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Origin of the Spiral project

The Soviet concept of a multipurpose manned space plane emerged in the heat of the Cold War at the end of the 1950s and beginning of the 1960s. The research in the field was conducted by design collectives led by Myasishev and then by Chelomei. However, in 1964, Chelomei (guilty by association with the deposed Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev) fell out of favor with the new Soviet government. In the wake of the Khrushchev's fall, Chelomei's research into reusable vehicles, was ordered to be transferred to Artem Mikoyan's design bureau. There, this work became a root of the Spiral project. Typically for the time, the Spiral project mirrored a similar effort in the US.

Organization of the program

Within Mikoyan design bureau, Gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy was appointed a chief designer of the Spiral space plane. S. G. Frolov was assigned to represent a client -- the Soviet Air Force. Z. A. Yoffe, the chief of TsNII-30 research institute of the Air Force, led the military-engineering supervision of the program, along with his deputy for science V. I Semenov and chiefs of directorates V. A. Matveev and O. B. Rukosev, who together were responsible for the formulating of the concept.

Development

During 1964 and 1965 experts at TsNII-30 developed a concept of the so-called air and space system or VKS. Along with TsNII-30, a number of key organizations of MAP, MOM, MRP, MOP, MEP and MO participated. On June 29, 1966, or about a year after the start of the effort, Lozino-Lozinskiy singed a preliminary design of the Spiral system.

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Fuselage

The Kliper sported a reusable aerodynamically active fuselage, protected by special tiles, not unlike those on the US Space Shuttle and the Soviet Buran. The original design of the Kliper included so-called "lifting body," a wingless iron-shaped fuselage, which would enable the craft to maneuver in the Earth atmosphere during the reentry. However, by the end of 2004, engineers favored a winged body, which would increase the maneuverability of the vehicle, while reducing g-loads on the crew.

Cabin module

The main habitable volume onboard the Kliper would be contained inside a cone-shaped cabin structure. The lower half of the cabin would be enclosed within the main fuselage, while the top half would be covered with special protective shield. The cabin carried all avionics, flight control, and life-support systems.

Propulsion and habitation module

The original design of the Kliper spacecraft included a special detachable habitation and service module mounted behind the reentry glider. In its turn, the module would consist of two structural sections: a habitation module, closely resembling the one on the Soyuz spacecraft and the doughnut-shaped service module. The habitation module would contain docking port, toilet and other life-support systems. The In 2005, most functions of the habitation and propulsion module were transferred to a separately launched Parom space tug.

Launch vehicle

According to the original plans, the Kliper would be launched on top of a yet-to-be developed Onega booster -- a heavily modified Soyuz rocket. Given virtually nonexistent chances of obtaining funding for the Onega, RKK Energia considered the operational Zenit booster with similar capabilities, as well as yet-to-be built Angara-3 rocket. The Soyuz-3 rocket was also considered as the alternative. However, upon "spliting" the spacecraft into two independent vehicles in 2005, RKK Energia settled on the smaller Soyuz-2-3 launcher. However alternative options still remained on the table as of beginning of 2006.

Parom orbital tug

During 2005, RKK Energia embarked on another major revision of the Kliper. It would be the third significant re-shaping of the spacecraft configuration, since it was first unveiled to the public in February 2004. The latest design included not one but two vehicles: the Kliper reentry glider itself and the Parom (ferry) orbital tug -- a new element of the system, which would be launched by a separate rocket.

Nominal flight profile in Earth orbit

In its latest configuration, the Kliper would be launched on top of the three-stage Soyuz-2-3 rocket and upon reaching the orbit would wait for the arrival of the Parom orbital tug, which would boost the vehicle to the space station. The Parom would use its free port on the "tail" side of the vehicle to dock with the space station. After undocking, the Parom would remain in orbiter for the next mission, while the Kliper would reenter and land on the runway as a glider.

Emergency escape profiles

In the original concept, the Kliper would be topped with the emergency escape rocket, which would pull the glider away from the failing booster during the launch, as it was done onboard the Soyuz spacecraft. However in the effort to save weight and simplify aerodynamic flow around the nose of the orbiter, engineers decided to move the escape rockets to the launch vehicle adapter on the tail of the spacecraft, where they could double as the orbital maneuvering system.