ZHUKOVSKY (Moscow Region), July 19. /TASS/. Russia’s Energiya Rocket and Space Corporation has developed a new scheme of a piloted expedition to the Moon that requires two launches of a super-heavy rocket and one launch of a Soyuz-5 medium-class carrier, according to the corporation’s materials released on Wednesday.
"After a super-heavy carrier rocket is created, the number of launches is cut to three: one launch of a Soyuz-5 rocket and two launches of a super-heavy carrier rocket," say the materials circulated at the MAKS-2017 international airshow in Zhukovsky outside Moscow.
Previous reports said the Russian manned mission to the Moon envisaged the use of four Angara carrier rockets. However, this scheme was abandoned after the construction of the second launch pad for the Angara at the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Russian Far East was cancelled.
The new project envisages, as before, the assembly of a lunar expeditionary complex in the low near-Earth orbit. The complex is expected to be assembled within several months with the launch of rockets and a one-month interval between launches. Russia’s Federatsiya spacecraft in its lunar modification is expected to be launched with its crew to the International Space Station before that to wait for the assembly of a lunar expeditionary complex.
The complex itself should consist of an inter-orbital tug, a DM acceleration unit with additional fuel tanks, a lunar take-off and landing vehicle and the Federatsiya spacecraft.