The Clipper, a six-person spacecraft similar to the U.S. Space Shuttle, is designed to replace the Soyuz and Progress carrier rockets in making regular flights to the International Space Station and even the Moon and Mars. It will carry two professional astronauts and up to four passengers.
"We want to build the Clipper, but in the first stage of the project development proposed by the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation we will modernize the Soyuz spacecraft by installing new digital control systems," Nikolai Sevastyanov said.
"In the second stage we are planning to build a new space transport Parom (Ferry), and in the third stage we will build the Clipper space shuttle," he said.
Director of the Russian Space Agency, Anatoly Perminov, said in July that the agency had canceled a tender for the Clipper shuttle after it was decided that the project would be managed by Energia alone, with recommendations from the European Space Agency.
The Clipper's first lift off is scheduled for 2012, with the first manned flight expected a year later.
