Russia plans nuclear spaceship

Program chief says first designs could be ready by 2012

Vladimir Isachenkov / Associated Press

Moscow -- Russia's space agency is planning to build a new spaceship with a nuclear engine, its chief said last week. Anatoly Perminov told a government meeting a week ago that the preliminary design could be ready by 2012. He said it will then take nine more years and $600 million to build the ship.

"The implementation of this project will allow us to reach a new technological level surpassing foreign developments," Perminov told a meeting that focused on communications and space technologies.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged the Cabinet to consider providing the necessary funding.

"It's a very serious project," Medvedev said. "We need to find the money."

Perminov's ambitious statement contrasted with the current state of the Russian space program, and sounded more like a plea for extra government funds than a detailed proposal.

Russia is using 40-year old Soyuz booster rockets and capsules to send crews to the International Space Station. The space agency's development of a replacement rocket and a prospective spaceship with a conventional propellant has dragged on with no end in sight.

Perminov described the proposed spaceship as a "unique breakthrough project," but offered few details about it.

He said that the ship will have a megawatt-class nuclear reactor, as opposed to small nuclear reactors that have powered Soviet satellites in the past.

The Cold-War era Soviet spy satellites had reactors which produced just a few kilowatts of power and reportedly had a lifespan of just about a year.

Perminov didn't say what the new spaceship will be used for.

He and other officials have said that Russia needs a new spaceship to replace the old Soyuz for missions in Earth orbit, but they only have talked about a ship powered by a conventional rocket fuel so far.

The Russian space agency also has mulled over prospective future missions to the moon and Mars, but hasn't yet set a specific time frame for when such missions might happen.