Age of the Space Planes Is Coming

 

According to the site RussianSpaceWeb.com [paid subscription], Ruscosmos has started an intense investigation into and engineering of small space planes, similar to the US military’s X-37 project. In effect, these will be similar to a miniaturized and updated version of the space shuttles of old. News of this new interest was first voiced by Roscosmos minister Mr. Rogozin in an interview with PIA News, on 7 August 2020.

“…need to create a reusable ship of a different design — something along the lines of Byrana [Soviet space shuttle] with the ability to land it on an airstrip. I have given such a task to our engineers. The corporation “Energia” and other collectives will now be offering [us] these types of variants on space technology.” Minister Rogozin

This announcement was made during a presentation of planning for the next ten years of space developments by Roscosmos. Amoungst other ambitious projects for the next decade was the construction of a Russian only space station, new lunar missions and equipment for those missions, new super heavy lift rockets and an overall injection of drive into the space industry and related technologies.

These automated space planes will be used to perform various tasks, such as repairs and inspections of satellites and delivery of very sensitive satellites into orbit. As well, such minishuttles can be used directly for spying and reconnaissance of opponents. It is also not beyond the imagination that they could be used as weapons platforms, whether with kinetic or electro-kinetic weapons to destroy satellites and other ships in low orbit, or as missile carriers to drop ordnance directly down on enemies. At this point, globally only the S500 system coming into production would have the capacity to defend against such attacks and would be able to close a countries low orbit space.

What is known of foreign projects : american and chinese, is that their models have a mass of 5–12 tons and an ability to carry 1–5 tons of cargo into low orbit. Roscosmos has set a goal of 2022 to have the target company chosen, along with its project and the completion of the engineering works.

Of course, if one followed the development of other projects such as the hypersonic missiles and low mass, long range cruise missiles or the Armata tanks that Russia has fielded, one would expect that work had begun several years before any such announcements and was already well underway if not in closing stages. However, Mr. Rogozin and Roscosmos have a tendency of talking a lot but showing much more curtailed or limited results. This is quite the opposite of Minister Shaigu and the Ministry of Defense. Only time will tell.