Russia's Clipper Space Shuttle Features at Moscow Air Show
Posted on: Monday, 15 August 2005, 15:00 CDT
Excerpt from report by Russian external TV service NTV Mir on 15 August
[Presenter] Several world aviation records at once will be broken in the sky over Moscow Region this week. This was promised today by Russian pilots who are taking part in the MAKS-2005 air and space show. Markets on earth are being conquered through competition in the sky and in space. There are just hours left until the opening of the show, which is among the four largest in the world. Vladislav Sorokin reports from Zhukovskiy.
[Correspondent] The air show hasn't opened yet and already there is a queue outside the Rosaviakosmos [Federal Space Agency] stands. No-one has seen the Clipper space shuttle like this yet - a life- size technical model on which tests are being conducted. As distinct from the outdated Soyuz, the Clipper will be able to take up to eight people on board. If the shuttle, as is planned, flies into space in 2012 the price of a tourist ticket into orbit will be halved, from 20m to 10m dollars.
[Nikolay Sevastyanov, president of Energiya company] This is where the pilot who carries out the landing, in the atmosphere, sits, and here is the pilot who carries out the orbital part. And here there are four seats for passengers.
[Correspondent] If anything, it's too roomy inside for a spacecraft. The living quarters contain a bio-toilet, among other things. The Clipper is the most ambitious project of the modern Russian space industry, it is being developed for flights to the International Space Station but they also planning to use it to fly to the moon.
[Sevastyanov] We should be able to land on the moon within 15 years, and within 25 years - 10 years more - this is for building a base and developing the natural resources of the moon. We are currently drawing up projects for extracting minerals on the moon, including the isotope helium-3 for the thermonuclear power stations of the future. [Passage omitted]
Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union
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