Kliper (Клипер) is a spacecraft proposed in 2004 by Russian rocket and space company RKK Energia. Designed in the first place to replace the Soyuz spacecraft, it is a reusable space plane without 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 seven people and can be used for ferry services between earth and the International Space Station, or for providing paying tourists short trips in orbit.

FSA deputy director Nikolai Moiseyev has told journalists that the Kliper project had been included in the federal space program for 2005-15. If the program is implemented successfully the first launch may take place in five years’ time, the official told the Itar-Tass news agency.

Its design is another attempt to solve the geometric problems of spacecraft design. Soyuz had an Orbital Module, a hollow sphere, to be used for eating and hygiene, and as an airlock, located above the reentry module (the capsule), with the docking mechanism at the top. In the event of an emergency, it would have to be lifted away from the rocket along with the reentry module, and the fairing over the spacecraft had to be designed to successfully split apart either circumferentially just below the reentry module in such an emergency or longitudinally like a banana were the flight successful. Kliper has the Orbital Module below its reentry module, and the docking mechanism below that. This is made possible by having the reentry module wider than the orbital module, so that a pair of rocket nozzles for orbital maneuvering can be fitted alongside it, as the later Salyut space stations had. No American spacecraft had anything like the Orbital Module, except for the Docking Module of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, which was stored separately.

The lifting body design would not only allow a smoother descent into earth's atmosphere, it would also allow some steering. RKK Energia claims the craft would be able to land in a pre-determined one square kilometer area. Artist impressions show the Kliper will resemble a cylinder topped by a cone. However, images that would enable its capacities as a lifting body to be determined have not yet been released.

Its projected lifespan is 25 flights.

External links

• Images and information at Russian Space Web
• Images and information at Astronautix
• Full-size Kliper mock-up photos from RSC Energia presentation on November 30, 2004. Also see the thread at Новости Космонавтики forum about this presentation (in Russian).

• Energija's Nikolaj Brjuchanov and ESA's Joerg Feustel-Buechl on Kliper in ARD (German TV)--April 2004 -- [1] (in German)

• Mosnews - Russia Prepares Launch of New Space Shuttle (with image of barebone Kliper)