MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/. A super-heavy carrier rocket Russia is developing will be more reliable and efficient and cheaper than its rivals being created by other space powers, in particular, the United States and China, Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin said in a live broadcast of the program Full Contact on Vesti FM radio station on Tuesday.
"We must make this launch vehicle simpler and efficient. Our rocket must be more reliable, i.e. the statistics of using the engine and other systems that make part of this complex vehicle must convince all of us that it works and that a spacecraft with humans can be placed atop this rocket and the mission can be carried out. That is why, our task is not just to make a super-heavy rocket simultaneously with our partners but to make it more efficient and safer," the Roscosmos chief said.
Russia will get its super-heavy carrier rocket by 2028 that will be "much more powerful" than the Soviet-era Energia launch vehicle, Rogozin said.
Neither China nor the United States that once created the Saturn launch vehicle has a carrier rocket comparable by its capacity with the rocket Russia is developing, the Roscosmos chief noted.
"The question is whose carrier will be more efficient and cheaper. If it is cheaper, it has prospects for the future. For example, the US Saturn rocket was extremely expensive and that is why its lunar program was closed," Rogozin explained.
In late March 2018, Roscosmos placed an order with the Energia Space Rocket Corporation for developing the conceptual design of a super-heavy carrier rocket.
Roscosmos Chief Rogozin earlier said the Yenisei new super-heavy carrier rocket would be assembled using the principle of a technological building kit where each part of the launcher should be an independent flight element.
Under Russia’s federal targeted program, the first launch of the Yenisei super-heavy carrier rocket is due to take place in 2028. The first version of the super-heavy carrier rocket is expected to have a lifting capacity of up to 103 tonnes for delivery into the low Earth orbit.
Russia will build a launch pad for the super-heavy carrier rocket at the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East.
Russia intends to use the new rocket for missions to the Moon, including the landing of Russian cosmonauts on the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite. In Roscosmos’ estimates, the Yenisei will be able to deliver a 27-tonne payload to the Moon’s orbit.