Russia announces tender for design of new spacecraft

Russian space agency Roscosmos announced a tender Thursday worth nearly 10 billion rubles (about $300 million) to design a new manned spacecraft.



Roscosmos said the design, worth 9.536 billion rubles, must be completed by 2016, and the tender result would be announced on Nov. 22.



In July, Energy Rocket-Space Corporation head Vitaly Lopota said the corporation has prepared a new-generation manned spaceship.



Lopota said Roscosmos had generally approved the Energy-proposed design of a returnable 20-ton spacecraft piloted by four crew members.



The main purposes of the new spaceship are conducting 180-day missions to the Moon, serving orbital stations and carrying out 10-day autonomous space travel.



The new spaceship will be launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome, which is under construction in the Far Eastern Amur region.

