Everyone seems to be launching and landing rockets these days.
Last week, China joined the club of countries that have launched an orbital mission and brought its booster safely back to Earth, which is just the beginning of public and private ventures in that country aggressively pushing into rocket reuse. Also in Asia, Japan’s space agency has been conducting hop tests, and Honda recently performed vertical reuse tests.
In the United States, of course, SpaceX launches and lands reusable rockets every few days. Blue Origin, although its New Glenn booster is temporarily grounded, has also demonstrated the ability to both land and re-launch a large orbital booster. Other US companies, including Stoke Space, Rocket Lab, and Relativity Space, are all making credible progress toward partially or fully reusable rockets.
So what about Russia, which boasts a storied history of spaceflight and conducted the world’s first orbital launch nearly seven decades ago? There was some news this week from Russian space officials, but it does not exactly bolster confidence.
Waiting on Amur
Nearly six years have now passed since the state-backed Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, unveiled plans to develop a reusable rocket called “Amur-LNG.” Clearly designed in response to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, Amur was intended to have a reusable first stage, methane-powered engines, and be capable of delivering 10.5 metric tons to low-Earth orbit in reusable mode.
At the time, Russian space officials said they planned to debut the rocket in 2026, so basically right about now.
This week, in an interview with the RBC business publication, a senior Russian rocket official provided some new information about the developmental timeline for the Amur rocket. Dmitry Baranov, Roscosmos’ Deputy Director General for Rocket Programs, said the current focus is on developing a “demonstrator” for the first stage of the rocket.
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