RKK Energiya im S Koroleva : Federatsia is the new Russian spacecraft name

Federatsia is the new Russian spacecraft name

January 15, 2016

Today, on January 15, 2016, the jury chaired by General Director of State Corporation Roscosmos Igor Komarov announced the results of a competition for the best name for the new Russian manned transport spacecraft.

Andrei Smokotin from Kemerovo, the first who suggested name Federatsia was the winner. By the jury decision, name Federatsia was recognized as the best of three 'finalists' of this competition (Gagarin, Federatsia, Vektor) and will be an official name for this new spacecraft. Names Gagarin and Vektor can be used in the future for other projects in rocket-space industry of Russia.

Federatsia is ideally suited for a series of new spacecraft of our country. After all, Russia is a federation consisting of 85 subjects and each of them will be able to give its name to one spacecraft.

The jury voting was preceded by public voting which was attended by 35105 people who suggested about 6000 original versions of names, among which the Organizing Committee of the competition elected ten for public voting: Gagarin, Vektor, Federatsia, Astra, Galaktika, Rodina, Zodiak, Mir, Zvezda and Lider.

Competition for the best name for the new Russian spacecraft was organized by RSC Energia involving Roscosmos and URSC in late August 2015. The author of name Federatsia will receive the main prize - a trip to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in spring 2016 and the presence at the launch of the Soyuz manned transport spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). The jury awarded Evgeny Vlasov from Moscow and Aleksei Podmolodu from Ulan-Ude who first suggested names Gagarin and Vektor that reached the final. Evgeny Vlasov and Aleksei Podmolodu were the second and the third in the competition.

A series of new transport spacecraft will be a continuation to develop the Russian technologies for space exploration and will allow Russia to continue the human work in near-earth orbit and provide the conditions required for manned flights to the Moon.

The new generation manned transport spacecraft developed by RSC Energia is designed to deliver people and cargo to the Moon and the orbital stations in near-earth orbit. The spacecraft is reusable, the latest technologies which are unique in world cosmonautics are used to develop this spacecraft. In particular, the return vehicle of this manned transport spacecraft is made of composite materials, reusable docking assembly (RDA) is provided. The up-to-date onboard electronics will allow to perform the tasks of spacecraft rendezvous and docking more efficiently, improve the crew safety in phases of launch and descent to the Earth. The manned transport spacecraft crew will consist of up to four persons. The spacecraft can perform an autonomous flight for up to 30 days and the duration of its flight as part of the orbital station is up to 1 year. The total weight of the spacecraft during the flight to the orbital station will be equal to 14.4 t (19 t when flying to the Moon), the return vehicle mass is 9 t. The spacecraft length is 6.1 m. Its rated g-load during the descent is 3 g. To inject this spacecraft into orbit it is planned to use heavy class launch vehicle Angara-A5V.

OAO RSC Energia is a leading enterprise of rocket-space industry, the prime organization for manned space systems. The Corporation is working to develop unmanned space and rocket systems (launch vehicles and interorbital transfers), high-tech systems for various applications to be used in non-space fields. Since August 2014 the Corporation is headed by Vladimir Solntsev.

RSC Energia press-center