Kliper

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Kliper

Roskosmos
Applications	Crewed spaceplane
Specifications
Regime	Low Earth
Design life	2004 to 2006
Production
Status	Cancelled (2006)
Launched	0

Kliper (Клипер,

. Due to lack of funding from the ESA and RSA, the project was indefinitely postponed by 2006.

Designed primarily to replace the

.

Development

Announcement of the program

In February 2004 Nikolai Moiseyev, the deputy director of

. It was planned to be the successor to the Soyuz spacecraft, which has been built as various versions since 1961.

Early search for support

In 2005 Kliper was displayed in several

Vladimir Taneev, the leading designer of the Kliper system, speculated on the contribution of Europe to the project in the following way:^[when?]

The European companies will likely contribute avionics, materials, and cabin systems. Many different options are on the table, and in the near future we expect to form Russian-European working groups specialized in different subsystems and fields of design.

A further element of this process was made public on October 12, 2005, when various press agencies revealed that JAXA, the Japanese space agency, had been officially approached by Russia to participate in the project. JAXA has made it clear that they are more likely to join the project if ESA does so first, which was in doubt after ESA members rejected a study for Europe's involvement in the Kliper project in December 2005.^{[citation needed]} The addition of Japan would make Kliper a truly multinational project, potentially combining the rugged reliability of Russian launchers with Japanese computer technology. A greater pan-national consensus would have allowed for a lighter funding burden on each participant as well.^{[citation needed]}

Estimated costs

Announcements and speculations following the February 2004 press conference suggested a development budget of 10,000,000,000₽ (about US$400,000,000). In looking at costs for human space travel it was clear that the 10 billion rubles figure was a rather low estimate. In May 2005 The Guardian reported that costs were estimated to be roughly US$3,000,000,000 (for development and construction of Kliper until 2015) of which the bulk of US$1,800,000,000 was speculated to come from Europe.^[3] Different sources in 2005 have reported that the money needed for the program would be €1,500,000,000 (about US$1,800,000,000)^[4] and on December 12, 2005 an article stated it would be €1,000,000,000 (solely in relation to development costs).^[5]

On July 14, 2005 the Russian government approved the national space program for 2006 to 2015 with a budget of 305,000,000,000₽ (about US$11,000,000,000). The whole budget for the 10-year period was to have been 425,000,000,000₽ (about US$15,000,000,000).^[6] The budget included the needed funding for the Kliper program.^[7] Thus in face of Europe's denial to fund a €50,000,000 feasibility study for the Kliper project at the European space summit in December 2005, Russian space officials have announced that Russia would fund Kliper even without any European contribution.^[5]

The most recent ^[when?] article on Kliper stated that the project would have incurred 16,000,000,000₽ (about US$600,000,000) in development costs, 11,000,000,000₽ of which will be financed by the government and 5,000,000,000₽ by contractors.^[8]

First launch and target for regular flights

In 2004 it was announced that it was likely that Kliper would make its first launch as early as 2010 or 2011, the same time the

that "the first regular lift-off is scheduled for 2012, while a complete transport system will be in place by 2015." After the termination of the Russian Space Agency's tender for a new spacecraft, Energia announced that this would push its Kliper proposal's first flight — if developed at all — back further. In the event, the development project did not continue.

ESA's part in Kliper — uncertainty over European cooperation

On September 28, 2005 the BBC reported that Alan Thirkettle, head of ESA's Human Spaceflight Development Department, stated that Kliper would be used: "For future exploration, when we have the objective of going to the Moon, it is important to have several possibilities to go there, and within this framework of cooperation to have our own access to orbit around the Moon." In the same context, Alain Fournier-Sicre, head of the ESA permanent mission in the Russian Federation, also stated that: "The objective is to have a vehicle which is more comfortable than the Soyuz capsule which will be used with pilots and four passengers… It is meant to service the space station and to go between Earth and an orbit around the Moon with six crew members."

Although there seemed to be a lot of enthusiasm for Kliper within Alan Thirkettle's team at ESA (as outlined in the above paragraph), on December 7, 2005, the European space summit of governmental officials of ESA member states declined to approve a 50-million-euro two-year study focusing on ESA's potential involvement in the Kliper project. In denying funding for the study ESA members stated that, among other factors that seemed unfavourable, under the current Russian proposal Europe would not share control over the design of the program and would be limited to being a small industrial contributor. ^{[citation needed]}

Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA's Director General, put the refusal to fund the study into context: "It is not a question of member states for and member states against. I think the decision could not be taken for reasons that are not linked to Clipper itself. The decision could not be taken because of budgetary restraints." Dordain concluded that he was convinced that European support for Kliper was vital for ESA's future involvement in space transport and that a favourable decision can be achieved until June 2006. In concluding "We need two transportation systems in the world",^[9] Dordain also outlined shortly after the European Space Summit that the primary requirement of Europe's involvement in the Kliper project was to rely on two separate systems to support the ISS as had been proven vital after the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster in 2003.

Dordain's remarks were echoed by Daniel Sacotte, ESA's director of human spaceflight, microgravity and exploration, in saying simply that "The Russians are not going to finance it, we will finance it from our side", despite adding a cautionary note that "We needed the support from at least two states out of France, Italy and Germany. We didn't get it." What this means in practical terms remains to be seen; ESA officials are still pushing for Europe's involvement in the Kliper project.

Very negative comments relative to Kliper were brought by the various national delegations at the December meeting, in particular by the French Minister of Research François Goulard. In short, there remain for the time being member states strongly committed to Kliper, and others just as strongly opposed. The long-term view remains uncertain.

Russian Space Agency's tender for Kliper

At the end of 2005,

In late July 2006, the Russian Space Agency and the European Space Agency agreed to collaborate on a different project to develop a new spacecraft. They decided to fund a study under a program labelled Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS) which started in September 2006 and evaluate a capsule type concept, derived from Soyuz. While this program is the follow-on project of the RSA's and ESA's collaboration on a new space vehicle, this program is no longer connected to Energia's winged Kliper design.

RSC Energia continued to pursue the project without Russian government support and announced that it would seek private investment for the craft.

In 2008 Vitaly Lopota shared his vision for the new Russian spacecraft. He mentioned two possible options: a space capsule, better for missions to the Moon and Mars, and a lifting body design for low Earth orbit missions.[15]^[16] According to his new plans, instead of Kliper, the new Orel capsule would be developed from 2009 to 2017-2018.

Design

Given the Russian Space Agency's preference for Energia's lifting body proposal this part of the article concentrates entirely on Energia's design for Kliper.

Overview

Kliper's

space stations had.

In connection with this new design, Kliper would feature a launch escape system that would enable it to detach from the

]

Lifting body design

On return from space, Kliper's

commented on this issue in June 2005:

We are 99% sure that it will be a spaceship with upturned little wings, enabling the Kliper to land on any class-one military airfield with a runway from three to three and a half kilometres in length.^[citation needed]

Kliper, as a vehicle alone, would have been primarily a crewed spaceship, carrying six cosmonauts and payloads of up to 700 kilograms (mostly experiments and other equipment used for carrying through experiments in orbit) and was planned to stay in orbit for approximately 15 days independently and for up to 360 days if

, the Russian space agency adopted a 'people first' philosophy with the aim of 'bolting' extra capabilities for more advanced missions onto Kliper at a later date. Each orbiter was intended to make 25 flights prior to retirement.

Using a space tug

In late 2005 Kliper's design was changed again. In order to fit the Kliper on the planned upgraded version of the Soyuz-2 rocket, labeled the Soyuz-2-3, Kliper would be 'split up' into two spacecraft, the Kliper crew vehicle and Parom (rus. "ferry"), a space tug. Parom would have been a permanent orbital spacecraft awaiting Kliper in orbit, docking with it and then providing orbital manoeuvering and boosting Kliper to higher orbits in order to dock with the International Space Station. The Parom was planned to be indefinitely reusable, refueling itself via the cargo container, space station, or spacecraft that it is attached to.^[17][18]

Missions

The Kliper program was proposed as the Russian-European counterpart to the American

Information on Kliper's beyond LEO mission capabilities were expanded further by RSC Energia, with a picture released in December 2005 of what a possible Kliper interplanetary configuration might have looked like. The design was entirely theoretical but made for a view of where

ion propulsion

system might have been contemplated for such a mission, though it might also simply be that there was another reason for such a large array, such as increased power for better telemetry transmission rates over large distances.

Carrier rockets

The present

.

At the end of 2005, Kliper's design was changed again (as outlined above) and the most likely solution for a carrier rocket became the

With regard to launch sites for Kliper, further information became available as of October 2005, with a planning-stage declaration from Nikolai Moiseev, Deputy Director of the Russian Space Agency that Kliper could have been launched from ESA's Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. Though this aim had already been suggested, the comment was made in the context of facility upgrades for Kourou that are already under way since 2003 and expected to be finished in 2007 with the first launch of a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana in 2008. It had been suggested that Kliper could have been launched from both Baikonur and Kourou, by Alan Thirkettle, head of ESA's human spaceflight, microgravity and exploration directorate, in December 2005.^[20][21]

See also

• Orion (spacecraft) - the American counterpart program
• Orel (spacecraft)
• MAKS (spacecraft)
• Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicle

References

External links

• Images and information at Russian Space Web
• Images and information at Astronautix
• Kliper section at www.buran.ru (in Russian) (Also see buran.ru author's comments about this section at Новости Космонавтики forum: 1, 2).
• Detailed website about the Kliper shuttle, contains many diagrams and explanations
• Winged Kliper at MAKS-2005 Air Show Archived 2005-11-03 at the Wayback Machine (August 2005)
• Kliper mock-up photo gallery (May 2005). Also see the thread at Новости Космонавтики forum about the presentation on November 30, 2004 (in Russian).
• ESA on its permanent cooperation with Russia in space and Putin's commitment to the Kliper project - 2004
• Europe envisages cooperation on new Russian space plane July 1, 2005

In the news

• July, 2006 - RSC Energia: Concept of national manned space navigation
• April, 2006 - Russian Space - Manned Spaceflight To Be Cost-Efficient
• February 14, 2006 - Kliper choice delayed
• January 31, 2006 - Energia holds lead in Kliper contest
• January 18, 2006 - Tender to build new-generation spaceship has started. (in Russian)
• December 9, 2005 - ESA vows to clinch cash for shuttle
• December 9, 2005 - Europe keen to join Russia in new spaceship project
• December 6, 2005 - Europeans Unlikely to Back Russia's Manned Space Vehicle
• November 1, 2005 - A lighter version of Kliper (which would work in combination with the Parom space tug) is under consideration by RSA and ESA
• October 12, 2005 - Japanese Space Agency confirms its invitation to participate in the project
• October 6, 2005 - Short note concerning the RSA's outline intention to use the Kourou launch site for Kliper
• September 28, 2005 - ESA chiefs release more information on the collaboration
• August 21, 2005 -- ESA and Russia collaborate on Kliper^{[permanent dead link]}
• July 15, 2005 -- Europeans take on NASA
• June, 2005 -- Report on the Paris Air Show, partly about Kliper (in Russian)
• June 17, 2005 -- Spectrum article on Kliper at Le Bourget
• June 15, 2005 -- Article in the Pravda over the European-Russian partnership with Kliper (English)
• February 15, 2005 -- Article in the Pravda on planned Kliper exposition at Le Bourget'2005 airshow
• September 2004 -- Mosnews - Russia Prepares Launch of New Space Shuttle -- (with image of barebone Kliper)
• April 2004—Energija's Nikolaj Brjuchanov and ESA's Joerg Feustel-Buechl on Kliper in ARD (German TV) [1] (in German)