologies are used that sometimes have no analogues in the world of cosmonautics.
The crew of the ship will be up to four people. In the autonomous flight mode, the ship will be able to stay up to 30 days, while flying as part of an orbital station – up to a year. The total mass of the spacecraft when flying to the orbital station will be equal to 14.4 tons (19 tons when flying to the Moon), the mass of the reentry vehicle is 9 tons. The length of the ship is 6.1 meters.
