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Russia working on superlight reusable launch vehicle, says Roscosmos chief

The superlight carrier rocket "will be capable of blasting off not only from cosmodromes," Yury Borisov pointed out

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. Russia’s leading space research institute is working on a new superlight reusable carrier rocket capable of lifting off not only from cosmodromes, Roscosmos Chief Yury Borisov told the Prokosmos web portal on Monday.

"We are working on superlight carriers. This effort was initiated by the Advanced Research Fund and the work is being carried out by TsNIImash [the Central Research Institute of Machine-Building, Roscosmos’ key R&D institute]," Borisov said.

Both the future superlight launch vehicle and the advanced Amur-LNG methane-fueled rocket currently under development will feature reusable stages. Both launch vehicles will be based at the Vostochny space center in the Russian Far East, the Roscosmos chief said.

The superlight carrier rocket "will be capable of blasting off not only from cosmodromes," Borisov pointed out.

This effort is being carried out not only in the interests of the national economy, the Roscosmos head said.

"Our basic customer, the Defense Ministry of Russia, also looks at this work with expectation. It is also interested in the light carrier of this class to ensure the cost effectiveness of launch services. That is why, quite serious hopes are pinned on this carrier rocket," he explained.

The work on the superlight carrier rocket has been going on for already two-three years but has not been publicized owing to innovative design and technological solutions, the Roscosmos chief said.

"The tests of the future carrier’s experimental stages have passed successfully, in principle, which proves the correctness of design solutions. Today we are focused on the production of engines and the confirmation of designed characteristics. If everything passes well, we will speed up this work," Borisov said.

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