Very similar to our “BOR”: Russian designers presented a spaceplane project

The ship resembled an unmanned orbital rocket plane that had already flown in the 80s

A new means for flights to the space station was announced recently at the Royal Readings at MSTU. Bauman. None other than the General Director of RSC Energia, Vladimir Solovyov, spoke about it.

He presented the spaceplane as a means of delivering cargo and people to the new Russian Orbital Station (ROS). This is an aircraft with a deflectable swept V-shaped wing. It will be launched into orbit using a medium-class launch vehicle, for example, Angaroy A3.

According to Solovyov’s speech, this vehicle will have to complement the ROS transport and technical support systems.

In particular, the spaceplane will increase flight safety, since it will be able to land at all launch sites due to the possibility of lateral maneuver of 1500-1700 kilometers, and will reduce overloads for astronauts during the descent phase due to a smoother entry into the descent trajectory. Its reusability will help reduce production costs and make space tourism more accessible: both by reducing the cost of the flight and by reducing the health requirements of tourists. By the way, the spacecraft is designed for the flight of four people.

The spaceplane, according to Solovyov, will be able to dock with one of the modules of the ROS station. Let us remind you that the launch of the first ROS module is scheduled for 2027.

The general designer’s report came as a surprise even to representatives of the space industry. The experts we interviewed found similarities between the presented spaceplane and the Soviet space satellite of the BOR-4 type (an unmanned orbital rocket plane). It was created as part of the Spiral aerospace system for the Energia-Buran program in order to test the thermal protection of Buran with a similar configuration. In appearance, BOR-4 was a smaller copy of the Buran shuttle.

The first rocket plane was launched on June 3, 1982 from the Kapustin Yar cosmodrome, using the K-65M-RB5 launch vehicle. Having completed 1.25 orbits around the Earth, it splashed down in the Indian Ocean, from where it was later recovered by Soviet specialists. After that, he made several more successful flights in automatic mode.

In Yeltsin’s times, the concept of our “BOR-4” “flowed” overseas. The Dream Chaser ship appeared there. How the ex-head of the Ilyushin company commented on MK at one timeActual State Advisor of the Russian Federation 3rd class Alexei Rogozin, the similarity of the American reusable ship with the Soviet shuttles is not accidental: after the collapse of the USSR, American developers had the opportunity to study all the design documentation at NPO Molniya…

Almost a copy of the BOR, the Dream Chaser ship of the SpaceDev company was preparing for flight back in 2020, but due to problems associated with quarantine due to the coronavirus, it was postponed several times. According to recent reports, Dream Hunter will make its first flight to the ISS in April 2024.