Last week, SpaceX head Elon Musk unveiled

with great fanfare the latest incarnation of its Dragon spacecraft, designed to carry up to seven astronauts into Earth orbit. The most radical feature of the new and improved Dragon V2 : its rocket-powered landing system. SpaceX engineers hope to use four pairs of SuperDraco liquid-propellant engines for a helicopter-like landing. Astronauts could make a pinpoint touchdown on dry land, avoiding dangerous ocean landings and eliminating the need for a naval rescue armada.

"That is how the 21st-century spaceship should land," Musk said during the unveiling.

Dragon V2 is a bold step forward: Until now, all capsule-like manned vehicles—from the pioneering Mercury spacecraft to today's Russian Soyuz to NASA's next-generation Orion—relied on parachutes to soften the touchdown. Parachutes are light and simple compared to dangerous and heavy propulsion systems. However, there have been previous attempts to build such a spacecraft. And, curiously, both attempts came from Russia, whose current monopoly on human access to orbit Musk has vowed to break.

In 1985, Soviet designers drafted a top-secret project of a manned spacecraft called Zarya (Dawn), capable of carrying up to eight people to the Mir space station. The capsule-like vehicle resembled the enlarged descent module of the Soyuz spacecraft. But instead of landing under a parachute, it featured powerful liquid-propellant engines. A total of 24 nozzles surrounding the bell-shaped capsule would fire during the descent. And instead of ablative thermal protection burning away layer by layer during the reentry into Earth's atmosphere, Zarya would be covered with reusable tiles that would allow the spacecraft to make between 30 and 50 missions into space.

Behind the project was Konstantin Feoktistov, a legendary Soviet cosmonaut and a leading designer of the Vostok spacecraft that carried the first man into space, in 1961, as well as the Soyuz. However, even Feoktistov's influence and reputation were not enough to convince skeptics of the reliability of the risky, rocket-propelled landing system. As the Soviet space program faced a collapsing budget at the end of the 1980s, the project was shelved.

Zarya's legacy was reborn in the 21st century when Russian designers launched the development of the new-generation spacecraft, PTK NP, intended to replace Soyuz. This time, Russians switched to more reliable solid-propellant engines for the landing system. Unlike the small, soft-landing engines on Soyuz, which fire a moment before touchdown to complement the main parachute, the propulsion system of the PTK NP spacecraft would play the main role during the landing. After heated debates in the Russian space industry, developers added a trio of parachutes to the design to ensure safe landing even if the main propulsion system fails.

Similarities between Dragon V2 and PTK NP do not end with the landing tactic. During his demo tour of the Dragon's cockpit, Elon Musk showcased the main control console of the spacecraft, which can swing up and down. Russian engineers first demonstrated this distinct feature last August on the updated prototype of the PTK NP.

Interestingly, Russians had to resort to using a movable console only because its operational position was blocking the access to the ship's entrance hatch. By contrast, Russian space insiders tell me, there is no apparent reason for this feature in Dragon. They also called the Dragon V2 prototype rudimentary, with most of its interior systems still absent. Representatives of the notoriously secretive SpaceX were not available for comments.

Not surprisingly, obvious similarities between the Dragon V2 and its Russian predecessor, combined with all the media hype, irked largely uncelebrated Russian engineers who've spent half a decade on the development of the PTK NP spacecraft.

"Got tired already of Musk and his Dragon mockup! Here is, closer to reality and a year earlier," Russian cosmonaut Mark Serov said, referring to a full-scale prototype of the PTK NP spacecraft that was first displayed at the Moscow Air and Space Show in August 2011.

Anatoly Zak is a publisher of RussianSpaceWeb.com and the author of Russia in Space: the Past Explained, the Future Explored.

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