MOSCOW, October 5. /TASS/. Russia will spend 70 billion rubles (about $880 million) on creating its first reusable carrier rocket with a methane propellant, Roscosmos Executive Director for Long-Term Programs and Science Alexander Bloshenko told TASS on Monday.

Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos and the Progress Space Rocket Center signed a contract on Monday on the conceptual designing of the Amur-SPG space rocket center for a new Amur reusable methane-fueled rocket.

"The total cost of the work on creating the rocket, from the signing of the contract for the conceptual design to the first launch in 2026, will not exceed 70 billion rubles," the Roscosmos official said.

Roscosmos is for the first time designing the rocket "at a given cost and the minimum price of a launch service will make up $22 mln," Bloshenko said.

At the stage of the rocket’s conceptual designing, specialists will work out a detailed business plan under the Amur rocket program, he added.

"Specialized companies will be involved as contractors to determine the conditions for achieving this launch cost and show a clear payback schedule for the project, considering the state of the launch services market," the Roscosmos official said.

As Roscosmos specified for TASS, Russia’s first reusable rocket will have a take-off weight of about 360 tonnes and will be 55 meters high and 4.1 meters in diameter. The launch vehicle will comprise a reusable first stage and a non-recoverable second stage. Both of them will use methane-fueled engines.

The Amur rocket with a reusable stage will be able to deliver up to 10.5 tonnes of payload to a low near-Earth orbit while its expendable version will have the capacity to orbit 12.5 tonnes.