Russian space tourism company to test-fly returnable capsule with dummy on board

Russia’s CosmoCourse private space tourism company will send from one to six dummies for the first autonomous flight of a returnable capsule and equip it with sensors, CosmoCourse CEO said on Wednesday.

“There will be sensors and a dummy aboard it, or, perhaps, there will be six dummies,” he said.

The equipment aboard the capsule will help check “overloads, impact loads, the heat and humidity regime and other parameters,” he said.

During the tests of the returnable capsule, the company is also ready to launch a robot or animals into outer space, the chief executive said.

“We have a vast program of flight tests, within which many researches can be simultaneously carried out. In particular, we are ready to meet interested persons halfway and launch a robot or even animals aboard our capsule, if they express such a desire,” the CosmoCourse chief executive said.

The returnable capsule and a carrier rocket are planned to be manufactured at an enterprise in the Moscow Region. The capsule’s first autonomous flight is scheduled for 2023, CEO said.

CosmoCourse is developing a reusable spacecraft for sub-orbital tourist flights. A crew of six persons and an instructor is expected to make a 15-minute flight to an altitude of about 200 km. The preparations for the flight will take one day. The first manned flight is planned for 2025.

The CosmoCourse chief executive earlier said that the company had signed a contract with the Nizhny Novgorod Region in the Volga area on cooperation in the project of creating the first private spaceport in Russia. The corresponding documents were submitted to Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos for approval.