According to Vladimir Solovyov, the general designer of the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, an analog of such a withdrawal is the flight of the Berth node module to the ISS in November 2021
MOSCOW, January 25. /tass/. The Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS) under development will be built in space with the help of special tugs. This was announced by Vladimir Solovyov, General Designer for manned space systems and complexes of Russia, General designer of the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia.
"We also intend to build ROSS with the help of small tugboats that, like giants, would take large modules and drag them," Solovyov said in an interview with Roscosmos-TV.
According to the general designer, an analog of such a withdrawal is the flight of the Berth node module to the ISS in November last year. "It had a complex architecture in terms of control, some navigation things, orientation. <...> For the first time, we worked out the tasks of a tiny tug for transporting serious modules that are 2-3 times larger than this tug with good accuracy," he added.
Solovyov stressed that such a docking is not an analogue of the berth of the Progress cargo ship to the ISS. "There is such a thing as a "moment of inertia" - how sluggishly the device reacts to all actions. So this module "Berth" on some axes was 10-15 times worse controlled than "Progress", - he explained.
In April 2021, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said that the state of the ISS leaves much to be desired, so Russia can focus on creating its own orbital station. The Rocket and Space Corporation Energia was tasked with ensuring the readiness of the first module for the new domestic orbital station in 2025, it will be a scientific and energy module, which was previously supposed to be launched to the ISS in 2024.
The Scientific and Technical Council of Roscosmos recommended that work on the creation of a technical project for a new orbital station be included in the Federal Space Program - 2025.
