This program assumes the use of the Angara-A5B launch vehicle, said Rafail Murtazin, head of the Ballistics Department of RSC Energia
MOSCOW, February 9. /tass/. Four-launch launches of astronauts to the Moon using Angara launch vehicles will be possible only with the implementation of a single-turn approach scheme. This opinion was expressed to TASS by the head of the ballistics department of the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (part of Roscosmos), Rafail Murtazin.
"That program (meaning the four-launch program of flights to the Moon on the Angara, submitted to the government) directly depends on the implementation of a single-turn approach scheme, it cannot be carried out without a single-turn scheme," Murtazin said.
According to the expert, this program assumes the use of the Angara-A5B launch vehicle. It will output an oxygen-hydrogen upper stage, with which a lunar take-off and landing module and a manned spacecraft, launched separately, should dock in orbit. The operational life of this unit is about seven hours, and a single-turn circuit will overcome this limitation.
At the end of 2020, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin noted that the presence of two launch complexes for Angara (on Vostochny and Plesetsk) from 2023 will allow combining launches by assembling manned flight complexes in orbit. This will be the main tool for starting lunar exploration.
