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2005: Roots of the Russian-European cooperation in manned space flight

At the beginning of 2004, the US government announced its intention to withdraw from the International Space Station program and, instead to return American astronauts to the Moon... And it was going to do it alone. NASA's space station partners, Russia, Europe and Japan were left to decide for themselves where to go in space. Initially, Russians tried to convince Europeans to pull resources to develop a new generation reusable spacecraft, however in December 2005, European ministers told their agency to come up with a better plan.

2006: The ACTS concept

A new plan for the Russian-European cooperation in manned space program had been conceived around spring of 2006. This time, two sides considered combining funds, hardware and expertise to parallel the US effort to return astronauts to the Moon. The idea was based on previous studies, which looked at upgrading the European ATV cargo ship with a Russian-built reentry vehicle, which would enable it to return cargo or even people to Earth.

2007: Initial ACTS studies

Russian and European space officials were expected to choose what they identified as an "initial preferred concept" for a future manned spacecraft, as early as May or June of 2007. However, political problems inside Russia and between two partners delayed the project. Disagreements over the direction of the Russian space program resulted in the ouster of Nikolai Sevastyanov, the head of the nation's prime contractor in the manned spaceflight -- RKK Energia.

2008: Deciding spacecraft architecture

The Russian-European talks resumed in September 2007. Initially, Russian and European space officials chose a bell-shaped crew module as a preferred configuration for the next-generation manned spacecraft. Resembling Russian Soyuz spacecraft, the new vehicle will be larger and heavier than its predecessor in order to accommodate from four to six people on a journey to the lunar orbit. However by the beginning of 2008, a cone-shape capsule, resembling NASA's Apollo spacecraft, had emerged a winner.

2009: Starting preliminary design of PPTS

By the beginning of 2009, upon abandoning plans for cooperation on the project with Europe, Russia's federal space agency, Roskosmos, ordered the industry to finalize proposals for the new manned spacecraft. Upon choosing a prime developer in April 2009, the agency expected the preliminary design of the vehicle to last for about a year until June 2010.

2010: Re-examining options

In January, speaking at the 34th Korolev Readings, the head of RKK Energia Vitaly Lopota said that early missions of the PTK NP spacecraft could take place from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The Ukrainian-built Zenit launcher or a similar Russian-built vehicle would be a likely candidate to carry the spacecraft, since the rocket had the payload capacity of up to 13 tons, needed to lift the future spacecraft and the Zenit had an operational launch pad in Baikonur.

2011: Technical project

Refining design of the spacecraft and its components became the main purpose of this phase of development. In addition to the work on blueprints and manufacturing of various elements for experiments, the Technical Project also included the construction of full-scale prototypes of the spacecraft.

2012: Lunar PTK NP

Anticipating the latest direction of the Russian space policy and possible budget restrictions, RKK Energia quietly dropped its plans to develop several variants of PTK NP ships that would be available to perform a variety of missions, such as servicing the space station, autonomous flights in the Earth orbit or reaching into deep-space. Instead, a single spacecraft with the primary goal of carrying crews to lunar orbit has emerged as the focus of the PTK NP project during 2012.

2013: To be or not to be

With the completion of the design, the PTK NP project reached crossroads, as the Russian government had to commit the spacecraft to metal (and real expenses), postpone it or cancel it altogether. Ironically, Russian space agency was facing this critical decision, as NASA's leadership publicly rejected a leading role for the US in any lunar-landing effort.

PTK-Z: Echo of Soyuz

In October 2010, Russian space agency, Roskosmos, published its requirements to the industry for the development of the Technical Project of the next-generation spacecraft, PTK NP. The document identified two versions of the spacecraft, which would be a priority for the Technical Project in the next two years. First of these two variants was a three-module PTK-Z spacecraft. It was designed for long-duration autonomous missions in the Earth orbit, while a two-module PTK-S variant was intended to service the Earth-orbiting station, such as ISS.

Crew module, VA

After several years of early research, engineers at RKK Energia defined the over structural design of the crew module during the preliminary development of the PTK NP project in 2010. The conical structure of the module was subdivided into the command compartment, KO, and the aggregate compartment, AO. In turn, command compartment would be split into a pressurized cabin and the unpressurized upper transfer section.

Rocket-powered landing system, PTDU

A defining feature of Russia's new-generation PPTS spacecraft would be its landing system. Due to the political requirement to land future manned missions in Russia, while the spacecraft would barely overfly south of the country, a lot of maneuverability was required from the descent module. At the same time, tough deadlines imposed for the development of the vehicle and limited funds, did not leave time for radically innovative solutions.

Landing gear, PU

A defining feature of Russia's new-generation PPTS spacecraft would be its landing system. Due to the political requirement to land future manned missions in Russia, while the spacecraft would barely overfly south of the country, a lot of maneuverability was required from the descent module. At the same time, tough deadlines imposed for the development of the vehicle and limited funds, did not leave time for radically innovative solutions.

Rus-M: A new rocket for a new ship

One of the challenges Russian designers faced in developing the next-generation spacecraft in the first decade of the 21st century was the need for a new rocket to launch it. Since the future ship replacing Soyuz would have to carry six instead of three crewmembers and weigh from 12 to 23 tons, it would need much larger launch vehicle than existing Soyuz rocket capable of carrying just seven tons to the low-Earth orbit.

Sodruzhestvo launch vehicle

In 2012, Russia's leading space developer, RKK Energia, revived its proposal for a heavy-lifting launch vehicle that would be developed jointly by several former republics of the Soviet Union. The new rocket would replace Rus-M as the launch vehicle for the next-generation spacecraft.

OPSEK: New-generation space station

In 2009, Russian and European space officials started consultations on possible goals for the manned space flight after the end of the International Space Station, ISS, project. At the forefront of the talks were Russian plans to replace the ISS with a new manned outpost in the low-Earth orbit in 2020-2025. However unlike the ISS, which was designed to serve primarily as a research lab, the new station was conceived as an assembly point for missions to the Moon and Mars. Russian and European officials said they hoped that NASA would also be interested in the project.

LOS: Lunar Orbital Station

By April 2012, the Russian space agency, Roskosmos, proclaimed a lunar orbit as the main destination of the PTK NP spacecraft. The agency asked engineers to design a vehicle capable of rendezvous and docking with the lunar orbital station, where the crew could transfer to a waiting lander for a final leg of its journey to the Moon.

Lagrangian points

In the absence of a bold commitment to go to the Moon, Mars or asteroids, space planners in the US and Russia considered sending missions to the so-called Lagrange points, which could serve as staging hubs for deep-space exploration, if such projects ever became affordable.