Yenisei launch vehicle

2021

Russia refused to create a superheavy Yenisei rocket for flight to the moon

September 15, 2021 it became known about the termination of the technical design of the superheavy rocket for flights to the moon "Yenisei." This was announced by the Director General of the Samara Rocket and Space Center (RCC) Progress Dmitry Baranov.

In the RCC Progress, work on the Elements of the STK has really been stopped, "he said in a conversation with RIA Novosti.

Russia refused to develop a superheavy Yenisei rocket for flight to the moon

At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that the work was discontinued at the stage of technical design. They, as Baranov specified, were planned to be completed in October 2021. According to the general director of the RCC "Progress," work can resume if the state corporation "" Roskosmos makes an appropriate decision.

By mid-September 2021, the RCC, together with Roskosmos, "is working to clarify the program for creating a space rocket system of a super-heavy launch vehicle."

According to RIA Novosti, instead of an oxygen-kerosene superheavy rocket, a superheavy-class methane carrier can be created in Russia: six side blocks will be placed around the central one - all with the RD-182 engine (powerful methane engines) - and the upper stage based on the RD-0169 (methane engine). According to the interlocutor, the initiative to switch to methane fuel from kerosene-oxygen is a personal initiative of the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin.

Roscosmos Executive Director for Science Alexander Bloshenko said that Russia will need 400 billion rubles in order to deliver man to the moon using Angara rockets and without taking into account the payload. For these purposes, it will be necessary to finalize the hydrogen version of the Angara so that it can raise a lightweight version of the Eagle spacecraft. Bloshenko recalled that the cost of the lunar program using the Yenisei is about 1.7 trillion rubles, of which 900 billion will be used to develop the payload and about 800 billion to create the rocket itself.^[1]

RAS recommended postponing the creation of the Yenisei rocket for flight to the moon

The Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) on space recommended postponing the creation of a super-heavy rocket under a manned expedition to the moon.

"The leadership of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the state corporation Roscosmos should appeal to the President of the Russian Federation with a proposal<...> to postpone the creation of a superheavy-class space rocket system to a later date," the council said in a decision, a copy of which is available to RIA Novosti

Earlier it was assumed that, according to the presidential decree, the super-heavy rocket will be assembled by 2028.

2020

Start of design, contracted

In mid-December 2020, Roscosmos signed a contract with the Progress Rocket and Space Center for the development of the Yenisei super-heavy launch vehicle for flights  to the moon. More details here.

Financing in the amount of 1.5 billion rubles for the development of the Yenisei launch vehicle

October 21, 2020 it became known that Russia will spend 1.5 billion rubles on a rocket for flights to the moon. We are talking about the development of a super-heavy Yenisei launch vehicle, according to the public procurement website.

According to these materials, it is planned to allocate 537.4 million rubles this year and 930 million rubles in 2021 to develop a technical project for a super-heavy rocket. Thus, 1.47 billion rubles will be allocated for the creation of the project.

As RIA Novosti was told, Roscosmos is designing the Yenisei super-heavy rocket and its more lifting version Don. The first is able to deliver a payload weighing at least 100 tons to low Earth orbit, 27 tons to the moon. Don will be able to deliver 140 tons and 33 tons of cargo, respectively.

Russia will spend 1.5 billion rubles on the Yenisei rocket for flights to the moon

Andrei Ionin, chief analyst at GLONASS and corresponding member of the Tsiolkovsky Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, believes that the cost of the rocket in the process of creation will increase at least three times and increase to 50-60 billion dollars (almost 4 trillion rubles). The expert included the construction of a lunar ship, the refinement of the cosmodrome and the creation of a lunar base, lunar tractors and avatar robots.

Earlier, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, had already made a statement regarding the cost of the Yenisei project. Then he said that the creation of a Russian super-heavy carrier would be expensive, "under a trillion rubles." This is money for all stages of work from design to manufacture, including the creation of its own launch table on Vostochny and the corresponding infrastructure.

President of the RFVladimir Putin signed a decree on the creation of a super-heavy rocket in early 2018. The first launch is scheduled for 2028, the launch complex is planned to be built at the Vostochny cosmodrome.^[2]

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