The Energiya Rocket Space Corporation suggests using the new Kliper spaceship to create an assembly shop for a lunar complex in orbit, Nikolai Sevastyanov, the chief of the Energiya Rocket Space Corporation, said on Thursday at the meeting to welcome the return from space of the eleventh main expedition to the ISS and of the third space tourist, reports Itar-Tass.
Sevastyanov said the use of the new means of space transportation would make space flights more accessible. “We create the new spaceship Kliper whose use will make it possible to broaden the market for space flights, so that not only professional cosmonauts but also researchers and commercial space tourists will be able to make such flights,” he said.
Sevastyanov believes the ISS now can have wider uses. “The ISS is a space port where research is conducted and new technologies for the ground are tested. The two novel tasks are to create industrial pads in orbit to try out technologies for a complex for flights to the Moon, as well as interplanetary technologies,” he said. The new tasks require permanent presence of a large number of people in space, which should be ensured by hips of the Kliper type.
Alain Fournier-Sicre, the head of the mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Russia, fully shares Sevastyanov’s views. He believes Kliper will be a comfortable ship on board which even researchers advanced in years will be able to make flights. Fournier-Sicre said the ESA aims to work out a joint flight programme with Russia. The Council of Ministers of the ESA will be held in December. It will make important decisions, also on this programme.
Regretting the fact that few European astronauts make space flights, Fournier-Sicre said the eleventh expedition to the ISS and the third space tourist, Gregory Olsen, worked also for the ESA. He said commander of the eleventh expedition to the ISS, Sergei Krikalyov, had the Matryoshka doll, the product of the ESA, for experiments lo study radiation effects, while Gregory Olsen made numerous experiments for the ESA.
Flight engineer of the eleventh expedition to the ISS, astronaut of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) John Phillips, also assisted the ESA, Fournier-Sicre said.
He expressed the hope that European astronauts Thomas Reiter of Germany and Leopold Eyharts of France now training in Star City would soon make space flights.
