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In what seems like an alternate universe in hindsight, Russia and the European Space Agency began discussing collaboration on next-generation crewed spacecraft two decades ago. Under the agreement, Europe would have provided a service module to power a crew capsule carrying up to six passengers. Europe ultimately decided not to pursue a crewed spacecraft project at the time, and Russia’s state-backed space corporation, Roscosmos, chose to move ahead with a crewed spacecraft on its own. This project—always seemingly more of a Potemkin village than an effort encompassing real hardware—has gone under various guises over the years: - PPTS (Perspektivnaya Pilotiruemaya Transportnaya Sistema / Prospective Piloted Transport System): The initial conceptual project name used in 2009 - PTK NP (Pilotiruyemy Transportny Korabl Novogo Pokoleniya / New Generation Piloted Transport Ship): The official technical designation used until 2016 - Federatsiya (Federation): The official name chosen following a public contest and announced in January 2016 - Orel / Oryol (Eagle): A new name adopted in September 2019 when Roscosmos was under the control of Dmitry Rogozin Actual hardware tests, maybe? Beyond the name changes and a flood of renderings, after nearly 20 years of work, then, is anything actually happening with the Eagle spacecraft? For starters, the relatively new chief executive of Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, appears to have jettisoned the “Eagle” name of the spacecraft favored by Rogozin. In a recently published Interfax story, the spacecraft is referred to as PTK NP.
document fetched 2026-10-01 03:02 · canonical https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/09/so-whats-happening-with-russias-new-long-delayed-crewed-spacecraft