CSTS
Joint ESA-Russian crewed spacecraft study for orbit and lunar missions.
The Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS), originally the Advanced Crew Transportation System (ACTS), was a proposed crewed spacecraft for low Earth orbit and lunar exploration. It was a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (FKA) that was studied but never funded for development.
Quick Facts
- Manufacturer
- RKK Energia, EADS Astrium
- Country
- ESA member states, Russia
- Operator
- Russian Federal Space Agency, European Space Agency
- Orbits
- Low Earth orbit (main operations); circumlunar spaceflight (proposed beyond-LEO operations)
- Derivedfrom
- Automated Transfer Vehicle evolution variant
- Derivatives
- Orel
Facts from the source article.
Background
In 2004, U.S. President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration, which included a return to the Moon by 2020 and a crewed mission to Mars by 2030. The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) was to be developed for these purposes, later becoming the Orion spacecraft. European Space Agency officials inquired about participating in this program but received a negative response. In May 2006, ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain stated that if Europe were not involved in next-generation transportation systems, it would remain a second-class partner. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin suggested interest in international cooperation for Moon exploration in general, but not for developing the Orion spacecraft itself. Since 2004, the ESA had been in talks with the Russian Federal Space Agency about cooperating on Kliper, a successor to the Soyuz spacecraft. ESA member states turned down funding for a Kliper design study in December 2005, partly because some felt the ESA would be only a minor industrial contributor. On the Russian side, the concept of the Advanced Crew Transportation System emerged during 2006 when Russian authorities realized the Kliper proposal was too ambitious in terms of funding.
Study
On 13 June 2006, the press reported that the winged Kliper project had been replaced by a study the ESA would fund to develop a capsule under the Advanced Crew Transportation System program. Reasons for choosing ACTS over Kliper included that the modular structure would allow Europe to be a full partner, with Russia possibly in charge of the reentry capsule design while the ESA worked on the habitation module. About €15 million was pledged for the CSTS program at the ESA's regular meeting on 21-22 June 2006. Both partners would bear their own costs in the first two years. Manuel Valls, head of Policy and Plans Department in the ESA's Directorate of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity, and Exploration Program, said they were entering a phase to establish a preliminary design, legal framework, work share, and development aspects. On 4 July 2006, Russian media reported that FKA head Anatoly Perminov met with Jean-Jacques Dordain to discuss the CSTS proposal, but no agreement was signed. On 18 July, Perminov announced the cancellation of the Russian request for tenders for Kliper. On 25 July 2006, Dordain announced the collaborative study would begin that September and end early in 2008, with the ESA's financial contribution being €15 million shared among seven member states. The study areas included preliminary system design, detailed subsystem design including a docking mechanism, development of cooperation mechanisms and workshare decisions, and crewed lunar flights. Upon commencement, the name changed from Advanced Crew Transportation System to Crew Space Transportation System.
Competition within Europe
Around the same time as the FKA and ESA announced their CSTS plans, the German space agency DLR together with EADS Astrium announced support for the ATV evolution proposal. This envisioned a modified ATV with a reentry capsule to return cargo from the ISS by 2013, and later a crewed vehicle by 2017; those dates were later revised to 2015 and 2020 respectively. The proposal was presented to the ESA's governing body in November 2008 and received funding for an initial development phase of a cargo return vehicle possibly ready by 2017. The ATV Evolution concept may have contributed to the end of the CSTS project. Before the decision to shut down CSTS, the head of the ESA denied that the ATV evolution was an alternative to CSTS, stating there were ongoing talks about continued CSTS funding.
Later developments
In 2009, the FKA decided to keep the general design of the CSTS spacecraft for its new crewed spacecraft, which eventually developed into the Prospective Piloted Transport System (PPTS) project. Russian plans for PPTS development became gradually postponed, and the PPTS eventually became the Orel spacecraft. In January 2013, NASA announced that the ESA would build the service module for the Orion test flight Artemis 1. The ESA subsequently signed an agreement with NASA to shift part of its ATV development focus towards building a service module for Orion, derived from the existing ATV service module.
More in Crewed Spacecraft and Space Stations
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced