Vozvrat-MKA

Free Flyer Spacecraft

07-26-10

During the early years of the ISS development there was an intense rivalry from the US aerospace industry and the rebuilding Russian space industry over the development of a “Free Flyer” spacecraft for material experimentation, bioastronautics experimentation in pharmaceutical and Astronomical observations similar to what NASA’s, Hubble does. They are now considering a strictly unmanned free flyer spacecraft called Vozvrat.

Also within the Russian Federations approved FSP 2006-2015 program was another “Free Flyer spacecraft called Vozvrat-MKA that was designed to fly independently for one year before being returned to Earth. It offered a somewhat better environment for some zero-gravity experiments than OKA-T offers. It is not designed to dock with ISS or to be serviced in flight.