The creativity competition for the best name of the new-generation Crew Transportation Spacecraft (CTS) was organized by RSC Energia with participation of Roscosmos and URSC.
The competition launched on August 27, 2015, and generated a lot of interest among Russian public. The most active participants are residents of Moscow, St. Petersburg and eastern regions of Russia aged 25 to 40. Altogether, 5817 names were proposed.
The competition organizing committee selected the top ten entries: [list][*]Federatsia (Federation)
[*]Gagarin
[*]Rodina (Motherland)
[*]Zvezda (Star)
[*]Leader
[*]Galactica (Galaxy)
[*]Mir (Peace)
[*]Zodiac
[*]Astra
[*]Vector[/list] The next phase of the competition — the public vote — will last from December 4 to 23, 2015.
Anyone who wishes can cast his or her vote for one out of the ten names at the
RSC Energia official website or on the official
Roscosmos group page in the social networking service VKontakte.
The voting will determine three options, out of which the judging panel will select the best. The winner will be awarded the top prize — a visit to Baikonur offering an opportunity to witness the launch of a manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz to the International Space Station in the spring of 2016.
The results of the competition will be announced on January 15, 2016.
Additional information about the competition is posted on the official website of RSC Energia.
The new-generation Crew Transportation Spacecraft (CTS) developed by RSC Energia is intended for delivery of people and cargo to the moon and a space station in a low Earth orbit.
The spacecraft is reusable, its design incorporates advanced technologies, some of which are without equals in the world's space industry. In particular, the CTS reentry vehicle will be made of composite materials, and have a reusable docking assembly. State-of-the-art avionics will allow meeting the challenges of the spacecraft rendezvous and docking in a more efficient manner, and improving the crew safety during launch and return to Earth.
The CTS crew can be as large as four. The spacecraft will be able to stay in free flight for a period of up to 30 days, and stay attached to a space station for a period of up to one year. The total mass of the spacecraft during its flight to the space station will be 14.4 metric tons (19 tons during a mission to the moon), the mass of the reentry vehicle will be 9 metric tons. The length of the spacecraft is 6.1 meters. The nominal g-load during descent is 3g. The spacecraft orbital insertion is to be performed by the heavy launch vehicle Angara-A5V.