Outer space

Russia to develop methane-powered rocket engine – report

Russian Space Agency Roscosmos is to begin development of a new methane-powered rocket engine to keep up with international competition, according to a local media report. Financing for the project has been set aside in the 2016-2025 federal space budget.

Roscosmos is requesting that over 25 billion rubles ($326 million) be allocated for the Launch Vehicle Engines research and development program, with the first lump of over 470 million rubles ($6 million) to be made available this year, according to a report in Izvestia daily.

“We are planning to make a sample methane powered engine, even though there is currently no intention to build rockets that would use such an engine,” Izvestia cited one of the program developers as saying.

“This way we are planning to stay ahead of the curve and not to be left behind our foreign competitors in terms of technological advances. For now we are talking about creating an average thrust engine for the second stage of the prospective rocket.”