Orel (Spacecraft)

Orel, Russian for eagle, formerly called Federation and also the Prospective Piloted Transport System or PPTS, is a project of Roscosmos to develop a new generation of partially reusable crewed spacecraft. Until 2016 its official name was the New Generation Piloted Transport Ship. It is meant to replace the Soyuz spacecraft for low Earth orbit and lunar operations and is comparable in function to the American Orion. It is intended to carry crews of four, with versions suited to missions of 5, 14 or 30 days, and docked to a space station it could stay up to a year, twice the duration of Soyuz. The project began after Russia and the European Space Agency failed to agree on the joint Crew Space Transportation System, and a development contract was awarded to RKK Energia on 19 December 2013. A reusable cargo version is planned to replace Progress.