Vladimir Solovyov, General Designer of RSC Energia, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said at the Royal Readings that a spaceplane was being developed in Russia "to obtain new qualities of the ROS transport and technical support system," that is, the Russian orbital station. The proposed design is highly questionable from a technical point of view.
The spaceplane under study "is an aircraft with a composite airframe of the "carrier body" type with a deflected swept V-shaped wing," Solovyov said. It is not known what a "load—bearing body" is. Perhaps the academician made a reservation and meant the concept of a "supporting fuselage" that actually exists in aerodynamics (that is, a fuselage that partially assumes the functions of a wing to create lift in the atmosphere). It is claimed that the Angara medium-class launch vehicle will be able to launch it into orbit.
According to the illustrations presented at the readings, we are talking about a compact device for four crew members, with a payload of 1.8 tons, and 1.0 tons of it is the mass of fuel with which the spaceplane must maneuver after entering orbit. Its engine should be oxygen-kerosene RD-0109 or an analog.
Among the advantages of the design are its reusability, the absence of the need for a search and rescue operation for astronauts returning to Earth. The latter is provided by the possibility of landing a spaceplane at airfields — by maneuvering sideways from the average trajectory to a range of up to 1,500 kilometers. In addition, it is noted that the overloads for the spaceplane will not exceed 1.5 g — this is less than on Roscosmos manned ships today (up to two times). In theory, this should attract space tourists.
The announced spaceplane project makes a strange impression. There is no technical and economic sense in it in modern conditions. The payload delivered into orbit (0.8 tons, the level of the Eagle spacecraft) and passenger capacity make sense against the background of modern manned spacecraft, but are clearly not comparable with the reusable Starship, which is actively being developed in the United States. He will be able to deliver up to 100 tons of payload into low—Earth orbit), take on board up to 100 people and up to 40 people on flights beyond the Earth-Moon system. It is also clear that the cost of flights will be much lower than that of the Angara — cosmoplane system, which Solovyov told about.
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| The parameters of the planned spaceplane, shown at the Royal Readings. |
| Source: RIA Novosti |
The key technical problems that make a spaceplane a dubious solution have not changed since the days of the shuttles: they require wings that burden the structure with a large "dead weight". Because of this, a spaceplane that would go into space on its own would be cyclopically large and expensive. Therefore, in practice, a significant part of the thrust at takeoff should be provided by powerful upper stages, which themselves will not have wings (otherwise, again, their mass will be too large). To rescue the upper stages (or the Angara-type rocket replacing them) without wings, in fact, it is possible only by the SpaceX method — that is, by landing on the tail.
The Angara rocket is formally declared as having reusable modules: the head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, previously reported on the ability of its universal rocket modules to withstand tenfold use. Indeed, the intention to convert the Angara into a reusable, landing on a launch platform at sea (modeled on the Falcon 9 from SpaceX) has been openly talked about in the domestic space industry since 2020. Moreover, today, on January 23, 2024, the chief designer of NPO Energomash, Peter Lovochkin, repeated this thesis, arguing that the Angara-A5 will have a reusable lower stages at about a dozen (as the Falcon 9 already did a few years ago).
However, from a technical point of view, this project is doubtful: such a redesign will take several years, that is, it will end just in time when the Russian space industry will inevitably begin to copy Starship, the next generation of SpaceX rockets. Then what is the point in this alteration and design of a spaceplane for the Russian orbital station is unclear.
At the same time, we note that so far we are only talking about the spaceplane. The period required for its preliminary design will clearly be longer than the time it will take SpaceX for the first full-fledged orbital flight of Starship. Against this background, funds may not be allocated for a new spaceplane and a reusable version of Angara, which would be the best option for the development of events.