Kliper on the backburner

The requirements stipulated for the new piloted spacecraft in the Federal Space Program were so obviously tailored to RKK Energiya’s Kliper that many wondered if the tender was no more than a formality. However, in January 2006 the Russian Space Agency decided to extend the tender, asking the three companies to bring their proposals in closer agreement with the tender specifications. Finally, in a rather embarrassing move, the agency’s head Anatoliy Perminov announced at the Farnborough air show in England in July 2006 that the tender had been canceled without a winner. Instead, Russia would join forces with ESA to build an Advanced Crew Transportation System (ACTS), with RKK Energiya serving as the prime contractor on the Russian side. This is expected to become a much upgraded version of Soyuz incorporating European technology. An earlier invitation to ESA to join the development of Kliper had been turned down at an ESA ministerial meeting in December 2005.

Despite cancellation of the tender, RKK Energiya is continuing work on Kliper using its own resources. It has the full backing of Nikolay Sevastyanov, who suc­ceeded Yuriy Semyonov as head of RKK Energiya in May 2005. Sevastyanov holds out hope Kliper will eventually receive government funding and be ready to fly in 2015. However, there are signs of growing rifts between RKK Energiya and the Russian Space Agency, which considers Energiya’s plans overly ambitious and way beyond affordable limits. Only time will tell if the differences can be resolved and if Kliper will become the country’s first new piloted space transportation system since Buran.