/sci/ - Science & Math

Russia talks a big future in space while its overall budget is quietly cut
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https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/10/russia-talks-a-big-future-in-space-while-its-overall-budget-is-quietly-cut/
>The presentation had something of the feel of a Potemkin Village.
> The leader of Russia's space corporation, Yuri Borisov, discussed his country's future ambitions in space on Tuesday at the International Astronautical Congress. He spoke expansively about Russia's plans to build a new space station in low-Earth orbit, the Russian Orbital Station, as well as other initiatives.
> During the discussion, Borisov added that Russia is also hard at work on the "Sfera" megaconstellation to satisfy the country's large demand for communications. This constellation would include the capacity to provide direct-to-cell communications, which necessarily means that some of these satellites will be very large. Such projects cost billions of dollars at a minimum to get off the ground.
>In a PowerPoint slide accompanying Borisov's presentation, Roscosmos also advertised other, even grander visions. The slide showed a nuclear-powered deep space transport vehicle called "Nuklon" and two "prospective" launch vehicles named Amur-LNG and Korona.
> Every project proposed beyond the space station seems even more fanciful. Consider, for example, the Amur and Korona rockets. Russia has been talking publicly about the reusable "Amur" rocket for three years now. It looks similar to SpaceX's Falcon 9 and aims to have a reusable first stage. But there has apparently been zero progress toward developing the hardware.