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Russian Launch and Mission Thread


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There's word of a serious turf war between the military, and Roscosmos's patron Rostech. Watch out for the next misstep, for it may signal the end of civilian leadership of the Russian space program.

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3 hours ago, MinimumSky5 said:

Gagarin's Start is being abandoned?

There's very shaky info that they might have gotten the Emiratis to cough up the cash to refurbish it to a Soyuz-2 standard.

Which is, in light of Rogozin's Napoleonic plans, a waste of time.

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Roscosmos suggests to cancel the Ether project (national OneWeb/Starlink analog) due to absence of investors (500 bln RUR is required).
(Has not been approved by the government yet).

Ether is a part of Sphere project (a global communication and navigation satellite network).
Sphere stays on and will replace Ether, as a less expensive analog.

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://www.interfax.ru/russia/678454

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Roscosmos and MTKS company will develop a new reusable spaceship Argo with characteristics similar to Dragon, to compete with Space-X.

Uncrewed, as I can get, a cargo supply ship.
Though, with Skybot the "Fedor" F-850 who can now distinguish that manned-schmanned.

Spoiler

755698264464498.jpeg755698264488661.jpeg

***

It will deliver 2 t of cargo to orbit and return 1 t from there. 12 Fedors here, 6 back, 6 can take the station on guard, lol.
Total mass up to 11.5 t. Diameter 4.1 m, height 5.6 m.
Capsule internal volume = 11 m3.

Fuel tanks of the orbital propulsion unit contain 1 200 kg of propellant.
Fuel tanks of the landing vehicle have same capacity.

52% of the ship mass is made of composites.

Max flight duration if docked - up to 300 days.
Max autonomous flight duration - up to 30 days.

It's equipped with some CST-100-type, according to the picture, kind of LES.

Landing accuracy 500 m.

It will ballistically aerobrake, then engage landing engines at 250 m altitude.
At 100 m altitude it will extend an "amortizing shield" (idk, wt. ) and land on it.

(Just guessing: maybe some hybride of Mercury and CST-100 scheme instead of legs? say, the heatshield attached to the airbag(s) ? Who knows... Anyway, we need this in KSP.)

***

LV = Soyuz 2.1b, later Soyuz-5
(Idk, isn't S-5 declared cancelled a couple of weeks ago? Well, they may uncheck the flag "Cancelled" to discancel it back.)

***

Flight cost (launch-landing) = 10 mln USD. (literally - 9.846)
Overall cost of 20 flights, including post-flight procedures = 196 mln USD.
10 years of the ship usage should bring to the manufacturer 500 mln USD.

The project is funded with private money and credits.
It requires to build a facility for the composites manufacturing.

***

The Argo spaceship developers:

MTKS: hull, landing system, decouplers, assembly.
KBChM (Isaev's bureau): engines
NPO IT: energy and communication
PAO RKK Energia (Energy Corp?) : docking system
Federal company MOKB "Mars": piloting system
Federal scientific center and company "Center of Keldysh": heat management
***

The Open Space community founder Vitaly Yegorov said that a Dragon flight costs about 40 mln USD, a Progress flight - 20 mln USD, so the declared 10 mln USD cost sounds quite optimistically.
But thanks to reusability, maybe the Argo flight cost will be lower.

The ship is a response to the Musk's Cargo Dragon and a competitor of Progress-MS and uncrewed Soyuz-MS, says Pavel Pushkin, the gendir of Kosmokurs company, a former top of the Khrunichev's Center.
But Progress can't return cargo, while Soyuz-MS is still being tested.
He said that sending same or somewhat heavier payload by Dragon costs 130..150 mln USD/flight, by Progress - 50..60 mln USD/flight. And it stays unclear if Argo can do this cheaper.
He said that currently there is no need in cargo returning from orbit. But in 2023 a Chinese modular station will starting being built, and China doesn't reject international cooperation.
Maybe also the lunar cargo delivering will get required, and if a heavy rocket appears, even interplanetary missions as well.

***

Sergei Sopov from the MTKS company confirmed the info and that the ship will be ready by 2024.

The MTKS company is registered in Korolyov city, with authorized/share capital of 400 k RUR as a R&D company in natural and technical sciences.
Its Gendir is Dmitriy Kahno who is also the chief of Energy-Logistics company (daughter company for the Energy Corp.), according to SPARK.

The ship chief developer - general constructor of MTKS company Nikolai Brukhanov, a former top manager of S7 Space company.
In the Energy Corp. he was managing the projects of Clipper and Federation spaceships.

In 1980s on Baikonur Sopov was a member of Almaz and Buran testing, and managed the first flight of Energy-Buran.
In early 1990s he took part in founding of Kazakhstan's space agency and its first chief.
He was proposing an idea of turning Baikonur in international spaceport for those countries who don't have their own ones.
In 1994 he was a gendir of Kazakhstan's Koskom company and managed the process of Baikonur leasing to Russia.
In 1996-1999 - a gendir of "Perm motors".
In 2001-2016 - a gendir of Avialeasing company.
In 2016-2019 - a gendir of S7 Space company, the daughter of S7 airlines.

***

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rbc.ru%2Fsociety%2F30%2F09%2F2019%2F5d6e4c399a794779cf182161&sandbox=1

So, whaddya say now, Elon Musk?

Edited by kerbiloid
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1 hour ago, kerbiloid said:

So, whaddya say now, Elon Musk?

1) If it can’t lift 150t to orbit while being fully reusable, then it’s boring and outdated.

2) Roscosmos will try to shut it down (or slow down the development as much as possible) because it competes with their Progress-MS. 

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2 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

LV = Soyuz 2.1b, later Soyuz-5
(Idk, isn't S-5 declared cancelled a couple of weeks ago? Well, they may uncheck the flag "Cancelled" to discancel it back.)

Soyuz-5 was supposed to be the fast-track option for an Oryol booster, but interests within Roscosmos keep steering towards methane.

Odd, the graphic seems to suggest a GG exhaust duct on the first stage.

2 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

a former top manager of S7 Space company.

Found Lying on the Side of the Road

Didn't S7 run around with the smaller Soyuz-7?

13 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

Yet.

"Starship isn't real, it can't hurt you"

Edited by DDE
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29 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Why? Nobody ignores it. I've commented on it almost a ten of times just yesterday.

Ok, but let's not make this thread about Starship too. I still think Roscosmos will axe this Argo ship. Why wouldn't they?

Edited by sh1pman
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6 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

I still think Roscosmos will axe this Argo ship. Why wouldn't they?

1. The article says, it's a Roscosmos' project. too. Why should they?
2. Did I anywhere say, they won't?

P.S.
Still thinking about the landing shield. If have airbugs module in KSP, the part could be the heatshield, too. Why not? Mercury had.
PTKNP's landing nozzles are anyway above the shield.
And as it lands on engines, its horizontal speed is zero.
So, it can be a prototype of a future crewed capsule.

Edited by kerbiloid
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1 minute ago, sh1pman said:

1. Because it will compete with the good old Progress.

PTKNP competes with Soyuz. Why Argo can't be a test prototype for future crewship?

P.S.
It needs eyes. Because Argo.
P.P.S.
And a ram.

Edited by kerbiloid
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