MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/. Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos intends to place an order for R&D work on creating a parachute system for reusable space rocket stages. The Technodinamika Group (part of the state tech corporation Rotec) will undertake this effort, Technodinamika CEO Igor Nasenkov said on Friday.

"Literally a month ago, we received a preliminary order from Roscosmos for developing technical specifications for a parachute system that can return reusable rocket stages. We are beginning the R&D work this year," the chief executive said.

There is no fixed timeframe for creating the parachute system so far, he added.

Russia is currently developing a new Amur methane-powered reusable rocket system.

Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos and the Progress Space Rocket Center signed a contract in October last year on the conceptual design of a space rocket system with the Amur reusable methane-fueled first rocket stage. It will be capable of delivering up to 10.5 tonnes of payload into a low near-Earth orbit compared to 8.5 tonnes carried by Soyuz-2 rockets.

Reusable space rocket stages are a major trend in modern rocket engineering. Today, reusable stages are part of the Falcon rockets of SpaceX and New Shepard space vehicles of Blue Origin in the United States. Reusable rocket systems are also being developed in China and Europe.