Comparison - Kliper Comparison of Soyuz and two variants of Kliper in cutaway views Credit: © Mark Wade

The Kliper manned spacecraft replacement for Soyuz was first mentioned at a Moscow news conference on 17 February 2004. The 14.5 tonne reusable lifting body would be used as a space station ferry and lifeboat, or could operate independently to shuttle tourists to space. Assuming the Russian government provided 10 billion roubles of financing, Kliper and its new Onega launch vehicle could fly as early as 2010.

It was revealed that RKK Energia had begun the work on the design in 2000, at the request of the Russian Space Agency. The result was a brief outline of the proposed design. However, although it was said that the vehicle 'may' replace the Soyuz by 2010, this would require 10 billion roubles of investment. There was no substantive funding for the project and any major work would be dependent on enabling resolutions (and funds) from the office of the Russian President and the Russian government.

Launch vehicle would the 'Onega'. This was a hitherto-unrevealed massive improvement of the reliable Soyuz. In order to achieve a payload double that of the current vehicle, it would seem a high-energy Lox/LH2 upper stage would be needed. Such an improvement was proposed as far back as July 1962 (the Molniya 8K78L) but never developed.

The Kliper itself was a reduced-sized version of an earlier unique design envisioned for launch on the Angara or Zenit launch vehicles in the 1990's (see Energia Spaceplane 1990's). This was larger and had the re-entry vehicle mounted nose-down in the launch vehicle. Key features of the Kliper were:

• Missions: Delivery of crews and cargo to space stations and their return to earth; space station lifeboat; autonomous missions to orbit for space research or tourism

• Launch mass: 14.5 tonnes. Payload: two pilots, up to four passengers, up to 700 kg cargo. Landing mass: 9.5 to 10.0 tonnes.

• Launch sites: An existing pad at Baikonur would be modified initially. A pad at Plesetsk, or the new Soyuz pad at Kourou could be modified eventually to accommodate the Onega.

• The spacecraft consisted of three major modules:
  • The SAS abort tower. Permanent lugs for the mounting of this were located on the nose of the spaceplane
  • The reusable re-entry vehicle. The crew entered through a hatch aft, in the base of the glider, and were seated in two seats in the first row for the pilot and co-pilot, and three seats in the second row for the passengers. There was space behind the second row for payload for a fourth passenger in an emergency. The RV had a total mass of 9800 kg and had a 'flatiron' configuration similar to the American Asset configuration of the 1960's. The Kliper lifting body was said to be capable of a cross-range of 1,000 km during which the forces on the crew would not exceed 2 G's and the maximum stagnation temperature would be 3000 deg K. Final landing was accomplished by a parasail system. Automatic guidance would glide the spacecraft to a thump-down on land to within 1 km of the aim point. The RV was capable of 25 reuses without substantial refurbishment.
  • The expendable PAO service module. This essentially consisted of a Soyuz orbital module mounted within a cyclindrical fairing. The modified Soyuz BO orbital module provided the usual living quarters and universal docking collar and system for use with the ISS. Arranged around the orbital module were the propellant tanks of the main and RCS propulsion systems, oxygen and water for up to ten days of autonomous operations in orbit, and lower-value electrical and avionics systems. Mounted on the top of the service module were solar panels to provide electricity. The service module would have a total mass of 4700 kg.

The Kliper seems to be derived from work done in Russia in the 1990's on a range of lifting-body manned recovery solutions. These included the Russian Air Force's Tsiolkovskiy institute's VKK configuration that was to be launched by Zenit-2 but owed something to Chelomei's Kosmoplan and Raketoplan designs of the 1960's. Kliper itself harked back to Energia's MTKVA 'Glushkolyot' pre-Buran design and the Mars 1986 lander. All of these solutions affirm the bureau's long and abiding preference for manned semi-ballistic re-entry vehicles with parachute landings (as opposed to winged solutions with runway landings).

Logically the Kliper would be launched by the Russian Angara booster, supposedly still in development by Khrunichev. The proposal of the Onega booster would seem to be a bid to reopen the competition, by proposing a 'lower cost' launch vehicle using proven R-7 technology.

One Kliper variant studied had a truly unique configuration. Unlike virtually every other manned spaceplane ever proposed, the crew would be seated with their backs to the nose of the glider and the glider mounted nose-down on the launch vehicle. Assuming a completely autonomous landing system, this actually made sense from the standpoint of crew physiology. It also solved the problem of docking the re-entry vehicle since the standard androgynous docking system was located at the forward end of the spacecraft and could have been recovered for reuse. In the end, the final Kliper configuration followed the a more conventional, and less reusable solution. Docking systems were moved to a jettisonable BO orbital module derived from that of Soyuz. The glider was mounted nose to the sky, without a docking system, on the booster.

Many thanks to Anatoly Zak, Vojko Kogej, and Joachim Wienecke for contributing information and images to this article.

Crew Size: 6. Design Life: 10 days. Typical orbit: 390 km circular, 51.6 deg inclination. Length: 10.00 m. Maximum Diameter: 3.06 m. Span: 3.06 m. Habitable Volume: 20.00 m3. Mass: 14,500 kg. Payload: 700 kg. Electrical System: Solar panels. Associated Launch Vehicle: Onega.

• Pravda news service web site, Web Address when accessed: http://newsfromrussia.com/.