The private Russian company Kosmokurs, which is currently developing a reusable spacecraft for suborbital flights, has promised to carry out the first commercial tourist launch in 2025.
"The first flight of the prototype (rocket and suborbital ship) should take place in 2023, the first" flight "with tourists in 2025," commented the CEO of the company Pavel Pushkin in a conversation with the TASS news agency.
The head of "Kosmokurs" added that tests of the rocket and the descent capsule will begin even earlier - in 2022, and this year, by the summer, the company plans to submit the preliminary design of the apparatus for examination to Roskosmos.
“In 2021,“iron”should be made, in 2022, tests should already be underway. The preliminary project will be delivered to Roscosmos by this summer, in April-May. There he really has to undergo an examination,”he said.
Pushkin noted that within the framework of the preliminary project, the company deeply worked out various technical nuances.
“At the moment, we are already actively involved in the preparation of production and experimental facilities. The first units are already in production for testing,”he added.
The entire program - from the start of the project to the first tourist flight - is estimated at $ 150-200 million. Interestingly, at the moment the company has only a few tens of millions of rubles, and where it is going to get the remaining required amount, the head of "Kosmokurs" did not specify.
“We don't have such a budget yet. At the moment, several tens of millions of rubles have been invested in "Kosmokurs". So far, this money is enough for us to develop further,”he said in a conversation with TASS journalists, adding that the company has one investor.
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The reusable complex for suborbital tourist flights will consist of an 80-ton rocket and a 7-ton spacecraft. The main components of the propellant for the rocket will be oxygen and alcohol, the accompanying component is nitrogen. The possibility of reactive landing of the ship's capsule using its engines is being considered.
“Now experts are comparing these systems and deciding which one is better. We have consulted with Roskosmos on this matter, they are ready to consider the option of a jet landing,”said Pushkin.
According to him, Kosmokurs specialists have already begun to create stands in Moscow and the Moscow region to test the rocket engines, which will send the ship with tourists on a suborbital flight. In terms of the control system, the company cooperates with NPO Automatics from Yekaterinburg.
It is assumed that as part of a tourist flight, a crew of six tourists and one instructor-steward will make a 14-minute ascent to an altitude of 180-220 km. After being in a state of zero gravity for 5.5 minutes, tourists will be sent back on the device. The cost of one ticket is expected to be $ 250,000. The company expects to carry out up to 115 launches per year by 2030, that is, two launches per week. According to preliminary estimates, the project will become profitable in about seven to ten years from the start of the first tourist flights.
Nikolay Khizhnyak