MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. A council of the Russian space agency will soon consider alternative projects of a future super-heavy space rocket to be presented by several manufacturers, the general director of the Progress space rocket center (one of the enterprises that has proposed its rocket project), Alexander Kirilin, told TASS.
"It is expected that the Roscosmos scientific-technical council will meet in session soon to review several super-heavy rocket projects and select one," he said.
Kirillin declared that his space rocket center had already submitted to the federal space agency its ideas for creating a liquefied natural gas-propelled delivery vehicle. It is a joint project with the Khrunichev center, responsible for developing a booster for the new rocket.
"Further action will depend on decisions Roscosmos is still to make," the general director of the Samara-based space rocket manufacturer said.
It is expected that a super-heavy rocket will be built under the federal space program for 2016-2025. Its concept was to be shaped last January. A former chief of Roscosmos, Oleg Ostapenko, said the rocket would be developed in two stages - first a vehicle capable of putting in space payloads of 70-80 tonnes, and in the longer term, rockets with 190-tonne payloads. He said the first rockets might be equipped with oxygen, hydrogen and kerosene-fuelled engines, while methane engines were a matter of the distant future.
