MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: Russia’s Roscosmos state corporation said in a presentation revealed on Wednesday it estimated the production costs of a methane-powered rocket at about 900 million rubles (about $14 million at the current exchange rate).
The presentation, unveiled by the corporation’s Director General Dmitry Rogozin while visiting the D.F. Ustinov Baltic State Technical University "Voenmeh" in St. Petersburg, puts production costs of a Soyuz-2.1b rocket currently used for space launches at about 1.3 billion rubles ($20.2 million).
The launch of a methane-powered rocket would cost $40.5 million versus $45.5 million for Soyuz-2.1b.
In 2018, Rogozin said that the government should consider a project of equipping the prospective Soyuz-5 carrier rocket with a methane-powered engine, not a liquid oxygen/kerosene one as was initially planned.
