* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Kliper

Blobrana · L

The European Space Agency (ESA) is to support the Russian concept of a future multiple-use spacecraft, the Kliper.
During talks between heads Anatoly Perminov of Roskosmos and Jean-Jacques Dordain of ESA, the parties said international cooperation would enable the new spacecraft to make a first manned flight as soon as in 2011.

The Kliper will be used at the International Space Station and in future missions to Moon and Mars.
The Kliper, according to Perminov, "could provide for long-term cooperation in manned space operations."
"This spacecraft that can be launched from European as well as Russian space centres could become a crucial element in the research of Solar System planets" - Anatoly Perminov.

Dordain promised ESA would get other countries involved in the Kliper project.
According to Daniel Sacotte, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration, ESA would support the Russian project and promised to submit the cooperation plan to the ESA Council Meeting at Ministerial Level in December.

Perminov's deputy Nikolai Moiseyev said that the spacecraft, the launch vehicle, and auxiliary starting and maintenance systems would be developed for launches from Russian space centres and from Kourou, a European space centre in French Guiana

Blobrana · L

The European Space Agency (ESA) is considering a proposal to cooperate with Russia on the development of a new manned spacecraft that could give ESA for the first time its own independent means of launching humans into space.
The British newspaper The Observer reported that the ESA Council will take up a proposal in the next week to support the development of Kliper (or Clipper), a new manned spacecraft that Russian company Energia has been designing as a potential successor to the Soyuz spacecraft.
ESA would contribute £1 billion over a ten-year period to help fund development of Kliper; the report indicates that Russia is also seeking funding from Japan, India, and Canada.
A final decision on ESA participation will be made at an ESA ministerial meeting in December.

The Clipper has been designed to fly to and from the International Space Station and take crews to spacecraft being assembled in orbit as parts of future manned missions to the Moon and Mars.

Crucially, co-operation with Russia would give Europe some independence in manned space flight. At present, the European Space Agency (ESA) - of which Britain is a key member - has to request seats on US or Russian spacecraft.
"We have to go cap in hand and say, Please, sir, can we put one of our people in space and often get told no. Europe is going to have to take the next step and develop a way to put men and women into space on our own. The alternative will be to sit back and watch countries like China get to the Moon while we do nothing. "- Alan Thirkettle, of the ESA's directorate of human spaceflight.
If Europe decides to join Russia's Clipper project, a proposal to be outlined before the ESA council in the next week, it will mark a turning point in relations among space powers.

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