Posted on 12/07/2005 6:58:37 PM PST by KevinDavis
As NASA prepares to once again send humans to the surface of the Moon, Russia is also developing its own plans for future manned spaceflight.
The country's Clipper project to develop a six-person spacecraft to deliver astronauts into Earth orbit, and potentially beyond, appears in some ways to be the Russian Federal Space Agency's answer to NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV).
"We're starting to design this new transportation system to support the International Space Station (ISS) once it's complete," said Nikolay Sevastiyanov, president of the Russian aerospace contractor RSC-Energia, during a recent space conference where the program was discussed.
The winged crew vehicle, Clipper, would launch atop a Russian Soyuz 2-3 booster and could form the heart of potential Moon- or Mars-bound craft, according to RSC-Energia designs. Separate cargo pods could also launch atop a separate Soyuz rocket. Both the Clipper vehicle and cargo pods would be towed to the ISS.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
External View
http://www.astro.cz/_data/images/news/2004/06/15/Kliper-03.jpg
Interior View. (Large)
"The winged crew vehicle, Clipper, would launch atop a Russian Soyuz 2-3 booster and could form the heart of potential Moon"
I thought NASA proved that wings waste valuable weight and kill astronauts.
What good is a "winged crew vehicle" on the Moon?
Cute, but where's the window?
a little more plausible than this:
Russian Technologies Can Put Cosmonauts On Moon
spacedaily.com | 12/05/05 | Andrei Kislyakov
Posted on 12/05/2005 6:55:43 PM PST by KevinDavis
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1534658/posts
Because by that time, all astronauts will be required to be gay, and, well...
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