PUBLIC MARKS with tags kliper & lang:en

This has spurred us to develop the proposed concept, which provides implementation of the following four phases of national manned space navigation: - development of an economically efficient reusable Clipper space transportation system. - near-earth space industrialization based on ISS Russian Segment development. - implementation of the Moon program, which initiates the Moon industrialization. - implementation of manned exploratory missions to Mars.

Work could begin in the first week of September on the European Space Agency/Russian Federal Space Agency (RFSA) crew transport system programme, once financial contributions and legal documents are agreed by ESA member states this month.

Kliper is also being designed to operate completely autonomously, without the need for pilot control. "It's got to be capable of automatic flight," Thirkettle says. Some on the team hope Kliper would be able to travel to the Moon, "but I think there's a little bit of science fiction in that", he says.

Kliper (Клипер, often also referred to as Clipper) is a spacecraft proposed in 2004 by Russian rocket and space company RKK Energia. Designed primarily to replace the Soyuz spacecraft, it is a reusable space plane with small wings that glides into the atmosphere at an angle that produces much less acceleration on the human occupants than the current Soyuz. The craft can carry up to six people and can be used for ferry services between earth and the International Space Station, but is also planned to be the crew module for further trips to the Moon and Mars. The primary focus for its development was to reduce costs for manned space flights by using the reusable spaceship approach.