Kliper is a proposed replacement for the Soyuz Spacecraft. Kliper
is designed being developed in Russia by Moscow’s space rocket
corporation Energia. It may be used for flights to the International
Space Station and the Moon.
The 14,000 kg Kliper is able to carry a six member crew and a 700
Two modifications of Kliper are proposed for use:
1. Load carrying hull will enable the spaceship to land on any
flat ground with a parachute.
2. Aircraft-Style Hull. The aircraft style modification is being
developed in collaboration with the Sukhoi Design Bureau. A winged
Kliper would be able to land only on an airfield.
Both modifications many be used. Kliper's configuration will be
changeable depending on the mission.
The Russian Federal Space Agency (FSA) is working on the project
to launch a new space shuttle called Kliper.
Rocket Booster Options
Three options are being considered for booster rockets for launching
the new Kliper space shuttle to orbit and they are:
1. Onega, a modified Soyuz rocket from a Plesetsk launch pad. It
is a proposed new generation rocket from Energia.
2. The new generation Angara booster rocket
3. Ukrainian Zenit from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The Kliper could be launched in the future from other launch pads,
including Kourou in French Guiana.
- On 16th September 2004, FSA deputy director Nikolai Moiseyev
announced that the Kliper project had been included in the federal
space program for 2005-15. He also mentioned if the program was
implemented successfully the first launch may take place in five
- The presidents of the Common Economic Space countries (Russia,
Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus) in September passed a decision on
setting up a space rocket corporation for joint use of the space
complex Kliper-Zenit and ordered the governments of their countries
to come up with concrete proposals by December 15, 2004.
- Russia's Kliper Space Shuttle was shown for the first time on
November 30, 2004.
- The new Russian space shuttle Kliper will be exhibited
as a full scale model at the
Le Bourget on June 13-19, 2005.
Did you know?
* The Soyuz Spacecraft provides human transport to the
International Space Station.
* Russian spacecraft traditionally use landing capsules which
descend on parachutes. The only Russian space shuttle project Buran
landed on an airfield. Buran shuttle made an unmanned spaceflight in
November 1988. Buran shuttle performed only 1 flight. It orbited the
Earth twice and landed automatically. Since the first flight it has
been located in storage at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Several other copies of the Russian shuttle were built as part of a
test program and through the years have all become known by the name
Buran. One of them is now used as an attraction in Moscow’s Gorky