60 years ago, on March 18, 1965— Alexey Leonov became the first earthman to go beyond the spacecraft into outer space. The Berkut space suit, in which Leonov performed this new task, was manufactured within the walls of the Zvezda Scientific and Production Enterprise. Sergey Pozdnyakov, the company's CEO, spoke about the production of new spacesuits, plans for their operation, as well as the development of new technologies in an interview with TASS.
— Good afternoon, Sergey Sergeevich! Thank you for agreeing to talk to us. In 2023, plans were announced to manufacture three Orlan-ISS spacesuits in 2024-2025. Have they been produced yet?
— All the "Eagles" will be in orbit this year. One— number six, is already on the ISS (International Space Station — approx. TASS), the Progress cargo spacecraft delivered it there a couple of weeks ago. The seventh and eighth spacesuits are in operation. We have to give one in the middle of this year for the "truck", which will go in August, if I'm not mistaken, and another a little later, in November — December. All three new spacesuits are scheduled to be delivered to the ISS this year.
— Are they any different from the "Eagles-ISS" that are currently on the station?
— For some things, we have switched to domestic components — in particular, we are now using a domestic display for our computer. It was foreign on the previous version of the spacesuits.
— When will their operation begin?
— The first exits in new spacesuits are scheduled for the end of this year.
— It turns out that they will arrive at the station, their operation will begin, and the Orlyans-ISS No. 4 and No. 5 will be placed in Progress and flooded?
— We have not delivered a new one yet, we are not in a hurry to throw out the old one — we even have one Orlan-MK half-disassembled at the station. It is even used in some cases as a kind of component donor. But in principle, yes — in order not to take up space, the fourth and fifth Orlan-ISS will be disposed of after some time. So far, the main thing is that the new ones fly.
— Can you tell me how the work on the Sokol-M space suit is going?
— With Sokol-M, there are several stages of development, as required by all applicable regulations. The suit has passed the so-called autonomous testing stage. These are tests that the developer himself conducts and tests the product on his own. The next tests will already be conducted in conjunction with Energia, in the interior of the ship, etc. There have been some fitting sessions just now, but these joint tests have not officially begun yet, because we will not finish the next few spacesuits in any way. We are a little late because, for obvious reasons, all production is now focused on other tasks.
— You said earlier that in 2023-2024 it is planned to produce flight samples of Cheget shock-absorbing seats. Have they been made yet?
— We have given one set to RSC Energia, it will be used in the tests of the [manned transport] ship [of the new generation]. Our internal tests are continuing on several chairs, because the work is going quite hard. As with any new product, there is a fundamentally new design of the chair itself and a completely new shock absorption system that has not been used before — in general, a couple of chairs have already broken down. We are currently preparing the next experiment. But there is such work going on, which always happens in such products. It doesn't work out the first time.
I hope that in the next month and a half we will finish this stage of autonomous testing. And then we have to supply kits for the main facility, for the ship, which will be designed for a number of tests there. And a little later there will be flight deliveries.
— How is the development of exoskeleton technology for spacesuits going now?
— We have made a working prototype for a spacesuit sleeve. We have conducted our tests. I won't say that it matches the weight and dimensions, but there were doubts about how this exoskeleton would work with a person in a spacesuit. The main idea was for the mechanism to "pick up" the movement that the astronaut was making and help him bend his arms. We achieved this and made such a prototype. The trials have shown that our path is right.
— And how is it planned to develop the direction further?
— Then it all comes down to financing, you know. The prototype is made, it works on the Ground, but then I still advocate making the shell itself so that it is movable without any auxiliary devices.
Now we are also proactively making variants of new shells. First of all, for the hands, because on the ISS they work mainly with their hands: both moving on handrails and work. This is not the moon where you need to walk. Therefore, the main focus here is on improving hand mobility. This means that the sleeves of the suit must have good mobility and flexibility.
There are ideas that we are working on, perhaps in the next generation, which will go to the Russian Space Station. TASS), we'll make these new sleeves already. At the same time, we must not forget that any additional mechanism is a complication of the design, a decrease in reliability, some kind of maintenance, etc. I would like to get away from this, of course. But, as planned, we made the prototype, and the most important thing we achieved is that it works the way we wanted it to.
— You said that the product that the astronauts will use at ROS can receive this technology. And if we are talking about a lunar spacesuit, do you think that the focus will be on a similar mechanism that will help the movement of the legs?
— It is difficult to talk about this now, because for me personally it is still unclear when the manned lunar expedition will take place. Currently, the focus of the work is on the Russian Space Station. The new ship needs to be completed yet. So it's not clear about the moon yet. If this happens in 10 years, then I do not exclude that we will be able to use such mechanisms just to simplify walking. We figured out how to do this on this prototype. And then it is necessary to ensure the small size, weight and, most importantly, the reliability of this system. There must be a thing that works reliably in the first place. But in principle, yes, it is possible.
— Tell me, is there any news about the lunar suit?
— For several years, research and development work was underway in cooperation with TsNIIMash, the parent institute of Roscosmos. There was an agreement with them, according to which the developments and ideas of versions of the spacesuit for the Moon were considered. And at this stage, in addition to the work that was expected of us according to the terms of reference, we made a prototype shell at our own expense. They even showed it — if you dig around, you can find it on the Internet. Then this research was completed successfully, we reported back, and TsNIIMash, in my opinion, also reported back and closed it.
The next step was to have a preliminary design for such a spacesuit. And there is currently no customer for such work. And I can't say for sure when it will be resumed.
— Does the project have a name?
— We held a naming contest to get people interested in this business who love it. The winner was a man from the Moscow region, he proposed a simple name — "Moonlight". That's what we thought among ourselves. Our "bird" has a good name — "Orlan", there have already been so many versions of it, and if there is an "Orlan-L", "Lunar", it would be nice. But the name, you know, is our last resort. There would be something to name, but we will name it.
— What about a spacesuit for extravehicular activities under the Russian Space Station program?
— According to the orbital station, we have ordered spacesuits of the version that we are making this year [for the ISS]. There may still be some changes, because the production cycle of a spacesuit is quite long, it takes about two and a half years for us. And the development is taking even longer.
At one time, we expressed the initiative to make a completely new spacesuit for ROS, which could then be used somehow during flights to the Moon. I was talking about her about six years ago. Despite this, we ordered the Orlan in the version that we have today, under the current documentation. Therefore, I do not consider the spacesuit that will be on the Moon to be a step towards the moon. There is no such clear movement forward.
— Can you tell us how many spacesuits are planned to be produced for the ROS?
— Three spacesuits should be "upstairs", one, possibly, will be ordered as an additional one, will be stored on the Ground. This is a normal practice, we will do them in two or two and a half years. It is also planned to launch the first module at the end of 2027, and shortly after that, in the second half of 2028, the gateway module will fly. There will be two spacesuits in it.
— So they will fly in it at once?
— Two spacesuits will fly there in this airlock, and then one more will be delivered on a "truck".
— You said earlier that an analogue of the Chibis kit for ROS would be needed if the crews were to carry out long-term expeditions at the station. Has the NPP Zvezda received an order for such a product to date?
— The Lapwing has not been ordered for Russia today. But this, as a rule, comes next — there is not such a complicated product, it can be done faster. But I think they'll order it gradually. Now we are talking about placing orders for products that require a lot of time to manufacture. "Eagles," for example, take a long time to make.
— You mentioned earlier that there were some problems with the supply of components. Have these difficulties been overcome to date?
— Unlike a number of enterprises, including those from the Russian aerospace industry, we did not have many things that were actually made explicitly from foreign components. Traditionally, we have always focused on our own developments, and we make the vast majority of everything we do from domestic components.
There were some imported items, but we successfully replaced all of them on our own. Currently, there are no questions about the dependence on supplies to the NPP Zvezda. All issues are closed, starting from tethered systems and ending even with parachute fabric, for which we have successfully made analogues on one of the Russian projects. I believe this problem has been solved so far.
Ilya Vrubel
