A powerful engine and an affordable price will allow the Soyuz-5 carrier rocket, currently being developed by Moscow, to outperform other space-launching nations, despite sanctions trickery, Russian space boss Dmitry Rogozin said.
The new rocket will be aimed at “capturing the [global] commercial market,” the head of Roscosmos told reporters on Friday.
Rogozin said he was confident that the Soyuz-5 will sell well because its low price tag will allow it to compete with similar US-made rockets. Its cost must be affordable enough that, even with the help of “all economic policy tricks by our rivals, they wouldn’t be able to lower the price to a level to compete with us.”
Moscow is seeking new buyers of its space technology, after the US banned its companies from using Russian-made rockets for launches, starting from 2023. Roscosmos blasted the move as “unfair competition by Washington.”
READ MORE: Pentagon to ban US companies from using Russian space launches & satellites
The Soyuz-5, also known as Irtysh, is a new, medium-class carrier rocket set to make its debut launch by 2022. Russian media earlier reported that manufacturing of the rocket began this week. In terms of thrust, Rogozin has touted the developed engines as “unparalleled.”
The rocket is part of the larger Feniks (‘Phoenix’) project designed to build a space carrier vehicle replacing the current Zenit-2 rocket series. The Soyuz-5 is expected to be capable of carrying up to 17 tons of cargo into space.
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