The design for a new booster rocket for the next generation of Russian manned spacecraft should be completed in August, an official said Tuesday.
The Progress design bureau in Samara, Space Corp. Energia and the Makeyev missile design facility are collaborating on the Rus-M booster rocket, RIA Novosti reported. The new manned spacecraft is scheduled for launch in 2017.
"The work will end in August," Sergei Tkachenko of Progress said of the booster design.
Plans call for four Rus-M booster rockets with capacities of 16 to 60 tons. Another Russian booster rocket, Angara, has not yet been tested.
Both Russian rockets would be competing with the French Ariane 5 and Ares I, the U.S. launch vehicle.
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