Russia's Khrunichev Center Develops Concept of Reusable Rocket

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia's Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center has finished the development of a blueprint for Russia’s reusable launch vehicle and sent the relevant materials to Roscosmos' Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TsNIIMash) for assessment, the Khrunichev center’s press office told Sputnik.

"The materials on reusable subjects were sent to TsNIIMash. They should study them and provide their expert opinion," a spokesperson for the space center said.

Earlier it was reported that the Khrunichev Center is carrying out design research works on carrier rockets with reusable first stage. Various schemes to reuse rockets are being considered, including the vertical landing, the parachute-jet rescue system and the winged scheme of the reusable part of the rocket.

This is not the first project in the field of reusable rockets being developed in Russia. On June 4, Deputy General Director for Project Management of Ilyushin Aviation Complex Dmitry Gerasimov said that Russian manufacturers have developed several configurations for the first national reusable space rocket.

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Moscow-based Foundation for Advanced Research Projects (FPI) then said that tests of the rocket are scheduled for 2022. The rocket will be capable of carrying up to 600 kilograms (over 1,300 pounds) of payload on the sun-synchronous orbit. According to preliminary calculations, the cost of bringing payload on orbit will be one and a half or two times cheaper than using ordinary rockets of such a class.

At present, reusable rocket carriers are created only by two US private companies — SpaceX and Blue Origin.