The design work for the reusable "Amur-SPG" rocket is fully completed, next is the actual assembly, said Leonid Mikhailenko, acting general director of RCC "Progress". The first flight is scheduled for 2031. The rocket is expected to return to Earth, like the landing stages of Elon Musk's Falcon 9 rocket.
The plant for "Amur-SPG" is already being prepared. RCC "Progress" is ready to increase capacity and plans to attract an additional 600 people.
History of the "Amur-SPG" project
"Amur" has a whole development history behind it. In October 2020, Roscosmos and RCC "Progress" signed a contract for the development of a preliminary design for a space rocket complex with the first Russian reusable methane rocket "Amur". The rocket will have a reusable first stage and will be launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur Region. In March 2023, the state corporation announced the continuation of the development of "Amur-SPG".
In October 2024, the editorial board reported that the technical design of the rocket was planned to be completed in the second quarter of 2025: the work proceeded in three stages, the first of which was handed over to the customer back in 2023 – at the same time, Dmitry Baranov, General Director of RCC "Progress", warned that it was impossible to predict the start of experimental design work yet.
In the spring of 2025, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced the preparation of the Vostochny Cosmodrome to receive the new rocket and the creation of an assembly line for satellites. At the same time, "Amur-SPG" was positioned as Russia's answer to SpaceX's reusable rockets: methane engines, a reusable first stage, and a focus on reducing the cost of commercial launches.
The dates for the first launch have been repeatedly revised. In May 2026, it became known that flight tests were officially postponed to 2031, although in April of the same year, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov named 2028 as the target date for the launch of an experimental prototype of the reusable stage.