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121-691: Crew Space Transportation System ( CSTS ), or Advanced Crew Transportation System ( ACTS ), was a proposed design for a crewed spacecraft for low Earth orbit operations such as servicing the International Space Station , but also capable of exploration of the Moon and beyond. It was originally a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Roscosmos , but later became solely an ESA project. This study

242-417: A spacecraft on a LVM 3 rocket and return them safely for a water landing at a predefined landing zone. On 15 August 2018, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi , declared India will independently send humans into space before the 75th anniversary of independence in 2022. In 2019, ISRO revealed plans for a space station by 2030, followed by a crewed lunar mission. The program envisages the development of

363-453: A Russian-European program, because the modular structure (see below) allows for a division of design responsibilities between the partners (for instance, Russia could be in charge of the overall design of the reentry capsule, while ESA works on the habitation module etc.). About €15 million were pledged for the CSTS program at ESA's regular meeting on June 21 and June 22, 2006. Further funding of

484-402: A Space Task Group to recommend follow-on human spaceflight programs after Apollo. The group proposed an ambitious Space Transportation System based on a reusable Space Shuttle , which consisted of a winged, internally fueled orbiter stage burning liquid hydrogen, launched with a similar, but larger kerosene -fueled booster stage, each equipped with airbreathing jet engines for powered return to

605-648: A cautionary note that "We needed the support from at least two states out of France, Italy and Germany. We didn't get it." What this means in practical terms remains to be seen; ESA officials are still pushing for Europe's involvement in the Kliper project. Very negative comments relative to Kliper were brought by the various national delegations at the December meeting, in particular by the French Minister of Research François Goulard . In short, there remain for

726-674: A crewed derivative of the ATV spacecraft into uncertainty. As of summer 2015, no known new developments on the CSTS/ACTS project had been disclosed to the public. In 2004, U.S. President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration , a program that included the United States return to the Moon by 2020 and a crewed mission to Mars by 2030. For these purposes the Orion spacecraft

847-491: A design and collaboration study in December 2005, mainly because certain member states felt that ESA would just be a minor industrial contributor to the program, while Russia would actually develop and design the Kliper spacecraft. On the Russian side, the concept of Advanced Crew Transportation System, ACTS, conceived as a sort of "Euro-Soyuz", emerged during 2006, when Russian authorities realized that their proposal to replace

968-591: A fully-autonomous orbital vehicle capable of carrying 2 or 3 crew members to an about 300 km (190 mi) low Earth orbit and bringing them safely back home. Since 2008, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has developed the H-II Transfer Vehicle cargo-spacecraft-based crewed spacecraft and Kibō Japanese Experiment Module –based small space laboratory. NASA is developing a plan to land humans on Mars by

1089-577: A general cooperation, not a cooperation in developing the Orion, the actual vehicle to be used for Moon missions, which would be an entirely American built spacecraft. Since 2004, ESA had been in talks with Roscosmos on cooperation for the development of Kliper , the Russian successor project to the Soyuz spacecraft , which has been in service since 1967. While ESA's management was enthusiastic about this cooperation, their member states turned down funding for

1210-664: A human into orbit independently. The goal of the second phase of CMS was to make technology breakthroughs in extravehicular activities (EVA, or spacewalk), space rendezvous , and docking to support short-term human activities in space. On 25 September 2008 during the flight of Shenzhou 7 , Zhai Zhigang and Liu Boming completed China's first EVA. In 2011, China launched the Tiangong 1 target spacecraft and Shenzhou 8 uncrewed spacecraft. The two spacecraft completed China's first automatic rendezvous and docking on 3 November 2011. About 9 months later, Tiangong 1 completed

1331-422: A picture released in December 2005 of what a possible Kliper interplanetary configuration might have looked like. The design was entirely theoretical but made for a view of where RSC Energia saw the Kliper operating, and how it might have done so. This configuration was unlike anything seen so far for a crewed space vehicle, with the solar arrays needed for electrical power vastly bigger than the habitable volume at

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1452-580: A runway at the Kennedy Space Center launch site. Other components of the system included a permanent, modular space station; reusable space tug ; and nuclear interplanetary ferry, leading to a human expedition to Mars as early as 1986 or as late as 2000, depending on the level of funding allocated. However, Nixon knew the American political climate would not support congressional funding for such an ambition, and killed proposals for all but

1573-462: A second-class partner. " In a July 2006 interview with New Scientist, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin however suggested interest in international cooperation in the general context of NASA's Moon exploration plans. " The US will return to the Moon but we think we will do it better, that it will be more rewarding for all, if it can do it in the company of as many of our ISS partners as we can, and with new partners. " In this statement Griffin speaks of

1694-520: A separate descent/ascent module and a detachable orbital module. The descent module somewhat resembles the American Apollo spacecraft command module while the orbital module resembles a man-rated version of the ATV. Manuel Valls, head of Policy and Plans Department in ESA's Directorate of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity, and Exploration Program noted on the question of available launch vehicles for

1815-698: A solo project modeling the ACTS after the ATV craft that carries supplies to the International Space Station. At the start of the new decade, Russian plans for the development of the PPTS became gradually postponed. In January 2013, NASA announced that ESA would build the service module for the Orion test flight Artemis 1 , which is a major step in international cooperation in deep space exploration. Subsequently, ESA signed an agreement with NASA that saw it shift part of its ATV development focus towards

1936-410: A space tug. Parom would have been a permanent orbital spacecraft awaiting Kliper in orbit, docking with it and then providing orbital manoeuvering and boosting Kliper to higher orbits in order to dock with the International Space Station . The Parom was planned to be indefinitely reusable, refueling itself via the cargo container, space station, or spacecraft that it is attached to. The Kliper program

2057-473: A third, successful attempt at crewed spaceflight. To achieve independent human spaceflight capability, China developed the Shenzhou spacecraft and Long March 2F rocket dedicated to human spaceflight in the next few years, along with critical infrastructures like a new launch site and flight control center being built. The first uncrewed spacecraft, Shenzhou 1 , was launched on 20 November 1999 and recovered

2178-591: Is far more effective [...] because we could use – and this is our intention – existing launch vehicles or launch vehicles with minimal development." This means that CSTS would have had a tight mass budget, as only launchers with a maximum payload capacity in the class of Ariane 5 , Proton or Angara will be available for a launch. With two launches and low Earth Orbit ( LEO ) docking that means that CSTS together with an Earth Departure Stage will not be able to weigh more than about 45 to 50 tonnes in LEO (note however that this

2299-415: Is just for the lunar spacecraft, a lunar lander is not integrated in this calculation). An ESA presentation from June 13, 2006 presents a lunar orbital mission of the CSTS spacecraft with 3 launches, of which two are propulsion modules to propel the spacecraft to a trans-lunar trajectory. Such a scenario, while more complicated than the 2-stage approach mentioned by Manuel Valls, gives more leeway in terms of

2420-561: Is meant to service the space station and to go between Earth and an orbit around the Moon with six crew members." Although there seemed to be a lot of enthusiasm for Kliper within Alan Thirkettle's team at ESA (as outlined in the above paragraph), on December 7, 2005, the European space summit of governmental officials of ESA member states declined to approve a 50-million-euro two-year study focusing on ESA's potential involvement in

2541-452: Is required. An abort would be possible during every phase of the launch with the limitation of the first seconds after launch. On return from space, Kliper's lifting body design would not only allow a smoother descent into Earth's atmosphere than the capsule design, such as Soyuz; but also permit control. RKK Energia claimed that the craft would be able to land in a predetermined one-square-kilometre area. Artistic impressions showed that

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2662-443: Is similar to the gap between the end of Apollo in 1975 and the first Space Shuttle flight in 1981, and is referred to by a presidential Blue Ribbon Committee as the U.S. human spaceflight gap. Since the early 2000s, a variety of private spaceflight ventures have been undertaken. As of November 2024, SpaceX and Boeing have launched humans to orbit, while Blue Origin has launched 8 crewed flights, six of which crossed

2783-493: Is sometimes criticized as imperialist and lacking. In addition to the lack of international inclusion, the inclusion of women and people of color has also been lacking. To make spaceflight more inclusive, organizations such as the Justspace Alliance and IAU -featured Inclusive Astronomy have been formed in recent years. The first woman to ever enter space was Valentina Tereshkova . She flew in 1963, but it

2904-530: Is the follow-on project of the RSA's and ESA's collaboration on a new space vehicle, this program is no longer connected to Energia's winged Kliper design. RSC Energia continued to pursue the project without Russian government support and announced that it would seek private investment for the craft. News reports in Russia indicated that Kliper was still expected to be ready for Russian Space Agency test flights around

3025-702: The Kibō Japanese Experiment Module and H-II Transfer Vehicle cargo spacecraft. As an alternative to HOPE-X, NASDA in 2001 proposed the Fuji crew capsule for independent or ISS flights, but the project did not proceed to the contracting stage. From 1993 to 1997, the Japanese Rocket Society , Kawasaki Heavy Industries , and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries worked on the proposed Kankoh-maru vertical-takeoff-and-landing single-stage-to-orbit reusable launch system. In 2005, this system

3146-643: The Constellation program included plans for retiring the Space Shuttle program and replacing it with the capability for spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit. In the 2011 United States federal budget , the Obama administration canceled Constellation for being over budget and behind schedule, while not innovating and investing in critical new technologies. As part of the Artemis program , NASA is developing

3267-542: The Indian Human Spaceflight Program , India was planning to send humans into space on its orbital vehicle Gaganyaan before August 2022, but it has been delayed to 2024, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) began work on this project in 2006. The initial objective is to carry a crew of two or three to low Earth orbit (LEO) for a 3-to-7-day flight in

3388-701: The International Space Station (ISS). On 15 October 2003, the first Chinese taikonaut, Yang Liwei , went to space as part of Shenzhou 5 , the first Chinese human spaceflight. As of March 2024, humans have not traveled beyond low Earth orbit since the Apollo 17 lunar mission in December 1972. Currently, the United States, Russia, and China are the only countries with public or commercial human spaceflight-capable programs . Non-governmental spaceflight companies have been working to develop human space programs of their own, e.g. for space tourism or commercial in-space research . The first private human spaceflight launch

3509-727: The Kármán line , the 100 kilometres (62 mi) altitude used by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) to denote the edge of space. In 1961, US President John F. Kennedy raised the stakes of the Space Race by setting the goal of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth by the end of the 1960s. That same year, the US began the Apollo program of launching three-man capsules atop

3630-530: The Kármán line . Virgin Galactic has launched crew to a height above 80 km (50 mi) on a suborbital trajectory. Several other companies, including Sierra Nevada and Copenhagen Suborbitals , have developed crewed spacecraft. SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic plan to fly commercial passengers in the emerging space tourism market. SpaceX has developed Crew Dragon flying on Falcon 9 . It first launched astronauts to orbit and to

3751-455: The Lynx single-passenger spaceplane since the 2000s, but development was halted in 2017. Participation and representation of humanity in space has been an issue ever since the first phase of space exploration. Some rights of non-spacefaring countries have been secured through international space law , declaring space the " province of all mankind ", though the sharing of space by all humanity

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3872-672: The Orion spacecraft to be launched by the Space Launch System . Under the Commercial Crew Development plan, NASA relies on transportation services provided by the private sector to reach low Earth orbit, such as SpaceX Dragon 2 , the Boeing Starliner or Sierra Nevada Corporation 's Dream Chaser . The period between the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011 and the first launch into space of SpaceShipTwo Flight VP-03 on 13 December 2018

3993-533: The Saturn family of launch vehicles . In 1962, the US began Project Gemini , which flew 10 missions with two-man crews launched by Titan II rockets in 1965 and 1966. Gemini's objective was to support Apollo by developing American orbital spaceflight experience and techniques to be used during the Moon mission. Meanwhile, the USSR remained silent about their intentions to send humans to the Moon and proceeded to stretch

4114-569: The Shuguang spacecraft. Nineteen PLAAF pilots were selected for this goal in March 1971. The Shuguang-1 spacecraft, to be launched with the CZ-2A rocket, was designed to carry a crew of two. The program was officially canceled on 13 May 1972 for economic reasons. In 1992, under China Manned Space Program (CMS), also known as "Project 921", authorization and funding was given for the first phase of

4235-454: The Tianhe core module , was launched into orbit by China's most powerful rocket Long March 5B on 29 April 2021. It was later visited by multiple cargo and crewed spacecraft and demonstrated China's capability of sustaining Chinese astronauts' long-term stay in space. According to CMS announcement, all missions of Tiangong Space Station are scheduled to be carried out by the end of 2022. Once

4356-662: The test flight phase of their development process. One large spaceliner concept currently in early development is the SpaceX Starship , which, in addition to replacing the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles in the legacy Earth-orbit market after 2020, has been proposed by SpaceX for long-distance commercial travel on Earth, flying 100+ people suborbitally between two points in under one hour, also known as "Earth-to-Earth". Small spaceplane or small capsule suborbital spacecraft have been under development for

4477-458: The 10-year period was to have been 425,000,000,000  ₽ (about US$ 15,000,000,000). The budget included the needed funding for the Kliper program. Thus in face of Europe's denial to fund a € 50,000,000 feasibility study for the Kliper project at the European space summit in December 2005, Russian space officials have announced that Russia would fund Kliper even without any European contribution. The most recent article on Kliper stated that

4598-686: The 1978 flight of Vladimir Remek. As of 2010 , citizens from 38 nations (including space tourists ) have flown in space aboard Soviet, American, Russian, and Chinese spacecraft. Human spaceflight programs have been conducted by the Soviet Union–Russian Federation, the United States, Mainland China , and by American private spaceflight companies. The following space vehicles and spaceports are currently used for launching human spaceflights: The following space stations are currently maintained in Earth orbit for human occupation: Most of

4719-553: The 2030s. The first step has begun with Artemis I in 2022, sending an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon and returning it to Earth after a 25-day mission. SpaceX is developing Starship , a fully reusable two-stage system, with near-Earth and cislunar applications and an ultimate goal of landing on Mars. The upper stage of the Starship system, also called Starship, has had 9 atmospheric test flights as of September 2021. The first test flight of

4840-498: The ACTS plan. As of late November 2008, the project funding had been limited to a feasibility study with a launch of an actual vehicle possible no earlier than 2017. In 2009, Russia decided it would go with a version of the original design of the CSTS and renamed it the Prospective Piloted Transport System (PPTS). ESA decided to go with an ACTS (Advanced Crew Transportation System), an evolution of

4961-631: The CSTS craft that would be an upgraded crewed version of the ATV spacecraft . In mid-2009 EADS Astrium was awarded a €21 million study to design a crewed variation of the European ATV vehicle which is believed to now be the basis of the ACTS design. Since early 2013, ESA and NASA have begun cooperation on developing the European Service Module for the current version of the Orion spacecraft . This has cast previous ESA efforts concerning

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5082-465: The CSTS spacecraft that "although nothing at this stage is definitive, [...] both the Russians and we think that it is only prudent, and most efficient and effective, to go with 2 stages and not one. The 1-stage has been done already with Saturn V and Apollo. To do that now would entail the development of quite a new launcher and that will take time and money like hell, if I may say. Going with two stages

5203-503: The CSTS spacecraft. It had not been decided what launcher would carry the spacecraft to orbit, however Manuel Valls indicated that beside a Russian rocket, Ariane 5 could possibly also function as the carrier rocket. At about the same time as FKA and ESA announced their plans for the CSTS spacecraft, the German space agency, DLR , together with EADS Astrium announced their support for the ATV evolution proposal. This proposal envisioned

5324-564: The CSTS' mass budget. EADS Astrium Space Transportation concepts for adapting the Ariane 5 ECB for lunar exploration could increase Ariane 5 LEO performance to 27 tonnes. These performance adaptions would entail the use of a composite solid rocket casing, and upgrades to the Vulcain Mk III and Vinci (ECSB) engines. Both the ESA's site at French Guiana and the planned Russian spaceport at Vostochny were considered as launch sites for

5445-663: The European Space Summit that the primary requirement of Europe's involvement in the Kliper project was to rely on two separate systems to support the ISS as had been proven vital after the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster in 2003. Dordain's remarks were echoed by Daniel Sacotte, ESA's director of human spaceflight, microgravity and exploration, in saying simply that "The Russians are not going to finance it, we will finance it from our side", despite adding

5566-559: The Farnborough Air show on July 25, 2006, that the collaborative study together with Roscosmos on the ACTS spacecraft would begin in September 2006 and end early in 2008, "So in 18 months' time we will have got[sic] a proposal to make to our ministers for the development of such a vehicle." It was confirmed that ESA's financial contribution to this study would be €15 million, shared among seven ESA member states. The work areas of

5687-483: The February 2004 press conference suggested a development budget of 10,000,000,000  ₽ (about US$ 400,000,000). In looking at costs for human space travel it was clear that the 10 billion rubles figure was a rather low estimate. In May 2005 The Guardian reported that costs were estimated to be roughly US$ 3,000,000,000 (for development and construction of Kliper until 2015) of which the bulk of US$ 1,800,000,000

5808-719: The ISS in May 2020 as part of the Demo-2 mission. Developed as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Development program, the capsule is also available for flights with other customers. A first tourist mission, Inspiration4 , launched in September 2021. Boeing developed the Starliner capsule as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Development program, which is launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch vehicle. Starliner made an uncrewed flight in December 2019. A second uncrewed flight attempt

5929-477: The Kliper crew module and - depending on the mission - a mission module or propulsion module. Although far-fetched, this corresponds to announcements by the Russian Space Agency that according to a lunar mission study, using the Soyuz , a landing on the Moon could be achieved within the next decade. Information on Kliper's beyond LEO mission capabilities were expanded further by RSC Energia, with

6050-461: The Kliper project. In denying funding for the study ESA members stated that, among other factors that seemed unfavourable, under the current Russian proposal Europe would not share control over the design of the program and would be limited to being a small industrial contributor. Jean-Jacques Dordain , ESA's Director General, put the refusal to fund the study into context: "It is not a question of member states for and member states against. I think

6171-474: The Kliper system, speculated on the contribution of Europe to the project in the following way: A further element of this process was made public on October 12, 2005, when various press agencies revealed that JAXA , the Japanese space agency, had been officially approached by Russia to participate in the project. JAXA has made it clear that they are more likely to join the project if ESA does so first, which

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6292-595: The Kliper would have resembled a cylinder topped by a cone. Originally, landing proposals involved both a landing by parachute and as an alternative, in a modified version, a landing on a runway similar to an aircraft, or the Space Shuttle. Leading designer Vladimir Daneev commented on this issue in June 2005: Kliper, as a vehicle alone, would have been primarily a crewed spaceship, carrying six cosmonauts and payloads of up to 700 kilograms (mostly experiments and other equipment used for carrying through experiments in orbit) and

6413-411: The Moon, and sent Frank Borman , James Lovell , and William Anders into 10 orbits around the Moon in Apollo 8 in December 1968. In 1969, Apollo 11 accomplished Kennedy's goal by landing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon on 21 July and returning them safely on 24 July, along with Command Module pilot Michael Collins . Through 1972, a total of six Apollo missions landed 12 men to walk on

6534-422: The Moon, half of which drove electric powered vehicles on the surface. The crew of Apollo 13 — Jim Lovell , Jack Swigert , and Fred Haise —survived an in-flight spacecraft failure, they flew by the Moon without landing, and returned safely to Earth. During this time, the USSR secretly pursued crewed lunar orbiting and landing programs . They successfully developed the three-person Soyuz spacecraft for use in

6655-673: The Russian Federal Space Agency, which became known as the Roscosmos State Corporation . The Shuttle-Mir Program included American Space Shuttles visiting the Mir space station, Russian cosmonauts flying on the Shuttle, and an American astronaut flying aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for long-duration expeditions aboard Mir . In 1993, President Bill Clinton secured Russia's cooperation in converting

6776-540: The Russian Space Agency's preference for Energia's lifting body proposal this part of the article concentrates entirely on Energia's design for Kliper. Kliper's design was another attempt to solve the geometric problems of spacecraft. Soyuz has an Orbital Module, a hollow sphere, to be used for eating and hygiene, and an airlock located above the Reentry module (the capsule), with the docking mechanism at

6897-475: The Russian Space Agency's tender for a new spacecraft, Energia announced that this would push its Kliper proposal's first flight — if developed at all — back further. In the event, the development project did not continue. On September 28, 2005 the BBC reported that Alan Thirkettle, head of ESA's Human Spaceflight Development Department, stated that Kliper would be used: "For future exploration, when we have

7018-406: The Shuttle, possibly to be followed by the space station. Plans for the Shuttle were scaled back to reduce development risk, cost, and time, replacing the piloted fly-back booster with two reusable solid rocket boosters , and the smaller orbiter would use an expendable external propellant tank to feed its hydrogen-fueled main engines . The orbiter would have to make unpowered landings. In 1973,

7139-627: The Soyuz with the Kliper was too ambitious in terms of funding. After the December 2005 rejection of Kliper by ESA, Jean-Jacques Dordain emphasized that a collaboration with Russia on a new spacecraft could still be decided in June 2006. On June 13, 2006 the press reported that the winged Kliper project had been replaced by a study to develop a capsule under the Advanced Crew Transportation System program that ESA would fund. This rejection by ESA notwithstanding, Kliper

7260-641: The US launched the Skylab sortie space station and inhabited it for 171 days with three crews ferried aboard an Apollo spacecraft. During that time, President Richard Nixon and Soviet general secretary Leonid Brezhnev were negotiating an easing of Cold War tensions known as détente . During the détente, they negotiated the Apollo–Soyuz program, in which an Apollo spacecraft carrying a special docking adapter module would rendezvous and dock with Soyuz 19 in 1975. The American and Soviet crews shook hands in space, but

7381-552: The US's reusable Space Shuttle orbiter , which they called Buran -class orbiter or simply Buran , which was designed to be launched into orbit by the expendable Energia rocket, and was capable of robotic orbital flight and landing. Unlike the Space Shuttle, Buran had no main rocket engines, but like the Space Shuttle orbiter, it used smaller rocket engines to perform its final orbital insertion. A single uncrewed orbital test flight took place in November 1988. A second test flight

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7502-493: The US. China was the third nation in the world, after the USSR and US, to send humans into space. During the Space Race between the two superpowers, which culminated with Apollo 11 landing humans on the Moon, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai decided on 14 July 1967 that China should not be left behind, and initiated their own crewed space program: the top-secret Project 714, which aimed to put two people into space by 1973 with

7623-530: The aim of 'bolting' extra capabilities for more advanced missions onto Kliper at a later date. Each orbiter was intended to make 25 flights prior to retirement. In late 2005 Kliper's design was changed again. In order to fit the Kliper on the planned upgraded version of the Soyuz-2 rocket, labeled the Soyuz-2-3, Kliper would be 'split up' into two spacecraft, the Kliper crew vehicle and Parom (rus. "ferry" ),

7744-440: The centre. It was also unclear what the mode of propulsion was. The very large solar array suggested an ion propulsion system might have been contemplated for such a mission, though it might also simply be that there was another reason for such a large array, such as increased power for better telemetry transmission rates over large distances. The present Soyuz rocket would not be able to lift Kliper into low earth orbit, because

7865-543: The construction is completed, Tiangong will enter the application and development phase, which is poised to last for no less than 10 years. The European Space Agency began development of the Hermes shuttle spaceplane in 1987, to be launched on the Ariane 5 expendable launch vehicle. It was intended to dock with the European Columbus space station . The projects were canceled in 1992 when it became clear that neither cost nor performance goals could be achieved. No Hermes shuttles were ever built. The Columbus space station

7986-399: The construction of which took place from 1986 to 1996. Mir orbited at an altitude of 354 kilometers (191 nautical miles), at an orbital inclination of 51.6°. It was occupied for 4,592 days and made a controlled reentry in 2001. The Space Shuttle started flying in 1981, but the US Congress failed to approve sufficient funds to make Space Station Freedom a reality. A fleet of four shuttles

8107-431: The decades, a number of spacecraft have been proposed for spaceliner passenger travel. Somewhat analogous to travel by airliner after the middle of the 20th century, these vehicles are proposed to transport large numbers of passengers to destinations in space, or on Earth via suborbital spaceflights . To date, none of these concepts have been built, although a few vehicles that carry fewer than 10 persons are currently in

8228-447: The decision could not be taken for reasons that are not linked to Clipper itself. The decision could not be taken because of budgetary restraints." Dordain concluded that he was convinced that European support for Kliper was vital for ESA's future involvement in space transport and that a favourable decision can be achieved until June 2006. In concluding "We need two transportation systems in the world", Dordain also outlined shortly after

8349-404: The delivery of nuclear weapons , producing rockets large enough to be adapted to carry the first artificial satellites into low Earth orbit . After the first satellites were launched in 1957 and 1958 by the Soviet Union, the US began work on Project Mercury , with the aim of launching men into orbit. The USSR was secretly pursuing the Vostok program to accomplish the same thing, and launched

8470-430: The design and appearance and then would come up with new proposals for Roscosmos. In 2008 Vitaly Lopota shared his vision for the new Russian spacecraft. He mentioned two possible options: a space capsule, better for missions to the Moon and Mars, and a lifting body design for low Earth orbit missions. According to his new plans, instead of Kliper, the new Orel capsule would be developed from 2009 to 2017-2018. Given

8591-785: The development of a service module for the Orion spacecraft . This module is derived from the existing service module of the ATV resupply spacecraft. Human spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight ) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft , often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be remotely operated from ground stations on Earth, or autonomously , without any direct human involvement. People trained for spaceflight are called astronauts (American or other), cosmonauts (Russian), or taikonauts (Chinese); and non-professionals are referred to as spaceflight participants or spacefarers . The first human in space

8712-482: The development of a modified ATV with a reentry capsule that would be return cargo from the ISS by 2013 and in a second phase a crewed vehicle based on this modified ATV by 2017. Those dates were later revised to 2015 and 2020 respectively. This proposal was presented to ESA's governing body at its meeting in November 2008 and received funding for an initial development phase of a cargo return vehicle that may be ready by 2017. The ATV Evolution concept may have contributed to

8833-585: The end of the CSTS project. However, the head of the ESA denies that the ATV evolution plan is an alternative and talks are still ongoing as to whether or not to continue funding the ACTS plan. In 2009, Russia had decided to keep the general design of the CSTS spacecraft for their new crewed spacecraft, which eventually developed into the PPTS project. In the meantime, the European Space Agency took on

8954-502: The first American in orbit, aboard Friendship 7 on a Mercury-Atlas rocket . The USSR launched five more cosmonauts in Vostok capsules , including the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova , aboard Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. Through 1963, the US launched a total of two astronauts in suborbital flights and four into orbit. The US also made two North American X-15 flights ( 90 and 91 , piloted by Joseph A. Walker ), that exceeded

9075-463: The first flight tests were planned for 2011, with the first crewed flights in 2012 and the Soyuz being phased out over time until 2014. An article on December 3, 2005 cited the president of the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation Nikolai Sevastyanov that "the first regular lift-off is scheduled for 2012, while a complete transport system will be in place by 2015." After the termination of

9196-430: The first human into space, the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin . On 12 April 1961, Gagarin was launched aboard Vostok 1 on a Vostok 3KA rocket and completed a single orbit. On 5 May 1961, the US launched its first astronaut , Alan Shepard , on a suborbital flight aboard Freedom 7 on a Mercury-Redstone rocket . Unlike Gagarin, Shepard manually controlled his spacecraft's attitude . On 20 February 1962, John Glenn became

9317-429: The first manual rendezvous and docking with Shenzhou 9 , which carried China's first female astronaut Liu Yang . In September 2016, Tiangong 2 was launched into orbit. It was a space laboratory with more advanced functions and equipment than Tiangong 1 . A month later, Shenzhou 11 was launched and docked with Tiangong 2 . Two astronauts entered Tiangong 2 and were stationed for about 30 days, verifying

9438-468: The first spacewalk, but overcame the early Soviet lead by performing several spacewalks, solving the problem of astronaut fatigue caused by compensating for the lack of gravity, demonstrating the ability of humans to endure two weeks in space, and performing the first space rendezvous and docking of spacecraft. The US succeeded in developing the Saturn V rocket necessary to send the Apollo spacecraft to

9559-584: The first woman to enter space through the United States program.Since then, eleven other countries have allowed women astronauts. The first all-female spacewalk occurred in 2018, by Christina Koch and Jessica Meir . These two women had both participated in separate spacewalks with NASA. The first mission to the Moon with a woman aboard is planned for 2024. Despite these developments, women are still underrepresented among astronauts and especially cosmonauts. More than 600 people have flown in space but only 75 have been women. Issues that block potential applicants from

9680-495: The fully integrated two-stage system occurred in April 2023. A modified version of Starship is being developed for the Artemis program . Kliper Designed primarily to replace the Soyuz spacecraft , Kliper was proposed in two versions: as a pure lifting body design and as spaceplane with small wings . In either case, the craft would have been able to glide into the atmosphere at an angle that produces much less stress on

9801-501: The head of the Roscosmos , Anatoly Perminov, had met with Jean-Jacques Dordain to discuss the CSTS proposal; however, no agreement was signed between the Russians and Europeans as a result. On 18 July 2006, Perminov announced that the Russian tender for the Kliper spacecraft had been cancelled. It was noted that the ACTS proposal had gained more support among ESA member states than the Kliper design. Jean-Jacques Dordain announced on

9922-439: The human occupants than the current Soyuz. Kliper was intended to be designed to be able to carry up to six people and to perform ferry services between Earth and the International Space Station . In February 2004 Nikolai Moiseyev, the deputy director of Russian Federal Space Agency (FSA) told journalists that the Kliper project had been included in the Russian federal space program for 2005-15. At that point he announced that if

10043-490: The limits of their single-pilot Vostok capsule by adapting it to a two or three-person Voskhod capsule to compete with Gemini. They were able to launch two orbital flights in 1964 and 1965 and achieved the first spacewalk , performed by Alexei Leonov on Voskhod 2 , on 8 March 1965. However, the Voskhod did not have Gemini's capability to maneuver in orbit, and the program was terminated. The US Gemini flights did not achieve

10164-483: The lunar programs, but failed to develop the N1 rocket necessary for a human landing, and discontinued their lunar programs in 1974. Upon losing the Moon race they concentrated on the development of space stations , using the Soyuz as a ferry to take cosmonauts to and from the stations. They started with a series of Salyut sortie stations from 1971 to 1986. In 1969, Nixon appointed his vice president, Spiro Agnew , to head

10285-407: The next day, marking the first step of the realization of China's human spaceflight capability. Three more uncrewed missions were conducted in the next few years in order to verify the key technologies. On 15 October 2003 Shenzhou 5 , China's first crewed spaceflight mission, put Yang Liwei in orbit for 21 hours and returned safely back to Inner Mongolia , making China the third nation to launch

10406-582: The objective of going to the Moon, it is important to have several possibilities to go there, and within this framework of cooperation to have our own access to orbit around the Moon." In the same context, Alain Fournier-Sicre, head of the ESA permanent mission in the Russian Federation, also stated that: "The objective is to have a vehicle which is more comfortable than the Soyuz capsule which will be used with pilots and four passengers… It

10527-532: The past decade or so; as of 2017 , at least one of each type is under development. Both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin have craft in active development : the SpaceShipTwo spaceplane and the New Shepard capsule, respectively. Both would carry approximately a half-dozen passengers up to space for a brief time of zero gravity before returning to the launch location. XCOR Aerospace had been developing

10648-425: The planned Space Station Freedom into the International Space Station (ISS). Construction of the station began in 1998. The station orbits at an altitude of 409 kilometers (221 nmi) and an orbital inclination of 51.65°. Several of the Space Shuttle's 135 orbital flights were to help assemble, supply, and crew the ISS. Russia has built half of the International Space Station and has continued its cooperation with

10769-606: The preceding years. In May 2005, rumours started in the press that Europe would join the Kliper project in a specially funded venture that would be part of the Aurora Programme . These rumours turned out to be correct when both Russian and European space officials announced their intent to cooperate on Kliper during the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget on June 10, 2005. Vladimir Taneev, the leading designer of

10890-449: The program was implemented successfully, the first launch would take place in five years' time. Kliper had been developed since 2000 and reportedly relied heavily on research studies as well as proposals for a small Russian lifting body spacecraft from the 1990s. Externally its design was comparable to the cancelled European minishuttle Hermes or the NASA study X-38 . It was planned to be

11011-438: The programs, and limit the space missions they are able to go on, are, for example: Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, in 1983. Eileen Collins was the first female Shuttle pilot, and with Shuttle mission STS-93 in 1999 she became the first woman to command a U.S. spacecraft. For many years, the USSR (later Russia) and the United States were the only countries whose astronauts flew in space. That ended with

11132-509: The project would have incurred 16,000,000,000  ₽ (about US$ 600,000,000) in development costs, 11,000,000,000  ₽ of which will be financed by the government and 5,000,000,000  ₽ by contractors. In 2004 it was announced that it was likely that Kliper would make its first launch as early as 2010 or 2011, the same time the Space Shuttle was scheduled to be retired. It was reported by BBC News on September 27, 2005, that

11253-429: The purpose of the flight was purely symbolic. The two nations continued to compete rather than cooperate in space, as the US turned to developing the Space Shuttle and planning the space station, which was dubbed Freedom . The USSR launched three Almaz military sortie stations from 1973 to 1977, disguised as Salyuts. They followed Salyut with the development of Mir , the first modular, semi-permanent space station,

11374-467: The spacecraft (the version designed without Parom) was expected to weigh between 13 and 14.5 metric tons (with payload and crew) whereas Soyuz only has a lifting capacity of around 8 metric tons. It was originally planned to heavily enhance the Soyuz rocket - a project that was labelled the Onega rocket or Soyuz-3. Until late 2005 it was much more likely that Kliper would have used an Angara-A3 rocket, which

11495-663: The study was to have been asked for at the next ESA meeting in July. Both partners, Russia and ESA, would have borne their own costs in the first 2 years of the program. "We are now entering a phase of working with the Russians where we will establish a preliminary design of the vehicle, establish all the legal framework for the operation, delineate the work share for the parties, and outline the aspects of development, " said Manuel Valls , head of Policy and Plans Department in ESA's Directorate of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity, and Exploration Program. On 4 July 2006, Russian media reported that

11616-464: The study were: After the initial study phase was completed in May 2008, FKA and ESA announced that the overall design chosen was a conical crewed capsule with an ATV-derived service module. The CSTS spacecraft should have had a total mass of 18,000 kg. However, the capsule and service module combined mass may have been less. The ACTS follows the format of the Russian Soyuz craft by having

11737-402: The successor to the Soyuz spacecraft, which has been built as various versions since 1961. In 2005 Kliper was displayed in several air shows around Europe and Asia, in order to recruit international partners to co-fund and co-develop the spacecraft. The Russian Space Agency especially looked to Europe as the European Space Agency ( ESA ) had become its major partner in space activities during

11858-492: The time being member states strongly committed to Kliper, and others just as strongly opposed. The long-term view remains uncertain. At the end of 2005, Roskosmos announced that a tender for Kliper would be held in January 2006 between RKK Energia , Khrunichev and Molniya with a selection date of February 3, 2006. Concerns about the bids led to a delay in the process, with a resubmission deadline of March 2006 and selection

11979-470: The time, the only humans in space are those aboard the ISS, which generally has a crew of 7, and those aboard Tiangong, which generally has a crew of 3. NASA and ESA use the term "human spaceflight" to refer to their programs of launching people into space. These endeavors have also formerly been referred to as "manned space missions", though this is no longer official parlance according to NASA style guides, which call for gender-neutral language . Under

12100-493: The top. In the event of an emergency, it would be lifted away from the rocket along with the reentry module, and the fairing over the spacecraft was designed to successfully split apart either circumferentially just below the reentry module in such an emergency or longitudinally if the flight should be successful. Kliper was designed with the Orbital Module below its reentry module, and the docking mechanism below that. This

12221-634: The use of the Parom as a space tug . With regard to launch sites for Kliper, further information became available as of October 2005, with a planning-stage declaration from Nikolai Moiseev, Deputy Director of the Russian Space Agency that Kliper could have been launched from ESA's Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana . Though this aim had already been suggested, the comment was made in the context of facility upgrades for Kourou that are already under way since 2003 and expected to be finished in 2007 with

12342-420: The viability of astronauts' medium-term stay in space. In April 2017, China's first cargo spacecraft, Tianzhou 1 docked with Tiangong 2 and completed multiple in-orbit propellant refueling tests, which marked the successful completion of the second phase of CMS. The third phase of CMS began in 2020. The goal of this phase is to build China's own space station, Tiangong . The first module of Tiangong ,

12463-439: The year 2012. The project was officially halted in June 2007, after the biggest proponent of the project, Nikolai Sevastyanov, was dismissed from the position of the president of RSC Energia. The newly appointed president of RSC Energia, Vitaly Lopota, confirmed that Kliper would not be displayed at the 2007 MAKS air show. He said that Energia would spend more time on the project analysis, perform additional dynamic modeling, revise

12584-505: Was Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin , who launched as part of the Soviet Union's Vostok program on 12 April 1961 at the beginning of the Space Race . On 5 May 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space, as part of Project Mercury . Humans traveled to the Moon nine times between 1968 and 1972 as part of the United States' Apollo program , and have had a continuous presence in space for 24 years and 26 days on

12705-468: Was a suborbital flight on SpaceShipOne on June 21, 2004. The first commercial orbital crew launch was by SpaceX in May 2020, transporting NASA astronauts to the ISS under United States government contract. Human spaceflight capability was first developed during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR). These nations developed intercontinental ballistic missiles for

12826-404: Was a Russian program that could still have been funded entirely by FKA – although this was unlikely if Russia and Europe would really have gone forward with the CSTS concept together. In mid-July 2006, the Kliper tender process was cancelled, after having no winners. Reasons given for choosing the CSTS over Kliper included that the former would offer Europe the possibility to be a full partner in

12947-417: Was built: Columbia , Challenger , Discovery , and Atlantis . A fifth shuttle, Endeavour , was built to replace Challenger , which was destroyed in an accident during launch that killed 7 astronauts on 28 January 1986. From 1983 to 1998, twenty-two Shuttle flights carried components for a European Space Agency sortie space station called Spacelab in the Shuttle payload bay. The USSR copied

13068-431: Was conceived as a basic strategic plan to keep a viable European human spaceflight program alive. CSTS had completed an initial study phase, which lasted 18 months from September 2006 to spring 2008, before the project was shut down before an ESA member state conference in November 2008. However, the head of the ESA denies that the ATV evolution plan is an alternative and talks are ongoing as to whether to continue funding

13189-439: Was in doubt after ESA members rejected a study for Europe's involvement in the Kliper project in December 2005. The addition of Japan would make Kliper a truly multinational project, potentially combining the rugged reliability of Russian launchers with Japanese computer technology. A greater pan-national consensus would have allowed for a lighter funding burden on each participant as well. Announcements and speculations following

13310-669: Was launched in May 2022. A crewed flight to fully certify Starliner was launched in June 2024. Similar to SpaceX, development funding has been provided by a mix of government and private funds. Virgin Galactic is developing SpaceshipTwo , a commercial suborbital spacecraft aimed at the space tourism market. It reached space in December 2018. Blue Origin is in a multi-year test program of their New Shepard vehicle and has carried out 16 uncrewed test flights as of September 2021, and one crewed flight carrying founder Jeff Bezos , his brother Mark Bezos , aviator Wally Funk , and 18-year old Oliver Daemen on July 20, 2021. Over

13431-407: Was made possible by constructing a reentry module broader than the orbital module, so that a pair of rocket nozzles for orbital maneuvering could have been fitted alongside it, as the later Salyut space stations had. In connection with this new design, Kliper would feature a launch escape system that would enable it to detach from the carrier rocket if an abort of the mission during orbital ascent

13552-487: Was not until the 1980s that another woman entered space. At the time, all astronauts were required to be military test pilots; women were not able to enter this career, which is one reason for the delay in allowing women to join space crews. After the rules were changed, Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman to enter space; she was also from the Soviet Union . Sally Ride became the next woman to enter space and

13673-516: Was planned by 1993, but the program was canceled due to lack of funding and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Two more orbiters were never completed, and the one that performed the uncrewed flight was destroyed in a hangar roof collapse in May 2002. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought an end to the Cold War and opened the door to true cooperation between the US and Russia. The Soviet Soyuz and Mir programs were taken over by

13794-481: Was planned to stay in orbit for approximately 15 days independently and for up to 360 days if docked to the International Space Station. This highlighted both the Russian/European and the American change in space transportation philosophy. Rather than focusing on the lifting of cargo and a crew, in the same way as the Space Shuttle or Buran , the Russian space agency adopted a 'people first' philosophy with

13915-620: Was proposed as the Russian-European counterpart to the American Orion Spacecraft and was therefore designed (similar to the Orion) to be part of a modular system that enabled it to be both a LEO -shuttle type vehicle as well as part of a spacecraft able to go beyond Earth orbit to the Moon and even Mars (there were outline suggestions of lunar applications in September 2005). The modular design would have included

14036-643: Was proposed for space tourism. According to a press release from the Iraqi News Agency dated 5 December 1989, there was only one test of the Al-Abid space launcher, which Iraq intended to use to develop its own crewed space facilities by the end of the century. These plans were put to an end by the Gulf War of 1991 and the economic hardships that followed. Under the George W. Bush administration,

14157-533: Was reconfigured as the European module of the same name on the International Space Station. Japan ( NASDA ) began the development of the HOPE-X experimental shuttle spaceplane in the 1980s, to be launched on its H-IIA expendable launch vehicle. A string of failures in 1998 led to funding reductions, and the project's cancellation in 2003 in favor of participation in the International Space Station program through

14278-454: Was rescheduled for April 2006. Following further delays, the tender was cancelled on 18 July 2006. In late July 2006, the Russian Space Agency and the European Space Agency agreed to collaborate on a different project to develop a new spacecraft. They decided to fund a study under a program labelled Crew Space Transportation System ( CSTS ) which started in September 2006 and evaluate a capsule type concept, derived from Soyuz. While this program

14399-630: Was scheduled to make its first launch in 2012 (the Angara program has been delayed and Angara-A3 may not be developed in light of the funding of the development of Soyuz 2-3) or possibly a Zenit rocket that is built in Ukraine . At the end of 2005, Kliper's design was changed again (as outlined above) and the most likely solution for a carrier rocket became the Soyuz 2-3 , an upgraded Soyuz 2 rocket. This enhanced Soyuz should have been able to launch Kliper into space because of weight reduction resulting in

14520-471: Was speculated to come from Europe. Different sources in 2005 have reported that the money needed for the program would be € 1,500,000,000 (about US$ 1,800,000,000) and on December 12, 2005 an article stated it would be € 1,000,000,000 (solely in relation to development costs). On July 14, 2005 the Russian government approved the national space program for 2006 to 2015 with a budget of 305,000,000,000  ₽ (about US$ 11,000,000,000). The whole budget for

14641-483: Was to be developed. ESA officials inquired whether they could be part of this program for exploration, however received a negative response. Jean-Jacques Dordain , ESA's General Director stated with regard to this rejection by NASA: " I have been told by Mike Griffin and Marburger that the CEV is not for international cooperation. But if Europe is not involved in the next-generation transportation systems, we will stay forever

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