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| http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2009/10/29/11562161-sun.html MOSCOW -- Russia's space agency is planning to build a new spaceship with a nuclear engine, its chief said yesterday. Anatoly Perminov told a government meeting that the preliminary design could be ready by 2012. He said it will then take nine more years and $600 million to build the ship. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged the Cabinet to consider providing the necessary funding. "It's a very serious project," Medvedev said. "We need to find the money." Perminov's ambitious statement contrasted with the state of the Russian space program, and sounded more like a plea for extra government funds than a detailed proposal. Russia is using 40-year-old Soyuz booster rockets and capsules to send crews to the International Space Station. Development of a replacement rocket and a prospective spaceship with a conventional propellant has dragged on with no end in sight. Perminov described the spaceship as a "unique breakthrough project." He said the ship will have a megawatt-class nuclear reactor, as opposed to small nuclear reactors that powered Soviet satellites. Perminov didn't say what the new spaceship will be used for. The Russian space agency has mulled over future missions to the moon and Mars, but hasn't set a time frame. |