3 ms·
They're the only ones putting people on the space station. I'd say yes. Not to mention they supply the engines for a few different american rockets.
by soperj 8y ago
They're the only ones putting people on the space station. I'd say yes. Not to mention they supply the engines for a few different american rockets.
- azernik 8y agoThat is, again, riding on the coattails of Soviet designs; they're only providing one engine model abroad (the RD-180 for the American Atlas V), and that one is a two-decade-old relatively-slight modification (two-chamber instead of four-chamber) of a late-Soviet design. In terms of actual new technology, there's just the Soyuz-2 (just coming into service now, and the first in the Soyuz family to use digital instead of analog control systems) and the new Angara rocket family. Angara will be the real test of new Russian technology development. Payload and cost of the 1.2/A5 are in theory about the same as reusable Falcon 9/Heavy; operational launches are expected to start next year. If it manages to get good reliability and cadence, that will be the real proof that Russia is still competitive.