RSC Energia - Société russe du secteur spatial

MOSCOW, July 25 - RIA Novosti. The Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, which leads the cooperation on the creation of a super-heavy rocket for flights to the Moon, has patented a flight scheme to the Moon, which makes it possible to abandon the creation and use of a super-heavy rocket.

"The technical result is the possibility of transporting the crew using a reusable manned spacecraft between the near-earth orbital station and the base station (on the surface of the Moon - ed.) Without the use of super-heavy launch vehicles and aerodynamic braking," says the description of the invention to the patent published by the Federal Service for intellectual property.
To land Russian cosmonauts on the moon and return back, one Soyuz-2.1a rocket and three Angara-A5V rockets under development are required. The first "Angara" to the moon launches the refueling module. Then the crew on the Soyuz rocket inside the Soyuz MS spacecraft is transported to the International Space Station or another near-Earth station, where it is transferred to the reusable lunar takeoff and landing spacecraft. The second "Angara-A5V" is delivered to it with an upper stage and a tanker ship. The upper stage is used to send a bundle of the lunar ship and the tanker ship to the moon.
Arriving at the Moon, the reusable landing craft detaches, sits in the landing zone of the refueling module, refills before departure, and in circumlunar orbit docks with the refueling ship to pump fuel into its fuel system for a flight to Earth. After that, the tanker ship is de-orbited and falls to the Moon, and the lunar reusable take-off and landing complex flies to Earth. On the way, there is a docking with another launching vessel Angara-A5V, and then docking to the International Space Station, transfer of the crew to the Soyuz-MS spacecraft and landing on Earth.