First Launch Of Russia's Federatsiya Spacecraft May Be Postponed Until 2024 - Manufacturer

The first test launch of Russia's new Federatsiya (Federation) spacecraft atop the new Soyuz-5 rocket may be rescheduled from 2022 to 2024 as many preparations are still pending, General Director of the spacecraft's manufacturer, RSC Energia, Sergey Romanov said Friday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th November, 2018) The first test launch of Russia's new Federatsiya (Federation) spacecraft atop the new Soyuz-5 rocket may be rescheduled from 2022 to 2024 as many preparations are still pending, General Director of the spacecraft's manufacturer, RSC Energia, Sergey Romanov said Friday.

In July, a source in the Roscosmos state corporation told Sputnik that the first launch of the Soyuz-5 rocket would be carried out in 2022 but the rocket would carry commercial spacecraft instead of the Federatsiya space vehicle. Last week, another source told Sputnik that the first launch of the Federatsiya spacecraft may take place in 2023.

"Now we are preparing our proposals for Roscosmos on the works that must be done in order to launch the spacecraft in an unmanned regime in 2022. Because now, if we are speaking about the state of the spacecraft, it could be sent to a cosmodrome in 2024. One should make great efforts to do that in 2022," Romanov told the Kommersant newspaper.

According to the manufacturer's general director, the issue was discussed during the recent meeting headed by Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin.

"We have eight experimental installations in Federatsiya, we have to make them, conduct tests. At the same time, there is a production cycle. Without experiments there can be no manned launches. We cannot risk people's lives," Romanov added.

The new manned Federatsiya spacecraft was designed by Energia to deliver people and cargo to low Earth orbit, as well as the Moon. Its crew will comprise up to four people. The ship will be able to stay up to 30 days in an automated flight mode, and up to a year as part of a space station system. Depending on the modification, the ship will be equipped with four or five seats. The first Federatsiya spacecraft, which will be 80-percent composite-built, is planned to be commissioned by 2021.