The prospective Soyuz-5 carrier rocket will have twice the payload capacity and be one and a half times more economical than its predecessor, the Soyuz-2, according to Dmitry Bakanov, head of Roscosmos.
The Soyuz-5 will put twice as much payload into low Earth orbit compared to the Soyuz-2-17 tons instead of 8.7 tons-and, accordingly, the cost (of putting one kilogram into orbit) will fall from 500 to 300 thousand rubles.
According to Bakanov, although the Soyuz-5 demonstrates significant improvements in payload capacity and economy, this indicator "does not fully reach" the level of economy of the American Falcon 9 rocket.
The development of the Soyuz-5 is aimed at strengthening Russia's position in the field of space technology and increasing competitiveness in the international arena. The new rocket is expected to be an important step in the development of the Russian space program.
Earlierwww1.ru reported that Roscosmospostponed the development of the Angara-A5V rocket.
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