MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th August, 2020) It would be more cost-effective to launch small satellites atop private ultralight rockets from mobile ground-based missile systems rather than classic cosmodromes, Russia's National Technical Initiative's (NTI) working group said, raising the idea of creating such a "spaceport on wheels."
"As for a spaceport ... a private and mobile one. Ideally, a rocket that has a launch mass of up to 20 tonnes can, in principle, be launched from a wheel chassis; this is not 300 tonnes," Roman Zhits, a leading specialist of the NTI's infrastructure center Aeronet, said at a roundtable in Moscow.
The moderator suggested that the launch vehicle configuration would be similar to Russia's Iskander mobile short-range ballistic missile system.
The director general of private-owned Russian space firm Sputnix, Vladislav Ivanenko, intervened, saying that the launch complex would resemble the one used for the Yars intercontinental ballistic missile.
"So it turns out that to develop such business as services of launching small spacecraft atop an ultralight rocket, it would also be good to have a private spaceport on wheels, roughly speaking," Zhits concluded.
The NTI is a long-term state program launched in 2014 to ensure Russia's global technical leadership and create environment for relevant startups. The initiative brings together representatives of relevant businesses and experts.
The group, in particular, intends to finance several projects for super-light rockets to finally choose the best of them. Earlier, the NTI was said to be planning to allocate $150,000 in 2020 to develop at least three such projects. Currently, Russia does not have ultralight rockets.
