Russia urges European space body to take part in creating reusable spacecraft

Text of report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS

Moscow, 2 April: The head of the Energiya rocketry and space corporation (RSC), Yuriy Semenov, has invited the European Space Agency to take part in the development of a Russian reusable spacecraft.

“I invite Europeans to take part in the creation of the spacecraft Kliper, which has been developed by our corporation,” he said at a round table devoted to the 15th anniversary of cooperation in manned cosmonautics between the European Space Agency and Russia.

“It will be the centrepiece of our cooperation,” Semenov noted. He said the issue of which booster rocket to use for taking the Kliper into orbit could be tackled in the near future.

“Let’s start joint work first and then decide on the launch pad and booster rocket – Soyuz or Ariane – for the spacecraft,” Semenov said.