Dmitry Baranov, General Director of the Progress Rocket and Space Center (RCC), said that in the manufacture of Soyuz-5 launch vehicles, specialists will use a new durable and lightweight alloy.
"We are using for the first time an alloy based on aluminum-scandium. It is significantly stronger than the alloys of the Soyuz-2, Proton and Angara rockets that exist today," he said in the Roscosmos broadcast on YouTube.
According to Baranov, the use of a new aluminum alloy with increased strength properties will allow increasing the output mass of the payload by several hundred kilograms.
It is noted that aluminum alloys with the addition of magnesium are usually used in Russian rocket technology.
Earlier in the day, the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle launched from Baikonur, which is supposed to put the Progress MS-18 cargo ship into orbit. The spacecraft is expected to dock with the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) at 04:34 Moscow Time on October 30. The rocket is painted with Khokhloma, originated in Nizhny Novgorod. In addition, the Soyuz-2.1A has symbols in honor of the 800th anniversary of Nizhny Novgorod.
In September, the head of the Roscosmos state Corporation Dmitry Rogozin reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the work on the creation of an interplanetary nuclear tug. He added that by 2030, the corporation will have all the infrastructure in place to bring the nuclear tug to an altitude of at least 800 km. According to the head of Roscosmos, such a distance is the safest height to turn on a nuclear reactor.
