Russian space agency Roscosmos is preparing to seek government approval to start building the world’s biggest rocket, according to a local report citing its new head Oleg Ostapenko.
Ostapenko reportedly laid out plans for a launcher that could be…
Russian space agency Roscosmos is preparing to seek government approval to start building the world’s biggest rocket, according to a local report citing its new head Oleg Ostapenko.
Ostapenko reportedly laid out plans for a launcher that could be upgraded to lift as much as 160 metric tons during a conference in Moscow on Tuesday.
He said Roscosmos will submit its suggestions to the Military-Industrial Commission “within a month”, reported state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.
Roscosmos was unable to comment before the press deadline.
That amount of lift would surpass the 118 metric tons that NASA’s Saturn V was capable of when it was used for the US Apollo programme in the 1960s and 1970s.
Although it would be uneconomical to host modern commercial payloads, the rocket could serve the growing interest in manned Mars or deep space missions.
NASA is also developing what it claims will be the world’s largest rocket when the first test flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) takes off in 2017. It plans to use the launcher, capable of lifting up to 130 metric tones, for new missions to explore the solar system, including to Mars or an asteroid.
Meanwhile, China is reportedly also considering a rocket that can lift at least 130 metric tonnes for missions to the moon.
Russia’s ambitions for a super heavy lift rocket come amidst a sea change in the country’s space sector, following a string of Federal launch failures that prompted its government to promise root and branch reform.
Ostapenko, who took charge of Roscosmos in October to replace its embattled chief Vladimir Popovkin, was also cited in local press last year calling for a ban on buying telecoms satellites from abroad to boost its domestic industry.
