Russia Targets Launch Of New Amur Methana Powered Rocket

Soyuz 2 rocket and the space rocket launcher tower Kosmodrom Vostochny in Oblast Amur, Russia, in a photo of April 28, 2016. (Vladislav Larkin via Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Russia targets 2030 to be the first launch of the Amur-LNG, a domestically made rocket powered by methane with reusable launch rides, according to Russian Trade Minister Denis Manturov.

"This project is being implemented with an organizational approach and a new technology basis that will significantly reduce its costs... we are targeting its inaugural launch by 2030," Manturov said at a Russian Cosmonautic Day commemoration event reported by ANTARA from Sputnik, Friday, April 12.

The Amur rocket is currently being developed by the "Progress" Space Rocket Center in the city of Samara, the minister said.

The design of the Amur rocket began in 2020 based on a request from state-owned space company Roscosmos. The rocket will have a re-use launch vehicle and is equipped with an RD-0169 rocket fueled by oxygen and liquid methane.

Roscosmos head Yuri Borisov previously said that the reusable launch vehicle could potentially be used up to 100 launches.

Manturov said Russia currently has more than 250 satellites in space and plans to launch 100 new satellites this year.

"More than 20 satellites have been launched in 2024 to enlarge our satellite clusters, and more than 100 will be launched before the end of this year. Thus, we hope to launch 123 satellites, with 70 of them small satellites," the minister said.

In June 2023, Roscosmos Head said that the Russian satellite cluster consisted of 225 satellites.

In addition, Manturov said, based on preliminary calculations, around 600 billion rubles (Rp. 101.26 quadrillion) would be allocated from the Russian State Budget to make a very large rocket that would be used in launches to the Moon and Mars.

"The project will be implemented in 2025--2023, and its inaugural flight test is scheduled for 2033," he said.

Cosmonautics Day was celebrated in Russia and a number of former Soviet Union countries on April 12 to commemorate the first manned space flight by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961.

Meanwhile, the same date is also commemorated by the international community as International Space Flight Day.