The head of the Russian spacecraft manufacturer RKK Energia promised on Thursday to demonstrate a mock-up of a new manned spaceship at the August 16-21 Maks-2011 air show to be held in Zhukovsky, near Moscow.
"There will be a model. As for a full-scale model - what's the point? We have time and we are working to plan. There is no point in spending additionally on a demonstration," RKK Energia chief Vitaly Lopota said.
Energia won a tender to design and develop the piloted spacecraft in April 2009. It is expected that several modifications of the spaceship will be built. One will be designed for Earth and Lunar orbits, another to repair spacecraft, while a third will remove outdated spacecraft from orbit.
Trials will begin in 2015. Lopota has said that the new spacecraft will boast landing capabilities ten times greater than Soyuz, which was designed in the Soviet era.
Source: RIA Novosti
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