We have already reported that the S7 company intends to create a reusable rocket based on the Soyuz-5 medium-class launch vehicle. Moreover, Roscosmos will take part in the project. As the RIA Novosti online publication now reports, the head of the state corporation, Dmitry Rogozin, shared some details about this initiative.
The future carrier now appears under the name Soyuz-5 Light. We are talking about the development of a light commercial version of the Soyuz-5 rocket: in such a modification, the first stage will be reusable. The proposed design will reduce the cost of launching the payload into orbit, which will make the carrier more attractive to potential customers.
βThey [the S7 group] will be very useful to us in terms of creating the Soyuz-5 Light, a light commercial version of the rocket, its next stage of creation. We want to move on to the reusability stage. Now this can not be done, but at the next stage it can be done with them. It seems to me that there is ground for work there, βRIA Novosti quotes the words of Mr. Rogozin.
"Soyuz-5", we recall, is a rocket with two stages. It is planned to use the RD171MV unit as the first stage engine, and the RD0124MS engine as the second stage engine.
Flight tests of the Soyuz-5 carrier are scheduled to begin in 2022. When launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the rocket will be able to launch up to 18 tons of cargo into low Earth orbit.
Source: 3dnews.ru