The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, showed Russian President Vladimir Putin a mock-up of the Russian space nuclear tug Zeus at the Vostochny cosmodrome, from where it is planned to launch in 2030. This is reported by RIA Novosti.
As Rogozin told the president, the transport and energy module, developed jointly with Rosatom, will be brought to an altitude of at least 800 kilometers — the safest for switching on a nuclear reactor. “Space nuclear power is the only real opportunity today to move around instead of chemical engines as an interplanetary tug,” the head of Roscosmos noted.
The Zeus model was presented at the International Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS-2021) in July 2021. It is created for flights to the planets of the Solar system and can receive laser weapons capable of disabling enemy satellites. The creation of elements of a nuclear tug has been carried out in Russia since 2010.
