RUSSIA'S NEXT-GENERATION CREW VEHICLE: DEVELOPMENT HISTORY

2006: The ACTS concept A new plan for the Russian-European cooperation in the piloted space program was conceived around Spring 2006. This time, the two sides considered combining funds, hardware and expertise to parallel the US effort to return astronauts to the Moon. The idea was based on previous studies, which looked at upgrading the European ATV cargo ship with a Russian-built reentry vehicle, which would enable it to return cargo or even people to Earth.

2007: Initial ACTS studies Russian and European space officials were expected to choose what they identified as an "initial preferred concept" for a future crew vehicle, as early as May or June 2007. However, political problems inside Russia and between the two partners delayed the project. Disagreements over the direction of the Russian space program resulted in the ouster of Nikolai Sevastyanov, the head of the nation's prime contractor in the human space flight -- RKK Energia.

2008: Deciding spacecraft architecture The Russian-European talks resumed in September 2007. Initially, Russian and European space officials chose a bell-shaped crew module as a preferred configuration for the next-generation manned spacecraft. The new vehicle could accommodate from four to six people on a journey to the lunar orbit. However by the beginning of 2008, a cone-shape capsule, resembling NASA's Apollo spacecraft, had emerged a winner.

2009: Starting preliminary design of PPTS By the beginning of 2009, the negotiations between Roskosmos and ESA broke down due to numerous technical and political issues. Instead, Roskosmos ordered its industry to come up with the proposals for the new-generation spacecraft. Upon choosing the prime developer in April 2009, the agency expected the industry to complete the preliminary design of the vehicle by June 2010.

2010: Re-examining options In January, speaking at the 34th Korolev Readings, the head of RKK Energia Vitaly Lopota said that early missions of the PTK NP spacecraft could take place from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The Ukrainian-built Zenit launcher or a similar Russian-built vehicle would be a likely candidate to carry the spacecraft, since the rocket had the payload capacity of up to 13 tons, needed to lift the future spacecraft and the Zenit had an operational launch pad in Baikonur.

2011: Technical project Refining design of the spacecraft and its components became the main purpose of this phase of development known as the Technical Project. In addition to the work on blueprints and manufacturing of various elements for experiments, the Technical Project also included the construction of full-scale prototypes of the spacecraft.

2012: Lunar PTK NP Anticipating the latest direction of the Russian space policy and possible budget restrictions, RKK Energia quietly dropped its plans to develop several variants of PTK NP ships for servicing the space station, autonomous flights in the Earth orbit or reaching into deep-space. Instead, a single spacecraft with the primary goal of carrying crews to lunar orbit has emerged as the focus of the PTK NP project during 2012.

2013: To be or not to be With the completion of the design, the PTK NP project reached crossroads, as the Russian government had to commit the spacecraft to metal (and real expenses), postpone it or cancel it altogether. Ironically, Russian space agency was facing this critical decision, as NASA's leadership publicly rejected a leading role for the US in any lunar-landing effort.

2014: New delays During 2014, the development of the next-generation manned spacecraft, PTK NP, was to go from the drawing board to experimental prototypes but a virtual absence of accolades in the official Russian media about development progress could spell trouble for the project. This silence became really deafening as NASA brought a prototype of its Orion spacecraft to the launch pad in December for an unmanned test mission.

2015: Scaling down During 2015, Russian engineers re-tailored the prospective human space flight program for lighter, cheaper rockets to reflect severe cuts in the nation's space budget in the previous year. According to the latest plans, the next-generation spacecraft could carry its first crew in 2024, followed by a manned mission into lunar orbit in 2025.

2016: Finishing paper phase In 2016, technical and financial problems forced the developers to abandon a four-launch scenario for the lunar expeditions based on Angara-5V rockets. To reach anywhere beyond the low Earth orbit, the new-generation transport ship had to fall back to a non-existing super-heavy launcher. Still, a lunar expedition remained the official goal of the Russian space program, even though Russian cosmonauts were not expected to walk on the Moon until at least 2030.

2017: PTK approaches experimental phase In 2017, developers were preparing to build the first major experimental components of the PTK Federatsiya spacecraft for initial full-scale tests. In the meantime, Roskosmos switched PTK's rocket again, this time, from the Angara-5P to the Soyuz-5. It also meant that the flight testing of the Federatsiya would now originate from Baikonur. The first launch had to be postponed to 2022.

2018: Federatsiya to set sail without its key features (INSIDER CONTENT) The latest financial problems in the Russian space program forced the developers of the PTK Federatsiya spacecraft to drastically simplify its sophisticated rocket-powered landing system and emergency escape rockets conceived for the original version of the next-generation spacecraft.

2019: PTK begins appearing in metal (INSIDER CONTENT) The long-delayed work on Russia's new-generation transport spacecraft might be postponed again, experts familiar with the matter say. In the meantime, first pieces of the PTK structure were forged.

2020: Orel to get drastic changes in its landing systems (INSIDER CONTENT) In 2020, engineers at RKK Energia, the prime developer of the PTK Orel new-generation crew vehicle, and their sub-contractors were working on a major re-design of key components of the ship's landing system, while preparing the full-scale assembly of test prototypes and the first flight-worthy vehicle.

HARDWARE AND TECHNOLOGY

NEW, Sept. 8: Overall design as of 2020 (INSIDER CONTENT) In 2020, Russian engineers were finalizing the overall architecture of the Orel next-generation crew vehicle on the drawing board, as some of its components were appearing in metal.

Emergency Escape System, SAS, for the Federatsiya spacecraft (INSIDER CONTENT) Like all its predecessors, the PTK Federatsiya spacecraft will be equipped with an emergency escape system, SAS, specifically designed to pull the crew capsule to safety in case of a launch vehicle failure during the ascent to orbit.

BAS escape rocket for the Federatsiya spacecraft (INSIDER CONTENT) In 2017, the developers of the PTK Federatsiya spacecraft redesigned its Emergency Escape System to save time and money in the early phase of the program.

SAS development in 2020 (INSIDER CONTENT) In 2017, the developers of the PTK Federatsiya spacecraft redesigned its Emergency Escape System to save time and money in the early phase of the program.

Crew Module, VA After several years of early research, engineers at RKK Energia defined the overall structural design of the crew module during the preliminary development of the PTK NP project in 2010. The conical structure of the module was subdivided into the command compartment, KO, and the aggregate compartment, AO. In turn, command compartment would be split into a pressurized cabin and the unpressurized upper transfer section.

Aggregate Compartment, AO (INSIDER CONTENT) The cone-shaped Return Module, VA, of the Federatsiya spacecraft is structurally subdivided into two sections: the Command Compartment, KO, containing the cosmonaut cockpit, and the Aggregate Compartment, AO, located below. It contains the soft-landing propulsion system, attitude control thrusters, landing gear and the main heat shield.

Propulsion Module, DO The expendable propulsion module, known in Russian as Dvigatelny Otsek or DO, of the PTK spacecraft was designed to accommodate the ship's propulsion system, including a dual main engine and eight clusters of attitude control and orientation engines, DPOs, distributed around the module.

Landing profile The defining feature of Russia's new-generation PTK spacecraft would be its landing system. Due to the political requirement to land future manned missions in Russia, while the spacecraft would barely overfly south of the country, a lot of maneuverability was required from the descent module. At the same time, tough deadlines imposed for the development of the vehicle and limited funds, did not leave time for radically innovative solutions.

Landing Solid-propellant Propulsion Unit, PTDU (INSIDER CONTENT) The Return Module, VA, of the PTK Federatsiya spacecraft was originally designed to land under rocket power. Although parachutes were eventually added to the landing system, the solid propellant motor could still give the crew capsule unique maneuvering capabilities during braking in the final moments before the touchdown.

New landing propulsion system for PTK Federatsiya spacecraft (INSIDER CONTENT) Taking into account a switch to Baikonur launches, RKK Energia revisited the use of more traditional landing engines, which had been in use on the Descent Module of the Soyuz spacecraft for decades. Moscow-based MKB Iskra, which developed the landing engine, studied the idea during 2017 and confirmed that it could modify the existing engines and adapt newly developed thrusters for the new role.

Landing gear, PU A defining feature of Russia's new-generation PPTS spacecraft would be its landing system. Due to the political requirement to land future manned missions in Russia, while the spacecraft would barely overfly south of the country, a lot of maneuverability was required from the descent module. At the same time, tough deadlines imposed for the development of the vehicle and limited funds, did not leave time for radically innovative solutions.

Docking port Unlike the Soyuz, where the docking port is discarded and burns up in the atmosphere along with the habitation module of the spacecraft at the end of each mission, the new-generation PTK spacecraft will carry its docking mechanism on the descent vehicle, VA, which was designed for at least 10 flights.

PTK Federatsiya redesigned for multiple docking ports (INSIDER CONTENT) In 2018, developers redesigned the next-generation crew vehicle to make possible its visits to the international gateway in the lunar orbit in addition to trips to the Earth's orbiting space station.

Cheget chair: One size fits all Russia's veteran Soyuz spacecraft was equipped with Kazbek cosmonaut chairs. Each Kazbek required a custom-made seat liners uniquely molded to the body size of each individual cosmonaut. Not surprisingly, developers of PTK NP hoped to do away with custom-built components, replacing them with a reusable seat that could be adjusted to any member of the cosmonaut corps, a foreign astronaut or a space tourist.

LAUNCH SYSTEMS FOR NEXT-GENERATION SPACECRAFT

From Rus-M to Angara-5P The Angara's role as a carrier of manned spacecraft finally become official, after funding foes had killed the development of the competing Rus-M rocket in 2011. By that time, the Russian government had already launched the construction of a new cosmodrome in the Russian Far East and the Angara-5 rocket was promised a launch pad there.

Super-heavy to the Moon With the decision of the Russian space agency in 2012 to give priority to lunar missions, a super-heavy launch vehicle would be needed to carry PTK NP into deep space. In the following years, the Russian industry studied numerous architectures of the super rocket.

Soyuz-5 In 2017, Roskosmos dropped plans to launch the Earth-orbiting version of the next-generation spacecraft on the modified Angara-5 rocket and instead opted for the yet-to-be developed Soyuz-5 booster conceived within the Feniks and Sunkar projects.

MANUFACTURING AND MAINTENANCE

Manufacturing Soyuz replacement (INSIDER CONTENT) As the first components of the PTK Orel spacecraft began appearing in metal at the end of the 2010s, its was finally time to prepare the production and assembly line for Russia's new-generation spacecraft. In a tradition going back to Gagarin's Vostok, the Orel spacecraft would be put together inside the walls of the Experimental Machine-building Plant, ZEM, in what is now the city of Korolev, north-east of Moscow.

TESTING NEW SPACECRAFT

Test flight program By 2013, various sources enabled to compile an emerging picture of the flight test program aimed to validate the PTK NP spacecraft for piloted missions. At the time, all initial test flights were expected to originate in Baikonur.

First phase of ground tests (INSIDER CONTENT) As the next-generation crew vehicle was finally leaving the drawing board in 2019, the developers were also finalizing an extensive ground testing program to validate numerous technical capabilities of the future spacecraft before it could reach the launch pad no earlier than the end of September 2023.

Orbital flight of the first prototype (INSIDER CONTENT) To meet the June 7, 2017, presidential order for the start of PTK flight tests in 2022, developers added the launch of a simplified prototype into the test flight program. The official schedule (No. 25-pl) for the development of the PTK system, which included the mission, was issued on Feb. 20, 2018.

New test launch proposed for next-generation spacecraft (INSIDER CONTENT) In 2019, the developers formulated a scenario for an additional test flight which has to precede launches of the future spacecraft with cosmonauts onboard. As in the test program of NASA's Orion spacecraft, the new Russian transport system would have to demonstrate safe operation of its emergency escape rockets in real flight before the vehicle could be certified to carry a crew.

NEW, May 11: Ground tests to continue after first launch of Soyuz replacement (INSIDER CONTENT) To save time in preparation for the first launch of the new-generation crew vehicle, Roskosmos decided to push a series of the most complex ground tests of the future spacecraft to a period after the politically important inaugural mission. Only the second phase of testing would clear the new ship for carrying cosmonauts.

Second test mission of the PTK Orel spacecraft (INSIDER CONTENT) In 2019, Roskosmos began planning for the second unpiloted test mission of the Orel new-generation spacecraft aiming the rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station.

A test mission behind the Moon According to a flight scenario evaluated in 2013, a Proton rocket would launch a Block DM space tug into the low Earth orbit. The second Proton would launch an unmanned test version of the PTK NP spacecraft. The two vehicles would then rendezvous and dock in orbit. The Block DM upper stage would then fire its engine sending the spacecraft toward the Moon.

MISSIONS AND DESTINATIONS

OPSEK: New-generation space station In 2009, Russian and European space officials started consultations on possible goals for the manned space flight after the end of the International Space Station, ISS, project. At the forefront of the talks were Russian plans to replace the ISS with a new manned outpost in the low-Earth orbit in 2020-2025. However unlike the ISS, which was designed to serve primarily as a research lab, the new station was conceived as an assembly point for missions to the Moon and Mars.

PTK-Z: Echo of Soyuz In October 2010, Russian space agency, Roskosmos, published its requirements to the industry for the development of the Technical Project of the next-generation spacecraft, PTK NP. The document identified two versions of the spacecraft, which would be a priority for the Technical Project in the next two years. First of these two variants was a three-module PTK-Z spacecraft. It was designed for long-duration autonomous missions in the Earth orbit.

LOS: Lunar Orbital Station By April 2012, the Russian space agency, Roskosmos, proclaimed a lunar orbit as the main destination of the PTK NP spacecraft. The agency asked engineers to design a vehicle capable of rendezvous and docking with the lunar orbital station, where the crew could transfer to a waiting lander for a final leg of its journey to the Moon.