Russia halts development of lunar super-heavy rocket
Sep 15, 2021
Moscow [Russia], September 15 (ANI/Sputnik): Russia has stopped technical design of a super-heavy rocket for flights to the Moon, but it is possible that work may be resumed later, Dmitry Baranov, director-general of the Samara Rocket and Space Center (RSC) Progress, told Sputnik.
In December last year, Roscosmos state space corporation chief Dmitry Rogozin announced on Facebook that the project of a super-heavy rocket, which was named Yenisei (and in a heavier version, Don), would be revised to use more breakthrough technologies - methane as fuel instead of oxygen and kerosene. In January 2021, the Space Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences recommended postponing the creation of a super-heavy rocket.
In February, Baranov said that the technical design of the Yenisei rocket had been suspended because its appearance could be adjusted. Now work on the creation of an oxygen-kerosene super-heavy rocket has been completely stopped.
"The Progress RSC really stopped the work," he said.
Baranov clarified that the work was stopped at the technical design stage. It was previously assumed that it will end in October 2021. (ANI/Sputnik)
