MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. The Zvezda R&D and Production Enterprise (part of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos) has received an order to make three Orlan-ISS spacesuits for the future Russian Orbital Station (ROS), Zvezda Director General Sergey Pozdnyakov told TASS on Tuesday.
"With regard for the orbital station, we have received an order for the spacesuits in that version that we are making [for the International Space Station] this year. Three spacesuits must be available ‘above’ there and one will possibly be ordered as an additional outfit that will be kept on Earth," he said.
At the inception of the ROS project, Zvezda came up with an initiative to develop a completely new spacesuit for the future orbital station, he elaborated.
"Despite this, we have received an order for the Orlan in that version that we have today under the existing documentation," he added, presuming that Zvezda would make some adjustments to the spacesuit in the coming years before the space launch.
The Orlan-ISS differs from the previous Orlan-MK model by its new inner airtight casing made of hi-tech fabric with a long service life and a new automated water cooling system that automatically maintains the most comfortable temperature for an operator. In addition, the spacesuit integrates a new data projection system.
Russia is currently carrying out work to create the Russian Orbital Station: under the approved general schedule, the ROS is set to be deployed in near-polar orbit in 2027-2033. The project is estimated at 608.9 billion rubles (about $7.4 billion), of which 150 billion rubles ($1.8 billion) are expected to be spent in the first three years.
Russia is set to launch the future orbital outpost’s first research and energy module in late 2027. Roscosmos also plans to launch the universal nodal, gateway and baseline modules by 2030 to form the core orbital station together with the research and energy module.
At the second stage, from 2031 to 2033, the station is set to expand by docking two special-purpose modules.