Development of a rocket capable of reaching the moon will cost the Russian Federation 740 billion rubles

This is what the Federation spacecraft will look like.

Director General of "Roskosmos" Dmitry Rogozin the other day said that the cost of creating a super-heavy rocket for a flight to the moon would cost the budget 740 billion rubles. This amount includes the construction of a new launch pad, the production and launch of the first instance of the rocket, as reported by Vedomosti. According to preliminary data, the launch is planned to be carried out at the Vostochny cosmodrome. The President of Russia signed a decree on the creation of a launch vehicle in February last year, giving the task for implementation to Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, which is part of Roscosmos.

Rogozin said that the new super-heavy rocket will be able to deliver up to 20 tons of payload to the lunar surface, or else to output at least 27 tons of payload to the lunar orbit. All this will be needed to create the lunar orbital complex, which will allow researchers to explore the Earth’s satellite. The United States has similar plans, only NASA plans to build a station on the Moon itself. To implement the American lunar program, which was named Gateway, a transport system will also be needed to ensure the safe delivery of astronauts to the satellite. According to Rogozin, only Russia can create such a system. The US budget for the program Gateway is $ 21 billion, and the budget of the Russian lunar program will be protected until the end of this year.

Roscosmos is planning to implement a test project for the new Federation spacecraft in 2022-2025. By the end of this period, it is planned to complete the construction of the ship to the end, however, in order to raise it above the ISS, we need an extra heavy rocket. It is worth noting that the ship itself will receive a different name, as Rogozin said earlier.
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A year ago, RSC Energia announced that the flight tests of the rocket will be conducted from 2028 to 2032. In the case of successful tests, the program will provide an opportunity to create conditions for the development and exploration of the lunar surface. The implementation of the rocket and space complex will take place in several stages. At the first stage, the rocket will deliver to the lunar orbit cargo and manned transport ships and modules of the lunar orbital station, except for landing on the surface of the satellite.

According to Roscosmos calculations, the future rocket will significantly surpass the well-known Falcon Heavy launch vehicle from SpaceX in terms of carrying capacity. The latter can lift 64 tons of cargo into a low reference orbit of the Earth, while a new Russian-made super-heavy rocket will be able to lift from 88 to 108 tons of cargo.

Rogozin is confident that RSC Energia will be able to create a rocket by 2028 or even earlier if the project funding is stable. At the moment it is not included in the Federal Space Program. The general director of Roscosmos believes that a special subprogram will be needed for a new project.

The super heavy rocket will have three stages. The first will consist of the first stage of the Soyuz-5 medium-class rocket with RD-171 engines. Tests of the first stage are planned for 2022-2025. The second stage will function thanks to the RD-181 engines, which were previously supplied to the American Atlas rocket. The third innovative stage may be equipped with a hydrogen engine. If such an option is adopted for implementation, the rocket could deliver 37 tons of cargo to the lunar orbit.

“740 billion rubles. - a huge amount. Roskosmos, like any state-owned company, is interested in the development of budget funds, this is a civilian project, not a military one, which means that it is possible and necessary to conduct an independent financial audit, ”says Andrei Ionin, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics. “The super heavy rocket is not an end in itself, but a tool for the lunar program, there are no other tasks before it. Therefore, it would be good to know what costs are ahead for other components of the program, for example, the lunar orbital station - these are budget funds, the burden on the entire Russian economy. ”

It is known that the budget of the Federal Space Program for 2016-2025. It amounts to 1.4 trillion rubles, and this is without taking into account the construction of a super-heavy rocket. In view of the above project, 3 trillion rubles was requested from the budget.

Ionin said that the exploration of the moon does not yet bear any practical purpose. According to him, this is why the United States allocated too little budget for Gateway (not even in comparison with the work of the ISS for a period of 20 years). At that time, the participating countries allocated more than $ 150 billion in total. The American lunar program was also planned by former US President George W. Bush, but Barack Obama closed the project. And now, with Donald Trump, she is reborn again.

According to preliminary estimates by experts, the creation and launch of a super-heavy rocket will be the most expensive Roscosmos project. Thus, 61.2 billion rubles were allocated for the creation of the Soyuz-5 rocket, the construction of the first stage of the Vostochny cosmodrome cost the company 91.9 billion rubles. According to Rogozin, the construction of the second phase of the East for the launch of Angara launch vehicles will cost 38.8 billion rubles.